The Journal
The Shadow of Your Space: What Your Home Reveals About Your Inner World
Oct 1, 2025
Creating Soulful Spaces: Insights from Vancouver Designer Sandra Flora
Home is our comfort place right? Or at least it should be. With two sides of a coin it can give or take comfort.
That’s why the home is also a mirror.
Every polished room that feels hollow, every pile weighing more each day, the untouched corners asking to be seen again.
When I talked with Sandra Flora, a Vancouver BC based designer who helps people create homes and offices that nurture the soul, she said:
“A room instantly tells me if someone feels calm and grounded, or if they’re carrying stress. Clutter, unfinished projects, or neglected corners are often a reflection of what’s going on inside.”
I’ve put together this blog post to talk to you about how your home, your brand, and your presence all mirror the truth you carry inside. In motherhood, business, or seasons of transition, aligning your space and story with legacy art turns clutter into clarity, shadow into strength, and fleeting moments into anchors your family will feel for generations.
The Overlooked Business Strategy: Aligning Your Home and Workspaces
Most keepsake boxes end up hidden in a drawer. They’re functional, but not beautiful.
This one is different.
It’s art in itself — hand painted, nature-infused, and crafted so you’ll want it on display.
Whether it holds your heirloom portraits, or becomes a sacred place for the mementos you gather over the years, it transforms storage into ceremony.
Because your memories deserve more than a box. They deserve a home that’s as beautiful as the stories inside.
✨ Available with every heirloom art collection.
Your space sets the tone for your brand and your life. It reflects in the words of Sandra:
“If your space is chaotic, it usually shows up in your work too. A cluttered environment can mean scattered focus, procrastination, or not feeling confident in how you show up for your clients.”
A home where you don’t feel at ease in can equal a misaligned business. If your office feels draining or your home feels unsettled, your brand will reflect that energy. The clarity you bring to your environment is the same clarity your clients will feel when they meet you. It can be as simple as the thoughts of the space take away mental energy for business tasks. You might not be “failing”, perhaps it feels more like treading water non-stop!
Don’t worry, this is all part of growth and expansion. We all go through seasons with our home.
In your office the art you choose to surround yourself with becomes part of that energy. A single piece of intentional, legacy artwork can shift the way a room feels. Turning it from draining to nourishing, from cluttered to centered. This is why I don’t just take photos, I help create art that roots your space in presence and alignment, so that every glance at your wall becomes a reminder of who you are at your core.
The Overlooked Link Between Your Home and Mom Anxiety
Parenthood asks us to hold so much. The laundry piles, the unfinished projects, the endless to-do lists. Yet it’s in moments like this… My daughter pausing to smell a flower in Port Coquitlam, that I’m reminded presence is what truly anchors us. Our homes, just like our children, reflect back what we carry inside. When we choose to slow down and align our space with love, it shapes not only our lives, but the way our children remember us.
When it comes to your home and parenthood, it’s important to take the time to slow down and reflect.
Perhaps a half finished project in the room adds tension to your subconscious. Pushing on the weight your beloved children already add to you, making moments feel unbearable or uncomfortable.
What’s negatively feeding into your subconscious? Toys spilling all over the floor to laundry that seems alive and constantly growing; sometimes even growling at you.
Sandra reminded me that “Pretty doesn’t always mean personal. If a space looks ‘done’ but doesn’t feel like you, it’s missing heart.”
Motherhood already asks us to juggle so much.
When the home doesn’t carry pieces that remind you of who you are with your art, your story, your grounding rituals; then it’s easy to disappear inside it.
We can loose ourselves within motherhood, the house doesn’t have to be lost as well.
Aligning your space is how you remind both yourself and your children of the beauty that matters most.
Those items that help you feel grounded as you pass through your home, will be cherished by your children one day. As they saw firsthand how your energy changed when you appreciated the space you created for yourself.
It’s not about decorating your home, but filling it with gratitude, love, and appreciation. What does that mean for you? Un-cluttered rooms? Custom art on the walls? Buying more rustic natural material based items to create that earth connection inside?
Everything in your house feeds your brain. Create the recipe that works for you.
Healing in the Home: Grief-Informed Interior Design and Legacy Art for Vancouver Families
Whether you’re in grief, healing, or transition…
The shadow in your home will show up as the things you can’t touch yet, the room frozen in time, the objects tied to a memory you aren’t ready to release. Sandra said:
“People hold onto things because of the memories or guilt attached, even if the item no longer fits their life. It’s rarely about the object—it’s about what it represents.”
This is shadow work in action. Releasing one object, shifting the light in one room, even clearing one surface, can begin the momentum that turns fear into freedom. It can be a 2” by 2” surface that you clear off and wipe down. Or to wash two dishes. It doesn’t take much to reclaim.
As I was reflecting on this, I thought of a Vancouver BC based grief coach Maria Belanic. Whom I had the honor of photographing, she reminds us:
“We don’t ‘get over’ the people we love. We carry them, love and loss woven into the same breath.”
Her words mirror what Sandra shared about homes holding emotions, untouched corners, objects frozen in time. Grief doesn’t fade, but we can choose how to carry it. Healing isn’t about forgetting. It’s about honoring every part of our story, love and loss together.
This is also why I create heirloom art. A portrait placed with intention in your home becomes a touchstone. A way to create presence while carrying memory and connection forward; even through seasons of change.
If you are in a season of holding, grieving, or becoming I’d love to work together. You can always book a complimentary consult here.
Legacy Photography and Soulful Interior Design in BC: Creating Spaces That Hold Your Story
This keepsake box isn’t just storage. Along its edge, I hand-painted textured nodules like a spine. Because legacy isn’t passive. It lives, it breathes, it carries memory in its very structure.
Whether it holds photographs, letters, or keepsakes, this box becomes more than an object. It becomes a reminder of what you choose to carry forward; strength, presence, and story woven into art.
When Sandra said, “It’s rarely about the object—it’s about what it represents” it hit me.
Legacy art isn’t passive. It’s living. It reminds you to stay grounded when the world pulls you apart. It shows your children that you valued presence over perfection. It carries the bond of your horse, your pet, your own becoming, into the future.
Together we create art that catches you in your exhale helps your home breathe again.
An heirloom portrait isn’t decoration.
It’s legacy work. True legacy work isn’t surface level with a photographer capturing moments in time.
The experience itself must be part of the imprint.
For the business owner, it becomes brand alignment.
For the mother, it becomes a reminder of self.
For the one in transition, it becomes an anchor of truth.
It’s about slowing down, breathing, and letting your body remember presence. It’s about creating the kind of memory that doesn’t just decorate your home, but anchors it.
Sandra explained something beautifully “Homes often hold emotions that people aren’t ready to deal with. Sometimes it’s a room that feels stuck in time, or even just a pile that never seems to move. Our environment reflects our inner world.”
So, if you’re feeling stuck in your home then a somatic photoshoot may be the light you need.
When we create something intentional for our walls, we are making a declaration about what we want to carry forward.
Legacy isn’t only about what’s passed down to future generations. It’s also about the energy you choose to live inside now. The walls that hold you should remind you of your worth, your strength, your bond with the beings you love most.
Aligning Your Home, Your Business, and Your Becoming
Our homes don’t lie. They show us what we carry, what we hide, and what we’re ready to face.
When we bring shadow into light, our homes shift, our businesses shift, our families shift, and most importantly, we shift.
That’s the power of aligning your space with your truth and anchoring it with art that reflects your becoming.
If you’re ready to explore how your home and your art can support your healing, your brand, or your family, let’s connect.
Book a consult with me here to explore your photography dreams.
Reach out to Sandra Flora for an elegant and soulful home design here.
Book a complimentary call with one of Vancouver’s finest grief coaches, Maria Belanic here.
Together, we help you create spaces that breathe with you and art that carries your story forward.
