Years ago, I was on a cruise ship vacation in Athens, Greece. My travel companion and I decided to visit a monastery. I had never been to one before but was insatiably curious due to the information of Mount Athos. As the cruise ship circled Mount Athos on it’s way to Athens, the history of Mount Athos and, how it held the oldest monasteries and textbooks, and the restriction against women on the isle was broadcast over the ships speaker.
I was hooked, and when we landed in Athens for a couple days, one day was put aside to visit Petraki Monastery just outside of Athens. Finding a taxi to take us there was the easy part. Finding one to take us back wasn’t so easy.
What struck me and still resonants with me today was the energetics of the monastery. The minute we stepped through the gate and onto the grounds, it was like we had walked through an invisible veil. The overwhelming sense of peace and comfort that washed over me was so grounding. Centuries of cloistered meditation by the monks had imbued the grounds with a mist of tranquility that enveloped you.
It’s the same sensation I get when I walk into an old-growth forest. Even if the trees are only 100 to 200 years old, their essence encases the land in this sense of comforting peace.
It was that energetics that I wanted to repeat in my own personal meditation space, and I knew it was going to take more than interior design.
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE “5 Senses In Meditation” worksheet to kickstart your meditation practice.
Through your five senses, you can expand the energetics of your space to take on the atmosphere of some of your most beloved and cherished spaces. Start by identifying places where you found your greatest peace and use your senses to replicate that moment in time.
My two spaces where I found and find my greatest peace was this monastery and the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
If you use your essence to create your meditation space, your internal dialogue and emotions will quickly heighten the energetics of the area and move you to a great mediation in a shorter amount of time.
- Smell. I can remember the sandalwood smell inside the Byzantine Monastery. It was light perfume drifting through the chapel. The closest fragrance I’ve found is an incense called SuperHit. Even when I do not feel like meditating, I can burn this incense and immediately start to relax. But what happens when I can’t find SuperHit? The other scent was of the wild giants of the Pacific Northwest: cedar, Doug fir, redwood, and pine. My friend turned me on to Doterra Oils years ago, and I haven’t turned back. The clarity and brilliance of their scents are truly rewarding. I order spruce, fir, juniper, and few others, touch them up with rosemary, ground them with sandalwood, and put them in a diffuser.
- Touch. Each of us has textures that give us pleasure. These are the fabrics you want to use to sit on or as a blanket to cover up. But touch is more than just the tactile sensation, it also encompasses our body movements and mechanics. Finding out what is most comfortable to you and incorporate that position in your space to liberate your mind from body discomfort.
- Hearing. I don’t know why the sounds of nature, the wind whooshing through the trees, streams tumbling over rocks, birds chattering, raccoons scurrying, the hum of bees is so relaxing to me. When I walk through the forest, I like to stop and listen to all the sounds saturating the air around me. If I’m having trouble relaxing and focusing, I play music with these sounds and just stop and listen until I’m quiet enough to meditate on my own.
- Sight. For me, both the monastery and forest were imbued in rich dark browns and lush greens. They both felt like a small cocoon where I could disappear and hide from the world for a short time. I brought these colors into my space through pillow selections, paint, fabrics, and decorations from nature.
- Taste. You might think taste has no place in your internal dialogue of comfort, but for me, it does. I grew up in a tea-drinking family. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, you could always find tea. Gunpowder tea that came in a tin and was boiled in a teapot. I still purchase twisted teas and seep them in my small, black, cast iron teapot. Meditation is all about me and giving myself complete self-care for a few minutes. I add to this one luxury. The taste of the tea reminds me of the safety and security I had growing up and gives respect to my family of origin who no longer are with me.
Meditation can bring the inside out and the outside in. To find your true identity, start to bring the inside out. What you practice, the mind will follow.
To learn more about meditation and Daoism theory check out my article at on Chuang Tze. OR, check out the 7 part series on my Youtube Vlog on the 6 Healing Breaths in Ancient Daoism. OR, check out some of the theory on the Kidney channel.
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE “5 Senses In Meditation” worksheet to kickstart your meditation practice.