How to Create a Meditation Space at Home in 10 Simple Steps Meditation comes with such a long list of benefits that it’s no wonder the world is glomming onto it. “Incorporating a regular meditation practice into your life can boost your mood, improve your relationships, drive creativity, improve memory, and bring more joy, gratitude, and love to your life,” says Olivia Bowser, CEO and founder of Liberate, a mental wellness studio, and certified mindfulness and meditation teacher in Los Angeles.
Meditation can also stabilize your stress, as numerous studies show that regular meditators have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their brains versus non-meditators. When the mind or body is stressed or in fear, your body will release cortisol. In the short term, elevated cortisol levels are necessary to help the body focus through temporary emergencies, but long term, excess, lingering cortisol levels can wreak havoc on body systems, harming memory, immunity, blood pressure, and many more.
Yet “meditation is one of the best practices to calm the nervous system and give cortisol an outlet for release,” Bowser says. “By returning to the present moment, meditators give their body and mind a chance to disengage from the body’s natural fight-or-flight response and gain resiliency in the face of heightened anxiety.”
While you don’t need a specific at-home meditation space per se, it can help make your meditation more special and personalized, and even help enforce the habit.
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Get Creative
Know that any space works. Whether that’s your bed (if you’re doing it right before bed, that is), the shower, or your desk, there’s no wrong location as long as you can create the environment to support focus and relaxation.
Prioritize Privacy
Pick a spot where you won’t be disrupted: You don’t want to lose your meditative state so ideally your space will be removed from distractions, including kids, devices, and intrusive noises. (You can always grab some noise-canceling headphones if true seclusion is truly impossible.)
Clear Any Clutter
Clutter isn’t only distracting, it also may not be representative of the energy you’re striving to cultivate, Bowser says. Wherever you decide to practice, make sure it’s tidy before you begin.
Aim for Comfort—but Not Too Much
You should feel as aware and attentive as you are relaxed. If you’re new to meditation, you may feel comfortable lying on a yoga mat. But unless you’re specifically practicing meditation to promote sleep, avoid lying in bed as you may drift off, Bowser says. If you want to energize your body and boost your focus, the ideal meditation position is to be seated in a chair with your feet flat on the floor to feel grounded and awake.
Engage Your Senses
Activate your senses. “Tuning into the present senses can help cultivate more joy and focus throughout the practice,” Bowser says. For instance, consider a candle for light, a plant for sight, a blanket for touch, tea for taste, and meditation music or an audio guide for sound. Bowser, for instance, always lights a candle when she meditates indoors to help her stay present throughout the practice.
Consider the lighting
Natural light is ideal. Then consider when you’ll meditate and your personal preferences. Will sheer curtains help soften and filter the light? If the space is dark or you meditate at night, will a dimmer switch or candles help create the right environment?
Bring nature into your space
Studies show nature is soothing and healing, so bring some element of nature into your space. “I like to have something that embodies each of the four elements — earth, air, fire and water,” says Lena Franklin, a mindfulness-based psychotherapist and content creator for the Welzen app. “From an intentional perspective, it creates universal balance in the space. But including nature in your meditation space can be as simple as a plant or vase of cut flowers.”
Add a beautiful aroma
Whether it’s aromatic candles, incense sticks or essential oils, using a fragrance can help. “The sense of smell is powerful,” De La Rosa says. “It’s not just attracting us to the place and practice, but embedding the experience even more. The more it’s a multisensory experience, the more it sticks to us.”
Take it with you
There will be some aspect of your space that makes it feel special and inviting. If you know you’ll be away from home, consider taking some small piece of it with you. It could be a photograph, essential oil or sacred book. By having something familiar in your temporary space, your mind and body will more easily settle into the experience, even when you’re away from home.
Choose soothing colours
“It is a very modest space decorated in chalky whites and earthy tones with only a few accessories in natural materials like linen, wood and wicker. The walls are deliberately kept bare and the floor has a seamless finish that flows through the entire space.
“Prior to a session the meditation room is ‘dressed’ in candle light, warming blankets, mattresses, eye pillows and cushions, making it feel very peaceful and cocooning.”
