Creating Your Sanctuary: Transforming Your Home for Well-being

Imagine walking into a home that instantly calms your mind, improves your focus, and elevates your emotional state. That's exactly what happened when I moved into a more supportive living space. Join me in this heartfelt episode where I share my transformative journey of understanding how our home environment profoundly impacts our well-being. We’ll unpack why your home should be your sanctuary—a space for rest, replenishment, and peace, especially considering we spend about 62% of our time there. 

This episode is packed with practical tips and strategies for curating a nurturing home environment. From designating specific areas for different tasks like using the bedroom solely for rest and the office for work, to the importance of maintaining a tidy home for a clear mind. Discover how simple cleaning routines can prevent clutter and how scents, natural elements, and maximizing natural light can enhance your home ambiance. We’ll also explore engaging all your senses with tactile elements like soft blankets and comfortable fabrics, making every room cozy and inviting. Transform your home into an oasis of well-being and see how small changes can lead to noticeable improvements in your quality of life.

Instagram: @jacendamarie

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hi, loves, welcome to the Journey to the Soul podcast. I am your host, jacinda Villa, a spiritual life coach and holistic health coach. Every week, we will be diving deep into all things purpose, wellness, spirituality and creating the life that you dream of. This space is meant to be safe and transformative for you to dive into the deepest parts of yourself. I will share what I have learned from my journey along this path years of research and mentors along the way. Having spent many years living life out of alignment and afraid to go after my dreams, I know firsthand what it means to take the first step down, living a life authentic to you. We are on this road of self-discovery together. It is time for you to live the life you imagined. Hello, my loves, welcome to this week's podcast episode.

Speaker 1: 1:02

I am taking a look at what day it is today when I am recording this, and we are in the tell end of July, and I feel like this year has just flown by so, so fast. It's wild. I can't believe that we're already halfway through the year, halfway through summer, and it's just crazy. Does anyone else feel that way? It's gnarly. So I am sitting here today and I am excited to talk to you this week about something that I am very familiar with and wanted to share with you about, and that is our home environment. Home environment is so important to me and it was something that I didn't think was something that affected me very greatly until I put myself in a better home environment, and over the last couple of years I have been slowly tweaking that more and more where now I am actually in an environment that is so supportive and so helpful to my emotional, mental and physical well-being, and I didn't know the power in that before. I really didn't. I was always just kind of where I was and making the best of it and stuff like that, and now I have been able to see what a huge role this has played in my life. So that's what I want to talk to you about today is why our home environment is so, so important, and I wanted to share with you some things that I have done with our home, with my office, with the different spaces in our home that have really just transformed my relationship with our home and how I just I love it so much. I love being home and how it makes me feel. So that is where our conversation is going to go.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Our home environment is important for so many different reasons and again this was for me. This was not something that I ever thought was super important until I moved in with my fiance and was in a better home environment that I realized how much it actually changed the way that I focused, the way that I worked, the way that I felt when I was home, and it wasn't like my ideal home environment, because then I began to think about what my ideal home environment was. But moving in with him and being in a home environment that supported me more than my previous one was really eye-opening for me. So ever since then, I've really been focused on trying to create a space that is more and more my own and more and more of what I want it to be. I want it to be.

Speaker 1: 4:31

But for all of us, our environment is really huge. It's where we spend a majority of our life and it plays a huge role on how we feel internally. People who are environments that they enjoy will often sleep better, they'll focus better, they'll be able to work from home more efficiently, they will be, overall, just more at peace with everything, and most of us nowadays even more in particular, spend so much time at home, people who work from home, people who spend a lot of time at home, like moms, you know, children if they're homeschooled introverts, really, anyone. But it's estimated that about 62% of our time is spent in our homes, and that's more time than we spend anywhere, and that's more time than we spend anywhere. So that's why I feel like investing in how we feel in our home environment is so huge, because we will spend more than half of our life in the place that we live, and everyone knows how it feels to be in a space where you can't focus for one reason or another. It can be very tiresome to deal with that, to deal with distractions, because maybe you are in a space that's too cold or too loud or something or other.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Having a place that doesn't feel like home can also be a problem. Place that doesn't feel like home can also be a problem. Maybe it doesn't feel like the home you want for yourself. So if you are living somewhere right now where it doesn't feel like home to you, this is a good thing to work on more and more, and that's what we're going to be discussing today is how we can do that. How can we create a home for ourselves, because your home should be your sanctuary. It should be a place where you come to rest, to replenish yourself, to feel at ease, to be able to be in your flow. There's so many things. Our homes are so multifaceted now in what we use them for, so we want to make sure that they are being used and they are optimally created for what we need.

Speaker 1: 7:03

If you are trying to improve your overall sense of well-being, making changes to your home environment can be a wonderful start. I can attest that you will feel the difference when you do it. It is night and day. It is so incredible to be in a place. Some overall things that we can keep in mind as we start this conversation. These are kind of like the more macro things when we are planning.

Speaker 1: 7:40

Our ideal home environment is having designated areas to do certain tasks, so letting your bedroom be a place of rest and connection. Having a designated space for work where you can get lost in your flow. Using the kitchen for you to be able to eat and enjoy meals, or the dining room. Perhaps. Let each space be what they are supposed to be, especially with many of us who again work from home or spend a lot of time at home. There needs to be a separation in your task and where they take place. You can have designated spaces in areas, like I said, but you could also just have certain rules that you could apply. So perhaps that may look like your laptop not leaving your office space and when you are in your living room it's a time of rest and relaxation. Your laptop is not allowed into the living room. If that's something that you feel would be supportive for you, the key thing here is to have those designated spaces more so, to have that separation.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Once we have designated spaces for everything, we want to focus on making these spaces what we want them to be for, what we have designated them for. So, as an example, we'll carry on with the office example. How do you want your office to feel, to look, what kind of vibes are you going for to look? What kind of vibes are you going for? Maybe it's clean and tidy, with natural lighting, but a cozy undertone as well. This is a wonderful exercise to do with every room in your home, and you could go as far as maybe giving two to three keywords for what you want to fuel or the vibes that you're going for in each area of your home. These are kind of going to be your anchors for everything else that we will be discussing Now. We're going to go through just some very, very easy ways that you can make changes to create a sanctuary in your home.

Speaker 1: 10:19

The first one is the most fundamental thing, which is simply keeping a tidy home, and I know that there is nothing better than waking up to a clean house in the morning and you can find what works for you here. You can clean as you go. You could focus on cleaning certain things at the end of the day and coming back to them later. I love cleaning up after I cook or made a meal, and just try not letting things to pile on, because then it becomes this massive list and task list of things to do that you really don't want to do, because now it's 10 times bigger than it could have been. So just cleaning as you go. You know doing little things throughout your day to try to keep it clean Wipe the counters, load the dishwasher. It's truly the most basic thing, but a cluttered house is a cluttered mind, so find what works for you here. You can even hire help in this area, you know, but it is the foundation for everything that we're gonna go on to talk about.

Speaker 1: 11:37

The next thing that we can do is incorporating scents. So candles, incense, aromatherapy whatever you like and enjoy there is nothing better to me than burning candles in the morning when I'm doing focus work. I have candles that I burn for every season basically, and each area can smell a certain way if you enjoy that. When we smell something, our olfactory receptors tie it to a certain moment in time. So that means that if you are burning a peppermint candle when you are working in your office, whenever you burn that candle, your brain will know that you're about to get in your flow, to get lost in that space, and you will do so with more ease because it's creating a connection with that. So I love using scents to tie a certain feeling or emotion to a certain space in the home. But even if you don't want to go to that depth, we all know that having a space that smells good just makes you feel better, so you don't have to overthink it here. You can find a scent that you love and just have it throughout the house as well. But again, it could be candles, incense, some aromatherapy, just whatever you enjoy here.

Speaker 1: 13:13

I love bringing some nature in somehow too. For me this mostly looks like flesh flowers, but it could be fresh plants. Maybe you have some shrubs outside that you could create some small little flower arrangements with. You could create some small little flower arrangements with some ferns of some sort. It could be other kinds of plants that are more indoor home plants. It could also look like stones, crystals, seashells, or we could also look at doing this in the materials that you use inside of your home. So a wood table, wood flooring, metal accents.

Speaker 1: 14:00

Let as much natural light in. This is so so key. Try not to use any blinds, maybe even just some light curtains. I know that having natural light is not possible for everyone, depending on where you live, but you can also accomplish this by having softer light bulbs throughout the house, not using as much white light out the house, not using as much white light, so you can swap out your bulbs for something less harsh to give a similar vibe to the natural light, and it creates a softness in your overall environment.

Speaker 1: 14:47

I know that I talked about scents and the flowers, and I'm really gonna talk about how to encompass all of our senses. So touch, sight, smell, taste, hear. These are incredible things to keep in mind when you are thinking about each space is tuning into each of these things. So, in terms of touch, have tactile things that feel good to you in each space. It can be a super soft throw blanket in your living room, a love seat that you love sitting in because of how it feels against your skin. Again, find fabrics that you really enjoy and incorporate them into each room. There's cotton, wool, leather, velvet, silk. You have so many options here, but I know one of the worst things for me is like sitting down, and I tend to have like a blanket over my legs sometimes because I get cold very easily and there's nothing worse to me than a scratchy blanket that is not soft Like. It's one of the worst things. So I love having soft things around when I am in my space.

Speaker 1: 16:20

The next thing that we can look at is music. Music is so powerful in how it can make us feel. Have a playlist that really inspires you. You can curate this to different parts of the house. Have some classical music while you're in the flow in your office, or some jazz while you're cooking dinner in the kitchen office. Or some jazz while you're cooking dinner in the kitchen. Just find music that you enjoy. You could also be having a dance party while you cook in the kitchen. It could be just something that you enjoy. So if you want to feel joy in the kitchen when you cook, what is something that makes you feel joyful? You know it could be whatever you want it to be Tying in sight. I love pictures, just anything that inspires you. It doesn't have to be pictures, it could be paintings. Oh, I love beautiful paintings, paintings of landscapes, of anything that you love an artist, perhaps that you might like. Another thing that I actually started doing is putting some of my favorite quotes around my office area just as simple little reminders of some of my favorite thoughts, and it helps me stay kind of grounded in what mental space I want to be in.

Speaker 1: 17:56

Another quite fundamental thing outside of having a clean home is organization. Find ways to optimally organize things. When you see something out of place, organize it. And maybe it's your Tupperware drawer in the kitchen that is a disaster. I feel like that is 95% of everyone's house, and every time you open it you can't seem to find the Tupperware and the lid that goes with it. So find ways that you can optimize each space. It could be through adding some shelving, some drawers, some little canisters. There's so many different ways that you can organize each space. Pinterest is wonderful if you need ideas. They have ideas for literally just about everything and they are very, very neat ideas, different ways of how to organize things. But you want everything to have a place. That is really the fundamental part of this point. Everything should have a place, nothing should be out of place.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Another thing that I think is so key is to purge. This is probably one of my favorite things to do, because I hate having clutter. So I love getting rid of things that we are not using in the house anymore, and we keep so many things that we tend not to use anyways. So when you are going through your spaces and trying to make them more conducive to your needs and trying to make them more conducive to your needs, notice if there is anything that doesn't fit what you want the space to be. Or maybe there are some things that you have been holding on to but don't bring any value into your life anymore. I think doing a purge about every season is a wonderful task to have. It could be different areas around the house that you go through every season your closet, the kitchen, the garage you can donate things that you no longer need. Holding on to things that we don't use is simply keeping stagnant energy around. You don't need to be a minimalist that is not what I'm saying here but it is so important to look at things that we own and look at them from a use perspective. Is it really being used?

Speaker 1: 20:45

The last thing that I think is a wonderful little hug to have is a calming area in the house where you can come back to yourself. It could be a zen area. It doesn't have to be a whole room or anything. It could just be a designated space that grounds you, that really makes you feel at peace. For me, that is our living room, especially in the morning when I do my morning rituals. The back of our house faces east, so in the morning it's a wonderful place to be because we have windows all through the back of the house so I could see the sun rising, I can see the trees and the birds, and it's just such a wonderful place to do my reading in the morning, to drink my coffee, and it's such a beautiful way to start the day. So finding a place in the house anywhere that you can just come back to yourself. It could be a corner of your closet, it could be a corner of your office, the living room, somewhere that you can just come home to you and, whenever you're feeling overwhelmed or anything like that, you can come into this space. Everything that I shared today, though, is really for you to be able to create a sanctuary within your home.

Speaker 1: 22:29

The bottom line is how do you want to feel in your home? I know that we found the words for each room and space, each designated area, but I would encourage you to actually find it for your overall home. Would encourage you to actually find it for your overall home. How do you want to feel? Grounded, stable, inspired, comfortable, cozy, warm, inviting, serene? Really, tune into that, and let that be your inspiration of how you want all these spaces to be. You can create minor changes in each one, based off of whatever else you need in that space. Get inspiration online. You can work on making any changes that maybe you need to make slowly, or it could even be as far as only adding a few things around the house to make it a little bit more conducive to what you need.

Speaker 1: 23:30

How you feel is truly reflected in your environment. So if you're not feeling any of these things that I mentioned grounded, comfortable, cozy I would encourage you to look at your surroundings and make some small changes to inspire you again and to feel at peace, because you will feel it and it will affect your life in such a wonderful way. Let me know which one of these tips you will be putting into play in your home. I would love to know, so please share it with me. Or if there's already some of these things that you do, I would love to know as well. I am sending you all so much love and I will talk to you all next week. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode and share this message with any friends and family. I'd love to hear your takeaways, so share them with me by leaving a comment below or heading over to my Instagram at Jacinda Marie. I am sending you all so much love.