What Makes a Place Feel Like Home?

(object hissing) (object clicks) (gentle music) Headspace Studio. (bright music) Hi there, welcome to Radio Headspace, it's Dora. So lately, I've been thinking a lot about home, belonging, and identity. I'm preparing to move across the country, and as I've been packing up my life, sorting through what stays and what goes, I keep asking myself, "What am I actually looking for?" I think when we're making big changes like moving, unknowingly, there's something that we're after. Is it a place? Maybe it's a feeling. A sense of finally arriving somewhere that fits. And this question brings me back to a trip I took a few years ago, one that completely reshaped how I think about belonging. I was traveling to Kenya, that's where my mom is from, and I had this unspoken promise with me that once I arrived, something would finally click, that I would feel at home in a way I never had before. Since I was born and raised in Canada, there's always been this part of me that has longed for home. So when I landed in Nairobi late in the evening, the air was warm and thick with the smell of rain and red earth. My aunt picked me up from the airport, and we drove through the city past matatus, blaring music, street vendors closing up their stalls, families walking home under streetlights. Everything felt both familiar and foreign at once. The first few days were beautiful, and I was welcomed with warmth, with meals that stretch long into the evening, with stories about my mom's childhood and with laughter. Then slowly I started to notice something. The way people would pause when I spoke, they would ask, "So where do you live?" And when I would say California or that I was born in Canada, they'd nod and say, "Ah, so you're American." I know it was never said with malice, it was just fact to them. But to me, it felt like a door closing. I think sometimes we can carry this hidden hope that the right place will give us what we've been missing, that once we arrive somewhere, something will finally click. We'll feel happier, more fulfilled, more seen, more settled. But here's what I'm learning. Belonging cannot be outsourced to a location. A place can support us, inspire us, even transform us, but it can't do the work of belonging for us. And when we realize that, it can feel sobering, maybe even heartbreaking. It's not that the place is wrong, but it could be that we're being asked to shift something deeper. We're being asked to build home from the inside out, not the outside in. (rain gently pattering) (gentle music) I remember when I traveled to India a few years ago to study yoga. I traveled to Rishikesh for a yoga teacher training retreat, and India holds so much meaning for me. It's the birthplace of yoga, a place I had long associated with wisdom, healing, and spiritual...