What Home Means to Me

Homes are not just these empty boxes that we fill with collections of stuff, life experiences, and unique personalities. They are alive and dynamic places that respond directly to our attentiveness (and lack of it). Our homes and workplaces are extensions of us: they affect us, reflect us, support us. There is no separation…

It doesn’t take much for me to feel at home. Give me a comfy chair, surround me with beautiful objects, simmer me a pot of soup, soak me in hot bath at the end of long day, and I’m in heaven.

Home is not just a physical structure, but the sense that comes built into our human experience of feeling safe and whole. Home is what informs and gives meaning to our lives. Home and well-being go together.

As I see it, homes are not just these empty boxes that we fill with collections of stuff, life experiences, and unique personalities. They are alive and dynamic places that respond directly to our attentiveness (and lack of it). Our homes and workplaces are extensions of us: they affect us, reflect us, support us. There is no separation.

I didn’t start out having this awareness, mind you. It took me over a decade of personal experience, self-inquiry and training with some of the world’s leading experts in space clearing to appreciate the many layers that connect us humans to our living spaces.

It was a journey that began for me in 1996 when I walked away from a twenty-year career teaching at one of Boston’s preeminent schools. I was at the top of my game and burned out. By releasing a huge part of my personal and professional identity, I was able to get in touch with the things that made my heart sing (and cringe): my longings, my fears… my clutter!  I didn’t need to go on a pilgrimage to a faraway land to find myself. My home became my temple, my clutter was my teacher, and my journey of self-discovery began with clearing out a single drawer.

I often tell my students and clients that space clearing is “loving up” a place. Doing something every day for your home that feels good lifts the energy in the space. Sweeping a floor, clearing a closet, or just moving a pile from one location to another, moves stuck energy. Allowing yourself to feel the resistance that arises – without judging it as good or bad – moves stuck energy too. In ways both subtle and profound.

There is no separation. When we tend our homes with awareness, we nourish ourselves. When we nourish ourselves we come back into balance. When we restore balance, we bring peace to the world.

That is my idea of home. And heaven.

Stephanie Bennett Vogt © All Rights Reserved
www.spaceclear.com

Author’s Note: This piece, entitled “Home,” was originally written for, and published by Life By Me [Lifebyme.com].

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Photo: Painting by Michelle H. Filer