We are in mindset and discipline fatigue 🫠

📸 Photograph: The “Gelato” bathroom by Beata Heuman, 2025. // Side note: this is my favourite concept by renowned interior designer Beata Heuman. I love the whimsy of a cone having fallen straight out of the gelato print. The oversized checkerboard and baby blue toilet fully change our perception, assumptions, and experience in the loo.

Which is why I am very interested right now in using the 3D to make behaviour change.

Aka, rather than introducing frameworks, meditations, or new ways of thinking, I’m much more interested in what I can move in the three-dimensional, tactile, and earth element to initiate change. Avoiding mental discipline altogether.

For this reason, I find spatial design (interior, landscape, gathering, etc.) quite curious, which is why when I stayed with my high-performing, very yang, often described as “restless” friend in Berlin, I zoomed in on her balcony as a means of development. (See my last post for the makeover 🪴)

She would have LOVED, easily implemented and effortlessly integrated a framework as a means of shifting her everyday existence – but I’m bored of that!

I wanted something very earthy. Something physically there begging for her attention, like a balcony needing to be watered or a rest perch for a butterfly.

Therefore, I’m curious about how consciously maneuvering the physical world can create lasting change in our internal world.

The simplest example is correcting posture with a back brace vs. being mindful to pull your shoulders back.

For some reason, we have moved away from the shortcuts and cheat codes of the 3D (the most effective means of transformation), which uses physical manipulation in space to achieve our desired results – aka the back brace. And have willfully committed to relying on our intellect alone to change behaviour.

I want a revolution to return to the physical.

P.S. Look at Priya Parker's book The Art of Gathering to further understand how chair formations, room environments, and geographic locations alter/affect negotiations, power dynamics, and behaviour.

The physical world mirrors, alters, and determines our internal world; why not make an art of it?

Article FAQs generated by AI:
1. Why is there growing fatigue around mindset work and mental discipline, and how does this influence our approach to personal development?
There is growing fatigue because contemporary wellness and productivity cultures often overemphasize mental discipline, frameworks, and cognitive restructuring, demanding constant self-monitoring, reflection, and inner work. This can lead to burnout, as the mind is continuously tasked with both noticing and correcting behaviour without sufficient physical or sensory anchoring. The blog post suggests that people are craving embodied, tangible approaches—a shift from the intellectual to the experiential and spatial, where physical interventions (like changing a space or installing a back brace) prompt real, sustainable shifts without demanding mental willpower alone.

2. How can spatial design serve as a catalyst for internal transformation and behavioural change?
Spatial design impacts how we feel, move, and behave in a space, often without us consciously realizing it. By intentionally shaping our environments (such as reorganizing a room, designing a balcony, or adjusting a chair layout), we can influence our habits, emotions, and sense of identity. The post argues that physical change in the 3D realm creates feedback loops that support behaviour change more intuitively and effectively than relying on abstract intentions. For example, a whimsical, well-designed bathroom can shift mood, presence, or even creativity, showing that space design is not superficial; it is psychological and transformative.

3. What does a “return to the physical” suggest about the future of self-help, therapy, and personal development industries?
A “return to the physical” suggests that the future of these fields may move away from purely cerebral models (coaching, talk therapy, mindset shifts) and toward experiential, tactile, and environmental interventions. This could include gardening as therapy, spatial curation as self-development, or ritualized design in homes and public spaces. It reframes healing and growth as something not just thought about but felt, moved, planted, rearranged, or built. The invitation is to make life an art project. One that acknowledges that the spaces we live in are not just backgrounds to our story, but co-authors of it.