All designers aim to create environments for their clients that will improve their lives and support their health and wellness. In the execution of those designs, that often focus on functionality and aesthetics, other areas of wellbeing may get overlooked. Taking a broader, more holistic approach to client needs and the connection of the space to the natural environment can produce additional benefits.

In this episode, Gail welcomes back to the podcast Matthew Tenzin, principal designer with Joe McGuire Design, with offices in Aspen, Boulder and Denver, Colorado. Previously Matthew appeared in an episode with the firm’s founder and partner, Joe McGuire. A former Buddhist monk, Matthew has had a lifelong love for creativity and interconnectivity with spirituality and the natural world.

In 2017, Joe and Matthew launched a Holistic Design Consultancy, now known as Home Within, where they focus on offering the healthy, sustainable and energy-balancing aspects of their design process. Matthew explained that their method is to examine the project in the context of five levels of holistic wellbeing in the home, taking a top-down approach. Those are the spiritual and/or sacred level, a wellness vision, symbolic or meaningful level, sensory level and functional level.

Matthew said that normally the energetic level in the home is not addressed in traditional building and design. He explained that spaces contain residual energies from previous inhabitants that can affect the current residents, either for good or for ill. From an energy perspective, the space may be out of balance and require cleansing before any other work is undertaken.

Connectivity is also central to their process. Matthew urged designers to make more of an effort to connect with their clients. “If only the designer could just breathe and slow down for a minute to connect with client, it’s amazing what can come out of that,” he said. Connecting to the natural environment is also essential. “If we can’t connect to the planet and the whole from our home, where are we going to do that?” he noted.

Matthew also talked about how the firm is using a new wellness space they opened up next to their studio and their work with indigenous communities in the rain forests of South America.

Listen to the entire podcast for more details and insights from Matthew.

If you’re listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s12e3-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Matthew and Joe McGuire Design, go to the firm’s website at www.joemcguiredesign.com.

For more information about their wellness consultancy, Home Within, go to the firm’s website at www.homewithin.com.

Listen to the previous podcast with Matthew and Joe discussing ways designers can break out of the cycle of constant business ups and downs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ZgO8K21sU

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.

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Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast, Matthew. You’ve been with us before, but our listeners might not have heard that episode. So we’re gonna dive right in. So how did you become a designer? Tell us about that. Well, hi, Gail. Thanks for having me back. Of course. It’s wonderful. I always love chatting with you and I’m excited to get to talk a little more with your listeners. So yeah, I became an interior designer in a little bit of an unusual way.

didn’t go to design school, my background was more, I was more interested in fine art. And even though as a kid, I told people I wanted to be an interior designer, I grew up in a very conservative Christian family and community. And I think at the time when I said I wanted to be an interior designer, it was a teacher and I can’t remember which one said, well, that’s what women do. So you should be an architect. And so that sort of planted a seed of.

Okay, well, I’ll explore architecture. And that wasn’t quite my thing. And then I got into painting and that led through a whole creative and spiritual path, I guess, of exploration. When I was living in Chicago, I got to hear the Dalai Lama talk and I went to hear him and got very into meditation, ended up becoming a Buddhist monk for a number of years, for about five and a half years living in retreat.

But I always had a very creative aspect of my being and I wanted to, after my time as a monk, which was an incredible life-changing time, I wanted to figure out how to integrate what I’d learned and express it creatively. I also felt a real deep connection to nature and to the planet and that’s something that’s always been a part of my life and I wanted to find a way to do something meaningful or beneficial to help others feel more connected.

to nature and to the planet because it felt like we wouldn’t do the things we do to the planet if we felt more connected to it. And right after my time as a monk, I met my husband, Joe, in Aspen at a talk by the Dalai Lama. We just happened to be sitting next to each other. And he was an established interior designer in Aspen. He’d been designing homes there for many years at that point. But he also had a background of interest in meditation and

healing arts, he had gone to massage school, he had lived at the Dalai Lama’s monastery and taught English before I was there. And so we had all these overlapping interests and we were really soulmates, know, it was meant to be. And so we started, you know, dating and, you know, became partners in life. And then over a few years, we started working together in design as well after tagging along with him on projects and things. Eventually he got

a number of projects and needed help. And he’s like, well, what do you think about helping me? And I thought, okay, great, let’s give it a shot. And that was 12 years ago. So I really learned through working with Joe, as well as just, you know, so much of it is just intuitive and a part of me, or there was sort of a natural impulse to design spaces, even from a young age. it’s an unusual path.

but I feel so grateful for it. It is so fascinating. And every time I hear you talk about being a Buddhist monk, I just try to imagine what would that be like? Because that is such a different lifestyle than what you have now. And of course, it informs what you’re doing. But and we’ll talk about that a little bit more. But what was that like? What was the difference in how you felt about yourself versus?

now that you’re away from that. What is that like? Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s something that’s it’s really hard to to put into words, of course, because it’s just such a such a powerful experience. It’s just so different from from the way that that pretty much all of us live. I felt really lucky. Like most days I felt like I won the lottery to have the opportunity to fully immerse in nature. For two and a half years, I was

in solitary retreat. So I would go for six or seven months at a time without seeing another human being, including other monks. There were a few of us in little cabins in this remote valley in Big Sur. So we were kind of over a ridge in a valley tucked in near the ocean, but we couldn’t see the ocean. just to have the opportunity to immerse in meditation all day, that connection to nature and to

the web of life, you become very sensitive to things when meditating that much. Wasn’t exposed to any news about the outside world. I would get letters when I would come out for those breaks and I would see my teachers and then go back in. And so to have that opportunity to not be distracted by devices and email and news and all that we have to process on a daily basis.

That was an amazing opportunity. when doing that, become, think, I mean, when anybody meditates, I know you meditate, we’ve talked about that before. We just naturally become more sensitive because we start to slow down and tune into the present moment, which is what meditation is, mindfulness especially, is being aware of what’s arising in the present. And then we start to notice things that we didn’t notice before. And they’ve always been there, but we just didn’t tune into it.

thoughts, our emotions, the breeze, the sensation on our skin, the way we’re breathing, the way we’re sitting, we start to open and sense in a deeper, richer way. And that’s just an incredible opportunity to do, especially in nature, because it opened up this feeling of connection to the web of life. I felt like I was communicating with nature. I would notice that I would have certain prayers or thoughts or intentions.

that would seem to be reflected in nature around me, in the animals, in the plants. And at times on the non-physical level, when you meditate deeply, you start to have connections on a more subtle level and where I was really sensitive to the energy of spaces and places, as well as to non-physical beings that have become kind of a part of my reality. I know a part of most world religions or spiritual traditions ac...

Designing a Home for Holistic Well Being (Matthew Tenzin)