Last year, I was super stuck. I was unhappy in my body (no big surprise there, since my body kind of fell apart on me) – and I was also unhappy in my house. My environment is amazingly important to my well-being (and I’ll bet your environment is equally important to your well-being, too). But I undervalue my environment until something goes wrong.

Well, last year something went terribly horribly wrong. I found myself sitting on the couch hating my workspace, my rooms, my environment, and not wanting to be home at all, but not wanting to go out, either.

Something had to change – and for once, I didn’t want to move.

After lots of work to figure out what I needed (mostly with the incredible Jen Hofmann), I fell in love with my workspace afresh.

One of the key turning points? Renaming – instead of “workspace”, I now call it my Creation Station.

Thus inspired, I turned my eye to the rest of the house. We spent a huge amount of time planning, rearranging, painting, and improving things around here – and then I laid the final – but vital – step in place.

I renamed every room in the house. And then, I created bright, colorful labels and placed them accordingly.

The “entryway” became the Greeting Gateway.

The “kitchen” became the Nourishment Center.

The “living room” became the Visiting Nook.

Pace’s workspace took on the same moniker as mine: Pace’s Creation Station.

The “backyard” is now the Mini-Meadow.

Our main hall is the Journey Way.

Our son’s room and hall became the Doodly Domain (dood as in the quirky way I spell “dude”).

The Sanctuary remained the Sanctuary – that is what it is, after all. This is where the entire project was born; the intention of the Sanctuary being sanct gave us a sacred, peaceful room to start from when we decided to branch out and make our entire home sacred. The Sanctuary was the inspiration for how we want the whole of our home to feel.

The “bathroom” is now the Room of Sacred Water (and got promoted to one of my favorite rooms in the house – and why not? We spend an insane amount of our lives in the bathroom. Might as well make it gorgeous and happy.)

Our bedroom earned the sexy, comfy title: The Red Velvet Room, so named because of the way the paint turned out – it looks like gorgeous waves of crushed red velvet.

The “garage” became the Movement Zone (it’s where we exercise and from whence our car moves in and out).

Our house has long been named The Chalk, after my favorite land on the Discworld (a series of fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett). It’s said that the Chalk is no place for witches, but out of there comes one of the most powerful witches the Disc has ever seen. Seems a good metaphor for my home, thinks I. We’ve honored our home and its name with the image of the Chalk’s most famous resident: a giant chalk horse made into the side of a hill.

On top of the names, the labels help us remember that our entire home is sacred – and that we ourselves are sacred. As I travel from space to space, the labels brighten my mood and send me into a comfortable spiral, like donning my most wonderful hoodie and wrapping into my favorite red blanket. The vibe of the Chalk has softened and blissed out, making our house into my home.

I don’t just live here now.

Now, I belong here.