{"id":1028,"date":"2012-03-08T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/awakeintheworld\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2012-03-05T17:00:57","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T22:00:57","slug":"tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html","title":{"rendered":"Tuning in to Healing Spaces and Sacred Places"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever wonder why great architecture like Notre Dame Cathedral makes your spirit soar and bad architecture can make you feel sick? Dr. Esther Sternberg, a former member of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) says that built environments can be built to soothe and calm or unintentionally create a stress response. Dr. Sternberg is author of, Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being. <\/em>In her bestselling book, she describes how the brain registers sensations through sight, sound, touch \u2013 and how elements of architecture like natural light, materials, nature, and silence have an impact on the human psyche. Her work has largely been used for creating hospitals that promote healing and remove the stress of being a patient. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cStress can make you sick,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you want to design a hospital, you want to remove barriers that might trigger the stress response.\u201d She says that hospitals were some of the first to embrace the link between design and well-being. Some architects are using the findings to encourage developers of offices and other buildings to consider the broader impact of their built spaces. \u201cDesigners create their works through intuition,\u201d says Dr. Sternberg. \u201cI\u2019m not advocating they stop. But understanding the physical elements can inform them and help them to design for health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TKF Foundation works to promote sacred spaces. Its \u201cOpens Spaces, Sacred Places\u201d programs contribute to creating outdoor spaces to help people connect more with nature as a way to reduce stress. \u201cIn a time when modern man is more and more surrounded by the built world, beset by ever increasing stress and overwhelmed by technology, the need for open, sacred places in nature is more important than ever. Every neighborhood needs a Walden Pond in their back yard, a place where people can be in nature and reconnect to themselves, to the land, and to each other,\u201d the foundation says. Its park benches, labyrinths, gardens in cities and prisons have contributed to transforming lives across the country. It attests to the positive power of drawing closer to the earth and appreciating the natural environment. Now that spring is close, check out what good environments, built or natural, inspire your soul.<\/p>\n

Bio:<\/strong> Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life<\/a>. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she\u2019s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever wonder why great architecture like Notre Dame Cathedral makes your spirit soar and bad architecture can make you feel sick? Dr. Esther Sternberg, a former member of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) says that built environments can be built to soothe and calm or unintentionally create a stress response. Dr. Sternberg is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,10,4,26,125,3],"tags":[649,346,345,648,647],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-faith","category-inspiration","category-meditation","category-oneness","category-spiritual-practice","tag-academy-of-neuroscience-of-architecture","tag-awake-in-the-world","tag-debra-moffitt","tag-healing-spaces","tag-tkf-foundation"],"yoast_head":"\nTuning in to Healing Spaces and Sacred Places - Awake in the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tuning in to Healing Spaces and Sacred Places - Awake in the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever wonder why great architecture like Notre Dame Cathedral makes your spirit soar and bad architecture can make you feel sick? Dr. Esther Sternberg, a former member of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) says that built environments can be built to soothe and calm or unintentionally create a stress response. Dr. Sternberg is…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Awake in the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-08T11:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-05T22:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/CC8039E54A5B4C2EBCE240CA18E1C906.ashx?w=400&h=300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"debramoffitt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tuning in to Healing Spaces and Sacred Places - Awake in the World","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tuning in to Healing Spaces and Sacred Places - Awake in the World","og_description":"Ever wonder why great architecture like Notre Dame Cathedral makes your spirit soar and bad architecture can make you feel sick? Dr. Esther Sternberg, a former member of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) says that built environments can be built to soothe and calm or unintentionally create a stress response. Dr. Sternberg is…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html","og_site_name":"Awake in the World","article_published_time":"2012-03-08T11:00:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-03-05T22:00:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/CC8039E54A5B4C2EBCE240CA18E1C906.ashx?w=400&h=300"}],"author":"debramoffitt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html","name":"Tuning in to Healing Spaces and Sacred Places - Awake in the World","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/CC8039E54A5B4C2EBCE240CA18E1C906.ashx?w=400&h=300","datePublished":"2012-03-08T11:00:32+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-05T22:00:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/02075581804fd841fea631836d89cb7e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/CC8039E54A5B4C2EBCE240CA18E1C906.ashx?w=400&h=300","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/%7E\/media\/CC8039E54A5B4C2EBCE240CA18E1C906.ashx?w=400&h=300"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/2012\/03\/tuning-in-to-healing-spaces-and-sacred-places.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tuning in to Healing Spaces and Sacred Places"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/","name":"Awake in the World","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Debra Moffitt","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/02075581804fd841fea631836d89cb7e","name":"debramoffitt","description":"Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary and teacher, she\u2019s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at www.debramoffitt.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/author\/debramoffitt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/409"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/awakeintheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}