What makes you feel at home
To answer this question I’m inviting you to list experiences that make you feel at home. Something like this:
A song that I learned in Middle School
My mom’s voice
Having dinner with my family
Retrieving my memories of my father sitting quietly writing
The joy of cooking a recipe that was passed down through my maternal lineage
The familiar landscape of vineyards with mountains from afar
The smell of Makluba
Black flip-flops
Swirling and dancing
Being among friends
Meditating in community
Certain languages
Artfully spending time with interior design ideas and applying Feng Shui
A stage with red curtains
The above list emerged from my free associations, each item carries the thread of a specific experience, mostly things that were not necessarily significant at the time . Most of the items on my list are experiences that happened repeatedly over time. Some experiences became significant to me later in life.
In Looking Back
At the time, I did not realize the impact of most experiences. In my process of recalling emotions, sensations, feelings and thoughts, I found images that encapsulated the amalgamation of my inner experience. Images that can be recalled in my psyche.
Exploring the Power of Images.
There are 3 powerful key components in the home-images that emerged in my psyche that I’d like to share with you:
An inherently sense of familiarity
A astonishing invitation to feel a sense of continuity
A comforting and empowering feeling of belonging.
“ONE OF THE GREATEST TRAGEDIES IN LIFE IS TO LOSE YOUR OWN SENSE OF SELF AND ACCEPT THE VERSION OF YOU THAT IS EXPECTED BY EVERYONE ELSE.” – UNKNOWN
If you are seeking home from within, you are also longing for a sense of place that is lived through your connection with your surroundings. The landscape-environment, the landscape -body, the landscape- people, the landscape-culture, religion, spiritual practice.
IN BEING ATTUNED WITH YOUR DEEPEST EXPERIENCE OF THE SELF , YOUR ROOTS WILL RUN DEEP.
FIND HOME THROUGH YOUR CONNECTION WITH YOUR UNCONSCIOUS, YOUR INSTINCTUAL ENERGY, YOUR INTUITION, YOUR GUT FEELING .
Learn about what makes your feel at home. The starting point may be learning about your ancestry, heritage, family dynamics, intergenerational aspects that were passed on. To feel at home, you may be called to revisit your own culture and narrative.
Nadia Thalji, Ph.D. is a multicultural psychotherapist and cross-cultural educator and consultant offering psychotherapy in California and seminars across the globe. Her Ph.D. is in Clinical Psychology, MA in Culture and Spirituality and a BA in Performance Studies.