bythemethod.com blog

Few of us will be surprised to learn that our environment can have an effect on your soul. If you have ever taken the time to look at a mountain or been in a Cathedral or perhaps walked in a beautiful garden you will know the way they can speak to your soul. Yet where do you find such places in ordinary life?

What experience are you aiming for?

Few of us can live in a Cathedral or some other place of beauty and so we must look for other places of sanctuary in the normal world. Beauty is a powerful medicine for a soul and there is more of it around us than we usually notice. However it’s not this beauty aspect that I want to talk about today.

I think we need to find places that help our soul find peace.

Now, I don’t think for even one moment that it is actually the place that gives us the rest but what that place helps us do.

Beauty helps distract us from the ordinary things of life and so for a few moments we are transported by beauty to another world where we find the rest we desire.

Surely then it is this experience that we seek.

There are many things that can help us and in other posts I have spoken about the need for silence etc. Today though I want to encourage you to find a place of sanctuary.

Men love their garden shed

There is a commonly held belief in the UK that men love garden sheds. That somehow these sheds are an essential part of being a man and having a need for a place that one can retreat to.

The truth is that we all need this place.

We all need somewhere we can go to that helps us to escape from the ordinary things so we get a chance for our souls to reach out to a bigger existence.

In the ancient world people would seek out these sacred spaces. They might mark them with a standing stone or a circle of some kind.

It doesn’t have to be a place

The next strange thing is that this place doesn’t have to be a place. It’s actually not the place that creates the connection to God. It’s the attitude we take into it.

Places help remind us to reach out beyond ourselves. They are powerful because when we enter them they help trigger those memories and experiences that make us more spiritual.

The power of having a sacred place in your home is that it helps move you from one state into another (e.g. from ordinary to extra-ordinary).

Churches do it for me

Because some of my most profound spiritual experiences have happened inside church buildings being in a church helps me very quickly get into a spiritual frame of mind.

Build your own space inside your home

Find a place inside your home where you can have a spiritual space. It could just be something simple like a candle and a bible in the corner of a room. Then go there when you pray or meditate. You will discover that after a while this space will become an important help in helping you find some peace for your soul. When things are difficult then going into this sacred space will help you.

Take your space with you

Then again why not take that space around with you? If you kneel to pray or hold your hands together when you pray you will find that performing these simple acts will help you find that soulful rest you need. This is something that people used to teach their children but in more recent times its tended to be seen as a bit silly, however we are now starting to discover than our grand parents might not have been so daft as we suspected.

I want to encourage you to find a sacred space. Give it some thought and try to find a simple place in your home where you can have a place of prayer. If you don’t have any space at all then make yourself a portable space by always sitting or kneeling in the same position for prayer.