Adventures of Helen Sanderson Founder and Director Ministry of Calm

1. Adventures of Helen Sanderson
Founder and Director Ministry of Calm
My name is Helen Sanderson founder and director of the Ministry of Calm. I am also an Interior designer,
personal organiser, author and public speaker.
Ministry of Calm diffuses the noise and chaos of modern life, by offering and championing products and services
that bring about order, calm and quiet. Calm: we believe passionately that the world needs more of it, so our
mission is to spread calm by whatever means necessary. Whether that’s designing a quiet room for prayer and
contemplation, creating an oasis of peace, sacred spaces, meditation or yoga rooms in someone’s home or helping
them de-clutter their life.
I established Quiet Room Designs in 2005 to address the growing need for non-denominational contemplation
spaces in commercial, healthcare and residential environments. In my current role I work with a specialist design
team working with the development of quiet rooms, multi-faith spaces and well-being areas; creating peaceful
spaces whilst embracing the diverse needs of people. Quiet Room Designs has worked with the NHS, Marie Curie
Cancer Care, The Ministry of Justice and Guardian News and Media, Gloucestershire University and South
Tyneside college, to name a few.
In 2008 I launched Calm from Clutter, a natural progression from my passion for creating spaces that support
wellbeing and my work as a professional de-clutterer, personal organiser over many years. Observing the positive
and transformative effects that de-cluttering has had on my clients’ lives, I have witnessed that clearing clutter is a
powerful tool. De-cluttering not only meets a person’s physical need for order, but also for emotional and spiritual
order as well. I work with great empathy and positive energy to support people to restore their inner calm by
making sense in their home again.
I got into this work from a background in the arts creating conceptual spaces, later followed by training as an
interfaith minister; I started to research the prayer rooms that companies provided for their staff. I found that they
were pretty awful. And in the worst cases, little more than a broom cupboard! As an ambassador for all faiths (the
training philosophy was “Many ways; One truth”), I was interested in how the major religions could share space.
From a design perspective, my question was focused on how we could share space AND keep the essence of the
‘sacred’, without it resembling a hospital waiting room - drab dreary and cold. My intuitive relationship with
space, its emotive and healing quality, lead me to design spaces for hospices who needed to offer somewhere for
people to contemplate life’s profound questions or simply to grieve.
I’d had a variety of roles, working in the third sector, retail and business, but I had been looking for a way to
combine my various interests and talents, this is how I came to create my own company, a combination of my
values and talents. It has offered me the opportunity to self-actualize, be my own boss, and to express my gifts,
whilst at the same time offering them back into the world.
As the managing and creative director, I have to do everything! This is a stretch and learning to delegate is
difficult when you have built your dream from scratch, with vision. However, every mother will tell you, you
have to nurture and then let your child go as it matures. When you have spent much time and energy building a
business, it is no wonder people often refer to their business as their baby.
There’s no such thing as a typical day for me. Some days I’m scrambling and others are just back to back
meetings. Sometimes, if a client session is cancelled I breathe a sigh of relief as it gives me a few gifted hours to
catch up on email, write some content for the website, or make some decisions about a design project we are
working on!
What I would have done differently; I would have sought more business experience before launching in and
setting up on my own. I was so passionate about the idea that the practical aspects don’t filter until you are fully
immersed! Learning on the job, whilst paying the mortgage can be stressful, and occasionally I feel overwhelmed,
but I can’t think of anything else I would rather do.
A different career given the choice is difficult to know. I would like to pick up painting again and perhaps mentor

2. and guide people in the future and give back some of the wonderful gifts I have received to others.
One of the biggest challenges for me in business is being a creative! Honestly, we see the world quite differently
sometimes and there can be conflicts between creating something beautiful and making a profit. Creating beauty
is what makes my heart sing with joy. The conflict with the business demands and time pressures of the market
place are a real challenge, but one that I relish. It is a delicate balance and any HR director would understand that
concept of balance, where they need to tend to compassion for individual against the needs of the business.
At the present time I believe I am definitely heading in the right direction. I am supporting myself and not
working for anyone else, which is what I wanted the most. My business has a way to go before I am employing a
big team of people and we all get bonuses, but it is growing and I’m focusing on the important ground work
before getting too big.
We all have a unique offering for the world - you have got to believe in that. I’m clear about who I am, my values,
what I want to express, and what I have to give to the world. I believe it’s a disservice to life to withhold your
gifts and that they can become burdens on your heart if you don’t share them. You don’t have to be a creative
genius, but if you have a clear way of working with people and communicating your ideas, these will be unique to
you and make your expression a success, your own unique selling point.
I think if you ask anyone who is running a small micro business - the business is the number one priority and most
else comes second. It can be hard on relationships, but I think you need a strategy, schedule in special time with
loved ones and take good holidays to support the large amount of work you do and give you brain time out!
Women are great networkers, they connect naturally and today business is about making connections and real
relating, something women are naturally good at. Business today is becoming more and more about
entrepreneurship, it is all changing rapidly due to social media - watch this space! Amanda Palmer and Brene
Brown are some example of the inspirational women you can watch on TED, and how the feminine qualities of
relating and community are becoming more valued.
Women can be very shrewd at the same time keeping their heart intact, which is the quality that is needed for real
change to happen in the world. Women are great leaders, wish there were more of them…but there will be…I feel
very sure and positive about that!
For me my job is all about being creative. If that is creating a new website, a new product, new quiet rooms,
helping someone clear their clutter, and re-order or plan their space - it gives me energy and inspiration. I believe
to be inspired is ‘to be in-spirit’.
For young women looking to enter the field of design, then try and work with a designer whom you respect. Offer
to do their menial jobs and sit in their field – you will absorb what they do, how they do it and learn by sitting in
the same room.
Go out and work in as many areas of their interest as possible, whether that be as an intern, or a clerk, get to know
how it all works and if you have an idea, get a mentor, a sage or a council of elders to help you if you want to
create something. Don’t try and do it all alone, and don’t let the voices of self doubt in your head talk you out of it
either, we all have those, you will learn to know them and ignore them! Try little low-risk ventures, to get the feel
for sales and profit.
I want to leave a legacy where we remember the value of peace, quiet and calm in a chaotic, busy, noisy and
overfull world. My concern is that someday we will pay a premium price for privacy, quiet space and inner calm.
I want to protect those things as our birth given right and the importance they play for our wellbeing.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my adventures and so now to end my story one of my favorite quotes “You must
give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.” –” Joseph Campbell
Helen Sanderson
Founder and Director
Ministry of Calm
07989 230244
helensanderson@quietrooms.co.uk
http://www.quietrooms.co.uk