How to Create a Meditation Space at Home, Even in a Small Room

Think about the last time you wanted five minutes of quiet at home. Where did you go? If you are like most people, the honest answer is nowhere. The bathroom, maybe, with the door locked and your phone in your hand. Homes are full of rooms for doing things (cooking, sleeping, washing, working) and almost none for simply being.

That gap is the subject of Making Space, a short guide from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition. Its idea is almost embarrassingly simple: if you want to stop rushing, give stopping a place. In this guide you will set one up tonight, in about fifteen minutes, whether you own a house or rent a single room. Then you will learn how to keep it alive, which is where most home meditation spaces quietly die.

The idea behind a breathing room

The book's introduction, written by Brother Phap Dung of Deer Park Monastery, opens with a claim worth testing on yourself: your mind, your body and the space around you are connected. A cluttered, noisy corner makes a peaceful mind harder. A calm corner makes it easier. Brother Phap Dung trained as an architect, and he treats every room as having an intention. His test is refreshingly plain. You are not arranging your home to be photographed. You are arranging it for the people who live in it.

The book calls the result a breathing room, or a breathing corner when a whole room is out of reach. It is not a shrine and it is not a spa. It is a place set aside for one job: to sit down and breathe until you feel like yourself again.

One honest warning from the introduction: a beautiful space does nothing if you are on your phone or your mind is somewhere else. The corner is a helper. You still have to show up.

Why a place beats willpower

Most people try to build a meditation habit with willpower. They promise to sit tomorrow morning, and by Wednesday the promise has dissolved. The book takes a different route. It says that when you sit in the same place each day, it takes less and less time to remember to stop and come back to your breath. The place does part of the work for you.

Here is how we would put it. Every time you sit in the same spot, the spot learns what it is for. After a week, walking toward it feels like the first breath of the practice. That is why the book asks for a place used only for sitting, not the armchair you read in or the sofa where you watch television with your family.

What you actually need

Less than you think. The whole list, in order of importance:

• A place to sit. A cushion, a low bench or a chair.
• A quiet corner, even a small one, that stays mostly empty.
• A feeling of peace, which you create by taking things away, not by adding them.

Everything else is optional: a small bell, a vase of flowers, a candle, a stone or a photograph, an altar shelf. The book is clear that the important elements are a place to sit and a feeling of peace, and that you should not put a lot in the room.

Set it up tonight: fifteen minutes

1. Walk your home slowly. Notice what each room feels like and how it wants to be used. The introduction says every home carries its own character, whether it is a dorm room, a loft or a bungalow, and you get further by working with that character than by fighting it.
2. Choose the corner. Pick a spot away from the television, the desk and the busiest path through the house. Soft light helps. If you can close a door or pull a curtain, better.
3. Clear it completely. Remove everything that is not there for sitting. Empty first, add later.
4. Place your seat. Put the cushion, bench or chair where you will sit every time. Do not keep moving it around.
5. Add one living thing. A small plant or a single flower makes a place feel looked after. The book suggests flowers, pebbles or photographs, chosen together if you share the space.
6. Decide on a sound. The book suggests a small bell. A quiet phone timer works if you have nothing else.
7. Write one word on a card. “Breathe” is enough. Put it where you will see it as you sit down.
8. Test it. Sit for three minutes. Notice what pulls you away, whether it is a cable, a draught or a view of the laundry, and fix that one thing.

You now have a breathing corner. The rest of this guide is about making it work in your particular home.

Seven homes, seven solutions

These are our suggestions, built on the book's principle that any peaceful, open corner will do:

• A studio flat. Use the corner nearest the window. Keep a cushion and a folded blanket in a basket, and set them out each time. A curtain or a folding screen turns the corner into a room.
• A shared bedroom. Agree a time slot with your partner or roommate. Sit on the floor beside your side of the bed, facing the wall or the window, so the bed stops being the centre of the picture.
• A home with small children. Keep it low and simple, and let each child choose one object for the space, such as a smooth stone or a leaf. Children protect what they helped to make.
• An open-plan living room. Pick the corner farthest from the television. The book also suggests making the living room a real living room, one without a television or computer, where the family talks and listens. Even one screen-free evening a week counts.
• A home office. Do not sit at your desk. Take a chair to another corner, face away from the screen, and turn it into your sitting place.
• A rented room. Nothing permanent is needed. Use a tray you can carry: a cushion, a small candle (or an LED one), a stone. Put it down, sit, and put it away.
• A house with a spare room. Resist the pull to store things in it. The book says the room does not need furniture, only a cushion or two and perhaps a small table with flowers.

The seat: choosing what suits your body

The book describes several ways to sit, and its key point is stability. When you find a position where you feel at peace in body and mind, you can stay for a long time.

• A round cushion (a zafu). It should be the right thickness and firmness for you to feel supported. Some people like two cushions and some like none.
• A low bench (a seiza bench). It lets you kneel while supported, which helps if a cushion hurts your knees or lower back.
• A chair. Perfectly acceptable. Sit upright without leaning on the back if you can, with your feet on the floor.
• Lying on your back. If sitting upright is too painful, the book suggests lying down with legs relaxed and arms at your sides.

On the floor, the book mentions lotus, half-lotus, ordinary cross-legged sitting, and what it calls the chrysanthemum position, which simply means any position that is comfortable for you. Whatever you pick, keep your spine straight and rest your hands gently in your lap.

If your legs go numb or your back aches after a few minutes, raise the seat or change position before you decide that you are bad at meditation. If you have ongoing pain, get advice from a health professional. For more on sitting, see How to Sit for Five Minutes.

Bell, flowers and altar: what each one does

The bell. In the Zen tradition you do not ring or strike a bell. You invite it. You can invite it once to begin your sitting and once to end it, and again in the middle if your mind has wandered and needs an invitation to come home. To invite it well, touch it gently first, as if waking it, then breathe in and out and invite a full sound. The book suggests silently saying two short lines to yourself as you listen: the sound brings you back home. Keep a second bell in a busy part of the house, and agree that whenever anyone invites it, everyone stops for three mindful breaths.

Flowers. They are a clock for the space. When they fade, it is time to change them, and the small act of changing them keeps the corner cared for.

An altar. The book suggests a small table or shelf that can hold whatever matters to you: a bell, a candle, a stone, flowers, a photograph, a small statue. The objects are not there to be worshipped. They are reminders of qualities you already have, such as the ability to be mindful, warm and accepting. The book also describes the East Asian custom of keeping photographs of ancestors, which makes people feel rooted. You can do the same with photographs of people who shaped you.

The house agreements

A meditation space in a shared home works only if everyone respects it. The book says to agree in advance that the breathing area is protected. While someone is inside, nobody can shout at them. The book calls this having immunity. If you hear a family member in there, you can support them by lowering your voice, or by quietly joining them. Inside, there is no talking, no arguing and no working things out. You sit and breathe.

Try this five-minute conversation at dinner:

• Say what the space is for: “This is a corner for breathing. I would like us all to be able to use it.”
• Agree the rule: “If someone is there, we do not interrupt unless it is an emergency.”
• Agree the invitation: “If anyone is upset, they can go there. Nobody follows to continue the conversation.”
• Ask everyone to add one small object.

The book tells the story of a boy who did not know how to help when a parent spoke in anger. He was told he could invite that parent into the breathing room to breathe together. Children can hold this idea more easily than adults expect.

Your first week

The most common failure is setting everything up beautifully and then never sitting. This plan avoids it:

• Day 1. Set up the corner. Sit for one minute.
• Day 2. Sit for one minute, at the same time as yesterday.
• Day 3. Sit for three minutes. Notice what tries to interrupt you.
• Day 4. Use the space the next time you feel irritated. Two minutes is enough.
• Day 5. Invite the bell at the start and end of your sitting.
• Day 6. Sit at a different time of day and see which suits you.
• Day 7. Review. What helped? What got in the way? Change one thing.

What to do once you are sitting

You do not have to do anything clever. Three simple options:

• Just breathe. Follow the in-breath and out-breath for a few minutes. See Mindful Breathing Exercise.
• Sit in silence. The book says to sit only to enjoy sitting, with no goal to reach.
• Use a phrase. Silently name the breath, or use one short phrase such as “I have arrived.”

When you are upset, the book suggests going in, closing the door, sitting, inviting the bell and breathing for ten or fifteen minutes. It says you begin to feel better. Even a few minutes is worth it.

Small reminders around the house

The corner works best when the rest of the house helps. The book suggests placing short verses where you will see them, such as by the bathroom mirror, the sink or the front door. You do not need verses. Try one word per spot:

• Front door: “Home.”
• Kettle: “Breathe.”
• Phone charger: “Pause.”
• Bathroom mirror: “Smile.”
• Desk: “One thing at a time.”

Change the words every few weeks so your eyes do not learn to skip them.

Troubleshooting

• “I feel silly.” Everyone does at first. Keep the space small and private, and tell nobody until you want to.
• “I keep forgetting.” Attach sitting to something you already do, such as after your first coffee or before you brush your teeth at night.
• “The kids barge in.” Invite them in for one minute rather than fighting it. The space is for the family.
• “It became a shelf for stuff.” Clear it and start again. A space that fills up has stopped being a space.
• “I fall asleep.” Sit upright, in better light, and earlier in the day.
• “It is too noisy.” The book says sounds are not enemies. They can be part of your awareness, like birdsong. Distraction only comes when you forget to be present.

What a corner cannot do

A quiet corner is a good support. It is not a treatment. If you feel low, anxious or exhausted for weeks, speak to a doctor or a qualified professional. Use the corner alongside that help, not instead of it.

Try this tonight

Before bed, spend ten minutes doing steps 1 to 4 above. Tomorrow, sit for one minute. If you want a guide for the sitting itself, read Mindful Breathing Exercise next, and then Deep Relaxation Before Sleep for the night.

This article is general educational information about a mindfulness practice, not medical or psychological advice.