Building Inner Sanctuary: Somatic and Creative Practices for Grounding When Home Is Complicated
When "Go Home" Means Nothing and Everything
"Go home."
Maybe you've heard it as a slur. Maybe you've said it to yourself in moments of exhaustion. Maybe it's a question you can't answer: Where is home?
For immigrants and diaspora folks, "home" is rarely simple:
Home might be a place you left decades ago that no longer exists as you remember it
Home might be a place you've never been but your parents describe with longing
Home might be nowhere—or fragments of belonging scattered across countries
Home might be a language you're losing or a culture you're translating
When external home is complicated, ambiguous, or lost, you need something different: an internal sense of sanctuary.
A place within yourself that feels safe, grounded, yours—regardless of where you are geographically or culturally.
This post offers gentle, accessible practices to help you build that inner home, brick by somatic brick.
Why You Need Inner Sanctuary
Your nervous system craves:
Safety
Groundedness
Belonging
A sense of "home base"
When your external environment can't consistently provide these (due to displacement, discrimination, cultural dislocation, or chronic uncertainty), your body lives in survival mode—hypervigilant, anxious, never fully relaxed.
Inner sanctuary is a portable sense of home you carry with you:
It exists in your body, not in geography
It's accessible regardless of your external circumstances
It gives your nervous system a place to land when the world feels hostile or confusing
It's yours—not dependent on fitting in or being accepted
Somatic Practice 1: Finding Ground (Literally)
Why this matters: When you're living between worlds, it's easy to feel unmoored, floating, without solid ground. This practice helps your nervous system remember: you are here, you have ground beneath you.
The practice:
Stand or sit with your feet flat on the floor. Remove shoes if possible so you can feel the ground directly.
Notice your feet. Where do they make contact? Can you feel your heels? The balls of your feet? Your toes?
Press down gently. Feel the ground pressing back up to meet you. This is the earth supporting you.
Notice your breath. Don't change it, just notice it moving in and out.
Say (out loud or internally): "I am here. I have ground beneath me. In this moment, I am held."
Stay for 2-3 minutes. Let your nervous system register: I'm here. I'm safe enough. I'm grounded.
When to use this:
When anxiety spirals and you feel unmoored
Before difficult conversations or situations
When you notice you're dissociating or "floating"
As a daily practice to build regulation
Somatic Practice 2: The Body as Home (Interoception)
Why this matters: Many immigrants and trauma survivors disconnect from their bodies (it was safer not to feel). Reconnecting with internal sensation helps you inhabit yourself—your first and most essential home.
The practice:
Find a comfortable position. Close your eyes or soften your gaze.
Scan your body slowly from feet to head. Don't judge what you find—just notice.
Name sensations neutrally:
"I notice warmth in my chest"
"I notice tension in my shoulders"
"I notice my breath is shallow"
"I notice numbness in my legs"
Ask your body: "What do you need right now?"
Sometimes you'll get an answer (water, movement, rest)
Sometimes you won't—that's okay
Thank your body for whatever it's carrying, for keeping you alive, for being your constant home.
When to use this:
Daily, even for 2 minutes
When you feel disconnected from yourself
When you're making decisions (your body has wisdom)
As a way to check in before or after stressful events
Creative Practice 1: Making a Visual Map of Belonging
Why this matters: When belonging is complex and scattered, creating a visual representation helps you see and honor all the places and parts that constitute "home" for you.
What you'll need:
Large paper (11x17 or bigger if possible)
Markers, colored pencils, or crayons
Optional: magazine images, fabric scraps, photos
The practice:
Place yourself in the center. Draw a simple shape or symbol that represents you.
Around you, map the places/cultures/communities that feel like "home" or parts of home:
Your country/countries
Languages you speak
Cultural practices that matter to you
People who feel like home
Creative practices or spiritual traditions
Memories that ground you
Use different colors, sizes, distances to show:
Which feel closer or farther
Which feel more or less accessible
Which bring joy, grief, longing, comfort
Add symbols, words, images from each place/culture that resonate with you.
Notice what emerges. You're not trying to solve anything—just witnessing the complexity of your belonging.
Reflection questions:
What surprises you about this map?
Where do you feel the most belonging?
Where do you feel the most loss or longing?
What parts of this map do you want to strengthen or explore?
Creative Practice 2: Creating an Internal Sanctuary (Guided Imagery + Art)
Why this matters: If external home is complicated, you can build an internal one—a place in your imagination and body that always feels safe.
The practice:
Part 1: Imaginal journey (5-10 minutes)
Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths.
Imagine a place that feels completely safe. It can be:
A real place from your past
A place you've never been but dream of
A completely imaginary place
A combination
Notice details:
What do you see? (Colors, light, landscape)
What do you hear? (Sounds, music, silence)
What do you smell?
What textures are around you?
How does your body feel in this place?
Spend time here. Let your nervous system absorb the safety.
Part 2: Give it form (15-30 minutes)
Open your eyes and create this place:
Draw or paint it
Collage it from magazine images
Write a detailed description
Create a sculpture or 3D representation
Don't worry about artistic skill. This is about giving your sanctuary form so you can return to it.
How to use your sanctuary:
When you're overwhelmed, close your eyes and return to this place in your imagination
Look at the image you created to remind your nervous system that safety exists
Add to it over time as your sense of sanctuary deepens
Creative Practice 3: Honoring What Was Lost (Grief Ritual)
Why this matters: Immigration involves profound loss—of place, language, community, identity. Unacknowledged grief becomes stuck in your body. This practice creates space to honor what was left behind.
What you'll need:
Paper
Writing tools
A candle or meaningful object (optional)
Privacy and time
The practice:
Create sacred space. Light a candle, play meaningful music, or simply set an intention: I'm making space to honor what I've lost.
Write or draw about what you lost through immigration:
Places
People
Language fluency
Cultural practices
Social status or identity
Dreams that don't fit anymore
The person you might have been if you'd stayed
Let yourself feel. Cry, rage, grieve. Your body needs to express this.
Speak to what was lost (out loud or written):
Thank it for what it gave you
Acknowledge the pain of leaving it
Say what you wish you could have said
Decide what you want to do with this:
Keep it as acknowledgment
Burn it as release (safely)
Bury it as return to earth
Tear it up as expression of rage
Close with gratitude for your own resilience in carrying this.
Note: This practice can bring up big emotions. Be gentle with yourself. Have support available if needed.
Creative Practice 4: Reclaiming Cultural Objects and Symbols
Why this matters: Sometimes you've internalized shame about your culture or felt pressure to distance yourself from it. Reclaiming symbols and practices that feel meaningful (on your terms) can be healing.
The practice:
Identify an object, symbol, or practice from your culture(s) that resonates with you:
A traditional craft or art form
A symbol or image
A food ritual
A story or myth
A piece of music or poetry
A spiritual or cultural practice
Explore it creatively in your own way:
If it's a symbol, draw it, paint it, reinterpret it
If it's a craft, learn it or adapt it
If it's a story, retell it in your voice
If it's a ritual, practice it with intention
Ask yourself:
What does this mean to me (not to my family or culture, but to me)?
How do I want to carry this forward?
What parts feel authentic? What parts feel like obligation?
Make it yours. You get to choose what you keep, what you adapt, what you release.
This is about: Claiming your heritage on your own terms, not performing it for others or rejecting it entirely.
Somatic Practice 3: Bilateral Stimulation for Regulation
Why this matters: This technique (from EMDR) helps calm your nervous system when you're activated. It's especially useful for immigrants dealing with chronic stress or hypervigilance.
The practice:
Butterfly hug: Cross your arms over your chest, hands on opposite shoulders. Alternately tap left, right, left, right—slowly and gently. Do this for 1-2 minutes.
Or knee tapping: Sitting down, alternately tap your left knee, then right knee, slowly and rhythmically.
Or eye movements: Hold your head still and move your eyes left to right, following your finger.
Notice: As you do this, your nervous system begins to regulate. Anxiety often decreases. Thoughts may become clearer.
When to use this:
When anxiety is high
Before or after difficult situations
When you notice hypervigilance
As a daily regulation practice
Daily Micro-Practice: One Moment of Belonging
Why this matters: You don't need to resolve your entire relationship with home and belonging. You just need small moments where you feel it.
The practice:
Each day, find one moment—even 30 seconds—where you feel some sense of belonging:
Cooking a meal from your culture
Speaking your mother tongue
Listening to music that feels like home
Connecting with someone who gets it
Creating something
Being in your body without judgment
Notice it. Let your nervous system register: This is belonging. This is home. I can feel it, even briefly.
Over time, these moments accumulate and become a foundation.
You're Building Something No One Can Take Away
External belonging may always be complicated. Countries, communities, families—these can fail you, reject you, misunderstand you.
But the sanctuary you build within yourself? That's yours. Portable. Permanent. A home that moves with you wherever you go.
Continue Your Journey
Next read: "When Your Art Speaks What Your Mouth Cannot: Creativity as a Place of Belonging" explores how creative expression becomes a home for immigrant and diaspora experiences.
Ready for support? If you're in New York State and want a therapeutic space to explore belonging, identity, and family history, book a free 15-minute consultation. Virtual art therapy sessions available—a place where your complexity is welcomed, not simplified.
