How does my environment impact my wellness?
How does the environment contribute to or affect your wellness? Let’s first take a look at what is environmental wellness and then get into the different aspects of it. Finally, we will look at some ideas on how to address and adjust this area if it's needed in your life.
Environmental wellness involves being able to be and feel physically safe, in safe and clean surroundings, and to be able to access clean air, food, and water.
Once those basic needs are met, environmental wellness is having good health by occupying pleasant, stimulating environments that support well-being. It promotes interaction with nature and also creates an enjoyable personal environment (both in and out of your workspace). Let's spend some time looking at our environments and how they can impact our wellness. Specifically, we will look at our home, work, car/clothes, and nature/earth. We will start this week focusing on the home environment.
Our Home
What do you like about your home? Maybe it’s the neighborhood or the city that you love. Maybe it’s the layout or the style. Maybe it’s the people you share it with. Whatever it is, these are things that are important to you. How does it feel to get home after working all day? Or walk into your house after a long trip? Who greets you? What do you walk into? Is it calm, serene, or peaceful? Is it filled with activity and food cooking? Is there a disconnect here and how do you want to close that gap? There are small changes that you can make that have a big impact on how your home feels. Most of these don’t cost a thing or very little, for the difference that they make.
What does walking into this space feel like?
What about this space?
There is a big difference between these two spaces! A while back, a group of my friends and I made videos of our homes imitating a funny video we saw online. We toured our homes as-is and explained all the mess and disaster as purposeful design elements. For example, here is our pile of papers on the table because it is so much easier to find things when they are spread out, and I really like how the white pops on the brown. Or we like to leave our socks around because it gives that lived-in look, etc. It was a fun exercise and got me to see the random things that are laying around that we don’t even see anymore because they have been there for so long. Try some of the ideas listed below and see how you feel afterward.
Ideas to consider:
Fresh coat of paint
Declutter
Deep clean everything
Organize and put systems in place to maintain the order
Just do one drawer, or one closet, or one room and take it from there
Hide the cords
Pretend you are moving or staging your home to sell, what would you change or fix?
Light a candle or use some essential oils
Play some light music
Get some lamps and turn them on at night
Hopefully, now you have an idea of how your home can impact your wellness and how you can address it if needed. Next week, we will move on to your work environment!
Want to work on your wellness? Call or visit our website today to set up a free 15-minute coaching session with our board-certified health and wellness coach.
612-325-7354
Sources:
www.nnva.gov/2585/Environmental
