Create a safe place in your mind:
First, visualize a relaxing, calm place. Many people choose a natural setting like a mountain, a beach, a forested area next to a babbling brook, or a meadow where they can sit with their back against a big tree. This space is meant to be relaxing for you. Do not choose a place that’s associated with any other people.
Your calm place can be a place in nature you have been to before or it can be a place from your imagination. You get to build it for yourself. This place is for you and for you alone. Write about your ideal calming space here:
Once you have picked a place, begin to construct it in your imagination. Visualize it to the best of your ability. Use all five of your senses.
Take your time. Close your eyes and paint your own safe space.
My normal go-to is by the water, whether it’s the ocean, a stream, or sitting by a pond. I often imagine the warmth of the sun, smell the salt air, and feel the sand between my toes. It’s a place that holds and comforts me, makes me feel at ease, and content.
Now, write about or draw your calm space, complete with all of the colors, sounds, textures, temperatures, visuals, smells, and tastes here:
If you have trouble letting go of judgment for your own writing or art, feel free to put together a collection of images, sounds, etc using tools like image searches, Pinterest, Spotify, or YouTube. These can be great ways to ingrain the aspects into your mind.
You can practice creating spaces using your own imagination after some practice and guidance.
Now that you have created a calm space for yourself, ask yourself what you feel.
Name it. Give this sacred place a name. Say it out loud 3 or 4 times.
Use this as a cue word to bring yourself back to this place whenever you desire calming, soothing, or grounding.
What is the name of your sacred place? What do you feel in your space? What is your cue word? Write it here: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Areas of pile-up/empty cup
As we go through life, we must choose where we spend our energy. Just like becoming financially stable requires us to know where our money is coming from and where it’s going, so does our health. In order to have a healthy flexible system we need to take notice of where we are empty, where we are full, and where we have things piling up.
Look at the dimensions of health above, and take a moment to think about each area in your life the way that it is at this moment.
Notice if you are experiencing an empty bucket anywhere or if you are feeling low returns in another.
Maybe your physical health is great, but your mental health is struggling. I often find problems by looking for areas of resentment or where things are starting to pile up. (like 18,000 unopened emails, 15 different memberships that you don’t use, or having to take the trash out after asking someone else to help). Feel free to write out a description or fill in the buckets below to represent how that area is feeling. Give yourself a quick note if you’re using more visuals.