Embrace tranquility as we transform a mere corner of your abode into a personal spa sanctuary, a topic revisited from a beloved past episode. I'm Sally Burlington, your guide on this journey of self-care and serenity in our Winter Well-Being series. Together, we'll explore the steps to declutter and design a space dedicated to peace and relaxation. Imagine the sensory delight of soft bed linens, the comforting taste of your favorite warm beverage, and the feeling of being cherished by a higher power — it's all part of nurturing the soul and finding joy in the simplicity of daily rituals.
Light a candle with me and let it's glow infuse your winter evenings with a magical luminescence. In this chapter of our series, we delve into how the act of lighting a candle can transcend its simple function, transforming into a meditative practice that calms the mind and blesses the senses. Discover the dance of candlelight and how its scent can create an atmosphere of calm and joy. As the days grow shorter, let's find warmth and light together, igniting not just a wick, but a spark within our spirits that endures well beyond the season.
Embrace tranquility as we transform a mere corner of your abode into a personal spa sanctuary, a topic revisited from a beloved past episode. I'm Sally Burlington, your guide on this journey of self-care and serenity in our Winter Well-Being series. Together, we'll explore the steps to declutter and design a space dedicated to peace and relaxation. Imagine the sensory delight of soft bed linens, the comforting taste of your favorite warm beverage, and the feeling of being cherished by a higher power — it's all part of nurturing the soul and finding joy in the simplicity of daily rituals.
Light a candle with me and let it's glow infuse your winter evenings with a magical luminescence. In this chapter of our series, we delve into how the act of lighting a candle can transcend its simple function, transforming into a meditative practice that calms the mind and blesses the senses. Discover the dance of candlelight and how its scent can create an atmosphere of calm and joy. As the days grow shorter, let's find warmth and light together, igniting not just a wick, but a spark within our spirits that endures well beyond the season.
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Speaker 1:
Hi there, welcome back to the Create Harmony podcast. I am Sally Burlington and I am so happy that you chose to join us today. So this is episode 58 and we are right in the middle of our Winter Well-Being series. So our focus here at this podcast are the everyday joys that are around us all the time the way, just nestled in little things in life. It's the taste of that first sip of coffee in the morning. Maybe it's the way the wind sounds when it rustles, the leaves on the trees outside, the laugh of your child, the way my puppy looks when she's running towards me in the yard. It might be the softness of your bed when you lie down each night, the smell of dinner cooking on the stove. Each of those tiny little things that hold a tiny piece of joy and it just takes a moment to notice it and that brightens your life and your outlook on things. So we're trying to celebrate the joys of winter as we go through winter well-being, even though they might be a little harder for some of us to find. So if you've been listening throughout the series, you know that we've already talked about the practices of deep listening and house hushing to bring some calm into your winter season and today we are going to up level our self-care routines. This concept was something we included in our winter well-being series last year and it was one of our most popular episodes, so it seemed appropriate to revisit it again this year. So to set the scene for what I mean, I'll add that we know that the outside world can be a harsh place and, just turning on the news, if you have the news on for just a few minutes, you can take in all sorts of acts of cruelty, violence and negative things happening all around the world. However, we also know that each of us are beloved by God and in order to connect to that belovedness, we can practice self-care. Making the mental connection of our belovedness by God through self-care seems like a restorative process. So today's self-care process or practice is creating your own at home spa or sanctuary. So we explained this last year and I'm going to step you through the process again this year.
Speaker 1:
So this is not to supplant a trip to the spa. Trips to the spa are a treat, but they're expensive and sometimes they're difficult to find time for. But what about if you created a spa type experience right at home? It's not a replacement for your professional massage, but an additional way to relax when you can't make a spa trip happen. So the first requirement is to get everybody else in your house to agree to allow you sanctuary in some space of your house, preferably your bedroom and bathroom. If you have small children at home, you might choose a time after they're having rest time or have gone to bed, or something like that, to start your spa treatment time. Decide what you want your spa experience to include, and some ideas are like a bath or a shower. You could do some personal grooming, you could catch up on some reading, you could fix yourself a warm drink.
Speaker 1:
Now, when you enter an actual spa, the atmosphere is very calming and peaceful. So therefore, you want to try to create this in your at home spa. So you want to start by cleaning up the area and you move any excess clutter. Clean it up. You're not going to feel relaxed if you have your dirty laundry, or even your clean laundry, piled up all around the room. So try to get things as streamlined as possible. You don't have to do an overhaul to the space, but just make it feel streamlined. This might be a good place for house hushing. So if you choose your bedroom. You may want to put some clean sheets on the bed and the next step is to gather your supplies. Get everything ready. Gather any spa products you need, like your bath soap or your foot moisturizer or your magazines that you want to read, and organize them. Go to the trouble to organize them in an attractive way, ready for you to use, just like if you entered a real spa. You would see a beautiful environment. So make the environment beautiful for yourself in your at home spa.
Speaker 1:
Now, if you feel like going to the trouble, if you really want to take this to the next level, you could stop thinking about��fe. What is your home spa? Fold your towels in a beautiful way. You can put them right outside the shower. You could. One of the things I mentioned last year is you could wet some washcloths and put them in your crock pot to warm them, and that would be like a hot towel that you could put on your face or your hands. You could slice some cucumbers and place them over your eyes, or add them to your water. You could slice some lemons to add to your water to drink while you relax. So now, now that you've gotten everything arranged and you've gathered all of your supplies and prepared.
Speaker 1:
The next thing you wanna do don't forget to do this adjust your lighting, and this is a very important part of your spa experience. When you go to a real spa, the lighting is soft and it is soothing, and you wanna make sure that your own home spa is the same. So turn off most of the lights and add some candles. I like to use battery candles because that's easier than having to go around and light real candles all around the room. You can place them all around. They can be found at affordable prices on Amazon. I think it's better if you get the kind that come on by remote. You'll be surprised if you go to this trouble. It seems like a lot of trouble to put a lot of candles around, but you'll be surprised at how this changes the feel of the room and sets the mood in your at home spa. So you may wanna add this step Now.
Speaker 1:
The next step is to add some sound to your spa experience. You wanna touch on all of the senses as you are preparing your own at home spa. So if you have a portable speaker, you could bring that in, maybe put it in a less obvious place and then choose some quiet music or some nature sounds. Youtube is your friend here and this. Keep in mind that this is background music. You're not creating a rock concert in your spa space. You're creating a gentle sound. Think about what it's like when you go to a real spa. Choose something that you find soothing, and now you can retrieve your warm drink or whatever refreshment you'd like to have during your spa time.
Speaker 1:
And then it's time to close the entry point of your spa to any outsiders. This is your time. Shut yourself in and enjoy the peace and quiet of your Zen experience. And you can repeat this. You can have an at home spa as often as you like, as often as you feel like you're able, and this idea really works well.
Speaker 1:
One of the reasons we placed this in the calendar right at the end of January is because it really works well as a nurturing practice that you could do for a loved one. And since Valentine's Day is coming up, you might wanna consider creating an at home spa for whomever is your Valentine, and I bet you're going to become very, very popular. We said that last year and maybe some of you tried it, so you can Do this again for your Valentine this year. I'm sure they'll appreciate it. So hopefully this will enhance your winter well-being over the coming weeks, and You'll see some spa ideas in our newsletter and on Instagram. So we appreciate you joining us today as we are continuing through our winter well-being series, and now it's time for us to shift gears into our Huga habit.
Speaker 1:
As you remember, huga is a Danish thing that focuses on Creating an atmosphere of coziness, comfort, warmth, and to capture the essence of Huga, you want to make a conscious choice to do as we discussed at the very beginning finding joy and little things. There are several elements that relate to Living in a Huga way, like woolen socks, fuzzy blankets, warm drinks, soft lighting all these things come to mind. It celebrates the art of setting the tone in your home and making sure that the atmosphere is peaceful and content. So today's Huga habit is Simply lighting a candle. So, since we were talking about your at-home spa, I Recommended battery operated candles for that experience.
Speaker 1:
But for this, for your Huga habit, you're gonna need a real flame candle, preferably one that has a cozy winter smell, because that way you get the light and you get the sound and you get the smell. All those things together, many different senses are used and you get bonus points if you have real matches to light it with. Because that's just an interesting experience. To light a match it's fine if you have a lighter, but it's not the same effect of striking the match and lighting the flame. So I encourage you to slow down when you do this. We're not gonna necessarily do it right now, but I'm in that we're gonna imagine it in our minds right now and at some point later today. I'm gonna encourage you to slow down and light your candles, strike your match, focus on this whole experience like it's a ceremony. Go and select your candle, place it near where you'll be working for a while, choose what you're gonna use to light it and light it up and once the flame is lit, watch it glow for just a few seconds, sit in the glow of the candle and dwell in that space. Just one minute. Everybody's got one minute.
Speaker 1:
The magic of a candle is that it reminds us that even a little bit of light can lift our spirits. In the winter Time, watch the wax melt and Glisten below the wick, and that can be a really calming activity to still your mind at some point, once you feel like you've enjoyed your candle for as long as you need to. You can take a deep breath, enjoy the smell, let it bless you, and then blow the candle out. Blowing out a candle can be a special moment. You can watch the smoke drift softly in the air and this simple practice can provide just another moment of joy, and that it can be repeated as often as you like. Maybe you want to do this every day throughout winter to bring you a little extra spark of light. So hopefully you'll perform this hookah habit throughout this week and it will soothe your soul, and we'll be back next week with some more winter well-being and until next time, peace.