What does a mystical mind have to do with everyday life and home design anyway?
Well, the answer to the question in the subtitle would be - verbatim, a mystical mind doesn't have much to do with either of these things. Metaphorically and for me on a personal level, a mystical mind intertwines with both everyday life and home design. Have a look at the About page to learn the origins of the website TMM. You'll see that TMM is not only the acronym of The Mystical Mind, but it's also the initials of my name.
To sum things up in a nutshell, the website/blog was born as a way to combine two elements of my life that I enjoy: documenting life experiences and designing my family's home.
Documenting Life Experiences
I have always enjoyed scrapbooking. With the organization of photos on a page comes the documentation of experiences related to the photos. My perfectionism makes the decisions related to the placement of the pictures and elements stressful at times, but from scrapbooking, I learned that I actually enjoy writing. Although it can take me tons of time to re-read, re-word, edit, then edit some more, I enjoy the process of preparing text that is meaningful and engaging. It's very rewarding when I write about something important to me that feels well-written. Dare I say, there is a sense of pride in myself, something which has been a rare occurrence throughout my life (but I'm working to change).
As much as I might enjoy writing, my mind often blocks me from sitting down to write because of underlying anxiety about the finished product (there's that perfectionism again). I was diagnosed in recent years with the ADD side of ADHD, and I realize now that I've more than likely dealt with it since at least middle school. I've also navigated anxiety since forever, but I never tied the two together until my ADHD diagnosis. When I have a desire to do something - it can be anything: a simple task, a difficult task, something fun, something not so fun, it doesn't matter - sometimes the combination of ADHD and anxiety can be debilitating and prevent me functioning at full capacity.
This blog is giving me an outlet. It's a reason to sit down and write. It's satisfying my brain's desire for a rewarding project. It's satisfying my brain's need to complete a task. Hopefully as I continue with the blog, it will open the door for me to write outside of this space. I would even like to study and learn to write poetry one day. The sky's the limit, right?
Home Design
My father was an engineer by trade, and when he and my mother purchased land to build a home, there was never a doubt that he would design the house himself. I remember him having several house plan books that he used as inspiration for designing their home. As far back as I can remember, I loved studying those books and getting lost in the floor plans, imagining the layout of the houses on the pages.
Another vivid childhood memory is that of attending home design tours with my parents in the late summer months. Developers of new neighborhoods in the largest city in our region would host tours, at which new homes, designed and furnished by area designers, would be open for tours. The guests would walk through the houses at their leisure and receive a booklet full of details related to each house. I loved going through the houses, taking in the layout and decor, even imagining myself living there. I would scan the booklets for all of the information related to my favorite houses, and to this date it is still one of my favorite memories.
Home improvement shows on HGTV have been one of my most watched genre for years, I'm sure due in part to those early seeds related to home design. Seeing the before and after of rooms or houses can be fascinating to watch, and also spark a desire in you to make updates to your own home. Keeping up with newly released episodes is a way to follow current design trends and be inspired to bring those elements into your space.
As it does with writing, my ADHD and anxiety often block me from making decisions about interior design or trying new trends. At times I may have a design idea that I might want to implement in our home, but then get so overwhelmed with the vast number of choices and endless possibilities that I simply do nothing.
This blog also serves as a space for me to gather design ideas, design inspiration, and information related to design styles and trends. I am a very visual person, and my brain likes structure. If thoughts and ideas are coming at me exceedingly fast, my brain can't keep up. When this happens, I once again block myself from completing tasks or things that bring me joy. Here, I can compartmentalize different aspects home design, as I explore them in an effort to determine my own style and make updates within our home.
TMM
Once I finally took the big leap of faith and proceeded with the necessary steps to create this website, it was time to determine the name. I love a good play on words, so I knew right away that the name would have to be such that its acronym was the same as my initials. For the indecisive and perfectionist side of me, it was a little surprising that I could be so definitive about this aspect of the name and have no hesitation.
With the easy part of the naming process complete, next was determining exactly what the T, M, and M were going to represent. My first thought was, this is a blog, and in a blog, people discuss what is on their mind. Okay, now we have one of the M's. That too came surprisingly easy. Then I thought about the T. T for Tracey could work. I considered it, but I didn't really want my first name as part of the blog name because my hope is that readers will relate to the posts and find similarities in themselves. For this reason, I didn't want Tracey to be included in the name to tie the blog only to me. So, what's the most common word in the English language? Gool ol' T.H.E., the. Easy peasy, and I was now two-thirds there.
The final letter, the second M, didn't come as quickly as the first. I had to ponder for a bit. I did decide early on that Mind would be the last word of the acronym. This left coming up with an appropriate adjective to describe The Mind. I went through a couple of options, but they didn't really fit the bill. I had to dig deeper.
I thought about my reasons for wanting to create the website and start a blog, and everything I came up with was intertwined with the overall journey I have been on, which is to determine who Tracey is at the core of her being, deep down to her soul. I realized that the journey I've been on is a spiritual journey.
On this journey, I'm learning how vastly complex the human body and the human mind truly are. With this knowledge, I'm more open than ever to learn this complexity, which is allowing me to be more open to learn about myself.
When describing the human mind, the word Mystical occurred to me. The word reminds me of something mysterious but magical at the same time. I searched for the exact definition before making a decision. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries defines mystical as, "Having spiritual powers or qualities that are difficult to understand or to explain." Cambridge Dictionary defines it as, "Relating to the belief that there is hidden meaning in life or that each human being can unite with God." And lastly, Merriam-Webster defines mystical as, "Having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence."
That was it. Our minds are mystical. They are complex, difficult to understand, but hold more powers than we can possibly comprehend. Mystical was the exact adjective I was looking for, and The Mystical Mind completed the acronym perfectly.
With our beautiful, mystical minds, let's journey together through everyday life, through home design, and discover more about ourselves along the way.
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