The mind is affected by many things, including the state of your home. The color of the walls, the airiness of the living spaces, and the calming effect exuded by your home will affect your mental health. When you turn your home into a chaotic mess, it may clutter your mind. A cluttered mind consequently leads to increased stress and anxiety levels. 

Since our physical and psychological processes constantly interact and are closely connected. Therefore, whatever affects the mind affects our physical well-being. So, you may end up hurting your physical vitality if you neglect your mental health. What’s more, when we tend to our mental robustness, we enhance our resilience and ability to bounce back from a mental strain. 

So, how can we let our homes fortify our mental well-being? How can we create nourishing spaces for our mental buoyancy? Well, we’ll explore how we can set up wholesome homes for our mental well-being.  

Curb Seasonal Blues with Lots of Natural Light 

Most people often experience seasonal blues during the cold seasons when everything gets dark and cold. As the days become shorter, sunlight becomes scarce, and fun activities take a break. You may feel sad. The sadness may last throughout the cold season. 

Some cases may progress to depression. Feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness may overwhelm us. If neglected, it may render us unproductive. In extreme cases, cold-triggered depression may cause suicidal thoughts and behavior.

Certain factors like lack of vitamin D predispose some people to severe depression during the cold seasons. But you can fend off the seasonal blues by turning your home into a nourishing space.

Light is a potent remedy physicians use to manage and treat winter blues. Start by pouring lots of daylight into your home. Ensure that every room in your house receives heaps of natural light. You’ll soak in, harvest, and store vitamin D you can use during winter. Install windows in windowless rooms, especially if you plan on turning the space into a study or office. Supplement the natural lighting with bright, reflective, and colorful walls. As you paint your home, ensure the colors on the wall match the aesthetics of your home.    

Discard Clutter

Clutter causes mental stress. Your anxiety or stress levels soar each time you dig into a pile of books to get your car keys or wade through a pile of dresses to get the outfit of the day. Our kitchens tend to be the most cluttered space in most homes. It also gets messier than any other space around the house. If left uncontrolled, the mess and clutter may cause haywire eating habits. In 2016, some researchers established that women are likely to develop bad eating habits because of a messy kitchen. Feeling overwhelmed by the messiness pushed them to overeat. 

Therefore, consider rearranging and remodeling your cabinets, shelves, or countertops if you’ve been battling a widening midsection. You may have to rethink the decor pieces in the kitchen, using the countertop as storage or the unused space in the fridge. Enhance cohesivity in the kitchen by eliminating chaotic patterns on your cabinets, backsplash, or countertops. Consider cabinet remodeling if the cabinets create a visual distraction. The visual distraction may turn into mental distraction or chaos. 

Also, keep things that have purpose and storage spaces.     

Nurture Houseplants

Nurturing any plant indoors not only brightens your home. It’s also great for your mental well-being. Houseplants bring mental relief. 

They will help combat stress after a long stressful workday. Also, interacting with plants reduces psychological stress. Constantly seeing and interacting with houseplants in your living spaces or the bedroom will lower your anxiety levels, boost your mood, calm the brain, and reduce stress. Think of adding lavender in the living or the bedroom. They are the best natural anxiety relievers. 

Plant a herb garden in the kitchen. You’ll get constant access to anxiety and stress-relieving herbal teas.  

A Home Gym

Home gyms are good for our mental sturdiness. They help us stay active. The home gym will ward off depression and anxiety as we head toward the cold season. Besides, physical exercise is a great mood booster, hence a good remedy for stress, depression, and anxiety.  

Therefore, create a gym space your household can use. Find the perfect space that gives you enough room to add gym equipment, yoga, or meditation mats. Don’t be tempted to add all the fancy equipment you see in gyms. It’s better to take it a step at a time. 

But ensure the floor can support the equipment and your workouts. If it’s wooden or tiled, swap the flooring for a material that offers extra cushion for your body. Think of rubber flooring options like rubber lock tiles. They create the perfect support for your weights and rigorous routines. On top of that, it’s easy to install rubber lock tiles. 

Views of Nature

Don’t block the windows or glass doors with any dressing. Leave them undressed and open. Immerse yourself in beautiful scenes of nature. If possible, swap one concrete wall in the living room with wall-to-wall sliding glass doors. You’ll get a magnificent view of nature. The natural scene will enhance your mental health. It will improve your productivity and mental agility. Connect your living spaces with nature. Watch the sunrise or set from your living room or the balcony. Meditate outside or close to a window with a beautiful view. 

Let all your senses engage in nature. Add nature-inspired texture to let your feet and hands interact with natural textures. Let your ears listen to birds and the wind. Give a view treat to your eyes by adding nature-inspired decor pieces around your home. Let your nose wade in natural scents by diffusing natural essential oils in your home.  

Block Out Anxiety-Provoking Noise 

It’s hard to endure intense sensory input like loud noises without provoking anxiety or mental stress. That’s why we should keep down or block anxiety-provoking noises from our homes. Don’t resort to blocking your ears each time a siren or a train passes close to your home. You may need to get earbuds or noise machines that cancel sharp and distracting sounds by letting you enjoy calming nature-inspired noises. You can also install thick insulation on the door and windows to prevent external noise from penetrating your home. 

Create a Relaxing Ambience with Lighting

Ensure all the spaces in your home are perfectly lit. You risk mental exhaustion if you reside in a poorly lit environment. Invest in mood lighting around your home. But ensure it can supplement natural light during dark winter days. 

While at it, look for means to minimize blue light. It affects our emotional well-being. Also, bright artificial light can trigger anxiety. Therefore, look for dimmer and softer lighting. As much as we need enough illumination, we also need darkness to enjoy a restful night. While considering these ideas, you may also benefit from seeking interior architects to optimize your home’s layout and design, ensuring it aligns with principles of mental health and creates a harmonious environment.

Final Thoughts 

We live in a tumultuous world. Therefore, it’s crucial to tend to our mental health. We should always strive to create mentally nourishing spaces at work and home to stay mentally healthy. Furthermore, our environment impacts our mental health. Hence, we need to ensure our homes help us nurture our mental vitality. The walls, lighting, decor items, plants, or kitchen design should foster psychological and physical well-being. Consider the ideas in the article if you’re looking for ways to turn your home into a health-giving space. 

Image source: William LeMond from pexels.com