Refreshment time!

During the holidays, we often need to not only work at whatever our job is but also spend time catching up with family, friends, and colleagues, all of this can lead us desperate to distress and refresh.

An important way to bring down stress levels is by doing the Danish thing: hygge.  Hygge has been discussed here.

What else can you do now to your home or office to mentally refresh:

• Make sure your blinds are open to let in day light and whatever views of nature you might have.
• Add a green leafy plant—being able to see one or two (not more) from wherever you might be sitting in your home is really refreshing.
• If you live in a place without green leafy nature outside, add a few printed or moving (video) images of natural spaces to your world.  The best are images of Spring meadows that look like you could easily step into them, just as Mary Poppins does in her movies.
• Looking at fish as they swim about is endlessly refreshing—and so is looking at gently moving water (say in a tabletop fountain), even if no fish are present.
• If your windows look out over even a barren courtyard, adding a fountain with gently moving water to that fountain can create a view that restocks your mental energy to pre-exhaustion levels.
• Play a nature soundtrack—one that’s likely to be found in that meadow on a Spring Day mentioned earlier.  Best are ones that include the sounds of burbling brooks, gently rustling leaves and grasses, and quietly calling birds, for example.  A quick Google will reveal all sorts of nature soundtrack options

These are also Biophilic Design elements, which are worth having another look at. We will dedicate a whole issue to Biophilic Design soon too, so keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime, put Biophilic Design in our search box top right and you can search for articles that mention Biophilia.