“The house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”

- Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Gaston Bachelard was a French philosopher who wrote about the way our thoughts, feelings and imagination are influenced by different places and spaces – like bedrooms, attics and corridors.

The Poetics of Space isn’t light reading. But the basic gist is something we all know intuitively – our surroundings can have a profound impact on our thoughts and feelings.

Whether you’re meditating, visualising or working, it’s important to create the right space for yourself. The latest research confirms that natural light improves concentration, creativity and productivity. The same goes for fresh air, or being around green plants or trees.

But if you’re trying to create an intimate atmosphere, sometimes candles can work. Or you can use smells to evoke different emotions, just like Marcel Proust found the smell of madeleine cakes so deeply comforting.

Use your surroundings to help make your visualisations more real, and more powerful.