The home is where we can heal and relax comfortably at the end of each day, leaving the rest of the day out the door in preparation for tomorrow. To face the challenges of tomorrow, we must strive to be in our best conditions, and what better way to achieve that than by improving the spaces in which we recharge. Here are some easy improvements you can incorporate to promote better health and wellness at home.
Breathe Good, Feel Good
You may not be aware of it, but contaminated outdoor air, dust, and pollutants find their way into our homes quite easily through openings and cracks all around the house. While natural ventilation is necessary for air to circulate inside our homes, there are ways to keep dust out and pollutants and allergens under control.
Adding dust screens to doors and windows is a simple solution that helps trap and stop dust and other foreign particles from entering the home. Those filters provide those benefits without restricting airflow.
Another champion for better air quality at home is air purifiers, especially those equipped with HEPA filters. HEPA filters, which stand for high-efficiency particle air filters, help control and filter out allergens, pollen, and fine dust by forcing air through a fine mesh. Forcing air through this fine mesh traps any fine dust and other contaminants in the filter, leaving only clean air to be pushed out into the room by the air purifier.
Purposeful Lighting
In the age of working from home, online classes, and the like, we are now, more than ever, spending most of our time indoors. Spending so much time indoors, we tend to forget and take for granted one of the most impactful elements that keep us in rhythm – lighting. The circadian rhythm, which is our body’s internal clock, dictates when we should be awake and when we need to sleep, and lighting plays an important in keeping that rhythm on the right track.
Natural light provides both healthy sunlight during the day and healthy darkness at night, and both these environments help stimulate our circadian rhythm. Being in tune with our circadian rhythm helps with our mood, giving us more energy during the day while letting us rest easier at night.
If you live in a home that struggles to let in natural lighting, it is possible to mimic natural lighting and still reap similar benefits. Adding smart lighting to your home is the perfect way to mimic natural light. Most smart lights come with an app where you can easily program the lights to change from cool white to warm white during different times of the day and even when to turn on and off. Being able to mimic natural lighting with smart lights is a win for people who don’t have much access to natural light.
Who knew that all you needed was proper lighting for a healthier circadian rhythm? More energy and better sleep? Count me in!
Greenery and Scenery
Maintaining a well-kept lawn is a tedious and laborious task. Some lawns require more work and care than others. You can even get lost in time mowing your lawn for hours on end. It’s safe to say that lawn maintenance can get overwhelming very quickly, but is it all that bad?
Human beings are naturally inclined to be close to nature, and it comes as no surprise that there are already several benefits to being one with nature. A study in 2014 showed that having plants or green scenery within your vicinity while working was enough to increase productivity in people by 15%. Another study conducted in 2018 involving 24 people showed that working with active interaction with plants significantly reduced physiological and psychological stress in mental-work environments.
Maybe it’s time to get your hands dirty and start gardening to take advantage of the numerous benefits that it gives, but if it still feels like too much of a task, there is a workaround. The studies conducted don’t necessarily say that you have to do the work yourself. You can call a professional residential mowing service to help you sort out your lawn. Being exposed to a well-kept lawn or being surrounded by plants is enough to see the numerous known benefits take into effect, as seen in this study in 2015, which saw an extension in attention in just 40 seconds of exposure to a green roof compared to a concrete one.
You can apply any or all of these simple home improvements and experience yourself all the health and wellness benefits that these solutions offer, both for you and your home. They are not only investments for your home but also for yourself.
