The Silent Ways Objects Shape Us
This could also have been titled “What Crawling on the Floor Taught Me” but we’ll get to that soon enough…
Ergonomics, as I understand it to be, is about the human body’s flow and movements as it relates to the objects we encounter throughout our day, and how those objects encourage or discourage alignment and harmony within the body. Simply said, it’s how things move you, or limit your movement.
When we think about the things we surround ourselves with, we often evaluate them based on the most obvious question: does it do what I need? A chair, for instance, is a place for someone to sit. But then we take it a step further and assess if it’s comfortable, often plopping down in it for a moment as if 30 seconds will accurately inform us how well it will fare after a four-course dinner with friends. Then we assess its aesthetics — will it match the room, the table, the style, the other fabrics in our palette, our tastein general? Or, if you’re someone more inclined to see beauty in design first, you may have been drawn in initially by that aspect alone, regardless of whether you even need a chair. (Does it sound like I speak from experience? I speak from experience.)
The point is, everyone has a list of criteria. And I’ve worked with quite a few people whose list contains only one: Use. That is, until they hire me to help identify what isn’t working in their space and I point out all the ignored qualities about their belongings that are quietly working against them. That’s when they start taking the expanded criteria list seriously.
It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about a dining room chair, bar stool, coffee table, mixing bowl, dish towel, blender, or bedroom mirror, or bath towel- every item you select to live with (or build your home with) has physical properties, methods of use, limitations, and required maintenance that shape your life, often unknowingly.
I’m reminded of when I took Landmark’s Wisdom Course led by Joyce Pike. Our homework one weekend was to go home and explore the physical world around us. The question we had to answer the following day was: “What do all objects have in common?”
The exercise was meant to have us looking at things from all sides — not just visually, but physically and experientially too.
As I now recall, I did this exercise when I was married to Ryan, and his brother Dustin was in the course with me. Dustin and I ended up crawling around Ryan’s tiny apartment examining everything from floor level, eventually bumping heads like little cubs while Ryan sat there recording us in disbelief asking, “What are you two weirdos doing!?” It was genuinely hilarious, and if I could access my old hard drive I’d absolutely include the video (PS. Anyone really good at soldering chips and restoring defunk PCU boards?).
The following day, as we sat in the course, everyone tried to answer the question of what all objects have in common. People suggested many theories, but the lesson was intended to show us how objects shape us. They alter our way of being in ways we often don’t even realize.
For instance, if a bed is five feet long and a person is 6’2”, their feet are going to dangle off the bed when they sleep, which won’t lead to a good night’s sleep, which can then domino into any number of consequences.
The idea wasn’t meant to disempower us as humans or blame objects around us for our bad moods. It was merely an exercise in a grander lesson, but it stuck with me. Ever since, I’ve noticed the silent ways our belongings impact us, which dovetails perfectly with ergonomics.
Ergonomics, which I recently learned is also called Human Factors Engineering, is meant to avoid physical strain and injury, maximize productivity, and fit the person. This is why it’s applied so heavily in professional environments like Google. But this thinking also belongs in the home because, at its best, it creates environments that allow people to focus on what they’re doing in the moment. That leads to mindfulness, room to be creative and spontaneous, more intuitive routines, better problem-solving, and relationships, plus often better health outcomes. Imagine how all this positivity and work-ability ripples out from one individual onto those around them!
We like to poke fun at the most discerning people — the ones with a very long list of criteria — but those people are often thinking beyond the basics and into deeper levels of compatibility. At least, I believe that to be true because that’s how I evaluate things my clients are considering. I look beyond aesthetics and ask whether something aligns with their psychology, physical realities, lifestyle, habits, ambitions, limitations, and ultimately, the future they’re stepping into.
Because ultimately, our homes are not just collections of objects. They are Environmental Scaffolding that either support the way we want to live, or quietly pull us away from it.