So much of how we feel relates to our environments. If we are in positive, healthy surroundings, we automatically feel better. If we are in dirty or dangerous places, we feel worse.
You’ve probably experienced this yourself. When you’re commuting to work, you feel tired and sick sitting in a stuffy train carriage. But when you are on vacation walking through nature, you feel positive and happy. Everything feels different.
Given that the average person spends around 90 percent of their time indoors, this post focuses on the little tricks that you can use to turn your home into a sanctuary of wellbeing. You’ll be surprised at just how much difference small changes can make.
Bring Inside And Outside Together
Being outside is important for our wellbeing. But often the weather is too wet or there aren’t opportunities near us to get out into proper sunshine. Parks are few and far between.
Fortunately, there are ways that you can bring inside and outside together in your home. You can do this by using bi-folding doors or even installing large skylights in roof spaces. The more glass you have, the more pronounced the effect will be. Having that connection to your garden helps to bring the outdoors inside and can have a dramatically positive effect on your overall mood.
Use Wintertime Shades
We typically associated winter colors with feeling depressed. But it turns out that using shades indoors can help you feel calm and relaxed.
Just think about how you feel on dim grey days when it is raining outside the window. Most people feel a deep sense of relaxation and peace. Even though the weather is bad, it can help make everything feel cozier.
If possible, create a winter theme by using colors like mellow sage or clay. These dull colors can help to create a deep sense of relaxation in your interior spaces that regular white emulsion can’t.
Use Sustainable Materials
Sustainable and natural materials have a similar effect on your wellbeing. Again, they make you feel cozy and they mimic scenes that you might find in nature, helping you calm down.
Rustic wood is incredibly popular right now. So is stone. These materials connect you with nature and create a genuine sense of wellbeing. Many people opt for worn-away patterned tiles to resemble the natural aging process, giving their interiors instant character. Popular flooring materials include sisal with wicker elements for furniture and furnishings.
Create A Story Wall
You should dedicate at least one wall in your home to telling a story about how you got to where you are now. Buy a picture frame collection and then hang them artistically in a pattern on the wall displaying different times in your life. Having a feature like this in your home helps you stay grounded and makes you feel like you are really settling into your accommodation.
Find A Slot For Everything
Clutter is the enemy of relaxation. When you have objects strewn all over the place, it can interrupt your flow and leave you feeling a little anxious.
You can fight this by designating a spot for everything in your home. It shouldn’t be too sparse that your rooms feel bare, but they also shouldn’t be so cluttered that they are full as well.
Rethink Your Interiors
According to the Royal Institute of British Architects, around 70 percent of people believe that the arrangement of their interior spaces affects their wellbeing. Thus, how you organize your interiors makes a tremendous difference to how you feel.
Think carefully about whether you are arranging your furniture in the right way. Is everything stuffed back against the walls? Or do your interiors have a genuine flow about them?
Try to think carefully about how you configure your space and whether there is anything you could do to improve your wellbeing. Is your bed facing the right way, for instance? Or could you transfer your home office to a different room to provide more natural daylight? Little changes like this can make a big difference in how you feel.
Cut Out The Chemicals
Thanks to commercial products, the average person’s home contains hundreds of different chemicals. Worryingly, regulators don’t know how these compounds affect wellbeing. But there is growing evidence that they may not be as safe as we have been led to believe. VOCs that outgas from furnishings and paint, for instance, could make you feel anxious and depressed.
Employ Feng Shui Principles
The Chinese have been creating interiors for peace and wellbeing for thousands of years. Their approach is called Feng Shui, and it’s designed to enable you to make your interiors work for you (instead of the other way around).
The best place to start is by tidying up. Every space in your home needs to flow. The next step is to provide each item with a specific place. Magazines, for instance, should be stacked neatly on top of side tables. Each room should flow into the next.
Achieving Feng Shui helps to create positive energy in your home. You experience a greater degree of mental clarity that allows you to get more done and enjoy your life more.
Use More Natural Light
Humans need lots of natural light throughout the day to be at their best. If they don’t get it, it can profoundly change how they feel.
You’ve probably experienced this during short days in the winter. When the sun barely rises above the horizon, it can make you feel depressed.
The solution to this is to increase the quantity of natural light that’s able to get into your home. The best way to do this is to add a roof window atop a kitchen extension or bathroom conversion. Allowing light to flood down directly into your home dramatically changes how it feels.
Separate Your Workspace
Lastly, if you’re working from home because of the pandemic, be sure to separate your workspace from the rest of your home. Don’t mix the two. If you do, it could cause you far more stress than necessary.
