Creating a Personal Sanctuary

• First, visualize a “mental sanctuary” that calms and comforts you.
• Next look around your home or office and find a room, an area, or even a chair that feels especially inviting.
• Bring something into your sanctuary to link it to your vision. For me, that meant adding some fluffy white pillows and vase full of flowers. For you, it might be a cherished book, a childhood toy, or a family photo.
• Now, close your eyes and settle into your newfound sanctuary, returning as often as you crave serenity, soul-searching, or just a little distance from the harshness of the world.

Even though most of us can’t drop everything and head off to a mountaintop retreat or beachfront oasis when we hit our stress thresholds, there are other ways to experience the serenity of a healing sanctuary. Perhaps most immediate is creating a mental image of your sanctuary by visualizing a specific place that brings you a sense of calm, even bliss, and then calling up that image whenever you need it. It could be a familiar place you visit often like a favorite family vacation spot. It could be a remote destination you’ve only seen in films or travel books, but to which you feel a special connection.

Or it could simply be a place you’ve imagined, like the vivid mental picture I’ve had of my personal sanctuary for a long time. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, even if I only have a few minutes sitting at my desk or waiting in the car to pick up a kid from band practice, I can close my eyes, take a few deep breaths, and I’m transported to this idyllic scene.

My sanctuary is a lovely house, more of a cottage really, high on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The floor-to-ceiling windows, with their gauzy white curtains, frame the brightness of the sea. The room is all curves and softness with no straight lines anywhere. There is a faint sweetness of freesia coming from a cobalt blue vase on the table. I am curled up in a big overstuffed cream-colored chair, alone in this pristine setting with no clutter, no computer and no cell phone. After a few minutes focused on this image, I’m sure I feel my blood pressure drop as my mood lifts.