A Place to Love, A Place to Hate

Choose two local places:

• The first should be one that you love, that you enjoy being at, that you would go out of your way to time at, that you feel thoroughly positive about.
• Choose another that you hate, that you can’t stand to be in, that you would go out of your way to avoid, that you feel thoroughly negative about.

1) Spend at least 30 minutes in each place. Experience the places quietly, one sense at a time, and then by moving around. Concentrate on tuning into your feelings. Stop or sit down in the spot where you have the strongest reaction and make a list of your feelings (be sure these are your emotional reactions, not just descriptions of what is there). Then make another list of the characteristics of the place (this one can simply describe its physical features).

2) Consider why you feel as you do about each place. Is there a relationship between your emotional reactions and the physical characteristics you listed? If not, what are you reacting to?

3) Compare the relationship between physical characteristics and feelings in the two places. Are the characteristics of the places totally different, or do they have any similarities? Can you draw conclusions about how the physical characteristics of places make you feel?

4) Interview 5 people in the places you love and hate, and compare their reactions to yours. Do their reactions confirm or challenge your conclusions?