A Living Sanctuary is a space that is literally alive; physically through love, tending and care and energetically through attention, attunement and honoring of subtle energy. Because of this depth of intention and care, a home that is a Living Sanctuary hums with life, love, presence and peace and is a deeply healing and nourishing space.
A Living Sanctuary has it’s own Spirit, it’s own Essence and it’s own Intelligence. It is comprised of the spirit in which it was built and the spirit and essence of you and what you bring to the space. In other words, it is a space that is filled with the living relationship of you and your home.
A Living Sanctuary has nothing to do with glamour for the sake of glamour, in fact it might not even contain anything that would be considered “valuable”, but what it does contain is love and intention, healthy dynamics between the people who live in the space, consistency in tending and caring for the space and everyone’s needs, and beauty that is felt and seen.
It is important to say that a Living Sanctuary can also be messy at times and hold healthy conflict if it arises; in those moments, the space of the Living Sanctuary is there to hold You and those moments bring depth of love and meaning to your space. But then you’ll feel an urge again to tend, love and care for your space and your Living Sanctuary will be humming with life again; in essence, both you and your space can flow with each other through life.
When you enter a home that is a Living Sanctuary, you feel your body, mind, heart and spirit relax and you may even feel yourself exhaling a bit as if to say, “aaahhh”, this feels good to be here.
A Living Sanctuary is created through the following components:
Listening: Listening to your space and feeling into what wants to go where, allows you to receive the communication and inspirations from your inner guidance and the essence of your home as to how things can function and flow.
Gratitude: Sharing gratitude for your home and the land it is on, pours so much love into your Living Sanctuary and yourself.
Intention: By listening, sharing gratitude and pausing to be present with your space, you can then be intentional with the next steps you take to organize your belongings, set everything in place and begin to set up the areas or the “zones” of your home.
Love: Lead with love. Just because something might make sense to your mind, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best place for it to actually belong within your home. Let your heart, your love and how you feel lead the way in your space while still considering practical things.
Vision: Feel into how you will use each zone in your space. In the kitchen for example, are there “zones” that are needed in order to allow things to truly flow, be available and accessible? Do you know yet how you work and flow in a kitchen? If so, what will your relationship be with this kitchen. Also, do you need Everything you own that is related to the kitchen to be in the kitchen or can some things be stored elsewhere? Consider each area of your home in this way.
Creative Touches: Are there walls, cabinets or any structural pieces in your home that would feel better if they were painted a different color? If the answer is Yes, maybe you’d like to do those structural creative touch pieces before you place all of your items in your home. Or, it could be, you feel there are structural creative touches that are needed, but you need to live in your home first and be able to listen as to what color things would like to be before you actually paint.
Practical: Begin setting up your “zones” and moving things into place. If you move something into place and it doesn’t feel right, even if it was part of your original vision or listening, you may want to move it around a bit to see what feels best as to where it actually wants to be placed. The “inanimate” objects of your home, are also alive. They are alive because of the energy you pour into them. So, if you connect with them from a place of gratitude and love and “listen” to them and where they want to be, your Living Sanctuary will be more alive and you’ll feel that care and attention in your home.
Live with it: When things are all set in place, live with it for a while and see how it feels. There may be areas that rarely want to change and there may be areas that would feel just a little bit better if an item was in a different place than it currently is. Your space will “talk to you” so to speak through how you feel in it and through your attunement to its subtle energy; it will let you know how it feels most alive and aligned.
Tend: Tend your space. Keep the kitchen clean, the dishes washed, the floors swept, the bathrooms picked up and wiped down. Keep your laundry going and fold it and put it away when it’s done. This will bring a feeling of satisfaction to your space and therefore to you and will also create beauty in your home.
Keep the Energy Fresh: Refresh your space through cleaning, moving small things around such as a plant or special object, or adding plants or flowers or things you love to your home. Open the windows and doors in your space and bring in fresh air if it’s a beautiful day.
Live: Live in flow, joy and harmony with your space, yourself and your loved ones.
