Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again. – Joseph Campbell

There is a place within us that is sacred. A place that is whole and holds us, open and spacious, loved and loving. But, being creatures ensnared in an increasingly unnatural and external world, we forget that it’s right there in all of us.

It never actually goes away; it just gets a little bit lost, or rather we misplace it like our keys, leaving it haphazardly in an incongruous place. And we very much need it (and our keys)! If we just could put it in a bowl by the front door, maybe we could find it more easily and hold on to it. Maybe that’s what we need: a vessel to hold our sacredness and a practice to remember it’s there.

So, how do we return to that sacred place within us? How do we reconnect to our deepest selves? How do we create a vessel deep enough to hold what’s most sacred within us?

We all know when we’ve touched the sacred in ourselves. Too often it’s while we’re on vacation–probably about day five–when everything that we’re holding or juggling or denying simply falls away. Suddenly, we look around and the world looks brighter and yet softer. We are filled with a sense of wonder at its beauty. We feel more open, spacious and loved. THAT is the sacred.

We all want more of that feeling, but, as we know all too well, it’s fleeting. The glow that comes from that sacred place that we’ve reactivated begins to fade as we gear up for re-entry into the crazy outside world. The glow more than fades, it dies.

There are certain places within nature that call up the sacred within us. A rushing waterfall in the midst of a forest, an isolated beach with waves crashing on the shore, a preternaturally calm and glassy lake at dawn. What each of these sacred places evoke is a silence within us, one where we can touch and listen to a deeper part of ourselves.

Our physical bodies too can reach this sacred place through sports, dance, singing,  yoga, running and meditation. The expansiveness we feel is both an inner and an outer one. Our vessel gets really huge before it contracts and shrinks and collapses in on itself. Ultimately what we are all seeking is a held expansion.

When do you feel fully connected to yourself? What is your way of touching the sacred within?

Find it, feel it and fold it in to yourself. Say to yourself over and over again, “I want to hold on to this feeling,” until it becomes a mantra.

Creating a vessel or container to hold it (a “bowl by the front door”) is a way of reminding ourselves that it’s there and needs to be filled. I literally have a bowl by my front door where I place stones and shells I gather when I go to my sacred place at the beach. I touch them when I’m starting to feel disconnected from myself. Your touchstones could be anything. A picture on your fridge. A talisman in your pocket. A mantra you repeat to yourself.

Sometimes, if I’m truly honest with myself, even my touchstones are not enough to fully bring the sacred into life. It becomes a glimmer rather than a prolonged glow, and I’m reminded to make more time for those things and places that bring me back to myself. To know that I need this in my life in order to feel whole is humbling.

On my soul’s journey, I have discovered other deeper ways of touching the sacred– creating an altar to honor, and remind me of, the sacred that inspires me with its beauty; accessing sacred wisdom through ceremony; and understanding the messages of my dreams. It’s there that I find what’s at the root of my disconnectedness, the cause of my sadness, and most importantly, the way home to the sacred and to myself.

In my next blog post, I’ll go deeper into these awesome catalysts that allow us to access, expand and extend the sacred within us. Let’s keep that sacred glow alive.