Your home is your place of security. Somewhere to rest your head when you’re feeling tired and where you can truly be yourself and relax – a sanctuary that you can always retreat to after a long hard day.

Simply being surrounded by your home comforts can be a soothing experience, especially if things are unsettled or overwhelming for you. However, what if you could dial up the positive impact that your home can have on your mind, body, and soul by making it a place of holistic nourishment?

By leaning into what makes you feel good, grounded, and in alignment, you will instantly relieve the daily pressures of life. This can be achieved in very simple, time-effective, and budget-friendly ways. You don’t even have to step outside of your front door to make it happen

Using things that you already have around the house and perhaps owned for some time to create your own special escape away from the every day can elevate your self care routine to take it to the next level. A house doesn’t just have to be your home, but a retreat – a positive and uplifting space to switch off.

Make the time to discover activities that you enjoy and make you feel relaxed. These needn’t be big expensive gestures nor particularly time-consuming, but they should allow you to indulge yourself for a while and escape the world.

Focusing your energy on a single ritual will help to clear your mind, cultivate a calming energy, make you less reactive, and more in control of your thoughts. It’s about filtering through everything and leaning into what really lifts you and makes you feel good in this busy modern-day life. Fully commit to your retreat ritual and let it be your moment to pause.

In this post, you will find guidance and tools to inspire you to find some relaxation to restore and revive yourself in the most wonderful ways in your own home retreat.

Pick up a book

When was the last time you picked up a book? If your answer is something on the lines of “since my final school project” then maybe it’s time to remind yourself of how restorative reading can be.

Not only can reading offer the opportunity to learn something new, immersing yourself solidly into a book offers the joy of escaping the world for a while and exploring somebody else’s life and story.

Something magical happens when you really connect with the book that you’re reading. The words can make you laugh, cry, shudder, or leave you on the edge of your seat. You can really get behind the character and become a cheerleader wanting them to succeed or if reading a non-fiction book it can conjure a level of empathy found in the author’s words.

Get creative and paint or draw

Did you use to love painting and drawing as a child? Unless it’s a career, it can easily become a lost art in adulthood. Even if it was something that you once enjoyed, responsibilities and everyday life pressure can sometimes mean that you don’t have time to prioritise they playful things that you love. Why not grab your paints or pencils, get creative, and have some fun in an artistic way.

By no means is it about being the greatest artist in the world or making a masterpiece, but taking pleasure in being creative. Getting stuck in and being focused in a creative project can be a meditative process and you may surprise yourself by what you achieve if you just let go and see what flows.

Practice Gratitude

More often than not, we go through our day-to-day life without reflecting on what has gone well or made us feel good. Cultivating gratitude is a simple technique that allows you to appreciate the smaller things in life that you perhaps miss on a daily basis.

If you can’t appreciate the things that you already have then you’ll never know true fulfillment. Gratitude teaches us to be humble, give thanks to the seemingly small everyday things, and pause to live in the present moment.

If you like to journal in the morning, including a section that identifies 3 things that you’re grateful for can put you in a positive headspace. Alternatively, if you’re pushed for time you could say it in your head. This exercise works well in the morning and the evening to bookmark the day in an optimistic way.

Check out 3 Ways to Practice Gratitude Every Day

Create a home retreat sanctuary 

Make it a habit of creating a relaxing environment at home one day a week to help you unwind from a stressful day. One of the best ways to stay accountable with this is by booking a date in your diary or setting a reminder on your phone, for some uninterrupted “me time”.

Your home sanctuary may look like turning down the lights, putting on your favourite scented candles, making everything cosy with a heavy knitted blanket, and turning your home into a blissful place to relax and retreat.

Adding subtle warmth through electric underfloor heating can also elevate the sense of comfort, helping your space feel even more soothing and serene. There are many different ways that you can make your home a sanctuary, which will be different from person to person.

The Danes are said to be the happiest people in the world because their culture is steeped in a phenomenon called Hygge – the Danish art of living well encompasses a sense of contentment and wellbeing while taking pleasure in the little things in life. They have cosiness and comfort intertwined in every aspect of their lives to make them feel happy and good. Creating a cosy space in your home you can have a similar effect on your own wellbeing and emotional wellness.

Check out How to Embrace Hygge

Practice some gentle yoga

Yoga is a holistic and gentle way to incorporate movement into your routine. Whether it’s to energise you or to get you to relax, it is a wonderful practice to have in your retreat toolbox.

The best thing is that you don’t even have to step out of the house to go to a gym or yoga studio. There are plenty of yoga flows online that you can do in the comfort of your own home. Plus, you don’t really need excessive amounts of equipment to practice either, just a non-slip yoga mat or a soft carpeted area will do if you don’t have access to a mat right now.

Believe it or not, pajama yoga is actually a thing! As soon as you wake up, rather than diving headfirst into your day, ease yourself in by getting out of bed and do your favourite yoga stretches. It’s an invigorating start to the day that will get those endorphins flowing (the body’s natural happy hormone) for a positive way to kickstart your day.

Check out How to Create a Magical Morning Routine

Try a meditation

There are different forms of meditation from mindfulness, movement, focused, or even mantra meditation – it can take some time to figure out which one is right for you. With that said, it gives you room to experiment and try all the different forms of meditations to see which specific style resonates and works for you to create your home retreat experience. Perhaps a few will really connect with you, which means you’ll have plenty of different meditations to dip into at any given time which you know will make you feel good.

There are some fabulous phone apps out there making meditation even more accessible wherever you may be in the world, away or at home. On many, you can filter the mediations based on how much time you have. You can even search for meditations depending on what your current needs are in that moment. For instance, you may be battling with anxiety, need some help drifting off to sleep, looking for a confidence boost, craving some reassurance, and I can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a meditation for it.

Like phone apps, there is a meditation for literally every human emotion and need, so you can always gain support for your needs through meditation when required.

Check out Easy Self Care Rituals For Balance and Calm

Put Your Heart on a Plate

There is no better meal than one that is cooked with love. Take some time out, pour or make yourself your favourite beverage of choice and head on over to your bookshelf or that box full of abandoned books. Grab all of your favourite recipe books and spend some time looking at the beautiful photography to help conjure some inspiration and zest for cooking a delicious meal.

If you’re in with the crowd that buys recipe books with every intention to use them, but the reality is they end up sitting on a shelf somewhere or in a long-lost pile of other books that you’ve been meaning to read then now is the time to change this habit.

Have a good look through and find some recipes that make your mouth water with varying levels of difficulty. Mark the pages and each week cook one of these recipes that have inspired you. Write a shopping list before heading to the shops to select all of the ingredients needed to cook up a wonderful feast. Not only will you be learning a new skill or enhancing your current ones you will be introducing your palate to a whole range of different new tastes, ingredients, and cuisines.

You may be feeling the need for comfort food or something wholesome and nutritious – whatever mood you’re in, making a meal from scratch is highly satisfying. Knowing that your very own hands made the food you’re about to eat is rewarding and even better if you’re sharing it with loved ones too.

Check out my nourishing recipes for more inspiration

I’d love to know how you’d go about creating your own home retreat in the comments. What kind of things would you include in your retreat experience?

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