Episode 117 How To Design A Space That Nurtures Your Mind, Body & Spirit: Holistic Short By Chris McDonald

Apr 28, 2023

Why is it so essential to create a holistic space that aligns with your holistic self? What questions should you ask yourself when creating your holistic space? 

In this holistic short, I will discuss what goes into setting up a space that suits your holistic needs. I will go over some important questions that you should always ask yourself when setting up your space and why it is so important to set your intention before you begin the process.

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Transcript

Chris McDonald: Have you ever walked into a room and felt immediately grounded and centered, or have you dreamed of having a space that aligns with your holistic self? In today's holistic shore, I discuss how to create a holistic space that nurtures your mind, body, and spirit. Let's get to it. This is Holistic Counseling, the podcast for mental health therapists who want to deepen their knowledge of holistic modalities and build their practice with confidence.

I'm your host, Chris McDonald, licensed therapist. I am so glad you're here for the journey.

Hey there. Welcome to today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. I wanted to let you know one thing that I've noticed is that just about every person I talk to on Zoom, whether it be clients, it could be other people I'm networking with or podcast guests, They always comment on my holistic office space.

So many say it helps them feel calm, brings a good energy to them, and they really enjoy the visuals I have. So having a holistic space, or I call it a holistic haven, can be a helpful component to being a holistic therapist. So today I'll be going into the art of creating a holistic space, how to design one that nurtures your mind, body, and spirit.

So the space I'm in now is what I consider my holistic haven. So I went through, when I first moved into this space, it was all white walls. So first thing I started with is color. So deciding what kind of color that I wanted, and then I moved on from that to some artwork. Which I use the artwork to help pick the color.

So what I have in my space is a purple-ish color, which is really beautiful and everybody comments on it. They love that color. It's really a color that brings in good feelings, good vibes, and just you wanna look at it and be in this space. You should be inviting and just really think about what connects with.

Body minded spirit. But before we go further with what to have in your space, I just have some questions for you to ask yourself. Cuz this is a thoughtful process. We don't wanna just jump in and say, let me throw some things together and have a holistic space. Now we gotta really think about this with intention.

So first question, do I want this to be part of my office space or. As a separate space in my home. So again, I know this means that you gotta look at space considerations to where you live. I'm fortunate that I have a separate space now where I have it's part telehealth space for my counseling sessions and supervision and podcasting.

So it's multi-use also for my own personal practice of yoga meditation. Reading. So mine covers a lot of different areas. Ideally, I would love a big house that has a separate yoga meditation room and one that has a separate space for office, but that's not what I have right now, but that's okay. So this is an upgrade where I used to be, I had a space under the stairs like Harry Potter, where I had my office space there.

And had to kind of use the living room, which is okay as part of my holistic space, and kept some nice objects in there. So do what you can with what you have. So figure out what is the use of this space? What will be my best use? Next question, how do I wanna feel when I enter this space? To me, I like to make it feel like a sacred space.

So I want to feel that. I feel like it's almost a body breath sensation, like, ah, feel good in here and that it's mine, right? This is not my husband's space. It's not my cat's. Well, it is kind of my cat space, but it's really my space that I want other people in, right? That I allow through Zoom through clients or otherwise.

I want this to be my space to reflect who I am on the inside and outside, just what aligns with me. I want that to be a reflection. Other question, how do you want others to feel when they enter your space? So I have had in-person people, my friends, Mostly or family that come by and they come into their space and the words that I hear from them is, wow, this is great.

So they really, even these are people that aren't holistic or you know, they're not into yoga, meditation, but they even pick up the energy on that. And I have had other people on telehealth too say, wow, they can feel the energy. So that's how I want others to feel too, that this is kind of a sacred place, that this is a sanctuary of some.

So even other people can feel the good vibe, whatever you wanna call it, energy, vibe. Another question, what will be the intention of the space? So I know I talked a little bit of, is this going to be consideration for a workspace slash meditation or for you? Is the intention to relax, to use it as a meditation room, yoga room.

So really thinking about what do I want to bring into this space? And this brings me to the next question. What brings you peace? So really being thoughtful about what you bring into your space. If something is stressful for me, then I try to move it to another room. This is really going back to tuning into your intuition.

What feels good to you? What doesn't? I'm trying to keep my space so that if there's things that don't really belong here, like I had some stuff for my business, these notebooks, or just stuff that's not, doesn't make me feel good inside. I'm just moving it to my other second bedroom that I have for guests.

I'm just gonna put, I have a cabinet in there for some of my business stuff or handouts, like things from Blue Cross Blue Shield. That does not bring me peace, even though they help pay me. I just want that separated. So thinking about that, is there things that I need to keep out of this space that will kind of.

Take me out of that calm groundedness. What is gonna disrupt your energy? Is there certain people maybe that you want, don't want reminders of them or just objects? Right. In general, things that don't belong, and that's one thing I've learned about organizing and clutter is a lot of times I will have things that don't belong.

They should be in a different space, but they. So, okay, so artwork. So picking a artwork is the next thing to figure out what aligns with you. Now, I wanted this to be more of my yoga room slash workspace, but I wanted to feel good cause I'm gonna be here a long time. I wanna feel good in this space. So I include crystals, essential oils, diffuser.

I have my drum, which I use sometimes, which just really helps release negative energy. What kind of furniture do you want? I have a comfy chair for reading and meditation. You could put your meditation cushion. I have my yoga mats, yoga blocks. Straps, and clearing objects. So to keep the space a centered, comforting space, you need to be able to clear.

Negative energy. So having some sage sprays, real sage to actually not just spray to smudge the space. I have Palo Santo. I burn singing bowls. So what about lights? How do you want the lighting to be? I don't like my overhead lights, so I have separate lighting to make it softer. I have books that reflect everything about who I am and make me feel good.

Inspirational quotes are another thing to consider. So really this is a thoughtful process before you start throwing things together in a space. So also think about, do you want this as an altar? Do you want to have an altar space? Which could, if you don't have a lot of room, just think about holistic space.

Alter as a shelf. It could be a shelf corner of your bedroom. Just get creative, your closet, and just having that intention that this is a sacred space, a spiritual focus point maybe for you helping you connect more deeply with the divine or whatever. Spiritual practices you have, you can use from Ayurveda too, using Earth water fire.

So using having water in there on your altar, a candle. Which is considered movement to having a singing bowl for sound. Think about things that smell to, like I said, essential oils or incense, candles, having things you like to touch, grounding stones, other crystals, or a reminder too, even having a sign or something to help you remember gratitude for this space, and then a place to.

Give your gratitude. And the other thing I just thought of too was journaling. So ha. I have my notebook here as well so that I can just journal in this quiet space. So keeping this, and don't forget your tarot cards and Oracle cards, so we don't wanna forget those. So these are just some of the space that I use.

So I use clearing practices, that's a whole other episode, so I won't go into how to do that. But I try to clear daily in between sessions with clients. And just try to clear myself at the beginning and end of the day. I hope this was helpful for you and again, this is a holistic short, so that means I try to keep it under 10 minutes.

But I appreciate you listening and I hope you find this podcast beneficial. If you do, please spread the word and share this episode with a colleague who might be interested in holistic counseling. This can help us further build this holistic community. Once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love till next.

Chris McDonald: The information in this podcast is for general educational purposes only, and is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guest are giving legal, financial counseling, or any other kind of professional advice. If you need a professional, please find the right one for you.

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