Setting Up a Meditation Space

Recently, my therapist recommended I try meditation as a way to lower my anxiety and help cope with stressful situations better. I was already working on trying to rearrange my apartment and redecorate it to make it a more relaxing space, so I figured it would be really easy to incorporate a meditation corner in my room.

I don’t have a job at the moment, so my spending is kind of tight. I didn’t even have things in my apartment that I could repurpose for my meditation spot, so I knew if I wanted to do this I would have to cough up some money. But hey, self-care is worth it, and I knew spending a little extra money now to take care of myself would be better option than paying for another hospital visit and missing 3 days of school from my anxiety.

After looking up some ideas online, I went ahead and put together a list of things to get. I decided I wanted:

·         A pillow to sit on so I could last longer in my meditation sessions

·         A mat to keep me off of the itchy carpet that’s in my bedroom

·         A bowl big enough to fill with water and put my hands in—this is actually a good technique that I found helps sooth me when I panic

·         A statue or knickknack

·         A little box, so that I would have something to put my knickknack on, and

·         A curtain to cover the walls in my corner

For the colors, I needed something color, but nothing overwhelming to my senses. The therapist recommended natural colors, like brown and green, and my own research told me grey is a good color to help those with anxiety (it’s also my favorite color), so I told myself to stick to those colors when shopping.

I headed over to my local Five Below, which actually has its own set of meditation products. There I was able to find a cute grey glass container, a dark sage printed mat, a small box, and an incense box. They had some pillows there, but all of them felt too flat to be comfortable to sit on.

Because I still needed a knickknack, curtain, bowl, and pillow, I swung by the Walmart next door. When I was heading to the pillows, I saw that Walmart also has a little Zen area where I found a cute little battery-operated water fountain that I got. The Walmart pillows were just as bad as the Five Below ones (no surprise, Walmart is pretty much always low quality), so I had to pay a little more for regular thickness pillow. Luckily though, their small collection included a nicely patterned grey pillow. For the curtain, I decided to go with beige since I already had green and grey, and I was only lacking brown at this point. I just got a small, sheer one in the darker of the two beiges offered. Unfortunately, they were rearranging the kitchen section, so finding the bowl was actually the hardest part. After the help of a very nice but equally confused employee, I was able to finally locate a glass mixing bowl that would do the trick.

Once I got home, the corner was super easy to set up. I laid out the rug and pinned up the curtain, and everything else just fell into place. I remembered I had some fake candles I bought for Valentines Day, and once I added them, it felt perfect.

Overall, it’s actually a really good meditation space. After setting it up, I came across a tip that recommends including something soothing for all five senses when you meditate, and surprisingly, my corner hit 4/5 of them. With what I put together, it’s a visually appealing space with calming colors, the trickling water from the fountain makes a soothing sound, there’s smell of the lavender incense sticks, and the bowl of water is enough a tactile sensation to help without overloading me. All I need is a cup of tea, and it’s perfect.

In total, I spent:

·         $10 for the pillow

·         $5 for the mat

·         $8 for the bowl (why are glass mixing bowls so expensive?)

·         $7 for the fountain

·         $4 for the incense box

·         $1 for the small black box

·         $1 for the grey container

·         $5 for the curtain

…making the total about $41.

It was a little pricier than I was going for, but I think it was definitely worth it. Having a space in my apartment reserved for relaxation was the best idea anyone could have. It completely changed the vibes of the whole room, I’ve noticed a positive shift in my life, and a huge decrease in my stress levels.

If you don’t have one already, you should definitely try it out. 10/10, highly recommend.