Walk into a dark room and turn on a light. The illumination spreads across the walls and tables. Darkness retreats and the room takes on a very different feel. Lighting lead to amazing nuances in the feel of a room. Pendant lighting and Vaxcel lighting can offer a certain elegance and focus the light in a room. Whether we are lighting a room or trying to illuminate aspects of our lives the fundamentals remain the same.

First and foremost, shadows are not the problem. The goal of lighting a room is not to remove all the darkness, but to shape the light, to create highlights, lowlights, and areas of focus. If a room is blasted with light removing all shadows, the space becomes uncomfortable and unfocused. Creative lighting can make a small room feel larger and larger rooms feel quaint. By illuminating specific areas the eye is led and fed the images that the designer prefers. The flat unattractive wall can be shaped with shadows to create depth and texture. The light can be focused onto the best features of the room whether it is the art on the wall or the plants by the couch. Every space has its positive areas and weaknesses that can be used to the best advantage. Often it is the very design obstacle that a room presents that leads to the most innovative solutions and helps create a more interesting space.

In our daily lives we are similar to a room that needs to be lit. Every person on the planet has strengths and weaknesses. Our biggest mistake is that we believe our flaws need to be hidden. If we create our world like we might light a room we will quickly realize the first thing we need to do is to figure out what the center of focus is going to be and what other elements of our lives need to be lit up. If we throw all of our energy on all aspects of our lives it will be like lighting a room to leave no shadows. There will be no perspective or areas of detail. The entire space or life will seem flat and uninteresting.

A good lighting design isn’t about banishing all the flaws of a room or hiding them. It is about incorporating them into the room, using a dark spot for contrast, or turning a giant flat space into something captivating. In our everyday existence there are a hundred possible points of focus. Putting our energy, our light, onto the most important areas helps create our values, our goals and how we spend our time. In our example of lighting design, light demands energy. The same is true for us to live. Where we put our focus require energy. If we try to spread that over every aspect of our day to day life, the emotional cost could be dramatic.

Plan a lighting design of your life. Figure out what is important, where you want to invest your effort and what can take less of your focus. Enter into a well lit room and draw ideas about focusing attention.

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