Designating and creating a space of your own where you can engage in meditation, reflection and openhearted inquiry is a potent and enlivening practice to nourish personnel evolution. When we actively cultivate this space we harness at least three powerful concepts found in myriad spiritual traditions as well as secular modes of psychological healing and transformation.
External circumstances reflect our internal conditions.
Positive feedback loops enhance and amplify change.
Using symbolism is highly effective at working on different levels of consciousness when engaging in psychological or spiritual work.
While creating and tending a personal or family sacred space at home is a practice found in different spiritual systems and cultures, the universal concepts that underpin the practice are not exclusive to a spiritual orientation nor are they bound to doctrine or dogma. In essence, this practice works with fundamental psychological function and metaphysical energetic principles that are as secular as they are spiritual; it all depends on the orientation of the practitioner.
A personal practice space can be as small as single bookshelf (as mine is) tucked into a wall of books, a low table with a bulletin board behind it to pin images/words that inspire or as large as an entire room. What matters is that it is a place intentionally designated to reflect and mirror what is within you. It is a place to externalize soulful urgings and personal insights that support healing, personal evolution and the manifestation of your intentions.
I was thrilled when a friend shared that she has set aside time this summer to turn their attic into a personal sanctuary to engage in dreaming, musing and manifesting creative endeavors. This move comes after decades of relegating her deepest urgings as outside the realm of what was worth her time or attention. Witnessing her shift her perspective and direct energy toward creating space to tend to these aspects of herself enables is a joy to behold. It is so clear that these aspects of herself are, in fact, vitally important to her development as a person and her well being. Further, it enables her to offer the best of herself to her family and community in blossoming authenticity, from a place of personal connection and with deep pleasure.
However big or small, your space will be a place where your soul can speak its first language (symbolism) freely, fluently and to profound effect. Here you will place things that symbolically resonate on a subconscious level. Perhaps something you pick up on a walk in nature, a quote from a playbill or book that speaks to you, a postcard that called to you walking along the boardwalk with your family on vacation, an image from a magazine, a picture that you ran across of a beloved family member, a bracelet, necklace or ring from your jewelry box that symbolizes a relationship that needs some loving attention, healing or change.
To have a place to bring symbols of the seeds within, give them space externally and attention daily creates a positive feedback loop that enhances and amplifies change. In so doing, we turn over the soil and bring to the surface vital aspects of ourselves require emotional release, psychological processing, spiritual insight, creative inspiration, planning & action. We tend what needs tending to bring our inner seeds into full bloom.
This is a great time of year to engage in creating this space in our lives. Many of us instinctively & intuitively, moved by the clearing of the natural world through winter and the rebirth through spring, declutter our homes. We dispose of objects that have collected that do not serve and do not delight. In the process of consolidating and clearing, carve out a space for yourself to designate as personal sacred space.
You will be inspired and heartened to see your positive feedback loop in action as you are inspired and empowered in mundane and mystical ways. The serendipitous surprises you will engender along the way will be sweet markers that you are a actively charting your own true path.