Get Ready for Mingling!
Not being able to be in the same place at the same time with friends and family during the pandemic has made us even more interested in doing just that. Humans are a social...
Outdoor Plants
First, let’s talk about outdoor plants. The research consistently shows that mental refreshment and lower stress levels flow most smoothly and certainly from looking at green leafy plants. If you live in a desert,...
Art and Light
Art and other decorative elements can be great additions to gardens, particularly ones that have an organic curvy form, since they’re relaxing to look at, but what’s designed to be seen but missed visually...
Making Space for Meditating
Meditation is, for many, a spiritual activity, and for all a relaxing, calming one—but no matter why people have decided to meditate, studies indicate that it has positive repercussions for their minds and bodies....
Zoning Out!
Zone out! Create zones in your yard or garden, even if they’re tiny, so that users can, to the extent possible, develop their own sets of experiences, having options boost moods. Some areas should...
Curves & Hedges
Cushions that have curves The links we make between curving things and feeling comfortable is quite strong. Curving lines in art make it likely that piece will make a space feel more blissful and...
Design for Exercise – how to make the most out of your exercise
‘Tis the time for exercise. Nothing inspires a person to spring into action, body management-wise, faster than the prospect of leaving the house in a summer ensemble that’s snugger, in a debilitating sort of...
Scent your space for Mingling
Your home and office will smell like something as you mingle and you might as well use this smell for the good! It is important to get rid of any bad smells, the odor...
Value of Green Spaces
A paper published in the Journal of Happiness Studies confirms the value of regularly spending time outdoors (which indicates how important that we have ready access to outdoor areas near our homes, etc.): “Previous academic studies...
Clean Air for Boosting your Mind
Mullen and colleagues confirm how important it is to breathe clean air and their work supports efforts to make sure air inside buildings is filtered. The researchers report that “Fine particulate air pollution is harmful to...
Water Magic
Intentionally adding water to a space is a good idea, as long as that water stays where it belongs—rogue water from a broken pipe is a psychologically debilitating stressor. Looking at water that’s gently...
More Proof that Biological Diversity benefits us
Methorst and colleagues report that they “examine[d] the relationship between species diversity and human well-being at the continental scale, while controlling for other known drivers of well-being. We related socio-economic data from more than...
How new homes should be designed post-Covid
The Place Alliance surveyed people in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic (May, 2020) and after analyzing the data they collected online have reached some conclusions about how homes should be designed in...
Bake-Off a Winner!
Are you following The Great British Bake-Off? If you are, that’s great because Bake-Off’s sets are doing all sorts of good things from an environmental psych perspective. The Bake-Off happens in a tent, which...
80% of people prefer curves…
Creating a path? Work in a curve. D’Acci, collecting info on urban streets, found that “80% of a . . . random sample of 102 people stated to prefer, ceteris paribus [other things being equal]...
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