How to Create a Self Care Sanctuary At Home

I made the intention to focus on my self care this year. One of the first things I did was to create a self care sanctuary. This is a place I can go to read, listen to a podcast, or journal. It’s away from what the rest of the family is doing, at least for the time being. I wasn’t lucky enough to have an extra room in my house to call my own. So, how did I create a sanctuary for my self care?

My Self Care Sanctuary (ies)

I did not have the square footage to take on a room dedicated to self care. So, I created small self care spaces throughout my house. I could retreat to these spaces depending on what I needed at the time.

Here is what I did:

My Creative Retreat

Making time for hobbies is essential to self care. Rather than have my paints and canvases shoved in a closet only to come out when the mood strikes, I decided to display them in a corner of my living room. Here I have my easel, my paints, and the painting I am working on displayed. It is easy to access, and in full view so when the creative moment strikes, I am ready. Getting all the materials out to pursue a creative hobby is half the battle. And tends to be a big barrier to getting motivated to start a project. By having a cute “studio” corner, I can get motivated and steal moments here and there to work on a project without the set up or clean up taking up much time.

My Bedroom Retreat

You may or may not already know, but my husband and I recently designed and built our house. When I was designing my Master bedroom, I specifically designed it to be small. This way that the urge to load it up with “stuff” would be minimized. I wanted our bedroom to be a bedroom and not a catch all for all the things that didn’t have a home in the common spaces of our house like it had been in the past. When it came to decorating, I chose greens and browns as well as some floral accents to create a calming space I could retreat to during the day and read or journal away from the rest of the family if I needed to.

And, one of my favorite parts of my bedroom is my Himalayan salt lamp. It gives a romantic glow to the room while improving air quality and improving my mood. Every single morning, I return my bedroom to “retreat status”. I make the bed, open the curtains, and turn on the salt lamp. Because it is a small room, it is easy to keep clean and tidy, so it is a calming space whenever I need it.

My Bathroom Retreat

Again, I had the added benefit of getting to design my own house, so I specifically make sure I had a soaker tub. I am a bath person. When given the choice between bath or shower, bath wins out every single time. In order to make the bathroom a self care sanctuary, I have included plants around the bath tub as well as all the things I need to make the perfect bath experience such as Epsom salts and herbal bath teas. The bathroom is one of the few places I am promised complete privacy so my bath time has been essential to my self care.

My Outdoor Retreat

Getting outside for a few minutes every morning can do wonders for your mental health and well being. In order to make this as easy as possible, I have a comfortable chair on my front porch. I can go out there in the morning with my journal and coffee and enjoy the sunrise and the birds singing. It is also a great place to sit with my daughter and talk as we wait for the bus on school day mornings.

How to Make a Self Care Sanctuary At Home

You can create a self care sanctuary in any space of your home. If you have a room you can devote to all your self care practices that is awesome, but if you are like me and just have corners throughout the house that you can make yours, that is okay too.

Here are are some tips for creating your sanctuary:

Keep it clean using non-toxic cleaning products.
Purify the air by using plants, Himalayan salt rocks, burning sage, or diffusing oils.
Make sure it is comfortable. This can come in the form of physical comfort like blankets and pillows, emotional comfort in the form of beautiful things that have good memories attached, or environmental comfort by ensuring the temperature, smells, lighting, etc. are right for you.
Include nature. Adorn your space with plants. Open the blinds/curtains to let in natural light. When the weather is right, open the window and listen for the birds.
Make sure you have space (or spaces) to care for your whole being. This means caring for your emotional self, physical self, spiritual self, mental self, and social self. You can learn more about the types of self care here.

Making Self Care A Part of Your Routine

No matter where you retreat to in order to take some time for your self care, it is important you include it into your daily routine. I have been caught in the vicious cycle of not tending to my self care by being too busy then losing motivation due to not caring for myself. On paper, taking time out of your day to care for yourself sounds unproductive (maybe selfish) but I assure you it is the opposite. A person who is caring for themselves, is motivated to start the day, has the energy to follow through on tasks, and is mentally and emotionally prepared to take whatever life throws at them. So invest in your self care and keep at it. You won’t regret it.