Improving Your Surroundings
Don't fall behind on an important part of what keeps our mood and productivity levels up.
Our physical environment can have a major impact on our mood and productivity, and sometimes we can forget about this during busy or challenging times.
Being able to organise our living space in a way that suits us can help us to function at our best, as well as give us a sense of order and calm.
In our day to day lives, we can often become desensitized to our surroundings, such as our bedrooms, working areas or general environment. Particularly during busy periods, we might become used to areas of mess and clutter, or find that we are putting off tidying and cleaning until we have more time.
More broadly, we can also put off making our living area more comfortable because there are more urgent priorities or because we feel that it will end up taking too long. Unfortunately, research tells us that our living space has a big impact on our mood and functioning – and living in cluttered, uncomfortable settings can impact on our day to day quality of life.
If this is something that is a challenge to you, the first step is to consider how your living space could be improved.
Is it a matter of setting aside a morning to do a clean out of rubbish and things you no longer use – or is there the need for a rearranging of furniture and moving things around to make things more livable? Where do you spend most of your time, and how might it be made more calming and pleasant? This might involve adding plants and artwork to the area, as well as considering things like lighting, furniture or rugs.
Most of the time it is possible to make our living areas more comfortable without spending a lot of money, since a lot of furnishings are available second hand or can be made DIY. It might also be useful to dedicate a certain amount of time each day or week to maintaining the living space – this might involve cleaning, re-arranging, watering plants, dusting or tidying.
Many people find that there is something about having a comfortable, pleasant space to relax in that is restorative and adds to their general wellbeing – so this is certainly worth considering.
If you’ve taken these steps, the final recommendation is to engage in appreciation and gratitude as you are sitting in your newly improved living area. Being able to take action to improve our lives, and reflect on the changes and improvements we’ve noticed, are powerful reinforcers in our lives, and it is important to celebrate the wins and continue with positive behavior.
Being able to take action to improve our lives, and reflect on the changes and improvements we’ve noticed, are powerful reinforcers
Mind Ease has an exercise called ‘Gratitude List’ that encourages us to reflect and acknowledge the things in our lives that we are appreciative of – research tells us that taking time each day to do this has a measurable effect on our wellbeing and mood.
The more you can appreciate and enjoy your newly improved living area, the more likely you are to maintain and continue to work on it – as well as feel proud of yourself for taking this action to improve your life.
We hope that this has been helpful and that you are able to use some of these tips to make some positive changes to your living space.
If you’d like reliable relief from anxiety, you can install Mind Ease for free here.
