Many homeowners are taking on meditation as a way to relax and find peace even during the busiest days. It is a wonderful exercise and it will net you some awesome benefits in the long run, including the ability to calm yourself with ease and concentrate better at any task.
But while meditation at home is free and pretty easy to start, you might want to make some adjustments in your home first. Truth be told, meditation can be done anywhere at any time, but if you want to be a little more serious it’s important to make sure your environment agrees with you.
For example, it’s hard to meditate near a noisy window. Or in a cluttered room. Or in the living room where the kids are playing. It will get easier with practice, but there’s no reason to make it harder on yourself this early on – so let’s create a room for meditation so you can enjoy this exercise even more!
“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Creating a space
OK, let’s start with the basics.
Your meditation room at home can be virtually anywhere. If you live in an apartment or just find yourself lacking in extra space, you can always use a corner of your bedroom or any other room in a clever way as well.
Ideally you want a place where you can’t be disturbed or easily distracted. Your bedroom is a nice compromise because you can lock the door if needed and organize it in any way you want. And typically, bedrooms are furthest from the street to avoid any loud noises from cars passing by, which is a great help.
Then, make sure you have enough room in your corner for a yoga mat. If you can’t always leave it there, store it nearby so that it’s always easy to lay it down. You can always just use a poof, a pillow, or the bed – but it’s nice to make it a bit more special.
Once you found your little corner for meditation, let’s make some changes that will help you relax, concentrate, and find peace of mind!
Sight
Your meditation room should look inviting and cozy, so that the second you lay your eyes on it you immediately feel relaxed and ready to meditate.
For that I recommend using soft and neutral colors and natural sunlight when possible. Furniture and decoration are up to taste and availability, but you can always make small additions later as well.
Speaking of which, a great addition that always pays off are houseplants. Not only do they improve your indoor air quality, but houseplants also look perfect for a meditation corner, bringing you closer to nature when you need it most!
Sound
As mentioned before, you want a quiet room where you shouldn’t be easily disturbed. However, you can cheat the system a bit with the help of headphones – particularly those that can perfectly isolate exterior sounds.
If you don’t own one and can’t afford a new one at the moment, any smartphone earplugs will do, because you can still use either a meditation app (more on that later) or any white noise generator to block out exterior sounds in a different way.
However, some people may prefer sounds coming from a bluetooth speaker or the phone itself, so try out the options and choose the best one for you. Meditation should be a personal experience, after all.
ABOUT WHITE NOISE
If you don’t know, white noise is a high-frequency “hiss" similar to what old TVs and radios do when no channel is on. There are apps and websites that allow you to create white noise for the purpose of hearing a “wall of sound" that blocks out any other exterior noises.
As you can imagine, this is useful for sleeping and meditation.
But if white noise sounds too high-pitch and strange for you, there are other frequencies you can choose from. There are tons of free websites and resources where you can create the perfect frequency that sounds the most relaxing and soothing for your ears. Give a try and see if you like it!
CAN I USE MUSIC?
It depends. There are many types of music out there for meditation – a quick YouTube search will show you plenty of options, but even Spotify has a playlist for that. These are usually instrumental, mellow tracks with loose melodies (if any) that often have environmental sounds such as rain, wind, birds, etc.
If this sounds great to you, then go for it! But do keep in mind that music can greatly influence your mood in either direction. A random music track can remind you of a sad moment, a happy moment, or of another song you like, etc. And all of these can be distracting if you’re someone who struggles to concentrate. So definitely give it a try, but if you find yourself losing focus, try either white noise or just environmental sounds with no music (stuff like RainyMood helps me a lot).
Scents
This is totally optional, but incense, as well as aromatic candles and oils can be really nice when creating a room for meditation. They help in creating a different atmosphere that helps you concentrate, especially if you’re trying to meditate in a room that you often use for something else.
Simply put, it makes the moment more special in a way you can feel – or in this case, smell. After some time associating the scent to the exercise, it will also help you get into the mood and ease your mind as soon as you light up that candle.
Use technology… moderately
This is probably the weirdest point, but it has to be made.
There are tons of great apps that will assist in your meditation efforts, especially if you prefer guided meditation as opposed to doing it all by yourself. I have personally used the free versions of the most popular apps and they’re really good.
However… they’re on your phone. And smartphones are very, very distracting objects to have around during your meditation. Even if you mute notifications, it can always light, vibrate, or an alarm will ring or you’ll get a random call from the bank… it’s disruptive.
There’s nothing wrong with using these apps as they are very helpful, but be disciplined when it comes to phone usage during meditation. Stay off social media, turn off notifications and only use it for the purpose at hand.
Enjoy
Throughout this article and any other guide you might find online, always keep one thing in mind: meditation is free.
All you have to do to start meditation at home is just that. Start.
My goal here was to help you create a nice, relaxing space for your meditation routine, but don’t stress out if you don’t have the most aesthetically pleasing, minimal, Instagram-perfect corner of all time. Use tips and tools to make the place feel special, but remember that for meditation you just need the basics!
You know something that really helps in setting up the mood for meditation? The perfect lighting. Contact a local electrician to install dimmer lights and help you concentrate!
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