Did you know that where you work can affect how you think?
It’s true. Your location can affect you mentally, physically, and emotionally.
For instance, if you write in a room with a low ceiling, that’s generally confined, you will find yourself more focused and more introverted.
You will find yourself mainly focused on one aspect of one topic. If you write in a room with a high ceiling you will find yourself more open and imaginative, but still confined to one general topic. You will have more thoughts about a larger number of aspects of that one particular idea, but generally find it hard to escape that one topic.
Now, if you find yourself writing in a large open area, like a park, you’ll find your thoughts to be quiet fleeting.
Your thoughts will be absurd and absorbingly imaginative. You won’t be able to focus on one area of one topic too long before thoughts on other areas start creeping into your thoughts. Good luck trying to stay focused. The beauty of working in a large open area is that your creativity and imagination levels suddenly spike. And I don’t view a spike in creativity as a bad thing. Do you?
Now it’s not just the size and confinement of the room that can affect your thoughts, but also the familiarity and history of it. Not the general history of that room mind you, but the history you have with that room.
Let’s say you have a room in your house that for as long as you can remember used to be a playroom, but recently it was converted into a home office. Do you think you’ll get much work done in that room? Your body, thoughts, and feelings will rebel from working because you are so used to associating that room with fun and joyous activities. This is why so many people people recommend designating a room of your house for work ONLY. By designating that one room for work you’re telling your thoughts (and body) that they have to focus on working and nothing else. And over time, just stepping into that room can make you work better.
The ‘location affection’ conundrum is a problem that drug addicts face every-time they return from rehab. In rehab they were able to kick their addiction because they were in an environment that supported them in their kicking of their addiction. But when they return home, that same home where countless nights were spent feeding their addiction, all of a sudden their cravings comes back. The room itself tempts them to do drugs; because all memories of that room have a connection to drugs one way or the other.
This is why drug addicts overdose unexpectedly. Once already tempted to do drugs, most drug addicts think it’s better to do them outside of their usual ‘habitat’, but they’re dead wrong. They don’t realize that although their usual place did tempt them to do drugs it also acted as a barrier of safety. The area let them consume large doses without feeling the effect as harshly or as rapidly as they should due to familiarity. However, once they consume drugs outside of their safety ‘area’ the drugs, although similar in every way, seem to act faster and be stronger.
On a happier not (non drug overdose related), just think about the wonders this knowledge can do for you if you’re a writer
You have a way of controlling your subconscious thoughts!
If you need to write something that requires a lot of imagination, like a children’s fiction novel, you’d know that it would be best to work on a laptop outside or in a large open area. If you know you need to focus on a key area you’d then return indoors so focus could become easier.
Following the example of the drug-addict conundrum, you’d also realize that a specific room or house can also affect the thoughts and emotions it invokes in you. You’d be able to use this to your advantage in times when you need a specific emotion invoked in you. If, for example, you’re writing about the joys of childhood you’d do best to go back to a place where you remember having the most fun as a child, and writing there. Why do you think most authors travel to the places they write about? The know (unconsciously or otherwise) that they would be better able to portray the authenticity of the place by just being there.
But, there’s an exception to every rule. We humans have ways of proving anything wrong if we put our minds to it (a trait I view as positive). If we put our minds to it we can focus in a large open area, we can be extravagantly imaginative in a small confined area, and we can write passionately about a specific moment in life without returning to the place where our emotions better associate them with. But, it is harder to do so.
photo credit: Luis Argerich