Everyday life often comes with its ups and downs. However, when the “downs” come, it can feel like pressure mounts from all directions without clear resolutions in sight. Whether you’re struggling with managing the demands of your career, trying to keep up with your education, or simply trying to maintain a healthy relationship, it’s easy to feel off-kilter from day to day.
When you regularly experience these pressures in life, having a peaceful retreat to go to can make all the difference when it comes to keeping your mental health in check. This is where having your own healing space can be invaluable.
A healing space represents more than just a quiet room in your home or office. There are intentional design practices that go into creating a space that can help you reset and align your emotional state. However, by combining certain design principles that take into account human psychology, the spaces you create can become a catalyst for helping you to destress and recharge.
The Benefits of Creating Healing Spaces
The idea of a healing space is to create a specific area in your home, gym, or working space that provides you with a temporary escape from the stresses of everyday life. It’s meant to have more personal significance to an individual, providing both a place for physical and emotional restoration. The great thing is that healing spaces are very flexible in their design and can be anything from a quiet corner in a room to a completely separate location.
The design of these types of spaces often focuses on helping the individual engage multiple senses at once to help promote more relaxation and provide additional mental clarity. This typically involves using calming colors, soft lighting, and comfortable furniture. When all of the elements come together, it helps to create an atmosphere that helps reduce stress and lower blood pressure.
Healing spaces are also commonly used in therapeutic settings, such as during couples therapy or in another counseling session. The idea here is to create a safe and supportive environment for individuals to navigate through challenging discussions and explore their feelings without judgment.
The Connection Between Human Psychology and The Environment You’re In
Creating a healing space is a lot more involved than just choosing pleasing aesthetics. It also involves taking a deeper look into various elements of human psychology.
Most interior designers in charge of designing healing spaces possess a good understanding of the relationship between an individual’s environment and how their brain typically responds to it. This helps them to strategically incorporate certain elements that can promote better relaxation and help reverse the impact that too much stress has on someone’s emotional state.
Creating a healing environment involves several key factors:
- Color Selection: The colors you select for interior rooms can actually influence certain emotions. Softer tones of blue and green are often associated with tranquil settings, while brighter shades like red or orange can help to stay energized and focused throughout the day.
- Natural Elements: Incorporating natural elements into our living spaces is another great way to create a more calming atmosphere. This can include adding plants and water features as well as trying to allow in as much natural light as possible. Studies have shown that these elements can help to reduce stress and increase brain cognition.
- Sensory Activation: A common trait of all healing spaces is their ability to engage multiple senses at once. This can be a combination of using natural furniture materials, incorporating calming scents like lavender or chamomile, and playing gentle music.
Strategies for Creating Spaces That Can Improve Mental Health
To start creating your own healing space, below are a few practical suggestions you can apply:
Picking the Right Location
The effectiveness of your healing space will depend greatly on the location you choose. It’s important to look for a quiet place – whether it’s a den, a small space in your office, or even somewhere outdoors – where you can feel safe and left undisturbed.
Avoiding Too Much Clutter
The idea that “a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind” is widely accepted by many people. This principle is especially important when designing a healing space since the layout and relative organization of a space can greatly impact your peace of mind.
To help encourage better mental clarity and control over your emotions, embracing a minimalist approach is important. This means you’ll want to try to keep all visible surfaces free of unnecessary items and store away anything that doesn’t serve an immediate purpose.
Infusing Elements of Nature
Adding elements of nature into healing environments can significantly improve their effectiveness. Being surrounded by more natural elements has been shown to help reduce stress and create a calming effect on many people, which is great for your long-term mental health.
Consider incorporating elements like indoor plants or flowers and using natural materials like bamboo or stone in furniture and decorative elements. These elements can help to create a more soothing ambiance that takes you away from the pressures of the day.
Choosing the Right Lighting
The lighting in your healing space can also impact the overall look and feel of it. Harsh, artificial lighting can trigger headaches in many people and make it harder to relax. Instead, try to prioritize the use of natural light whenever possible by opening blinds or curtains to allow sunlight into the space.
Designing Spaces With Purpose
Each component within your healing space should have a distinct purpose. It’s important to avoid filling the space with items that don’t contribute to the room’s intended use.
This doesn’t mean you should have any personal touches. Rather, you should thoughtfully choose objects like artwork that helps you to stay relaxed, comfortable furnishings, or objects that hold personal meaning.
Create a Space That Relaxes the Body and Mind
By following the approaches discussed and putting them into action, you’ll be able to create the restorative environment you need to help give you a sense of calm and focus needed to better manage your stress and support your mental health.
Author Bio:
Visionary and healthcare entrepreneur by passion, Licensed Psychologist by training, Dr. Hannah Yang loves creating new possibilities in the world of mental health and wellness. Dr. Yang established Balanced Awakening in 2015 as a niche psychotherapy practice for women. As Balanced Awakening flourishes in Chicago, and soon Miami, she also loves to tap into her passion for design and Feng Shui to create fabulous environments for herself, her team, and clients.