Home, Environment and Wellbeing

Welcome to My Blog!

The link between our surroundings and our wellbeing.

As an Interior Designer I love the aesthetic aspect of my work and expressing my artistic creativity when designing beautiful spaces for clients, but I am also qualified in many areas of health and wellbeing and over the years I have become aware of the psychological aspect of how our environment can have a significant effect on our wellbeing.

As human beings, since we first walked the earth, we had a need to feel safe and protected so created shelter, a hiding place, a sanctuary. Although we no longer have to build with our own bare hands, that innate desire still exists and it has maybe been brought to the forefront by the challenges we all faced over recent years. Although I am an advocate for adventures, travel and experiencing the amazing gifts that nature and the natural world has to offer us, we always look forward to coming home. Returning to our bricks and mortar house or our cave and the campfire!. To relax after our efforts, reminisce over our experiences and to share them with our family around the dining table or a cosy fire. When we've had a bad day we also want to go home, to that place where we feel safe and curl up and lick our wounds, maybe have a little cry, then rest and feel better. We also love to invite people into our homes, for a coffee and a good chat, to eat together, dinner parties, share music, games and movie nights. We maybe show off our homes a little too, our décor, our extensions (because that's a little bit of human nature too!!), but ultimately, we hope that they "feel at home" in our homes.

When I have spoken to people who haven't been able to make their home feel personal to them yet for whatever reason and their home doesn't reflect their style and who they are they describe feeling "unsettled" or feel "out of balance" in their home and don't enjoy being there. We've all seen the shows where people think they need to move as they "are no longer in love" with their homes, but with a few changes they end up staying and loving their home again when the space is more in tune with their needs and desires, the ambience changes and harmony and balance is restored to their environment and as a result, to themselves. Even those struggling with their mental health have felt an ease from help with tidying and decluttering their space around them . This ethos is also true for our workplaces too and also need to be places that support our wellbeing. We can spend a large amount of our time at work, so we need to feel happy and well in that environment too and research evidence now supports that a "healthy" work environment increases productivity, so thankfully more and more companies are now seeing this as a priority when designing their office spaces.

And finally, the most primal and greatest need for an environment to feel safe, nurturing and in harmony is during birth. Optimising the birth environment is one of the many priorities for Midwives both in the hospital and at home. An environment that doesn't feel safe, calm or even visually appealing can inhibit relaxation and oxytocin production and so have an effect on the natural physiology of birth.

The link between our environment and our wellbeing is such a innate part of us as humans and that's where my services merge in to one holistic practice, to consider all aspects of our wellbeing.