We’ve already seen how to develop perfect memory by building palaces in our minds. That’s an amazing technique, but a great memory is only a hint of how powerful mental environments can be.
How about using your imagination to create a place that you can go to at any time to generate or recreate any feeling, emotion or memory you feel like?
This place can serve as a relaxing place for meditation, a place to feel energized, to bring good memories or feelings, overcome fears, solve problems or perform any change in your mood. In fact, how about creating a place that can achieve all of this and more?
Enter the Mental Sanctuary
The Mental Sanctuary is a metaphor for a specially designed place that exists only in your imagination. Think of that place as your personal fortress — a safe haven that you can “enter” at any time to recreate any feeling or mental state.
The place you choose as your mental sanctuary may be based on a real place you know well, or on one completely made up. Anything goes, as long as you can vividly picture it in your mind.
In that regard, the Mental Sanctuary is a virtual environment that works in the exact same way as the ones in the Memory Palace technique. (If you haven’t done so, I really urge you to read the article explaining the technique, as it lays out the foundation and shows the basic principles on how to create mental places.)
Ideally, your mental sanctuary should be a place with many ’sub-places’ or compartments — such as a house with many rooms. The Mental Sanctuary can have a vast multitude of uses; each one of these uses will be associated with one specific sub-place. For every emotion you want to recreate — for every mental state you want to put yourself in — you should have a specifically designed place in your sanctuary.
That’s why I recommend that your mental sanctuary be an actual construction — such as a palace or big house. The highly-structured way these places are built — based on rooms, doors and corridors — makes them very effective as the basis for creating our visual environments. Of course, you can design your sanctuary in any way you want — just make sure it’s a pleasant place and make it as rich as you can so you can use it in many ways and expand it in the future.
Let me show how a mental sanctuary works by sharing some ideas of what you can do with it.
Ideas for Your Sanctuary
Here are some ideas you can use for your own sanctuary, based on the most important rooms of my own (which is a medieval castle in a mountain):
1. Relaxation Room
Relaxing is perhaps the reason people most often mentally transport themselves to other places (don’t you ever daydream about your next holiday destination?). In your sanctuary, you can have a special place to relax, and set it up the way it works for you.
As for me, this is the flat rooftop of my sanctuary. From there I can enjoy a magnificent view of green mountains. I can also hear the splashing of a waterfall nearby. The room is completely empty except for a small cushion on the floor I sit on to meditate.
In my imagination, my eyes are wide open, absorbing the visual richness of that virtual world. And this is how I meditate: instead of using common meditation techniques — such as focusing on a mantra or on your own breathing — my object of focus is simply keeping the imagery vivid at all times. I found that very effective for focusing and training the mind to ignore fleeting or unrelated thoughts.
2. Energization Room
Just like there are times when you must relax, there are also times when all you need is to be filled with enthusiasm. Here, again, your mental sanctuary can help. How about having at your disposal one environment especially designed to energize you?
In that room, you can place objects or people that are sources of motivation and inspiration for you. You can, for example, have a big LCD screen on the wall highlighting goal-achieving moments that are yet to come.
In my sanctuary, right next door from the stairway to the meditation rooftop, there’s a wooden door that takes me to what I call my ‘Vision Room’: a room that has the sole purpose of getting me motivated and energized about my goals. There, I have three pictures on the wall that represent my lifelong goals. Whenever I go in that room, I choose one picture, take a careful look at it and commit to do one action — no matter how small — towards that goal as soon as I get back out of the sanctuary. Grabbing the doorknob as I leave the room is the trigger to make sure I don’t forget to set that action.
3. Gratitude Room
Having a specific place and time to be thankful for all the things that you care about is a great way to put your life in perspective. This is a place that I believe every Mental Sanctuary should have, as it’s a terrific way to make you feel good — especially when done regularly.
How you set up this room — just like all the others — is a very personal choice. You can have objects, pictures, sculptures — anything. You can even meet real people that are important to you — either alive or those who already passed away.
One thing that I recommend is making this room the entrance hall of your sanctuary, so that it is impossible to miss it both on your way in or out.
Empowering Rituals as Journeys
Just like it happens with the Memory Palace technique, you tap into the full power of the technique when you define specific walkthroughs in your sanctuary, instead of just imagining isolated scenes.
By defining and following predefined routes in your sanctuary, you can easily go through any kind of standard ritual, procedure or checklist you have. Some quick examples:
- If you have some kind of empowering morning ritual, you can easily transform it into a walk in your sanctuary. You can, for example, pay a visit to your gratitude room, and then head to your goal room to kickstart the day.
- Instead of having just a relaxation room, you could, for instance, have a relaxation path, where you visit multiple rooms; maybe a corridor or outside path, where you progressively relax as you walk.
- Follow through any checklist you like, even the ones that are ‘more technical’. If you’re into Getting Things Done for example, you can make your weekly review a virtual walk. By adding this sensory dimension to it, you can make it much more enjoyable than going through a dull, linear checklist.
You’re the Architect
Remember that you are the master of your mental sanctuary and, as such, its design is only limited by your imagination.
There are an unlimited number of ideas that might work for your Mental Sanctuary. You could have, for instance, a ‘Creativity Room’. Or maybe a place to talk to your future self. If you’re afraid of talking in public, you could build an auditorium and fill it with people.
The point is: the Mental Sanctuary gives you a structured framework that accommodates any visualization technique you like, in a very personal and powerful way.
As you become more familiar with your sanctuary, you’ll start ‘paying attention’ — creating, that is — sounds, scents and smells and all sorts of tiny details, just like a vivid dream. Being able to be in such a realistic and pleasant place at will is a truly rewarding experience.
Although my own sanctuary has only a few rooms, I’m enjoying the benefits from it and am really excited about expanding it.
Do you have your own Mental Sanctuary? Would you like to share some creative design ideas for new rooms?
I wrote a post about a “thinking room” which I link to below. I just thought readers may be interested, as it’s the same concept as the one presented here, except it’s for, well, thinking. Nice article.
7 Steps to Create Your Own Thinking-Room
Hi, Ivan. A “thinking room” is really a great idea, be in the real world or just in your imagination. Thanks for the link!
I used to have a thinking room that I would go to when I was a kid. I think this is a great idea.. time to try it out. =)
I’m used to meditate/mentalize every day and I’ve found that using this simple technique I can focus myself better and more clearly. I think it is fun to improve the Santuary from time to time. Adding more dimentions like sounds and smell is a must.
Another great ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ concept! I’m going to my gratitude room right now – thanks for the post!
I’ve been using a similar technique for the past 10 years. Your article is very easy to understand and a great place for beginners to start.
The obsessive compulsive proof reader in me has found:
..make it as rich as you can so _you can it in_ (you can use it in) many ways and expand it in the future.
Let me show _what_ (how)a mental sanctuary works by sharing some ideas of what you can do with it.
-Thanks for the great post.
Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed the article.
Ikram, thank you so much for pointing out my writing mistakes. I’ve made the corrections to the text.
I have used this for many years. My sanctuary is mostly outside and I use it mostly for healing, but also for inspiration. I use very specific kinds of self-healing visualizations so the different areas of my sanctuary are designed with that in mind. I also have a temple I like to visit for spiritual rejuvenation.
I just wrote a post on using self-hypnosis to meditate and quiet the mind. http://vitaljourney.org/2008/1.....te-better/
I did not mention it there but I think I will go back and add to the article a note about this special place and your post. That is the technique that I have been using this past week and it works great. I really like the idea of different rooms but for now my place is outside on a special beach that we love to just lay in the still water on.
Rooms are a great way of keeping your thoughts and feelings organized. But i somehow require more space to move around, although i might not do so. Then how would I make my rooms? Good question. I’ll try to share my imagination with those curious enough to read this.
I’m into sci-fi with a dash of fantasy … so a battleship (for protection) or even a whole planet would suit me well. The so called rooms would have to be entire environments, real or holographic…or even different dimensions/realities. So getting around would have to occur with the use of technology or magic. Whether i push a button on some complicated device or on my holographic wrist watch/console, give voice commands to the computer or open dimensional rifts with supernatural powers and incantations…i’d have to get there FAST.
The Relaxation “room” would have to be a scenery of endless spring. I stand in a valley filled with green grass. On the edge there’s a tall mountain with snow on its peeks. At its base there’s a forest of bamboo trees with monkey jumping from tree to tree (don’t know how they got there). From the mountain, through the forest and through the valley there’s a small river of crystal-clear cold water passing and then connecting with a small lake filled with koi fish. And next to the pond, surrounded by 7 sakura cherry trees in bloom there are 2 well rounded stones: a big one (the kind Obelix is carrying) and a smaller one next to it. They are gray and covered in moss at the base.
I sit down and put my back to the big stone. It’s warm, the Sun has made it warm. I’m dressed like I’ve just returned from kendo practice- I’m wearing a white Gi shirt and my black hakama. My feet are naked and I dig them deep into the warm fuzzy grass – it tickles. I rest one hand on my knee and use the other one to hold a ceramic glass (no clue how to call it otherwise) full of warm tea. I breath in the cool air, take a sip…and enjoy the scenery.
That’s an amazing example of using the power of imagination to construct a pleasant experience! I am really glad you took the time to share your sanctuary setup with us — thank you!
As for me, although I like my current sanctuary, imagining the scene you described made me realize I should probably upgrade it soon…
A little bit difficult for me… But I will try… Thanks
I used to do this as a child all the time. I had a castle that I would visit every night before I went to sleep. And of course, being a kid, I went on harrowing adventures each time. For a long time as I got older, I felt that I’d lost all my creativity, because I no longer imagined my castle every night, no longer visited and created.
But I came across this article about a month ago, and have been working back toward building up my imagination, and it feels great. I no longer have a castle, but now a personal science compound (I’m a engineering student and hobbyist) on a tropical island. It’s got a warm and inviting entrance way, a laboratory, a library, a gym, and a room full of plants and birds. It also has a lovely boardwalk to a secluded beach. I’m building a bit each day, and it’s exhilarating.
For instance, today I was participating in a spinning class (stationary bikes), and one part of the class involves a series of 30-second dead-out sprints. I imagines I was in the plant&birds room, listening to birdsong, smelling the various flowers, and before I knew it, the sprints were done.
Anyway, I’m very excited to finally begin working on my creativity and visualization after years of neglect. I hope you all are finding success in this as well.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Jack!
It never occurred to me visiting a mental sanctuary while riding on the stationary bike! That’s a terrific idea I just have to try!
Thanks!
Great article . Thanks !
Amazing article – thankyou. I’m going to start practising these ideas TODAY.
I have done more static visualisation before but nothing like this . I’m so excited! Will let you all know how it goes!
Has anyone got any more stories to tell to get me inspired?
Hi & thanks Luciano I love your posts,
I used to do this same thing as a child, but I stopped because I would get tense & obsessive trying to create the ‘perfect’ details of the space in my mind. Do you have any recommendations to preventing this obsessive pefectionist behaviour? I love the concept of it!
I never experienced anything like that.
Does that also happen when you’re walking in your palace, or just when you’re still in a room? Get moving would be the first thing I would try (it may help you not fixate too much in details).
Hope this helps.
Hi Luciano
I developed a tense approach to creativity after studying architecture & design where creativity was based on a problem to be solved, usually by a deadline & to exacting standards..since then I associated creativity with work that will be judged.
I will follow your advice by moving around more – because you are right, the details become less important then…I will also load ‘Zen Master’ software (Matrix style) per Ulfs post..that should do the trick!
Oh, now I understand: your story about studying architecture and design explains a lot.
Please report back here when you try the new approaches, I’m very curious about how it will turn out.
Great input by everyone!
For those who like rooms, one additional idea is to have a medical room. In here you can fix any of your problems, upgrade your memory, replace your eyes, drink any kind of potion you’d need, remove pain, remove your mosquito bites etc etc etc…
For the matrix fan, you can have a control room from where you can load any sort of program from a disc… these programs would take you to any type of environment you’d need, like a spring valley, a temple courtyard or whatever. Maybe you have a bookshelf or similar where you keep the different program discs, like DVD-casings.
A version of this for the star trek fan is the like of the holodeck, where you are can load any sort of environment you want to be in.
Try different approaches and use the one that appeals to you the most.
Cheers
Awesome ideas, Ulf! Such a warm feeling to have highly-creative readers around!
Thanks a million, i think waaay to much for a 13 year old and i centre my life in my brain. This, and the memory palace are great techniques. thank you again..:D
Great for you that with 13 you’re able to visit your own Mental Sanctuary already… Take good care of it, and it will be your companion for life!