7 Tips on How to Create an Office Sanctuary You’ll Never Want to Leave

Creating an office sanctuary is one way to take command of the environment you want to have and not just suffer in the one that arose around you. Many of us face the daily challenges of a demanding work environment.   Because of this, it is vital that you have access to a place to recharge your battery and find peace, focus, comfort, and rest throughout your work day.

1. Your Sanctuary Starts Within

You are the key to your inner peace, not your job. You choose how you will react to any piece or part of the job you have.

Before you let all the deadlines and demands cloud your mental space, take a deep breath.  Follow this with 3 more.  Slow, long, even, purposeful breaths are the consistent and sure way to induce calm. Taking a moment for deep breathing can bring you back to your internal focus.  Moving your focus back to you instead of everything around you can give you an opportunity to reframe your thinking.

Now that you are present, you can address a realistic plan of action for what comes next. You are always in the driver’s seat but only when you put yourself in it.

2. Use Affirmations to Create a Peaceful Mental Focus

Affirmations provide another means of mental focus, peace, and clarity. Affirming your vision of peace in your workspace and your means of maintaining peace, focus, and clarity in your work habits is a powerful way to reclaim power over your surroundings.

Use affirmations to reinforce what you desire in your experience. But be careful not to stretch too far by making statements you don’t believe to be a reality. Instead, lean on affirmations that empower you and permit gratitude for what you are and what your environment inspires within you. You can also focus attention on the improved state of your office that you know is sure to come.

Affirmations When Dealing with Stress at Work

3. Reorganize Your Office into a Sanctuary

Keeping an organized, decluttered, and structured office space can provide you with personal peace, harmony, and mental clarity. Very often, your physical surroundings are a reflection of your internal state of being.

When experiencing stress at work, it is easy to throw items around without thought, misplace important items, or run low on needed materials without notice. Additionally, you can become more stressed when you suffer due to the disarray you are working in or when others notice your disorganization.

Work efficiency, productivity, and professionalism can suffer in a disorganized space. But alternatively taking time to simply clean and organize can be a major stress reliever.

• Create a clean and organized office ritual as a means to set the stage for a stress-free day.
• Incorporate delicately scented cleaning products, such as citrus or lavender, to provide a sensation of calm or freshness and create a peaceful mood
• Remove unused, old, or infrequently needed items to provide a feeling of spaciousness and freedom
• Ensure your frequently used items are in good condition and, when possible, use items you actually enjoy using even if it requires a personal expense

Investing in yourself, your personal organization, and personal comfort can go a long way to creating a sanctuary environment within your office space.

4. Be Mindful of Your Physical Care and Comfort

Creating an office sanctuary is a healthy blend between your surroundings and how you feel within them. Therefore, the set-up of your workspace is essential to ensure that you feel your best while you work.  And a well-structured layout can put your body in the best position to feel good while you work.

Ergonomics has long been a discipline built to ensure that your work can be completed while simultaneously supporting your body’s needs. Proper posture while seated, for example, can be the difference between chronic pain and comfort.  The optimal placement of materials like your monitor, keyboard, and mouse ensures that undue stress is not put upon your body.

The US Government National Institutes for Health has this checklist that can assist you with undergoing a review of your workspace layout and determining if you currently have the optimal set-up. Be proactive to work with your business or make independent changes where you can to ensure that your body is not unnecessarily subject to discomfort or harm.

5. Soothe Your Body With Movement at the Office

It is no secret that when you work an office job, you can sit for long periods of time. But your body is not meant to be stationary day after day for hours at a time. It is important to incorporate movement as part of your day to ensure that your body is not subject to undue stress or losses of flexibility.

• Take bathroom breaks, if only to stretch your legs
• Leave your desk to get water or another form of hydration
• Practice stretching techniques to reduce or eliminate pain within the body
• Take a walk during your lunch break
• Visit a co-worker at their desk instead of sending an email or calling 

Move when you can and give your body the time and attention to move and feel its best. When you incorporate activity as part of your daily work practices you will see how peace at work becomes easier to achieve.

6. Make Beauty a Focus of Your Office Sanctuary

A sanctuary is often defined as an oasis, a place to retreat as you move away from the rest of the world. Images, colors, and mementos can serve as that transporting influence when you are looking to escape stress or transport yourself to a calm environment.

Photos Can Be a Simple Solution for Sanctuary Enhancements

When you are searching for peace, a visual image such as a photo can be the perfect visualization tool. Fun family photos or candid memories can make those you love the most feel as if they are within arm’s reach. Pictures of visited travel destinations or fantasies of those to come can allow for moments of escape when your eyes need a break from your computer screen.

Quotes, sayings, affirmations, or other motivational and encouraging framed statements can make a difference when dealing with particularly hard days. Choosing what images and inspiration that is most meaningful to you can create calm out of chaos and even bring a piece of home to your home away from home.

Take time to plan your image layout and ensure what you need is at eye level and not hidden behind work obligations. Use photo carousels on your desktop or even a collage on the screensaver for your phone. Be creative and be purposeful. If peace is what you crave at work, give yourself easy access to images that inspire peace within you.

Incorporate Color to Create a Calm and Peaceful Atmosphere

Colors have been used to inspire and invoke emotion for centuries.  Call upon their power and meaning to pull in the energy you want to experience and repel what you don’t.  

Blue is known to symbolize peace and calm.  White will invoke feelings of simplicity and freshness.  Green is often attached to nature and the wholesome serenity that comes from what is natural. With the right palette, you can then blend your office accessories, folders, and materials, even your wardrobe with deeper meaning.

See and then consciously remember the meaning behind the colors you place around you.  This will not only reinforce the intention behind the color but serve as a reminder of the emotions you prefer.

7. Crystalize Your Focus on Peace

Crystals can serve as a powerful influence of peace for your office sanctuary. The use of crystals to make particular energy more pronounced is a timeless practice.  Some will use their own birthstones as a means to feel a sense of centeredness through stressful times.  However, you can also utilize particular crystals to address certain situations or environmental changes, if you feel they would be helpful.

Crystals and Gemstones to Use in Your Workspace

Whether you are highly experienced in the use of crystals or a novice, the practice can be quite simple. Crystals tend to be attractive stones but also can invoke meaning and purpose. That said, you can place your selected stones on your desk, on a shelf, or anywhere that reminds you of their presence and makes them easy to see.

When you become familiar with the intended purpose of your selected crystals, their sight alone may invoke the peace, calm, protection from negativity, productivity, or creativity that you seek. Holding your stones periodically throughout your day can assist you in refocusing yourself with the same intention that each one inspires. And carrying your crystals with you while carrying out your usual tasks can serve as a reminder of the personal goals you seek to focus upon.

Crystals can be a subtle, attractive, and meaningful addition to your office sanctuary that you come to enjoy more each day.

Conclusion

Investing time in your office sanctuary is a worthwhile investment in your daily peace and harmony. While you cannot control your work environment and its stress levels, you can take action to infuse peace into your personal workspace.

Evaluate what is most important to you, has a meaningful impact on your state of mind, and make changes in your space to improve your environment.  Incorporating even one or two small changes with the intention of reducing stress and increasing your sense of peace can lead to significant and long-term improvements to your workday.

If this post has provided you inspiration for your at-work sanctuary, share in the Comments Section which idea was most meaningful to you.  Share with other readers what ideas you already have in place in your workspace.

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