You may think your house has hit its safety wall – the roof is stuck down and all your stairs are sturdy and if anything goes wrong your home insurance will come to the rescue. Surely there can’t be anything else to make it healthier than eliminating the risk of falling through your stairs? Every house, however, has the potential to impact positively on your health and happiness.
As the world outside becomes faster paced, having a sanctuary in your home is important after a stressful day at work, and health isn’t secluded to the body.
Tactility
There has been research into the benefits of tactile furniture. Coming home to a soft blanket, a woolly cushion or a smooth beanbag may provide extra relaxing qualities. If nothing else, at least it will provide a soft landing for that accidental after-work cat-nap.
Getting the right balance
There’s a balance to be had between recklessness and cleanliness. A recent book written by design and architecture journalist Will Wiles looks into the curse of being too clean. He says: “Interiors magazines would have you believe your furniture must remain shop-new, carpets untouched by anything but clean bare feet. I wholly disagree: scuffs and stains, like scars on our bodies, are signs of a life lived, embraced and enjoyed.”
Wiles says that having a house that is consistently clean to the point of perception detracts from actually living in it. Not using a coaster every once in a while or skipping one day’s polishing isn’t the end of the world. Being too clean can easily discourage you from having fun for fear of making a mess. Having a home you feel free to relax in and have fun will greatly impact on your state of mind, and in turn, your health.
Picking your modern machines carefully
There are many handy gadgets available that can help to make that 6 am coffee a little less painful to make. However there is an argument that technology sometime takes it too far.
Take the most recent unveiling for example – LG’s Smart Manager fridge. This fridge goes beyond the realm of helpful and crosses over into sheer laziness. It features a touch-screen camera and wireless internet. It monitors the level of stock and automatically adds items of food to an online shopping list. It can also suggest recipes with its contents, and even turn on the oven to the correct temperature.
The problem here lies not only in the fact that it lets the user become dependent on technology, but it removes interaction and fun from buying and cooking food.
Colours
Colours are said to have an impact on our moods, so you can decorate accordingly from room to room. For your kitchen, add a hint of red or orange to stimulate appetite and digestion. Invite some yellow into your house for mood-lifting benefits and cooler shades of blue and green for calming effects.
Having somewhere to relax
It’s important that if you have a hectic home life, you have a space that your mind can compartmentalise and associate with relaxation. If you walk up the drive to your home after work and feel your blood pressure rise just with the thought of the chaos inside, knowingly having a calm space you can seek refuge in will help. Whether it’s the bath or a garden chair, allocating a relaxing space will be good for the mind.
Capture the subconscious
To help pick you up from a midweek afternoon slump, and shake you back into being healthy and motivated – keep an inviting selection of fresh fruit in a bowl to entice you away from the biscuit cravings.
Another method to kick your waning self-discipline is to display modern, fruit-inspired art, even having photos of the outdoors can help get you out of the door for that jog.
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