Thought Sketch :/\: The Built Environment as a Mirror of the Soul

I find myself in NYC, on an unplanned trip here, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan — the neighborhood I grew up in. It’s spring time, and new buds are blooming everywhere, leaves unfurling outward and upward as if yawning while rising for the new day. The duality of death and birth is apparent in the blooming, against a backdrop of the concrete jungle.

This last month in particular, I’ve been experiencing a process of dying and rebirthing as it relates to the structures within my psyche and how they dictate my beliefs and behavior patterns. As I’ve been becoming increasingly aware of the architecture of my mind (in a very visual and vivid way), I see concrete prison-like cells containing entities that I’d rather not face: a family member who I’ve felt a tumultuous relationship with for some time, a friend who I felt betrayed by. In the vicinity are huge black monolithic pillars, representing the toxic power dynamics that I’ve absorbed, the self-serving type that guzzles up everyone else’s energy as fuel for their host’s way of being.

I look out the window at the landscape spread out before me — a sea of massive rectangular concrete structures, hard-edged, dull in color, trees sprouting sparsely throughout like unruly grey hairs. A direct reflection of my environment onto my inner psyche. The architecture of my physical reality has become my inner landscape, and within it I feel separate from my nature.

As soon as I was fortunate enough to become aware of my inner built environment, I recognized it as ‘not me’. This is not a reflection of my essence, I knew. It reflects separation, isolation, other-ness, and the pain that accompanies them. No wonder mental health issues and feelings of isolation in cities are growing, and no wonder we’re craving more than ever to feel a sense of belonging and connection.

This is clearly someone else’s design. How then, did this come to be? And more importantly — what do I do about it? How can we alchemize our environments such that they transform into a reflection of our values and needs as they are today?

To answer the first part — how this came to be, I turn to the concept of ontological design and the idea it holds that what we design in turn designs us. We design our built environment, for example, and the buildings, public spaces, roads and infrastructure in turn reflect back onto us. They become our entire physical reality, effectively shaped and molded by a handful of designers and planners, based on values related to self-preservation. What we see and experience around us then becomes our living world, it shapes who we become, and has the potential to either limit or propel our consciousness to allow us to thrive and evolve.

Then what I do about the beige and brown concrete walls and dark impenetrable structures that are imposing, abrasive and isolating? I’m fortunate, because this awareness means I now have a choice. I choose to let them all crumble down — immediately. The structural integrity has been compromised from day one, as the foundation was laid with fear and a limited consciousness. I know what home feels like — it’s nurturing, connecting, and awe-inspiring. It boosts my imagination, and reminds me that I’m a creative magician on a daily basis. This is what I have to make room for by clearing out the old design that no longer works to advance life.

If our potential to thrive and evolve is infinite, how would the city I live in mirror this to me? What would it look and feel like? How do we create the conditions for the type of change we wish for to emerge, those that can give rise to beautiful new places and systems that are capable of renewal?

To be able to move in the direction of realizing this question, the next step is to responsibly clear away all the debris of construction waste, down to the foundation, and let the earth breathe again. Let it inhale and exhale the open air, exchange some carbon for oxygen with the trees, find the resonance again without the weight and interference of the concrete barrier, let the signal strengthen as the noise pollution is reduced. And listen. Listen intently for what is emerging, and for instructions on how to create the conditions to let it happen easefully and in the collaborative way that it requires.

With this as the starting point, I believe in our capacity to alchemize our environments such that they transform into a reflection of our values today — of dignity, care, belonging, inspiration, love, and connection with nature. And such that we get to shape and make an imprint in the communities that in turn shape us.

I wish for us to lay a new heart-centered foundation with love, such that the new cities we bring to life are reflections of our souls. My personal wish is to serve as a mirror for you to see yourself in the fullest expression of your potential; to facilitate the development of people, places and systems as living works of art. As a wise teacher of mine taught me — you can only transmit what you embody. By that rule, I strive to embody love seeing as that’s what I want to transmit through the built environment.