My experience of creating a Mind Palace
Like I've told, I decided to start playing Sherlock and create my own Mind Palace a little while ago. And because like many other things in life more the merrier, I invited my followers to join me to become a Palace Builder! (that name is so silly, it pleases me a lot.) Now I'd like to tell you where I am with my little project.
At the very first time I shut all the lights and put on some relaxing music cause I really wanted to concentrate. It felt like meditating, it was magnificent! I still have to retreat to a quite quiet place and close my eyes if I want to enter it. I had read that it's good to create some kind of entrance to your mind palace first and base room itself to a familiar space, like your room or your granny's kitchen. For some reason I wasn't comfortable with any places in my life (I move a lot and my parents' house is messy etc.) so I decided to create a very pleasant "dream space" of my own.
The main room of my mind palace is a spacious attic. It has a wooden floor made of old planks, covered in most places with different kind of rugs. It has three windows: a small rectangular and a big round one facing each other on the opposite high walls and a skylight window in the ceiling. The two windows on the walls can be covered with curtains I bought myself while I lived in a shared flat back in Finland. They were a very beautiful pair of curtains. I can actually show you a photo, sorry for a short side track.
The sides of the room are filled with different kind of tables, desks, book shelves, cupboard, chests... with an additional lamp, mirror, plant and clothes bar thrown here and there. Some of them are actual objects from my life, rest just ordinary furniture. These are still mostly empty, but I will try to fill them with different facts and memories as I learn to trust that place better. Right in the middle of the other long wall I have the most beautiful object of the room: a Chinese cupboard. This cupboard actually exists, I fell in love with it in a flea market when I used to live in Switzerland but there was no way I could afford it. It has embedded mother pearl in it and the doors are painted full of trees, flowers and humming birds. It looks a bit like this, except it doesn't, mine is prettier.
In the middle of the room I have a big brown rya rug (again from my last apartment), biiiig comfortable arm chair with cushions and a throw, small side table and a white sofa table with a glass cover. And of course books, piles and piles of books. Bit like this, maybe without the decorations. And yes that picture is also from the same flat. What do you mean I miss it..?
And the last bot not least important thing I have included in my room is my dog. She's a sweet old lady and I miss her so much while I'm away. I gave her her favourite cushion, a lamb wool rug, water cup and some bones to chew, heh.
I have also anticipated that one day I might want to enlarge my Mind Palace from one room to a bit bigger space. So I created a logical exit from my little attic: spiral staircase. I took them from a house of my friend's granny, they are wooden and old and creaky and beautiful. They lead to an empty corridor with pale green plank walls and bumpy floor. That I take from my old college. I really enjoyed my time there so it's a pleasant place to step in, it fits well in my little palace.
Right now my Mind Palace works mostly as a calm, meditative place to retreat when the fuzzle of the "real life" gets too much. My current environment (read student hole) is rather ugly and restless and doesn't really feel like home, this one does. And it holds loads of memories, which I can visit if I feel homesick or nostalgic. But some day I would love to learn to use it "Sherlock way" with all those memory tricks!
There it is, my little humble mind space. I would love you to share you own ones! :) How is it going, have you managed to create a place, or even use it? Send me a message or write a post and tag it with "palace builders" and I'll certainly read it.
