IN THIS EPISODE:
This episode discusses how to create a sanctuary at home for high achieving women. It emphasizes the importance of rest and restoration. The conversation covers designing a personal retreat space, establishing mindful routines, and creating boundaries with technology. The goal is to create a peaceful and empowering tranquil space in one’s own home.
Key Focus Areas:
- 00:00 – Creating a Sanctuary at Home
- 03:01 – Designing Your Personal Retreat Space
- 04:12 – Establishing Mindful Routines
- 10:59 – Creating Boundaries with Technology
Listen To This Episode:
Watch this episode on YouTube!
Crafting Your Sanctuary – Balancing Leadership with Personal Peace
In the high-stakes game of leadership, where decision-making, team management, and relentless drive dominate the day, the home can become more than just a place to rest—it can be a sanctuary. Our recent podcast episode, “How Women Leaders Can Create a Haven of Rest at Home,” delved into this vital aspect of a leader’s life. For the high-performing woman, balancing professional rigor with personal serenity is not just a luxury; it’s a necessity. Here, we expand on three key areas to transform your home into a rejuvenating haven, a place where you, as a leader, can refuel and reconnect with your inner self.
1. Designing a Personal Retreat: Your Sanctuary Within a Sanctuary
Self-awareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence. It involves understanding your emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and the underlying motivations of your actions. This introspection enables you to lead with authenticity and confidence.
- Creating Your Space: It doesn’t require an elaborate setup. A quiet corner, a cozy armchair by the window, or even a small garden can be transformed into your retreat. The key is to personalize this space with elements that resonate with you—be it soft lighting for a tranquil ambiance, an array of indoor plants for a touch of nature, or inspiring artwork that speaks to your soul.
- Utilizing Your Retreat: This space isn’t just for show; it’s for active engagement. Whether it’s through meditation, reading, or simply sitting in silence, use this space to disconnect from the hustle and reconnect with yourself. It’s a physical reminder to pause, breathe, and recenter.
2. Cultivating Mindful Routines: Bookends to Your Day
The way you start and end your day can set the tone for your overall well-being. Mindful routines act as bookends to your busy schedule, offering structure and tranquility.
- A Purposeful Morning: Begin your day with intention. A morning routine might include meditation, a fitness session, or journaling. These activities shouldn’t be rushed; they’re a time to set your intentions, gather your thoughts, and approach the day with a clear, focused mind.
- An Unwinding Evening: Just as important is how you wind down. Evening routines might involve a digital detox, a relaxing bath, or time spent with a hobby. This is your time to decompress, letting go of the day’s stresses and preparing for restorative sleep.
3. Balancing Technology: Disconnect to Reconnect
In our digital age, technology is a double-edged sword. It keeps us connected and efficient but can also be a source of constant distraction and stress. Establishing boundaries with technology at home is crucial for mental peace.
- Tech-Free Zones: Designate areas in your home where digital devices are not allowed. This might be the dining room, bedroom, or your personal retreat space. These zones encourage presence, conversation, and relaxation without the constant pings of the digital world.
- Scheduled Disconnects: Set specific times when you will not check emails or work messages. This could be during meals, after a certain hour in the evening, or during your personal time in your retreat space. It’s about reclaiming your time and attention, allowing you to be fully present at the moment.
Transforming your home into a haven of rest is an empowering journey. It’s about creating a space that reflects and supports your inner peace and well-being. As you implement these focus areas, remember that they are not just practices but affirmations of your commitment to yourself as a person, not just as a leader. Your home can be a grounding force, a place where the vigor of your professional life harmonizes with the tranquility of your personal world. Embrace this journey, for in nurturing yourself, you are also nurturing your ability to lead, inspire, and thrive.
QUIT HUSTLE CULTURE & CREATE YOUR OWN RHYTHM!
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Get Connected with Maven Miara
Are you a dynamic female executive or women entrepreneur craving proven business growth strategies and leadership success? Do you yearn for more fulfilling work-life balance? Are you seeking unwavering leadership confidence as you navigate the complexities of life, all while maintaining your holistic well-being (spiritual, physical and mental)? Welcome to ‘Success with Saneness. This transformative personal development podcast is designed exclusively for high-performers who seek to excel in both their professional and personal lives with balance. Each episode features expert insights and thought-provoking discussions about building unshakable leadership confidence, business growth and designing harmony among them. Join your host, “Maven” Miara, a professional speaker, business strategist, leadership development facilitator and author. Embark on an enlightening journey towards success with saneness, where holistic care, confidence building, and leadership unite. To find out more, join the Maven Nation community by visiting miarashaw.com. Reach out to Maven Miara at: hello@miarashaw.com Website: miarashaw.com / Episode Website LinkedIn: @miarashaw / Instagram: @mavenmiara / YouTube: @mavenmiara
Maven Miara (00:05.902)
Hey, Maven Nation, welcome back to another episode of Success With Saness. This episode is gonna be talking about something I would say that I would find it fun, and it's how do you create a sanctuary at home? Listen, as high achieving women, we are out a lot, doing a lot of things between work and maybe you're volunteering for something, and children, and...
partners and all of the things that we do. Sometimes it can feel like a whirlwind between meetings and decision making and being innovative and all of the things that we do. No complaints about that. That's what we enjoy. That's what we're created or built, I would say, to do. But you've heard me talk about in previous episodes about getting rest, making sure we're doing that.
So creating your own sanctuary or tranquility space to make sure you're getting restoration. So here's the first thing that I wanna share with you is designing your own personal space, your retreat space at home. So I have a question for you. What elements can you include in your personal retreat that give you a sense of peace and tranquility?
Now I'm not saying again that you need to go out and pay $20,000 for a bathroom remodel to put a sauna in and a now listen, if you can do it, but I don't want you to confuse with what I'm wanting you to think about creating your own tranquil and retreat space at home to associate that with only money. Maybe it's, um,
some candles, maybe it's some candles, maybe is having a glass of a cup of hot tea and you want to invest in a really nice tea maker, one that you can set to auto make or whatever you need. Again, I'm not talking about this space can only be done with some big ticket dollar item. Again, if that's in your budget and you wanna do that, go be great. But.
Maven Miara (02:32.594)
Don't discount creating a tranquil space for yourself just because this season of your life when you're seeing this video or listening to this podcast does not afford you a big budget to make these type of changes. Think about that. How can you make your bedroom more tranquil? What does that look like for you? Okay. Maybe it's new pillows. Maybe it's a new mattress.
nicer sheets. I don't know. Only you know the thing that is going to help you create a more tranquil space so that your home, your home is your sanctuary. That home could be an apartment, whatever it looks like. That is your space. I want you to be intentional to think about it that way. Again, we're out and about doing a lot of things, being great for a lot of people.
What about you? How do you get to come back home? Or even if you work from home, how do you get to retreat to a part of your home that
You can simply take a deep breath and unwind. Okay. So give that some thought. How can I make whatever that space is more tranquil, a retreat space for myself? Okay. So that's number one. Number two is how can you establish mindful routines? Okay. Mindful. And here's what I want to say around mindfulness.
Mindfulness is not just kind of this vision we see of us sitting still, eyes closed and practicing meditation. That's not the, that is a form of mindfulness, but that is not the only way to practice mindfulness. Maybe that's having a morning routine that allows you to not just pop up, get on your cell phone or on your computer and start working.
Maven Miara (04:40.498)
Maybe that morning routine includes you having some quiet time, maybe some physical activity. My morning routine includes stretching in the morning, not necessarily my physical activity that time of day, but some form of stretching, just kind of warming this 50 something year old body up. Okay. So what could that look like for you? If you're a person that does enjoy working out in the morning,
then maybe that's part of your morning routine. But I want you to think of your morning routine as it relates to your sanctuary, you creating this haven for yourself of not getting up and jumping straight into work, immediately forcing your brain into decision making processes. Maybe it's just a gentle start to your day. And what does that gentleness really look like? Only you can define that for you.
I'm giving you some ideas, some things to think about, some suggestions, but what does that look like for you? For me, it looks like starting with prayer, quiet time, some stretching. Oh, and my delightful cup of coffee. Of course, before I have the coffee, I have one glass of room temperature water, get the system awake gently without throwing the caffeine in there. Okay. That's what my morning routine looks like.
Am I successful at doing that every single morning? I am not. I am not. And I'm gentle with myself on that process. I don't beat myself up because I didn't get it done today. Now I will be intentional to hit reset the next morning and get back on task. Or if at some point throughout the day, I'm like, man, why am I feeling so rushed and anxious? And it's like, Ooh, I skipped past my morning routine. And if
In that moment, I can simply get still and just take some deep breaths and just allow myself to settle down. Then I then I've still gotten some form of mindfulness. Okay. So, so what does that mindfulness look like to you? Be intentional, take some time to figure out what are the things that you can, what, what can you put in your space to create your?
Maven Miara (07:05.582)
Haven at home, your retreat, your tranquil space. And then what is that mindfulness morning routine, even evening routine going to look like for you? For me, my evening routine looks more like the boundaries around getting off technology, not taking my laptop from my office on the second floor down to the living space downstairs. I don't take it because
If I take it, really I'm setting myself up to be on it, to keep working. Right. And although I enjoy my work and the things that I do, we still have to set some boundaries about downtime. Rest. Again, you'll keep hearing me emphasize that if you follow all of my episodes, we have to be intentional to allow ourselves as high performing, high achieving women to slow down. I call it.
downshifting to come out of fifth gear into fourth gear into third gear and the entire world the entire world is going to be fine while you sit your cape to the side sit your laptop to the side sit your cell phone to the side and be intentional about just time for you so
whatever that looks like for me, that's around maybe five something. When I finished working in my office and I head downstairs to start preparing dinner, I leave my laptop upstairs. That way I'm not setting myself up for failure to say, Oh, I'm just going to take it downstairs and you know, surf the web, look on Amazon or Nordstrom.com. No, I'm not going to take it. I'm going to leave it where it is again. That way I'm removing a barrier.
that is gonna entice me to keep, well, I'm just gonna reply to these three emails that I didn't get to, or I'm just gonna finish this one. No, it can wait until the next day. Now, understand this about these routines that I'm talking about. Maybe you can't get to your routine every single day. Maybe there is a day that's gonna require you to work a little later.
Maven Miara (09:30.338)
then you would normally wait, work. Maybe on a day you, you do kind of stop for me, my evening routine, I go make dinner. And then I have to come back up to my office or something. I have a board meeting or there is something critical that I do need to get finished that day. I'm not talking about those types of instances. I'm talking about what are you consistently doing? If you're consistently working, working all evening, every evening,
Yeah, that's an indication that there is an opportunity to create more balance. Remember, we're talking about creating this haven, this sanctuary at home for yourself. So if you're constantly working, when are you going to get to enjoy the sanctuary? OK, so again, I'm not talking about what you are doing here and there. I'm talking about what's consistent, what's part of your more frequent daily routine of doing that.
Okay. Now that's going to lead me to talk about the third and final thought that I want you to be thinking about on creating this haven at home, your sanctuary is how do you create boundaries with technology at home to foster a more peaceful, restful environment? That's it. How, what can you do?
that allows you to set boundaries around technology to create this sanctuary. In the example that I just talked about earlier, is that getting off of your laptop and working at a certain time of day and being done for the day? Is that getting off of your cell phone by a certain time so that your brain can start to downshift as I talk about. So when it's
time to get in the bed and go to sleep. Your brain has already had enough time to kind of cycle down off of all of the amazing things that you've been thinking about doing, solving, fixing throughout the day. Okay. You decide, you know what works for you, what doesn't work for you. And when we're thinking about these things, ladies, do what works for you. Again, I'm giving you suggestions, ideas, things to think about.
Maven Miara (11:56.79)
but I'm not saying what necessarily works for me is 100% going to work for you. You know what works for you. You know what that's going to look like. And here it is. It's some of it's going to be, you've got to figure it out. If you've never set boundaries around getting off your laptop at a certain time, maybe, you know, you are a person that's been taking your laptop to bed and you work until you just fall asleep.
I'm going to ask you to stop doing that today. But what does that look like that now that you're not doing that? What is that evening routine going to look like for me about eight 30? I start my bath routine. I'm a bad person. I love to take a bath, not necessarily a shower. And that is a whole thing of
taking my bath and relaxing and listening to music or watching something on my iPad, whatever that looks like, but it definitely doesn't include work, does not, okay? But that's kind of my full unwind relaxed because when I get out of the tub, listen about an hour later, now I'm ready to head to bed, okay? And whatever that routine is. So maybe that doesn't work for you.
but you've got to figure out what does work in it. Whatever you select doesn't work. Try something else or maybe it needs to be tweaked. Maybe it needs to be a job, whatever that is. Maybe your bad time routine includes a hot tea or wine, whatever it looks like for you. Now, I'm not encouraging you to have a glass of wine every night, but I'm just saying what does that look like for you to decide?
Okay, here's what I'm going to try when I'm creating my sanctuary, my haven at home. Okay. And it's not just about how it your sanctuary has to look a certain way. Aesthetics are important to me, but maybe they're not that important to you, but what works for you? Okay. Know that this haven, this retreat, this tranquility space in your home has to work for you.
Maven Miara (14:18.706)
And if you don't know what that should look like, feel like, smell like all of the things, just start, just start with something. Start with testing it out so that you can create a place that allows you to recharge, reflect and rejuvenate. All right. So Maven Nation, thank you for joining me for this episode of Success With Saneness. And here's to creating peaceful and empowering tranquil spaces Right in our own homes. So until next time keep doing your BAM Thang!
