Your home is not just a place where you crash at the end of the day; it’s a space where you spend most of your time recuperating from all the day’s stresses. Therefore, you want to ensure this place is the best space for recovering your health and energy. To do this, you should learn about holistic homes and how they can help you stay healthy for longer. Keep reading this article for a few tips on creating a holistic home on your property and ensuring you’re always in a house built with your safety and comfort in mind.
Impact on Physical Health
The first and probably the most obvious role of holistic homes in health is their ability to significantly impact physical well-being. Every holistic home is created to ensure you always feel good physically. These structures prevent physical harm, from diseases and illnesses to injuries and accidents. By living in one, you can ensure you never have to worry about your safety and can live life however you want.
For one, consider the common threats of living in older houses. Houses built before the 1980s can contain various harmful substances that can harm your health in the long run. Asbestos is one of those dangers that you should look out for. It may still be present in your walls, ceilings, and floors, which can cause issues when inhaled. Ensure your home is checked for this substance to ensure your health.
You might also be in danger of carbon monoxide, which you cannot detect without professional inspection. Aside from being a colorless gas, it also has no odor or taste, so it’s known as the silent killer in older houses. Fortunately, you can also install a carbon monoxide detector in your home. This will alert you if the gas is in the air so you can hire the right people to extract it from your house.
Effects on Mental Wellness
Aside from the physical aspect, you should also know how holistic homes can benefit your mental health. Many people feel exhausted after working day and night through the week. But if you come home every day to a big mess, you can’t properly release your stress, making you more prone to developing mental illnesses. In a holistic home, your mind and body can relax and give you high-quality rest for better healing.
For example, this home can have a home gym where you can stay fit. However, aside from enhancing your physical attractiveness, you can stay happy for longer while exercising because it helps release dopamine, the happiness hormone, in your body. This helps regulate symptoms of depression and anxiety while keeping you generally more satisfied with where you are in life. Your wellness goals become more achievable when living in a house prioritizing your holistic health.
A holistic home can also help you by keeping you accountable. For one, if you have a clean home, you can easily see even a tiny mess, so you must clean it quickly to keep your mind free from guilt. You can also create better goals in this kind of house because it eliminates everything that can harm you, from risky decor to junk food in your pantry. Whether you choose a soothing essential oil scent or a healthy kitchen area, you’re setting yourself up for a more stable, happier mind that will help you grow as a person.
Tips for Designing Holistic Homes
As mentioned, holistic homes are designed to prioritize the well-being of their inhabitants. But designing this space can be tricky if you don’t know what to focus on. Without the right information, you might unknowingly harm your and your family’s health. To ensure you’re only doing the good things that will improve your health at home, make sure you do your research and verify every information you find. You should also work with the right home contractor and focus on the following steps that will help enhance your overall health.
1. Integrate Feng Shui Principles or Other Holistic Design Philosophies
Holistic design philosophies like feng shui are first on the list. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s an ancient Chinese practice that aims to create harmony between humans and their surroundings, specifically the home. This philosophy touches everything from windows and doors to decor and color schemes. It ensures the energy flow through your home is constant and never in disarray, which can mess with your health through minor inconveniences, worries, and stress.
Feng shui is also concerned about events and holidays that take place, which should prompt you to make a few changes around the home. For example, during the Chinese New Year, a bit of color change from your usual wardrobe to more vibrant reds and golds is considered good luck. Aside from that, it also ensures you enjoy the changes in your lifestyle by keeping you in a positive mood for most of the day.
Other home design philosophies help create holistic homes. For example, minimalism is a good design option that keeps clutter away from the house and helps you maintain the stuff you decide to keep. This way, you can let go of distractions and achieve the best mental health. You might also like biophilic home design, where you integrate living plants indoors to create a serene and relaxing home environment.
2. Add Indoor Plants to Improve Air Quality
As mentioned, biophilic home design is a great philosophy that helps you better organize your mind for your daily activities. Incorporating plants inside your home can also help improve indoor air quality and, thus, your health. Plants produce oxygen by taking carbon dioxide from the air and using it to grow food. With this process, you can clean the air by removing bad carbon dioxide and giving you oxygen, the very thing you need to live. It’s a win-win, as you and your plants keep each other alive and in the best health.
However, it can be difficult to keep plants alive, especially when bringing them inside, where the conditions are significantly less appealing for plants. So, if you want to keep them alive longer, take the right steps that won’t break the bank. To start, plant them in the right soil. Different plants prefer different soil types, so do your research and find the right pH, fertilizers, and mulch to keep them alive for longer.
You also want to place the plants in the right area of the home. Some plants love the sunlight, so look for your windows that get the most sunshine. But others prefer a bit of shade, which you can keep somewhere less sunny. Keeping indoor plants can be challenging, especially for beginners, but with some expert advice, your dream of having holistic homes is more achievable than before.
3. Incorporate Natural Elements
Aside from the plants, you can also bring other natural elements indoors and incorporate them into the home design. Think of those things that make you imagine a zen garden, and you can already start building holistic homes. For example, wood floors. Whether real wood or imitation, you can easily create something that looks more natural. You have so many hardwood flooring options out there that you can build a holistic house even without actual wooden floors.
Next, consider stone accents. Stone has this natural texture that can bring the outdoors indoors without doing too much. Many people love the look of stone when mixed with a more natural style that seems to belong in nature. This contrast can help you maintain the modernity of your house while also getting the benefits of the natural stone texture.
You might also play with the look of bamboo. This unique wood is more flexible than others, so you can create more forgiving home design choices without sacrificing the beauty of natural elements. Ensure you always maintain the quality of these restored or repurposed items to prevent your home from looking like the start of a junkyard business. Do what you keep doing and explore cork, reclaimed wood, and other textures to enhance the look and design of your house.
4. Keep Sustainable Design Practices in Mind
Designing holistic homes doesn’t have to be a big pain where you sacrifice beauty over comfort. You can try several ways to maintain sustainability while designing a home. For example, LED lights. You don’t have to keep using fluorescent lamps because LEDs are much brighter and can last longer over a few months. You might also invest in home solar panels that give you energy by collecting the sun’s rays.
Make sure you also focus on sustainable building materials. Many materials contractors use to build homes are not meant to last, so these houses can be dangerous places while also causing diseases. For one, paints can contain so many fumes that they can make you sick as you stay longer in the house. Instead, you want to look for low-VOC paints that don’t have as many harmful chemicals but still work just as well as regular paint.
You should also ensure you only buy home items meant to last. This will help you keep your home beautiful in the long run by having furniture, fixtures, and decor that don’t break down as easily compared to their mass-produced look-alikes. You want to invest in durability and quality instead of beauty and low price. With the right decisions, you can have a more sustainable house that other people will truly envy.
5. Dedicate a Serene and Tranquil Corner for Meditation
Meditation is always good for the mind, so holistic homes ensure you have space for this activity. Imagine having a cozy space with plush cushions, blankets, and scented candles. It’s a dream come true! With some planning, you can meditate in this room without any interruptions from the outside world. It’s like a warm hug that helps you feel more secure at home.
Next, you should also involve yourself in planning the actual room structure. Choose the right space in the home where there’s enough light and is away from all your household members talking loudly or screaming. You want to create a space where you can meditate in peace and stay in that trance-like state without being interrupted.
Of course, you can also take the activity outside. If you love meditating in nature, you can just sit in your backyard and do the thing. Or you can invest in a patio that lets you be happier outside. You can get patio screens that keep bugs away or sun shades that protect you from the scorching heat. Whatever it is, you should always plan for maximum comfort to ensure you’re meditation in peace.
6. Design a Cozy Reading Nook
Book lovers, it’s your chance to shine. Holistic homes should be able to help you maintain your hobby, especially those that are not so time-productive for most people. You want to have a specific space in your house that can give you enough comfort for your reading sessions. Start by investing in the right temperature. Your local HVAC company can quickly come to you to fix issues with the air temperature.
You can also build storage spaces for your collection of books. This will help you show off how much you’re spending on these beautiful books and impress guests whenever they come over. Ensure you have soft lighting to avoid eye strain and some light dimmers to help create a more intimate room setting. You can enhance your overall health with a dedicated space or reading with the right combination of home adjustments.
7. Create an Outdoor Space for Social Interaction
Finally, you should always ensure you have space for guests’ gatherings. Bringing them out of the house is never fun because your property is a mess. It’s always more fun to simply cook in your backyard and impress your visitors with your culinary skills. You might want to invest in outdoor kitchens to cook anything quickly and ensure all foods are sanitary.
Of course, ambiance. Especially during late-night hangouts, you want your outdoor spaces to be magical areas for bonding. Consider getting lights that enhance the mood, from fairy lights to sun-powered garden lights. Whatever it is, make sure it’s installed properly to avoid property damage. With these adjustments, holistic homes will surely be the craze for years to come.
Holistic homes are about creating spaces supporting physical health, mental wellness, and social connection. So, if you want to have somewhere to relax and stay healthy, just make a few small adjustments at home. Focus on energy efficiency, sustainability, and self-care. With these things, you can achieve harmony at home and avoid stress as much as possible.
