Are You Feeling At Home With Yourself?

Exploring why it is important to be comfortable and at ease with yourself

“People usually are the happiest at home.” ~ William Shakespeare

If you look at your inner self and ask, “Am I feeling at home here, in this body, in this life journey?” what would your answer be? If it is not our job to take care of our inner selves and give ourselves the space, safety, and care that we need, then whose job is it?

Home sweet home

You know the common phrase, “home sweet home”? What does home mean on a deeper level, and why is there no place like home? Is there a place within you that gives you a sense of safety — where you can be at ease and just feel at home with yourself? Let us look at the qualities of a sense of home and explore the inner parallel.

At home, you are known and accepted

In a healthy home environment, you are generally known and accepted for who you are — there are no pretenses, and there are no expectations to be anything other than yourself. Is it like this for you inside yourself?

The beginning of wisdom is sometimes known as knowing yourself, yet we are often the one person we do not try to get to know. And ironically, as much as we want others to accept us for who we are, it is often us who are the first to point the finger at ourselves. When we allow ourselves to be free with ourselves and to express ourselves honestly, then we get into a state where life can flow through us. It is in this state of honest being that growth can happen as we need to be able to see ourselves in truth to transform.

Is there a warm embrace waiting for you from yourself?

We don’t always give the outside world our complete inner truth because some parts of ourselves are personal, dark, socially unacceptable, etc. And it is mature to give only what is appropriate in different situations — We don’t mean that it is right to lie, of course not — yet it is not right to naively give too much vulnerability to just any situation. So, if we can’t just be all we are everywhere and always, where is the safe place to be it all? We think that safe space is with yourself, or that is where it starts anyway. Is there a warm embrace always waiting from you — for who you are in all your completeness or all your brokenness at any point in time? This doesn’t mean you have to like everything about yourself, but do you embrace all of yourself lovingly? Your inner being is seeking your embrace. When a naughty child arrives home, we expect his parents to open the door and welcome him regardless. Do you expect and give yourself that too?

What do you need?

You may love having space for yourself, and you may love silence. We are beings that want to expand. Part of your self-care needs to be the space, time, and silence in which you can expand. What do you need? Do you know what makes you feel at home at this time in your life? It may be different for you now to how it was before. What are your needs now? As we move through our journey and different experiences, phases, and growth, our needs may change. There isn’t a set way for each of us throughout life — especially if we are the kind of people who want to change things about ourselves. You may need to have your alone time to connect with others meaningfully. Do you give yourself a break alone to connect with yourself?

The sanctuary is within

When we are tired from a long day we go home to rest. When you are tired from anything you find heavy in life do you have a sanctuary within yourself to go into to rest? There is no place like home — this means that there is no one who can give you rest like you can give yourself rest.

How to maintain the inner home

The home needs maintenance at times. Things break from wear and tear, and sometimes they need time and attention to be fixed or replaced. If we observe ourselves, we can notice and take care of the internal equivalents. We can see when our emotional drain is blocked, and we can add some clearing energy of forgiveness or gratitude to our emotional state. We will notice when the spring in our step is tired because we put too much strain on ourselves with unreasonably high demands. Is the tap of your thoughts overworked, and does it need a brand-new washer? Should you be more careful not to close it so tightly in the future? Do you need to loosen your control, and open up your mind a little, and let things flow with a little more faith?

A safe place within yourself

At home, we want to be safe from harm. And on our human journey, our inner self also wants to be kept safe. We’re not saying we should keep ourselves in a comfort zone — not at all — but that doesn’t mean we have to live in a danger zone either. We can become too harsh in today’s world of attacking our problems, our flaws, and ultimately ourselves. We can challenge ourselves more healthily by lovingly keeping ourselves safe, and by moving through our problematic behaviors carefully and with consideration instead of bulldozing over ourselves in anger. This is a peaceful approach to self-development, and therefore promotes external peace too — so within, so without. Are we good protectors of our inner selves? Do we check in to check if we are okay?

There’s no feeling worse than feeling trapped in your own home. Don’t do that to your inner self — make a good loving vessel for your journey — care, loving self-talk, honesty, and understanding are part of a healthy self environment.

Meditating upon the inner home

We challenge you to look around yourself — what do you see? Are you taking better care of your house than you are of yourself? Or does your house speak to the inner state of your being? Are you neglecting something on the outside that is a reflection of inner neglect? Is there something that you need to let go of, or repair? Do you see what is around you, and do you see what is inside you? We encourage you to lovingly reflect and meditate on this to promote self-improvement in a caring way. You may be surprised by what you uncover. There are many ways to meditate, and this is just another way to meditate — to reflect deeply upon the physical and to find the meaning of life hidden within the seen realities.

Let’s make ourselves feel like we are at home with ourselves. Life is hard enough! We should surely at least try to make peace with ourselves!