Creating Your Special Place

The special place visualization is one everyone will find useful. It is a special place you can go to relax, center, and feel safe. This is useful in many areas, for meditation and inner work, for self healing, and as a refuge during stress. This exercise is of particular importance if you are doing self work in overcoming the consequences of abuse.

Practice visualizing yoru special place, and then it is portable, and can be called up whenever you have need of it.

Visualize a place either real or imagined that feels peaceful safe to you.

• Is it inside or outside? Use appropriate list for indoor our outdoor setting.
• If inside:
  • What are the colors?
  • What furniture does it have?
  • Where would be the most comfortable place to sit?
  • Will you sit, walk, stand or lay down here?
  • What items will you put there to make it comfortable.
  • Remember this is your fantasy special place, so your budget is unlimited, and you can pull things from across time and space, (i.e. your childhood teddy bear that long since fell apart) if you want to.
  • Do you have special pieces of furniture you really like or have always wanted?
  • Do you have decorations, pictures windows?
  • Are there views of outdoor landscapes from the windows? If so, feel free to use the outdoor paragraph below as well.
  • Remember nobody can come here unless you invite them, this a place that is totally yours, and totally secure.
  • Is there a pet or power animal here?
  • What are the smells?
  • Are there candles or flowers?
  • What sounds (if any) are there?
  • Is there music, an aquarium or fountain bubbling windchimes tinkling?
  • How does it feel?
  • Are there plush carpets, smooth wood floors, earthy ceramic tiles?
  • Are your furnishings velvety, silky, springy or soft?
  • Imagine what it would feel like to be there. The more detailed you make your special place the more easily you will be able to call it up when you want it.
• If outside:
  • What are the colors?
  • What is the landscape like?
  • Is it a beach, forest, meadow, lawn, or mountain?
  • Are there any structures like a boat on the ocean, a cabin in the mountains etc. If so, and you move to inside, you may wish to also use the “If inside” list above.
  • Will you sit, walk, stand or lay down here?
  • What items will you put there to make it comfortable?
  • Would you have anything to sit on besides the ground? Lawn chair, swing, a comfortably shaped boulder or haystack?
  • Remember this is your fantasy special place so it can be any season, any weather, any climate or terrain.
  • Is the sun shining, or is it dawn, a spectacular sunset or a bright moonlit scene?
  • Remember, nobody can come here unless you invite them, this a place that is totally yours, and totally secure.
  • What are the smells?
  • Are there plants, flowers, trees, a stream?
  • What sounds (if any) are there?
  • Is there bird song, wind rustling the leaves?
  • Is there a pet or power animal in your place?
  • How does it feel there?
  • Is it warm, cool, is the wind blowing lightly?
  • Is there sunshine warming you?
  • Is the grass soft, are there firm stones on a mountain path?
  • Imagine what it would feel like to be there. The more detailed you make your special place the more easily you will be able to calf it up when you want it.