Your Safe Space Within: How to Become Your Own Happy Place

What if your happy place wasn’t a beach or a vacation… but you? 

We often look for peace in places, people, or perfect moments. But what if you could carry your sanctuary within you—wherever you go?

On the 6/7 podcast episode, we dive deep into becoming your own safe space and happy place. 💛

You'll learn:
 🔸 How to create inner calm, no matter what's happening around you
 🔸 Daily habits for emotional resilience & self-love
 🔸 Why joy and safety don’t have to be outsourced
 🔸 How to stop chasing peace—and start becoming it

You don’t have to wait for the world to be still or others to understand you. The journey back home to yourself starts now. 💫

 💌 Know someone who needs this? Share it with them. Let’s build our inner homes—together.

Transcript

What if your happy place didn’t require a beach, a getaway, or even the presence of others? In this episode, we explore how to become your own sanctuary—how to build inner peace, emotional resilience, and joy from the inside out. Discover the mindset shifts, boundaries, and daily habits that help you create a space of safety and happiness within yourself, so that no matter what life throws at you, you always have a place to come home to: you.

Welcome, welcome, welcome and thank you for being here. Did you just find us...then welcome to the family! Are your returning...glad to have you back! And if someone sent this to you, it sounds like they want you to find your happy place, your safe space, your place of love because that’s what we’re talking about today. So what’s your happy place? If you were to ask me for an actual place, it would be the beach, any beach...preferably warm Bahamas beach but I’ll take a refreshing beach in Maine as well. But my happy place might also be wherever family and friends are, hanging with them playing games and laughing. But what if you didn’t have to go anywhere or be with anyone to have your happy place? What if you had your own safe space to feel loved...to get that warm fuzzy? What if I said you could always be in your happy place and take it with you wherever you go?

What if we could carry our sanctuary within us to truly have that home away from home so that in effect you are never truly away from your home because you carry it within you? Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about today to help you create that warm loving space inside of you. Traditionally, we seek this safety and our happy place in people, places, or circumstances. We look for comfort in relationships, peace in familiar settings that provide comfort, we look for joy in temporary escapes, like going to the beach. But what if the warmth and feeling of home has always been there just waiting for you to visit?

The truth is, we can become our own safe space. We can become our own happy place. This is not just a woowoo idea, it’s not just a saying to be said...it’s a powerful, practical path to emotional resilience, mental well-being, and finding self connection and self awareness on a deeper level. Becoming your own safe space means creating and growing an internal environment where you feel secure, valued, accepted, and loved—regardless of what's happening externally. Becoming your own happy place means discovering joy, contentment, and peace within so that no matter who’s around you or not around you, what is going on around you or any other external circumstances or situations, you still keep that internal place inside you strong, creating that true happiness from within.

In this podcast today, we’ll explore how to build that inner sanctuary. We’ll look at the mindset shifts, habits, and emotional tools you can develop to become the person you can always come home to, your home away from home. And isn’t that what we all want...that feeling of home, unconditional love, knowing we are safe. Doesn’t that sound amazing...and it’s possible and in fact available to all of us.

Before diving into the how, it’s important to understand the why. Why should you invest in becoming your own emotional anchor? Well, everything in this world is temporary, your job, your relationships, your emotions, the weather...and the only constant that you have any power over is you. Relationships shift. People change. Circumstances evolve. If your sense of safety and happiness depends entirely on these externals, you will constantly feel at the mercy of them, your home gets built on a moving, unpredictable foundation. When you rely solely on others for comfort, to create that happy place, to create that safety for you, it’s not only just an illusion of happiness and safety, but you are also giving away your power and turning over the only thing you can control to someone else.

But when you cultivate inner safety and joy, you build emotional independence. This doesn't mean isolating yourself or never needing others—it means not being dependent on them for your basic emotional well-being. Yes they can add to your happiness but I”m talking about the root base feeling in your soul. Being your own safe space allows you to weather storms without drowning. It allows you to soothe yourself when things feel like they’re falling apart. You begin to rebuild from the inside out and trust yourself more deeply and you begin to truly love yourself unconditionally.

The foundation of inner safety is self-compassion. It means treating yourself with the same kindness, patience, and care that you’d offer your best friends or those around you that you care about. Many of us have nasty and negative inner voices that replay and repeat old stories...these voices tell us we’re not enough, that we should be doing more, being more, achieving more, or you’ll never be what everyone needs you to be. They make our inner world feel hostile and unsafe so how the heck do you create that happy place in that kind of environment? The simple answer is you can’t. But you can change it. To counter this, practice catching your inner critic in action and replacing the meanness with gentleness. Become more of the witness to your self talk and less involved in it. So when you make a mistake, and your first thought is “I’m so stupid, I can’t believe I did that, what an idiot”...observe that and then speak using your name so you become the witness that counters that thought. “Shirley, you are not an idiot, you are an intelligent woman. You made a simple mistake. We all make mistakes”

This isn’t about ignoring your flaws; it’s about creating a nurturing environment where growth is possible. When you become aware of that inner voice and you catch it, you can speak it away and call it out...saying “Shirley, thank you but no thank you, that’s not helpful right now. Let’s try something positive and effective.” You’re cleaning your safe space and removing the negative dust bunnies in your mind and shining the light in the corners. Becoming your own safe space means learning to sit with your emotions instead of suppressing or fearing them. Inner safety is not the absence of difficult feelings—it’s the ability to hold them without judgment so you can see them, and then release them.

Start by naming your emotions: “I feel anxious,” “I feel lonely,” “I feel hurt.” Identify how you feel because feelings are temporary, try not to say I am anxious, I am lonely, I am hurt because you are then telling yourself you ARE that feeling which leads to wrongly believe it’s more permanent. Then allow yourself to feel those emotions without rushing to fix them because sometimes that takes time and as they say you have to feel it to heal it. Instead comfort yourself the way you would comfort a child or friend. Say things like, “Shirley, It’s okay to feel this way,” or “This will pass. You’ve survived hard things before.” The more you practice this emotional self-support, the safer you will feel in your own presence and the more you remember that this too shall pass.

Enforcing your boundaries are also really important for your internal happy place...they aren’t just about keeping others out—they’re about keeping yourself safe inside. Some important boundaries can be saying no to things that drain you, creating time and space for your own rest and just generally protecting your peace. Setting boundaries with others might mean distancing yourself from toxic relationships or situations that compromise your well-being. Setting boundaries with yourself might mean turning off your phone at night, limiting or challenging your negative self-talk. Boundaries are an act of self-love and self-respect. They tell your mind and body: “You are worth protecting” so the more you enforce them, the more love you will feel for yourself naturally.

Safety is the foundation, but happiness is what grows from it, it’s the internal home you build on that foundation. Once you’ve created an environment of inner safety, you can begin to cultivate inner joy.

When was the last time you did something just because it made you smile? As we become adults and start doing all those adulting things we need to like getting a job, paying bills, taking care of kids or elder parents, it’s easy to abandon joy and forget to have fun. But it’s so incredibly important to keep joy in your life. Start small: dance in your room, paint something even if you paint it badly, listen to your favorite songs, or spend time in nature. Schedule “joy breaks” into your day where you do something lighthearted or fulfilling without any pressure to perform...act silly without caring what anyone thinks...laugh openly, sing out loud. Becoming your own happy place means giving yourself permission to enjoy your own company, to play without judgment, and to experience life with more curiosity. When was the last time you wondered...Sat and thought or looked at something and truly just wondered?

Happiness lives in the now, but we spend so much time in the past or future that we miss it..we miss the happiness in the now, right now. So do this right now...look around you. Feel what’s around you, smell what’s around you. This becomes the practice of mindfulness and gratitude...really look at that beautiful flower outside your window, smell the coffee that’s in your mug, feel the soft fluffy rug in your toes. Take deep breaths and really be where you are. This anchors you in the beauty of the present moment, where joy may be quietly sitting and waiting without you even realizing it until you focus on it.

Inner safety and happiness are not one-time achievements; they’re ongoing practices so that you always have your happy place and your safe space. So no matter when you really need it, it’s there. As the saying goes, no matter where you go, there you are so make sure that wherever and whenever you are, your happy place is ready to receive you.

Make sure you do those small things daily that will keep your internal home warm and cozy. Check in with yourself daily...how am I feeling today? What do I need more of today, or what do I need less of to keep my peace? Maybe do some mindful breathing where you’re really focused on your breath in and your breath out as you see, smell and touch what’s around you...those flowers, the grass, your coffee. Identify your feelings and flip the script on that negative voice. Repeat loving truths to yourself like “I am enough”, “I am worthy of love”, “I don’t have to please or fix anyone or everyone”. And maybe end your day with reflection, gratitude or whatever else soothes you...maybe some ocean music. These small, consistent rituals tell your mind and body that you are here for yourself. That no matter what, even if no one else shows up, you will always show up for yourself.

At the heart of being your own safe space and happy place is trust. Do you trust yourself to be kind to yourself? To honor your needs? Do you take care of your heart? Many of us have internalized stories that say we’re not enough, not lovable, or not safe. Becoming your own sanctuary means rewriting those stories. Affirm your worth daily. Speak to yourself with dignity. Make promises to yourself—and keep them. When you slip and trust me you will because we all do, forgive yourself quickly and lovingly. Over time, you become someone you trust. Someone you want to be around. Someone you’re comfortable with in your solitude.

When you become your own safe space and happy place, you stop chasing wholeness in the wrong places...you’ve always been whole, you don’t need a better half...you are your whole better self. You stop settling for crumbs. You stop abandoning your self love in order to keep looking for love from others. Instead, you create from the fullness you have within. You begin to love yourself and then you give more love to others from your own overflow

Your strong safe place helps you build healthier relationships because you no longer accept less than. You make decisions from a stronger, more grounded place and others will see this. Those that can’t offer the best of themselves will no longer gravitate to you, you will see them and turn away but you will also begin to inspire others...they will want what you have and you can help shine the light for them so they begin to seek their own internal safe space.

You become the calm in the chaos. The light in the dark. The home you’ve always longed for.

Becoming your own safe space and happy place is not about isolation. It’s about liberation. It’s about no longer outsourcing your peace to others or postponing your joy for some other time. The time is now...so what will you do today...what one small change will you make to begin creating that space for yourself? What will you do to being to realize that the love, the comfort, and the belonging you seek outside of yourself already lives and has always lived within you? And who will you share this with? Who do you know that also needs that comfort, who also needs to create their internal home, to find their peace and joy again? Who can you share this podcast with that really needs to hear it?

While we always talk about beginning with one small change, it really is a lifelong journey—one that leads you back to yourself again and again, each time with more presence, more grace and kindness and more self love. You don’t have to wait for the world to be calm, or for people to understand you, or for everything to be perfect. You can choose, in this moment, to begin the beautiful work of becoming the person you can always come home to. You can begin to create your happy place, your safe space, your always home space...little by little and peace by peace.