In a previous article we discuss how your environment affects your well-being. The simplest answer is that your home can impact not only your physical health but also your mental health. Things such as mold, poor air quality or even the temperature has an impact on your physical health. Your mental health can be impacted by the amount of sunlight, artwork, or the people in your home. Do you have a lot of clutter in your home? This clutter could be a physically representation of the clutter in your thoughts. That’s why the home is the gateway into your mindset. Let’s take a closer look at this and how we can use it to improve our life.
How your home affects your health and well-being
To really understand how this impacts you lets think about a couple of examples. I want you to imagine that you are about to enter your home. As you open the door you look down and see clothes, boxes, old electronics and pet hair all over the floor. So much so that it is covering every square inch of the floor. As you imagine this, how are you feeling? Did you notice a bit of tension? What if instead of coming home to a mess you can home to hearing your family screaming at the top of there lungs. Again, did you notice the tension?
Now, imagine instead of the scenario we described, when you came home you were greeted to a clean home filled with lots of sun light. Instead of hearing your family screaming you heard laughter and jot. How different would you feel when compared to the first example? I bet if you could choose (which you can) you would pick the second example.
These examples really help to show how you are impacted by your Home. Tension leads to stress and excessive stress is one of the leading causes to both physical and mental health. While, a home filled with job and lots of sunlight can reduce stress and really shift your mindset. Some of you may come home to an environment like the first example so stress should come as no surprise. But what is it doing to you?
What is constant stress doing to me?
This is a very important question to understand. It’s impossible to be under continuous stress and not see any impacts in your life. Especially if the stress is caused by your home environment. This about home much time you spend in your Home.
Stress puts your mind in a state of fight or flight. This impacts your ability to make decisions, think clearly, it increases your heart rate, blood pressure, and the list goes on. Stress shuts down the body and mind and puts you in emergency mode. This might be good in an emergency, but we are not designed to stay in this mode constantly. Originally, it was designed as a self preservation tool not as a constant state of mind. Its like Irving your car constantly at the redline, yes, a car can go to the redline temporarily but if you keep it there eventually the engine is going to die. You need to protect your engine!
Let see what the experts have to say about stress
The impacts of stress on the mind and body have been well documented. While stress is a normal part of life and is even required for growth, excessive stress has been shown to be one the leading causes for several issues. As documented by Mayoclinic (From Mayoclinic) Stress has been shown to have the following impacts on you health and well-being:
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On your body |
On your mood |
On your behavior |
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Headache |
Anxiety |
Overeating or undereating |
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Muscle tension or pain |
Restlessness |
Angry outbursts |
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Chest pain |
Lack of motivation or focus |
Drug or alcohol misuse |
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Fatigue |
Feeling overwhelmed |
Tobacco use |
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Change in sex drive |
Irritability or anger |
Social withdrawal |
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Stomach upset |
Sadness or depression |
Exercising less often |
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Sleep problems |
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3 ways you can reduce stress in your home
Remove Clutter and Garbage
If your Home is a gateway into your mindset then it should come as no surprise, remove clutter and clean the mind. Clutter not along attracts dust and bugs that impact your physical health, it can also represent how you are feeling inside. Sometimes we cling to the past by keep stuff we really don’t need. Decluttering can b the physical representation of you letting go of the past. This is why it can be so beneficial to your health.
Open a Window to Bring in Some Sunlight
One of the biggest impacts in our Home is the amount of Sunlight. The amount of Sunlight we get has been proven to boost serotonin. This is the "happy" chemical in our brain that is helps to give us more energy and keep us calm, positive, and focused. You can’t be calm and stressed at the same time! By simply changing the amount of sunlight in your home you can significantly boost your mood
Add Positive Artwork to Your Home
Art looks great and can help create a positive environment. Take for example a motivational art piece that tells you to keep pushing. This simple positive design are powerful pieces that can help to motivate you daily. Even having something in the house that say "I am Healthy" can help you to create the healthy person you want to be. This is something that I have personal experience with and strongly believe that something as simple as Art can make all the difference.
You Home Is Key to Your Well-being
By now you’ve realized just home important you Home is to your well-being. It can be difficult to make changes to every aspect of your life but making small changes to your Home can have big impacts. All you need to do is decide what you want your life to be and then transform your Home to fit your vision. We said it before, change your environment and you can change your life! Do you want to have that change now?