Designing for JOMO
Photo by Brandable Box on Unsplash
Everywhere I look, I see the whole wheat color of cardboard boxes. Due to some moving obstacles created by the pandemic, my family of five has been swimming in a housing purgatory—no longer in the only home my kids have known, and not yet able to create a new one. But finally, we’re in!
We’ve taken some first steps–the mattresses are off the floor, and I set up my desk so I could hold virtual meetings out of sight of those towering brown room dividers. Now where does it all go? How do we create spaces that will welcome us in, open us up to each other, protect our solitude, hold us in rest, focus our attention on good and necessary things… and help us find joy in missing out on the rest?
This is the mindful home, as described in Joanna Thornhill’s book The New Mindful Home. In an interview with Slow Living LDN, Thornhill says designing a mindful home uses the goal of feeling as a starting point rather than looks or even function. To determine what generates the feelings you want to have in your living space requires a certain level of self-awareness.
Thornhill encourages her clients to create a “vision board” rather than the traditional “mood board” at the outset of the project. “A vision board is a lot less literally focused on the design: it’s almost like a visual journaling tool to help you gain clarity on the feeling you’d like to achieve in your space.”
She suggests flipping through magazines or scrolling a site like Pinterest and letting your gut tell you what you’re drawn to naturally .
“The images needn’t be of interior spaces – they just need to make you feel the way you’d like to feel within your space… This will then give you an ‘emotional blueprint’ to base your scheme on.”
However, the feel of that space will still largely depend on what you and your guests bring into it. We’ve all seen–or maybe even been part of–those awful scenes with everyone seated together looking at devices instead of each other. We need to develop design strategies that encourage us to face each other and miss out on the notification pings that disrupt the joys of human connection.
In my JOMO Method course, I teach members how to employ mindful friction - making things just inconvenient enough that they’re forced to ask the question: “do I want to be doing this?” The basic idea is to create speed bumps or small barriers around the things we know are not serving us. So, if screens are sabotaging your mindful home, find ways to add some friction.
One solution that has worked for my family is to allow phone chargers in only one place in the house. We still walk around with our devices and use them throughout the house, but this establishes a space where phones and tablets “live” away from communal spaces. Often, I would see my children burn through a tablet battery, find a charging cord, and plug it in near them so they could extend their screen time. When a screen is out of batteries, that’s a good sign you need a break! Now, when the devices are recharging, we are doing the same, with each other.
In short, if you do not create the friction between yourself and the unwanted things in your life, they will become the friction between you and what you really want!
In The New Mindful Home, Thornhill also discusses “turning down” the home. One example she offers is to move branded products in your pantry into clear storage containers, which mutes the excessive stimulation of store packaging. I personally have paired this idea with its opposite, and allowed for branding and packaging that support the kind of stimulation I want. I use these JOMO symbols to keep my intentions top of mind.
A friend told me that on her daughter’s seventh birthday, they made a family trip to Build-a-Bear workshop. It is one of her favorite memories, so she doesn’t mind having the “pet crate” from the store sitting out in her living room. She wants it to grab her attention, to trigger that memory, so she includes the packaging, because it has become more than that to her.
For my part, I clip my JOMO value cards to different spots around my home and carefully choose my fridge magnets. I attach stickers to my water bottles, journals, and filing cabinet that support my values and intentions. My point is, there are things I want to grab ahold of my attention and things I don’t. I try to eliminate the latter, so that the former gets emphasized.
On April 3, you’ll have the chance to get your own JOMO reminders in my new JOMO Goods shop! Take a look at this sneak peek:
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I’m celebrating the shop’s launch with a GIVEAWAY! Comment below on this post to be entered for a free JOMO Goods item of your choice.
PSSST… JOMO(cast) patrons get 10% off shop purchases ALL. OF. THE. TIME. Become a JOMO patron for as little as $5USD/month to get fabulous bonus content and discounts in the JOMO Goods shop.
