If you are like me and suffer from anxiety you’ll want to reduce anxiety, perhaps being couped up at home for the last year hasn’t been much fun for you. There have been multiple studies carried out that cite that your environment is a massive contributor to how heightened your anxiety can be at any one moment. We’ve picked our top 5 easy tips to help calm your home and aid in reducing anxiety.
5 Easy Tips For A Calmer Home And Reduce Anxiety
Declutter you mess
Decluttering your mess is an essential factor when it comes to creating a calming home environment. Frequently empty cupboards and wardrobes and remove items that no longer serve you or anything that causes you any discomfort. Decluttering helps to improve focus and allows more clarity in your space as it alleviates the overwhelm in your brain.
Also, ensure that your home styling is kept clutter-free and to a minimum, this will not only help you when it comes to decluttering it will help to shorten your cleaning time.
Calming colours
Another contributing factor to spiralling anxiety is too much bold colouring or too many striking patterns in your home.
Try and keep your home tones on a neutral palette and use colour sparingly. Again like clutter, too many bright colours and wild patterns can cause overwhelm in the brain which heightens tension and anxiety.
Muted tones, especially warm greys have been proven to be calming. Try and keep spaces light and airy too as this has a positive effect on your cognitive functions.
Choose scents wisely
Personally, my favourite tip, lavender and eucalyptus are just two of the clean, fresh, spa preferred fragrances that are perfect for calming. Use candles, diffusers, wax melts from Devon Wick, and other scent boosting items throughout your home to help decrease anxiety.
The top aromatherapy oils for reducing anxiety are as follows;
- Valerian
- Bergamot
- Jatamansi
- Rose
- Lavender
- Chamomile
- Jasmine
- Clary Sage
- Vetiver
- Holy Basil
- Sweet Basil
- Patchouli
- Ylang Ylang
- Frankincense
- Marjoram
- Fennel
- Geranium
- Lemon Balm
Choosing a scent throughout your home which evokes calm is a great way to reduce anxiety. Find blends with 1 or more of the above oils in to ensure that you are getting the maximum calmness in your home, you can also use aromatherapy when it comes to cleaning products, using brands like AromaCare.
Keep it clean
Similarly to decluttering, cleaning your home frequently ensures that your mood is lifted and that anxiety levels are lowered. Again scientific research has been conducted and a connection between cleaning and decreased anxiety has been established.
A small study published in the Mindfulness journal found that participants who engage in activities such as washing the dishes, taking a moment to inhale soap scents and absorb the warmth of the water on their skin noted a 27% reduction in nervousness and a 25% improvement in mental inspiration.
Cleaning is good for the soul, so grab your duster, turn up the volume of the music and let go as your dust, vacuum and clean away any stress and anxiety.
Add plants
Spending time in nature helps to reduce anxiety and is recommended by both doctors and therapists as well as being championed by health gurus. Being in nature helps to naturally relax you and keep you grounded. Adding plants to your home can have this effect in your home too. Find spots for your plants to thrive and look after them regularly. Speak to them kindly, and speak to yourself kindly too and watch you both flourish!
If you do suffer from anxiety then it is worth trying to integrate these 5 practices into your home to see if they help to lower any feelings of unease you have. A calmer home leads to a calmer mind.
Do you have any other tips to help reduce anxiety in the home? If so we would love to hear them in the comments section below. As always, if you’ve enjoyed this post or feel it will be of some value to others we would love for you to share it with your friends and family on social media and beyond.
