How to Design your Environmental Wellbeing

Research in environmental psychology has shown that our surroundings have a direct effect on our mental health, and nature has a powerful role in making us feel good. Clinical studies indicate that natural light can significantly improve health outcomes for patients with depression and anxiety. While cluttered spaces cause stress and agitation by increasing cortisol levels in the body, and make us susceptible to making mistakes and giving in to our impulses.

In this article, we’ll give you tips and ideas about how to design your personal space to make it comfortable and fulfilling. Keep in mind that this depends heavily on the purpose of the room, as your home office should inspire creativity, while your bedroom should be calming and peaceful.

Tips to hack your personal space to positively impact mental health:

1. Make sure to have a source of natural light

2. Clear the clutter

3. Place mirrors in dark spaces to brighten them

4. Create layered/indirect light and in warm tones

5. Add lemon scents to energize you

6. Use soft, natural colors to have a relaxing effect

7. Add green color to your working space

8. Use bolder colors to boost your energy

9. Bring nature inside with plants, water and wood textures

10. Diffuse lavender in the bedroom to calm you

Effects of clutter on our Mental Health:

Declutter your space, declutter your mind. It’s been proven through multiple research that messes and clutters can negatively impact our mental health. Here are some ways in which this may happen:

1. Mess equals stress – not knowing where your things are can waste time and make you anxious

2. It doesn’t get easier – as you grow up, decluttering becomes even harder so get yourself in the habits sooner

3. It’s hard to focus on one task when several others are competing for your attention

4. Decluttering makes it easier to clean and avoid suffering from symptoms such as sneezing and itchy eyes due to dust

5. Cluttered and messy homes can make you feel embarrassed to invite friends over, causing you to become socially isolated

6. Clutter can be unsafe as it increases the risk for slips and falls, also too many papers and boxes can become a fire hazard

7. Weak memory have been linked to cluttered spaces, as your mind is wired to only remember a few details at once for a short period of time

8. People who have trouble letting go of stuff they don’t need, can develop a hoarding disorder which has been shown to cause weight gain and insomnia, which can be due to the stress of the mess

Color Psychology:

As mention, certain colors can have a certain effect on us. Ancient cultures such as the Egyptians and Chinese, believed that colors have the ability not just to influence our feelings or mood, but can even have the power to heal. The practiced Chromotherapy which is still used today as a form of alternative medicine.

Based on this, psychologists have come up with a guide to which colors to include in your room decoration to influence your mood and behavior, but it’s also important to remember that the effect of color on us is deeply rooted and personal. So if you don’t like a certain color, it will not have the desired effect on you.