What is sanctuary and how do we find it?

Recently I was asked: what is sanctuary and how do we actually find it?

Because I live in this world of sanctuary as a space, as a philosophy, as a practice, I forget sometimes that not everyone is inside my head. And so I thought I would pause today and explain what sanctuary is and how we go about finding it for ourselves.

The word sanctuary means different things to different people. To me, it is a code word for an environment (a space or series of spaces) that supports our happiness.  

Sanctuary spaces also support our personal health and wellness. We’ve seen this up close as we’ve all been home a lot more in the past couple of years and many of us have had to literally heal at home. Staying well has become a focus like never before and knowing that the environments around us can help us stay well is powerful. This wellness I reference is not just physical — it’s mental, emotional and even spiritual. I’ll dig into the nuances of that in an upcoming post.   

Can a space actually do that? Yes. It really can and I have seen proof of it in my own life and the lives of my family and my clients. 

These sanctuary spaces are special, in that they are designed and organized so that they promote a critical understanding: peace around us, inspires peace inside us. 

That’s a good one, isn’t it? That phrase came to me several years ago and I never get tired of saying it. It’s deceptively simple and completely true. 

Taken one step further, peace inside us helps us to be happier, more resilient to life’s shifts and changes, and a sense of peace inside also helps us to live in a way that we feel grateful for what we have and where we are. Gratitude, I have found in my own life, is a cornerstone for personal happiness and fulfillment. 

Now that we’ve discussed sanctuary as a special, personal space, how do we go about finding it for ourselves? It’s easier than you might suppose. There are several steps and I’ll list them here:

1. We decide (we set an intention) to have a sanctuary space for ourselves — we need it and we deserve it.
2. We select a space that will suit our needs and our lifestyle.
3. We make a list of things we want to do in our sanctuary space — activities and pursuits that calm us down and fill us up with happiness.
4. We appoint our space with the tools and things that will facilitate the activities we listed above. 
5. We set up daily rituals in our sanctuary so that we spend time in our space — is our daily sanctuary practice.
6. We notice the benefits and improvements in ourselves and our lives.
7. We take the peace and joy we’ve found inside back out into the world — this happens naturally and automatically because we feel better.

This is how we go about finding sanctuary for ourselves. We make it. And there are all kinds of tools and tricks I’ve learned over the years that I will share with you in upcoming posts. I’m planning a series of posts that will dig into the juicy details. But for now, you know what sanctuary is and how to find it for yourself. 

I’d love to know if you have any questions or any particular experiences you’d like to share — send me a message or reply in the comments below. We are all on this journey of finding sanctuary together and I’m so glad you’re here. 

With love and gratitude,

Lisa

Featured image by Spacejoy on Unsplash