Reclaim Your Space at Home to Connect with Your Center

“Home is where the heart is,” people say, and your space should be your sanctuary where you go to relax in peace. Making your home calm and comfortable gives you a daily gift of respite.

Declare yourself done with drama and rushing when you enter your home, take off your coat and put down your keys. You work hard to provide for yourself and hold yourself accountable for meeting your duties and obligations — do not let outer negativity infect your inner space.

Here are four tips to help you find your peace by creating a space you can come to at the end of a long day to unwind and center yourself.

1.Claim a Nook

You can’t tell the world to follow your rules or change for you. In a noisy coffee shop, people won’t stop doing what they’re doing because you want it to be quiet. You must find a quiet corner.

Claim a nook for yourself. What area of your home draws you in and makes you feel relaxed? Is it a window by your coffee maker with an unobstructed view of the sunrise or sunset? Is it your back porch by the garden? Is there an empty corner that’s perfect for a bookshelf and comfortable loveseat? What about a sunlit spot for a yoga mat, Zen tunes and a small mindfulness altar?

Pick an area in your home and dedicate it to your mindfulness and inner peace — allow no worries to enter in. Integrate this space into part of your daily routine, and you will come home every evening to instant bliss.

2.Let the Leaves Rustle

Ever noticed the calming sound of leaves rustling across the pavement in the autumn? There’s something restful and wild about the playfulness of nature against in the concrete, urban jungle. In the hustle and bustle of life, you must remember what it’s like to let the leaves rustle in your life.

Move with the wind, not against it. Remove unnecessary extras from life to still yourself in a home that suits you. For example, residing in the city and working to keep your head above the inflated costs of living can be stressful for some, while for others, the high stakes, high energy lifestyle motivates and energizes them. Be sure to identify what kind of living situation best complements your goal to find your inner happiness.

3.Customize Your Space

Decorate your space according to your personality. Reveal your passions and interests, and surround yourself with photos of your loved ones.

Include beautiful or simple pieces of furniture that reflect your style and the kind of stability you can fall into at the end of a long, hard day. Do not fill your home with clutter, but keep it minimalist to focus on bigger goals and moments of happiness in life. Let the light in, and arrange chairs in conversational placement over an expansive rug you can dig your toes into.

4.Treat Chores as Exercises in Peace

You come home at the end of a grueling day and let out a long sigh — you have too many chores to do. It feels like a waste of your time and energy where you don’t have a moment to yourself.

Your home is your temple, and keeping it clean helps clear your mind and body of negative clutter. Think of doing chores as a contemplative practice or as exercises in peace. For example, when washing dishes, you’d focus on the scent of the lemon soap and the feeling of your hands in the water. You do not judge whatever thoughts come to mind. One study had students wash dishes as a mindfulness exercise, and 27 percent noticed a decrease of nervousness and a boost of 25 percent in mental inspiration.

Break down those heavy-duty chores into manageable steps where you take your time and reflect. The mindfulness of an everyday routine provides solace, and you will experience a feeling of gratitude and pride in caring for your home — your temple.

You deserve a space to return to that embodies peace and the surrender of negativity the moment you step through the door. Start by claiming a small nook for yourself in your home, such as by a window with your morning cup of coffee. Wash your cup afterward as an act of mindfulness and caring for your home as your temple.

Reside in a space the balances your energy away from the hustle and bustle, and make it yours by filling your home with what matters to you. By practicing minimalism with your mindfulness, you’ll find your inner peace within a space where you’ll truly feel at rest.