It is proven beyond doubt that our moods and feelings are impacted by the direct environment around us.
Given the amount of time spent in the home, therefore, it is hugely surprising that more effort does not go in to creating an ambience befitting of a Stressbusting™ and Wellness mentality!
So, we thought we would share the steps we have taken to make our home (which is by no means a mansion) a sanctuary which continually engages our senses in a proactive, positive way at a conscious and subconscious and which in the process marries key decor with spiritual aspirations.
Below we name each theme that we are aiming to achieve in our home with its stressbusting™ rationale, then go on to provide an example or 2 of the specific steps we have actually taken to create it 👍
1. Order
Both coming from professions of relative discipline, we recognise the value of orderly surroundings to ensure orderly minds.
Not military, you understand, just not so cluttered as to confuse the senses or gather dust.
We have secured crispness using light wall colourings and limiting cluttering for the sake of it.
Regular trips to the waste disposal facility ensure that we are not hoarding unnecessary items and instead are making space for the new, which reflects our outlook to life of letting go of what no longer serves us to enable progression.
When it comes to appliances, while we shop around for bargains, we insist on the best and most reliable to avoid stressful breakdowns wherever possible.
2. Creativity
We leave opportunities to be creative in open sight as this is an essential ingredient to growth.
A drawing pad, a cook book, a guitar and of course regular access points to technology and the creative world of the Internet, for example.
Interestingly, however, we have resisted the urge to have an office or dedicated office area, despite us home working.
We instead take our laptop to different places around the house to work as our preference takes us at the time.
We find this merges home and work for us much better, though we do find the separation and switch off from work process relatively easy, whereas others may not and so might benefit therefore from a closed off work space.
3. Cosiness
You will find a throw lying about almost every room of our house.
This is to encourage random huddling up on a whim not because you need to but just because you can, even when working!
Comfort and freedom to be yourself are the order of the day in any home and ours is no different.
Our lighting is not heavy but rather subtle and subdued to create a low, twinkling ambience as opposed to a bright laboratory or supermarket atmosphere.
We have a corner sofa which enables everyone to see one another whilst chilling versus being lined up like soldiers and which contains a sofa bed to enable impromtu conversion of the living room into a makeshift campsite should the yearning arise!
This theme of Cosiness overlaps with and permeates a number of the other themes on this list as it is a major priority of ours
4. “Smellness”
This is the term we use for the aromatic equivalent of “wellness”.
It is important to us per se but more so because we have close loved ones who are deaf and who we will introduce in due course, not only as valued family members but inspirational campaigners for Deaf Awareness.
This means we can only effectively communicate via BSL (British Sign Language) or through other sensual mechanisms.
And smells in their own right can illicit wonderful feeling of comfort, security, satisfaction and specific memories of past that are important to cherish and good for the soul.
We have a range of flavoured burning candles we light and burn safely depending on our moods and keep detergent/cleaning fluid use to a minimum given Her Majesty the Baby and because we find it too corrosive.
Boxed perfumes and aftershaves have their place in open view because of the immediate positive connotations they emanate on sight.
The scent of fresh coffee and various accompanying syrups such as hazelnut, vanilla and caramel is never far away because we love it and it is a real cosy joy of ours – indeed, one of our walled house mantras is “But first.....coffee”.
5. Reflection
Home should be a place in which you can reflect unconditionally with comfort.
We have therefore created a series of rooms with differing themes and resulting ambience to encourage different ways of feeling and thinking.
And, of course, in keeping with any theme of “reflection”, we have a number of mirrors which not only increases the sense of space, but enable us to ensure we feel personally comfortable with how we appear throughout the day (see our previous post entitled "Groom, Groom, Groom to Stressbust™!" for the importance of this)
They also remind us, (quite literally) of the importance of reflection (see, e.g., our previous post entitled "The Mirror Diffuser Strategy for Stressbusting™").
6. Achievement
Life’s vicissitudes can blind you to the value of your achievements at times, so we find it useful to have a physical, continual reminder on hand in the form of framed academic, professional, school and nursery certificates ordaining our hallway.
These remind us what we can attain if we set our minds to it and incentivise us all to aim for more personal growth.
We leave visible spaces for more to be added and this engenders a sense of friendly competition for us and the kids as the spaces are strictly incubated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis!
Similarly, as avid landscape photographers and writers, we frame some of what we feel is our most memorable and resonating works and hang them on the wall as personal (not to mention cost effective) ‘homentos’ (this is our own term for home momentos!).
They also remind us of good times we have had together as a family and provide an immediate "go to" facility to positively reminisce when the life cycle turns and times become tough.
7. Playfulness
We spend a lot of time laughing at ourselves and love every minute of it.
It keeps us fresh and uncomplicated.
Thus, contained in and around every room of the house are little testaments to this that make us chuckle each time we pass them.
For example, a banner reading “Don’t worry, the 1st 50 years of Marriage are the Hardest” hangs on the back of our living room door.
And an expressionless pig called ‘Poppa’ holds pride of place on our fridge door to remind us of our dietary obligations to ourselves (see our earlier post entitled “The Food Scarecrow”)!😁
8. Peacefulness
We meditate from time to time but are not obsessive.
Our aim is to incorporate a degree of natural meditative value in the way we live our daily lives to achieve ‘24/7 Wellness’ versus allocating, say, 10 minutes a day to listening to a guided meditation on a specific subject on YouTube.
As a result, we have placed serene images on our walls that can be mesmorising (example above) and a set of electric candles that can ‘burn away’ safely until their batteries run out.
Keeping the use of appliances to a minimum at set points of the day maintains the natural ongoing peace about the place.
And our very open layout makes it virtually impossible for anyone to take up an aggressive, defensive or sulking posture, the objective being to encourage ongoing constructive communication and dialogue instead.
9. Inclusivity
It is important to be familiar with your surroundings and feel part of them as both kids and adults.
We secure this by having areas dedicated to photos of those we love, are close to and can trust.
This reminds us we are valued and makes us feel blessed.
We also operate an "All Doors Open Policy" at all times so everyone feels welcome any time to wander to and fro to check in on other members of the household as they go about their business, thus removing any risk of isolation or drift.
For the same reason, our new kitchen table is circular not square to encourage inclusion and togetherness as opposed to facing off.
This is important as it is the place virtually all major family decisions are made, and we want such decisions to be made as a collective.
10. Privacy
We are extremely protective of our Privacy, particularly with Her Majesty the Baby.
Our blinds are therefore see out but not see in and, not being the same exhibitionist types as many who appear to pass our front door(!), we limit our contact with neighbours to a respectful level.
After all, just because you live near to someone doesn’t automatically make you personally compatible, and suburban politics are simply not our thing!
We do not look favourably on unannounced visits from anybody for the same reason (unless, of course, it is someone in dire need who would not therefore be turned away).
Everyone is of course different, but we hope you find the above personal insights from our own perspective useful or interesting.
Much love, LouLoU&MikeyM™ 💗💞💛 xxxx