Episode 142 - How to Create a Cozy Solstice Sanctuary
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Mary
00:02
Hello and welcome to the Come to your Senses podcast. I'm your host, embodiment-based coach, mary Lofgren. Here we explore how to live bravely and beautifully through a lifestyle of embodiment. You'll hear gems to empower you around mindset, mindfulness, somatic psychology and neuroscience, as well as beauty, food, style and the art of slow living to meet your soul through the senses. I am so happy that you're here. Let's begin. Hello, beautiful beings, and welcome to Come to your Senses. Happy week of the solstice. The solstice is the time of year where we go into the deepest plunge of darkness in awaiting the light of the sun. It is the longest night, and all over the world, there are spiritual traditions that celebrate this phenomenon of nature and draw spiritual meaning from this dance between the dark and the light, and one of my favorite ways to celebrate the solstice and just the holiday season in general, is making my home a cozy oasis. I feel that our home is one of the most intimate relationships in our lives. It is the one we see every day. It is that which tells the story of who we are. It is also where our most vulnerable and tender moments occur, and so today's episode is going to be our final installment in this series that we have been exploring over the last few weeks in creating your Renaissance of Radiance. So, going into 2024, we have a fresh start, a new year on the horizon and an opportunity to create a Renaissance in our lives and center some of the things that we hold most dear, and here it comes to your senses. Those things are beauty and body and presence, sacredness, style, adornment, pleasure and boldness. I have this big giant bulletin board or poster board, no, whatever. You stick thumbtacks into Bulletin board, yes, I think that's what it's called, and I'm looking at it right now, and it is just filled with images of each of these different phases and portals to this spark of the soul that animates the body we call Radiance. And today's episode is kind of a hybrid of our final two topics that we'll be exploring in this series, and that topic is style. And when I say style, I don't just mean what you wear or the fashions you wear, but the way that you express your soul through color and texture and shape, as well as the way that you adorn your sanctuary, aka your home. And so in today's episode, in honor of Solstice Week, I am going to be sharing with you some of my favorite gems for how to create a cozy home during the holidays, having a cozy sanctuary. I mean, I just cannot tell you how much of a freak I am for this time of year. I love it so much and it's because it's such a spiritual time of quiet and sensuality and indulgence and friendship and treats, and it just embodies so many of the things I love. And so today I'm going to share with you some of my own personal rituals for this time of year to create a home that feels like a hug every time you walk in the door. Let's dive in to our gems.
And so, as we go through today's gems, we will be taking a tour of the senses through sight, through touch, through aroma. And in the pagan tradition, which solstice week is another way of saying yule week, yule is the celebration of the solstice in the pagan tradition, pagan simply meaning the religion of nature. One of the things that I find so interesting is that the beginning of a new day actually doesn't begin at sunrise, it begins at sundown. Similarly, october 31st is considered, which is new year. It is the time where we start to descend into darkness and the restoration of winter, the simplification, and then there is another kind of new year, in the spring, when things start to blossom and emerge from that darkness. And I start there because, before we start adding things in, I find it is always a great practice, especially this time of year, to release the hounds, release the things that no longer serve us in our home. And I am fortunate because I have the freedom to take time off during this time of year. Not everyone has that luxury, but for me this is a very sacred time of year where I devote and dedicate time to purging my home of things that are no longer useful or would be useful in the hands of someone else. Me and my label maker have a very steamy relationship. I love to label. I love to get things from the container store, uh you know, in my dreams, but I usually go to like TJ Maxx to save a few bucks. But I love having just a gorgeously organized space. Just recently I organized all of my witchy supplies. A future episode that I've been working on is how to create a space in your home to come to your senses, and I recently converted my dining room into a ritual movement altar space. It's been so extraordinary and so life-changing and I have this credenza where all of the witchy totems that I have collected over the years and that I use for full and new moon rituals are housed, and, god, it feels like a breath of fresh air to walk in there and to pull open my journal drawer or to grab some incense from the incense candle drawer. And all of that is just to say that my hope is that my pleasure at being organized pollinates your desire to go through. This is what I do, two things:
I have a day per week that's devoted to a different aspect of my chores. So, for example, tuesdays are my clean the car day, and this was inspired by this 90-day planner that is called Saver Beauty, the Saver Beauty planner, and it is so effective. It is just unbelievably effective. I really struggle to keep my car clean and organized, and every week on a Tuesday, I go out and I tidy and I spray and sometimes I vacuum, and the relief and joy of having a clean car is just not enough can be said about it, and so I encourage that practice if that works for the rhythm of your life. One of the things that really works about it is that it's a tiny task. It's just me myself and I, and sometimes my ever rotating carousel family of foster dogs, and so it's usually just some trash. And there's a box for things I need to return. There's a box of things to bring to the goodwill. There's a car emergency kit in the trunk Ah, it is just so pleasurable. There's this little pouch, this sparkly pouch, where I keep plastic cutlery and salt and pepper in case I need it in the car. I am a Virgo, in case you can't tell, and so the joy that these things bring me is monumental. And so that's my first gem on cleaning and organizing and creating more space in your psyche and your energy, body and your physical home itself as we go into a new year. The second is to take one space per day. So last weekend and I say per day, you know, for me that would be a stretch, but I chose last weekend to just do a deep dive into my kitchen, including alphabetizing my spices. Oh yes, I plan to this week organize the room of requirement, aka my random storage closet where I just keep everything from old journals to a hot towel cabbie from my facial teeth. And you know, organizing can just feel like biting off a bite of apple, that could choke you because it can feel like such a huge project, but I find that breaking it down into smaller increments, even something as simple as organizing my sock and lingerie drawer on a Wednesday, makes such a huge difference and also once again pollinates the desire to do more. So that's gem number one. The second gem has to do with the coziness of warm light.
Light is such a significant symbol this time of year. There is a reason why we keep candles in the window. For our ancestors, winter was life-threatening. Winter is still life-threatening for many people in our country and across the world, but during the time before electricity and home heating were invented and such were invented, winter was a real threat. So on solstice, where the days start to become longer, having that symbol of the yule log, fire in the fireplace, candles in the window, holiday lights on our homes these are actually all ancient nods to this celestial phenomenon that is happening in the heavens. And so in your home, of course, having holiday lights about is a lovely thing, whether that's on a Christmas tree, on a menorah. I actually have a tree in my living room. That's this year. I did like tabletop trees because I'm going to be taking care of a family member after an important surgery for a couple weeks in December, so I just got a tabletop tree that I put in my living room, that I adorned with holiday ornaments and those are such a powerful symbol to me of storytelling and sharing the journey of my life. And then in my ritual space I have another tabletop tree. That is my yule tree. I love it so much and it has white lights and hand sewn, hand-dried orange garland. I don't have children everybody, you know enough, said there. You can also buy orange dried orange garland on Etsy from crafters just saying. But you know, the yule tree is a real nod to my ancestors, both biological and spiritual, of this celebration of the season. And I have these little star ornaments that I handcrafted out of cardboard and gold metallic paint and it's just so charming and delicious, and every morning when I go out there it makes for the most cozy, lovely morning rituals. I also have on my altar lots of tributes to these symbols of solstice and yule season, this celebration season. So Holly and evergreen and oranges and cloves. You know these are all sacred herbs and materials. Holly and evergreen are these rare things that can sustain in winter. I also keep images of my family who has passed on the yule altar. There's a reindeer from when I was growing up, you know, just really cherished special things. Also in the context of warm light. I have two salt lamps in my ritual space and that night I go in there and I turn on a yoga video and I cannot tell you the impact it has had. I mean, this is why I want to record an entire episode about setting up a dedicated space for coming to your senses, because I am living it, my friends. After years of trying to find a spare square of space to stuff my yoga mat and feeling like I was, the most fraudulent embodiment coach out there, I really feel like this experience of having a dedicated space has opened up a whole new world of possibility and expansion. But anyway, that's for a future episode. So back to the salt lamps. The warm glow of a salt lamp, my friends, really cannot be underestimated because it evokes that orange delight of a fire. So if you have a wood stove or a fireplace, congratulations. But if you don't, a salt lamp can evoke that energy. Also, if you have a non-working fireplace, I used to have one of those. I had an old house that I rented and there was a non-working fireplace, but I would fill that thing with pillar candles on a gorgeous sconce and at times it was even better than the real thing because I used this beautiful antique candelabra that had hot pink fuschia extra long tapers in it and it was magical.
So the next gem to creating your cozy sanctuary is using your hands to make a yule bundle. So I went to a fabulous wreath-making workshop this year, which has been a dream of mine forever and I just never seemed to get around to it, or the dates are conflicting around the holidays, and this was just perfect. It was with a friend of a friend and it was so special because this person had, I mean, talk about Martha Stewart. She had harvested all of this cedar and amaranth all year that she dried and spray painted the flowers and so it's so gorgeous and she made these frames. I used a grapevine frame that she had already assembled. It's miraculous, I mean, it's just gorgeous, and I made a beautiful wreath. I'll actually put a picture in the web page for this episode. Anyway, I took some of the leftover cedar and I've made these gorgeous bundles. So I've just taken cedar from that abundance and then I have some little holiday sprigs, like just things that I've collected over the years. One is actually sitting in my office, like some golden pine cones, you know, wrap them up with a green ribbon, a bright green ribbon, and I have two of them on the posts at the entry to my home. And the reason I share this with you is that there are so many crafts we can do this time of year. Believe me, I want to do them all and I do do a lot of them. I make bath products, I make food. I made the frickin orange garland this year. I'm so proud of myself and crafts can be time-consuming, and so this yule bundle is something that you can hang on your door, something that you could make a mini version of and hang it on your rear view, anywhere you want to spread the joy of the solstice season.
And then, finally, the last gem has to do with aroma, and it's really common this time of year to want to have the smells of cedar and these more common holiday scents that you might find in candles and such cedar and pine and fir things like that. But one of the things that I did this year is I used some of the holy oils to diffuse into my home. So frankincense in my bedroom, sweet orange in the hallway, as soon as you walk in the door. Rosemary and clove in the kitchen Ah, it is just ecstasy to walk in the house and have the sight of all of my holiday and yule decorations mixed with these intoxicating aromas that also have their own host of benefits, such as rosemary, being cleansing and protective, wild orange and sweet orange bringing that brightness, frankincense having a immune boosting and purifying effect. So essential oils provide a full bodied experience of aroma and I cannot recommend them enough in creating your cozy sanctuary this time of year.
So, my loves, that is today's episode on creating your solstice sanctuary. It has been a great pleasure to share my enthusiasm for this time of year and the way that these simple gestures of involving the body and the senses can completely change your mood and bring more romance, charm, beauty and delight into your holiday season. Solstice and yule blessings to you from me and Fred, my foster dog, who is currently chewing on a little yule bundle in the corner in case you can hear that in the background and I will see you in our next episode. For coaching classes and community in creating a lifestyle of embodiment, head to SchoolofSensualLivingcom. There you'll find a free video series on how to reduce anxiety and intercept the stress response through powerful, confident body language. Head to SchoolofSensualLivingcom slash confidence to watch your first video today.
We are just a few days away from the Earth’s ultimate Sacred Pause; the Winter Solstice.
All over the world, different cultures celebrate the spiritual significance of the longest night of the year, and the lengthening of the days to come.
For me, one of the season’s greatest pleasures is turning my home into a cozy, warm, sanctuary for the senses.
Our home is one of the most intimate relationships of our lives. The Solstice season is a wonderful time of year to release the old, and create a cozy, warm sanctuary that comforts the body and inspires the soul.
Today’s gems will inspire you to:
Create an inviting, organized space that emanates warmth
Make walking through your home like a journey through the senses
Learn about ancient traditions of honoring the solstice, and how to use natural elements to envelop you in warmth
Weave romance, charm, and beauty into this sacred season
From me and Fred the foster dog (today's special guest), we wish you a Yule season filled with beauty.
CHECK OUT THIS POST TO VIEW THE WREATH MAKING MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
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