By: Johnny Heard
If you’re trying to focus more on improving your wellbeing, health, and happiness throughout your life, then your attention must, at some point, turn to your home. After all, the environment that you spend your time in is going to have a profound effect on the quality of your life.
Most of the time, when we think about home improvements, we tend to think about increasing the space, finding new practical uses for the home, or even just improving its aesthetic to make it better fit our style or increase its value. However, you can take a wellness approach to home improvement to make it a healthier space, as well.
Make your lighting healthier
Improving our connection to the natural world can do a lot to improve our mental and emotional health. Ensuring that we’re connected to the natural light cycles of day and night can even improve our physical health with the influence that our circadian rhythm has over things like our sleep and metabolism. Getting more natural light into the home can improve this drastically, whether it’s through installing patio doors, using lighter window treatments, or even adding a skylight. Do what you can to make natural lighting a bigger part of your life all throughout the home.
Add a home gym
When it comes to the most reliable, science-backed methods of improving your wellbeing, there is nothing more tried and tested than adding more physical activity to your life. Rather than having to worry about gym fees, a little investment now in creating your own gym space can do you a lot of good. You don’t need a lot to make it, either. A treadmill or some other cardio machine alongside a multi-purpose strength training machine or even just a set of weights can be enough to give you all that you need to complete a full workout at home.
Sweat it out
Whether it’s just after a workout or simply to give yourself somewhere to relax after a long day, there are plenty of health and wellness benefits to visiting the sauna. Aside from giving yourself a relaxing home retreat, sitting in a sauna can relax tense muscles and improve circulation throughout the body, which can lead to several improvements in your heart health. You might want to look at the lowest EMF saunas if you’re worried about the effects of electromagnetic radiation in day-to-day life. Otherwise, so long as you stay hydrated and make sure you don’t stay in there for overly long, they can lead to huge improvements in your health.
Get green with it
As mentioned, there’s something innate about humans and wanting to get closer to more natural experiences. We call this biophilic design. We have a tendency to seek out a connection to nature and there are plenty of ways to incorporate this into your home. Using natural materials such as wood and stone can help, but some of the biggest benefits come from welcoming plants into your home. Plants have long been known to have a relaxing effect on people’s moods and can even improve the air quality of the space that they’re in, too.
Create a relaxing outdoor space for yourself
Of course, you don’t have to bring the outdoors in if you can make it a lot easier to enjoy your time outdoors, as well. Creating a relaxing outdoor space might mean installing some decking or a patio, as well as investing in furniture to make sure that you can stay comfortable and connected to the outside for longer. You might also want to look into options such as installing an awning to keep you under the shade, while exterior heating appliances can make it easier to spend time relaxing outdoors even as it gets a little later and chillier.
Upgrade your bathroom experience
The bathroom is one of the classical choices when it comes to creating a place to relax. Whether you love a meditative moment of peace beneath the shower or a nice, long soak in a tub of water, you should make sure you improve the tools you use the most to relax in your bathroom. Installing a new bath can help you maximize the zen factor of your bath time, allowing for a more luxurious and indulgent time to yourself.
The above suggestions are just a few examples of how you can make your home into your own personal haven. Just one or two of the improvements above might be more than enough to create the kind of space that promotes a healthier and happier you.