Create and Use a Space: Well-Being Practice

This is the suggested Well-Being Practice for week five of the challenge. If this practice does not work for you (for whatever reason), then you can choose from one of our 3 Foundational Well-Being Practices. If you are a veteran player or these three practices are not new to you, then feel free to select from our comprehensive list of Well-Being Practices.

This Week You’ll Create a “Sacred” Space

Simple Instructions:

1. Identify a personal space in your home where you can go to calm and restore yourself.
2. If you do not have a space like that, create one with a ritual token: a candle, an object, a photograph, even a short set of words, like a poem, mantra, or prayer.
3. Use this space for at least 10 minutes a day to meditate, pray, or quietly breathe.

Watch this video for an explanation of this Well-Being Practice from Whole Life Challenge co-founders Andy Petranek and Michael Stanwyck.

Why Is This Practice Important?

Our surroundings can influence so much of what is going on inside of us. It’s easy to be calm and relaxed in a dedicated spot, yet more challenging to do the same in a loud and public space (and sometimes even your home can be loud and public). It can seem that our environment takes control of our experience.

While it’s true that outside stimuli can interfere with our state of mind, it is also true that we can choose how we interact with our surroundings, and even create space ourselves. We don’t have to be at the whim of every bit of stimulation that hits our senses — but achieving this does take practice.

Using token reminders — like a meditation pillow, candle, small stone, photograph, or set of words — can open up a sacred space inside you, no matter where you are. And the more you use that space, the more potent it can become. Rather than having the outside world create your inner state, your inner state can create the outside world, at least your experience of it. And once you have that power, what you do with it is up to you.

For More on This Practice

If you want to talk about creating your own space out of nothing, then Traver Boehm is the guy you want to talk with. Traver (willingly) spent 28 straight days alone in total darkness.

To learn more about why Traver made this choice, what he made of his space, and what he gained from it, listen to his podcast with Andy.

Michael Stanwyck

Michael Stanwyck is the co-founder of The Whole Life Challenge, an idea that developed during his seven years as a coach and gym manager at CrossFit Los Angeles.

He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.

Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.

He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.