When you want to look after and be mindful of your mental well-being, you should be aware of how much your surroundings can impact your headspace. This is especially true if you have recently retired or gone to part-time work, as you will now be spending more time at home. After the pandemic, many employers have made the shift to working from home, meaning that your home is now more important than ever. According to the American Time Use Survey in 2021, we spend about 62% of our waking time at home. Here are all the ways you can make your home your own personal sanctuary and make small changes to your living space that will instantly improve your mental health and well-being.
Get Rid Of Clutter
One of the main reasons why people feel uncomfortable in their own homes is due to feeling like there is a lot of mess and clutter around their house. If you’ve lived in a house for many years, you may have accumulated a lot of items throughout time – such as kid’s toys, souvenirs, achievement certificates, gifts and much more. However, lots of clutter can have a negative effect on your psyche. Clutter can lead to high anxiety levels, less sleep, and the lack of ability to focus. This can make you feel stressed and uncomfortable in your own home. However, you don’t need to purge your treasured items in declutter. Optimize as much storage space as possible, such as in storage boxes, in your basement and loft. Move everything you don’t need in your living spaces away, so you can have a decluttered and clean living space.
Optimize Your Lighting As Much As Possible
Optimizing the amount of natural light that enters your space is one of the best ways you can improve your mental health. Increased natural light is great for improving your mood, and also improves alertness and cognitive performance. There are many benefits to increasing natural light in your home, and there are many ways you can rearrange your home decor to optimize light refraction in your interiors. Adding mirrors around your home and ensuring your curtains stay open as much as possible is a great way to increase the amount of natural light in your home. You should also consider rearranging your furniture so natural light enters the center of the room, so you can get as much benefit from it.
Add Comforting Items Everywhere
One of the best ways you can make your home your sanctuary is through adding as much comfort as possible, wherever you can. This could look like adding as many cushions as possible to your seating areas or adding throws and blankets on the backs of chairs ready for you to wrap around yourself. By making your home a space where you can get comfy and relax, you will make your space instantly more comforting.
Only Choose Items You Will Love
Making your home your sanctuary isn’t just about making it comfortable like a spa, but also making it enjoyable. When you feel joy when you look at your surroundings, this can massively improve your mental health and happiness. Instead of looking at magazines and copying other decor styles that don’t make you happy, you should make sure you choose decor items that truly make you feel good. For example, even if it’s ‘out of style’ such as open floor planning, if it makes you happy, go for it! There is more to life than following trends!
Invest in Sound Systems
Sound is a great tool for blocking out the outside world and making you feel happy when you’re relaxing at home. Research has shown that listening to music can reduce feelings of anxiety, and lower blood pressure and pain. It has also been linked with an improvement in sleep quality, mood, and memory. Improve the sound systems and speakers in your home, so you can listen to music much easier. This is also good if you like to watch films, so you can bring the cinema experience right to your home.
Carve Out A Quiet Area
If you want to shut out the outside world and truly decompress from the stresses of life, you should consider carving out a designated quiet space inside your home. Add soundproofing to this room, and make it as soft and comforting as possible. If you don’t like complete silence, you should consider adding an indoor water feature, for a gentle and relaxing background noise. Making sure that you have a specific quiet area in your home is a great way to help you shut out the outside world, and truly relax. You could also optimise this area with relaxing scents, such as lavender, ylang ylang and chamomile.
Block Out The Outside World
The fundamental theory behind transforming your home into a sanctuary is to make your home a reprieve from the outside world – you will need to block out the stress of life. Adding natural influences into your home can subconsciously make you feel more relaxed, helping you let go of your stress at the front door. Investing in soundproofing throughout your home can allow you to get rid of noise pollution from a busy road or noisy neighbors. Investing in other noise and light pollution remedies such as white noise machines and blackout curtains is a great way you can shun the world from your inner sanctuary.
When you retire or limit how much you work, you will end up spending more time at home. You should ensure that your home is as comforting and enjoyable to be in as possible, so the lifestyle transition isn’t too drastic or overwhelming for you. There are many benefits when it comes to designing your home to become your own personal sanctuary – try it out today!
