ISSUE NO. 07 | April 21, 2025
Rather the podcast version (more ad lib'd + with a touch of warmth and extra bits)? Click the SoundCloud player below... Otherwise, read on and hello!
This is a bit of a mini-series for the next while with an invitation to Sanctuary Social Club. Shall we?
A Prettier Type of Escapism — With a Real Return on Wellbeing
Not all forms of escape are the same. Some numb. Others ignite.
The prettier kind I’m speaking of doesn’t take you away from yourself—it draws you closer.
Closer to your voice.
Closer to joy.
Closer to calm.
It’s a type of beauty that brings you back to rhythm.
Back to breath.
Back to the quiet marvel of being alive.
It’s the kind of sanctuary that doesn’t just look good—it feels good.
And more than that, it offers a true return on wellbeing.
Because Sanctuary Is Not a Pinterest Board. It’s a Practice.
It’s letting yourself be restored by beauty.
It’s standing in a sunbeam and feeling its warmth as more than just temperature—feeling it as presence.
It’s watching leaves shimmer without needing them to do anything more.
It’s letting your nervous system settle because the room you’re in, or the view you’re looking at, or the flower you’ve placed on the table... gives you something back.
That’s the power of sanctuary.
The Science of Soft Beauty Meets Your Soft Era.
One of the most powerful aspects of sanctuary—especially when nature is involved—is its capacity to offer what researchers Rachel and Stephen Kaplan call soft fascination.³ This is the type of attention that gently holds our focus without effort or demand. It doesn’t entertain, it soothes. And that’s precisely why listening to birdsong or watching petals move in the breeze can feel like medicine for the mind.
When you pair that soft fascination with gentle sensory input—light, scent, texture, color—you get a neurological balm. A real, measurable effect on your nervous system¹ ² and on sensory healing.
This is why good sanctuary design is both sacred and scientific. It’s not just about what looks nice—it’s about what helps you heal. And in midlife? We need this more than ever.
We’re tending to our joy.
We’re honoring our cognition.
We’re reclaiming creativity—not just in service of others, but in devotion to ourselves.
We’re writing and rewiring our joy.
Celebrating our change.
Calling all the parts of us that once had to go quiet... back home.
This is what Sanctuary Social Club is about.
It’s not another self-help course. It’s Sanctuary in Motion - the maintenance any good garden needs to flourish.
There Are Big Reasons I Created This Club with Big Returns.
1. Community.
We don’t heal in isolation.
As Dr. Brené Brown reminds us, “True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” In Sanctuary Social Club, we are seen and witnessed. We co-regulate through kindness. We gather in intimate, powerful circle—where depth, beauty, and true belonging are woven through everything we do.
2. Healing Nature.
Every month, we engage with the natural world—not just to admire it, but to receive its medicine.
From sunlight to scent, nature gives back to our bodies, brains, and hearts. In fact, research shows that even a simple view of nature can reduce stress and improve recovery outcomes in hospitals.¹ Nature’s gift, according to environmental psychologist Stephen Kaplan, is this soft fascination—the kind of gentle, undemanding attention that helps our brains rest, recover, and restore.³
3. Creative Play.
We design with emotion and style with our senses to support the subconscious.
We decorate with meaning. We allow beauty to bloom in ways that feel good to us—not for productivity, but for pleasure and for power. In Sanctuary Social Club, we explore feel-good furnishings, sacred symbolism, seasonal rituals, and style that tell our story.
4. Cognitive Renewal.
Midlife is not a mental decline. It’s an invitation into depth, reflection, and new wiring.
Reading deeply. Thinking spaciously, reflectively, critically. Moving our bodies in nature. These aren’t luxuries—they’re brain medicine.² And they’re part of what we do together in the Club.
And here’s a 5th reason:
Because it’s time.
Because women have asked for it.
Because we deserve a soul-deep space where we can breathe, bloom, and be real.
This Isn’t Just a Book Club. Garden Circle. Design Study.
It’s a sacred circle of design, nature, and Divine Feminine remembrance.
Each month, we read something meaningful—contemporary, poetic, empowering. We explore how those words live in our bodies, and how they want to take form in our homes. We work with flowers. As activators. With intention.
We Remember the Part of Us That Feels Most Like Home.
Because sanctuary isn’t only a place.
It’s a way of being.
It’s a slow and paced return to yourself.
A pretty kind of escapism—with a real return on joy.
🌸 This experience begins soon. And enrollment ends very soon > Sanctuary Social Club.
If this feels like your season to come home to beauty, to circle, to sacred play, to divine design —reach out. Text me. Email me. Let’s talk.
No pressure. Just a heart-to-heart invitation to something beautiful.
Until next, take good care of your precious Self,
Footnotes:
Ulrich, R. S. (1984). “View through a window may influence recovery from surgery.” Science.
Berman, M.G., Jonides, J., & Kaplan, S. (2008). “The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature.” Psychological Science.
Kaplan, S. (1995). “The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework.” Journal of Environmental Psychology.
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