When you cross the threshold of your home, you become enmeshed in the familiar. Home is where you can count on things being the way you left them. Or at least, you can count on heavy furniture being the way you left it (children will surely move other things!). When we are home, we are in our domain. It is a sacred domain. No matter where we’ve been throughout the day, we can find familiarity and comfort in our home. Our home is a sacred space.
Your Home is Your Domain
Our home space is the one place we can create a customized environment that comfortably meets our physical and emotional needs. A happy home can be a place a refuge, safety, positivity, and fun. It is the one place where we have at least some amount of control over our surroundings. Our home can soothe us at the end of a busy or stressful day. It can feed our soul and protect us from everything outside that we cannot control.
Our space is like an extension of ourselves. In a way, this shouldn’t be a surprise because we physically inhabit space and so even though it is composed of inanimate objects, it still embodies ‘us’ to an extent. You can walk into someone’s home and ‘feel’ their presence, even when they aren’t there. Not everyone goes to the same lengths to customize a space, but people do it, even unintentionally. Someone could leave a signature mess, a footprint indicating their lifestyle. A blanket draped a certain way over a chair, or tools left certain places, ready to use. An empty soda can left in the same place, every day. Unless we are staying somewhere temporarily, our space can tell a lot about us.
Creating a Home of Comfort with Familiar Iconography and Objects
If you peek into other people’s homes – or see glimpses of their homes in the background of photographs or videos, you may notice that many people around the world display familiar or comforting items on the wall or on furniture. These include religious iconography, photos of loved ones, or other symbols that carry a personal significance for the home owner. These comfort items have less to do with design/decor preferences and more to do with serving another purpose. That purpose is to surround us with familiar comforts. In a way, vision boards do the same thing. Like vision boards, familiar comforts show us what we want to remember or think about. This purpose is deeper than that of decor displayed for artistic or visual appeal. Comfort items cause us to recall specific people, events, or concepts. They play a large part in creating our sacred home space.
Comfort items may include religious symbols or pictures, photos of family or loved ones, and photos of places that are important to us. I had a high school friend whose youngest sister died years before from cancer. As a parent now, I cannot imagine such a loss. Nothing compares. Her sister loved the animated Disney film 101 Dalmatians. Her parents decorated the family room with photos of her sister as well as pictures and figurines from that movie, which became a treasured memory of her. There is no limit to which objects or iconography can be sacred to someone. A person may display photos and memorabilia of a place they visited – which, in a way, is like home to them. In a way, they incorporated their broader ‘home’ into their physical home.
The Importance of Having Our Own Space in Our Home
Home is a sacred space where we exercise authority over our surroundings, however limited. A friend of mine has always claimed a room of her own as an adult because her room was never fully ‘hers’ during her childhood. Even after moving into a larger house where she and her sister got their own rooms, her younger brothers always explored her room and got into everything they could. Therefore, once she married, she had her own personal room that she knew would remain tidy. No matter how much of a mess her husband made elsewhere in the house, her room was an inviting refuge. She set boundaries for her sacred space as the one place that remained pleasant and relaxed. When we share a home space with others, we may likewise benefit from carving out a personal and sacred space.
Customize Your Sacred Space to Meet Your Needs
What about your home makes it feel sacred to you? It doesn’t have to be limited to how it looks. Playing music that inspires and motivates you is a powerful way to soothe your mind and set the tone in your space. A favourite scent is also a powerful way to engage your senses. You can diffuse scented oils that you love so that when you enter your home, the smell reminds your body of where you are. Before your brain even processes that you are home, one inhale signals, ‘now you can relax.’ You may love soft, plush pillows and blankets into which you can burrow after a busy day. Or, you may relax among shiny wood floors with structured furniture and a Spartan level of tidiness and order. No matter what sights, textures, smells, or sounds you incorporate, your home is a sacred space that specifically invites you.
If you find that you come home to a house of chaos that brings more grief than anything else, it’s time to see what you can do about it. Depending on your living situation, you may be quite limited on what changes you can make. If there is any place in your home that you can claim as yours – any room or corner, assert your need for your own sacred space and set firm boundaries to protect it. If you are not already happy with the state of your home, you need at least this space for your own peace. Your job may be very stressful, or your commute may wear you out. You need home to be a calm place that you can count on.
The Takeaway: A Sacred Home Space Invites Us to Relax and to Be Ourselves
If your home does not already provide the sense of peace and comfort that you need, consider how you can change that. Consider what in life is most important to you, and how you can craft a space that reflects those values. When your home is a sacred space, you can easily relax and engage in it. Only you know just what creates the environment you need. Do what you can to create, nourish, and protect it!