Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Invite You to an Experiment. Need Your Reaction. "Are you an Insider or an Outsider?"

Please read through this experiment's guide below and at the end enter in comments which environment is more important to you--the exterior or the interior of your home and give your reaction to this guide.

Guideline ideas to help you decide:
  • Think about your existing home.
  • Do you feel more comfortable being on the outside or inside where you live?
  • When you make your choice of exterior or interior what activities do you enjoy in the area you prefer? 
  • Is there a specific activity you enjoying doing and what is that activity or enjoyment? 
  • Does your area choice have certain elements that give you comfort? 
  • What are those comforting elements?
Please consider YOUR FEELINGS. Choose only ONE AREA either the outside or the inside where you live. Try to figure out WHY this chosen area makes you feel more comfortable than the other. Can you identify specific elements in the area that create this comfort zone?

And then ASK YOURSELF two questions:
  1. Was this preferred environmental area created by you AFTER you moved in?
  2. Could you transfer some "Feel Good" elements from your chosen area that could be added to your non-preferred area?
Finally, ENTER YOUR REACTION to this experiment in the comments. Thank you for helping me.
Runde Environmental Centre
Runde Environmental Centre, Norway by Toften from Wikimedia Commons
"Is it the Exterior or the Interior of Your Home 
which is More Important to You? 
And Why?"

For those who like to make statistics lie...  Add a reaction that is not from the guideline at the end of your comment.

10 comments:

JohnnyL said...

I live in Ireland where it rains constantly so, aside from when I am gardening, I do not spend much leisure time in the garden outside my home.

However when in warm countries, I spend as much time outside in the fresh air as possible.

I grow vegetables and fruit and flowers inside my home so I guess that you can say that I being that aspect of the outside in.

Also I take my iPhone and books outside when I do sit out on dry days so I can go online and read, which are my favourite indoor activities.

crayzys.blogspot.com said...

Thanks, Johnny, as always you lead the herd.

sandy said...

Wow Jean, I wish I had more time to spend here. It's been crazy getting this house ready to sell.

a quick answer is most definitely the outside of my house. I made it, or attempted to anyway, an oasis. we have an acre and after inviting wild trees to take root 25 years ago, I now have a small botanical garden around here. sadly I'm leaving it for a smaller place.

your questions are so intriguing. In august i'll have more time to stop by here.

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

((i wonder why this didn't show up in my reader...anyway, i'm waaaaay behind as usual....))

this is a tough question...well...although i spend a lot of time outside...i love being in the fresh air...i have my little gardens, flowers, woods to roam...as long as the outside of the actual house (well, trailer) is presentable, that's fine by me. i'm NOT into spending tons of $$ on the LOOKS of things...or $$ on material things for that matter. on the inside of the house, it's comfortable. nothing fancy by any means...to me, it feels warm, calming, inviting...

so, i guess i'm rambling here...the outside of the house doesn't matter really...it's what's inside that counts...just like people...on the outside i have NATURE!! who cares if the house needs to be repainted...
but the INSIDE...the heart...that's what matters. to me. :)

hebdenjoy said...

Being outside brings me the greatest joy; but living in northern England means it's not always good weather !

(From Paul Judges)

Anonymous said...

Outside and inside of my home, both are equally important and special to me. After all, it's my home. And home is where the heart is, and what's in the heart that really counts.
Well that was a really complacent answer but that's my say, for now.

crayzys said...

So encouraging to hear your different responses--helps to put the light on what is truly important.

Our environment affects us so much--especially when the weather is not always sunny.

Seems like those with less sun create sun on their own. Amazing. Wouldn't have predicted this. Shows my less-than-positive bias. Learned much from your comments.

Would you say our strongest environment is that which we create within?

sandy said...

Hi Jean - ...answering a few questions ...

I am JUST like you - I don't change easy - old habits are hard to break. Sometimes I can go cold turkey and break them (such as smoking) and other times I stay with the status quo.

Cat naps - I know I said I would but there is so much to do settling in to this new place.

cats at home - I had two kittens who were almost their adult size when the coyotes got them. One was named griffin, the other Sabine.

I wanted to do an illustrated journal of Sabinisms - ...and call it the Bean Journal. I started a whole blog devoted to it, but around the same time I was trying to get the house ready to put on the market so my "creativity" took a hit - I couldn't come up with anything clever. I got lots of cats drawn but couldn't utilize them in the way I wanted so I never put the Bean Journal on line. It's still sitting there as an inactive blog.

anyway - so that's the story of those questions..


how are you? You haven't posted lately.

I'm not quite a week into the new place and nothing seems familiar yet.

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

thinking about your question...the strongest environment we create...is within? yes, i think so...if we are not happy within, then i think we would not be happy anywhere...

crayzys said...

Your responses have pushed me to overthink...towards insight.

Laura, you are so right--the strongest environment is the feeling within ourselves, so it reflects our state of happiness. Perhaps, Jonathon Haidt is right; he wrote in his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, that "Happiness Comes From Between." So it is neither the inside or the outside of your home which is preferred, but the 'Between.' As always, Laura, you help make my 'overthinking' into an insight.

Sandy, you wrote "I'm not quite a week into the new place and nothing seems familiar yet." The word familiar creates a whole new way of thinking about our environment. Familiarity links with closeness and intimacy where we thoroughly know the area. Sandy, you have a chance to know, to discover, to be intimate with your new home... like on a first date.

Thank you, both, for moving my overthinking into the next level, insight. Now, I need to look at my non-preferred environment as a first date and discover why I never was intimate with that environment. Because, as you said, Laura, it what is within me to determine why I cannot enjoy both at an equal high level. And be happy with the 'Between.'

THE EXPERIMENT IS WORKING. IT IS GENERATING A NEW HYPOTHESIS.