What is Environmental Self-Care? Some Amazing Ideas for Home & Environment Self-Care

Self-care influences how we perceive life, how we feel when we wake up, when we leave for work, and whether or not we feel rested after taking a break. It is all part of setting boundaries, balancing time spent with others and time spent alone, and doing the grunt work necessary for the healing period. Self-care of the best quality makes us stronger, happier, and healthier.

Whether we are aware of it or not, the environments we live in have a significant impact on our well-being. The place we live in may influence who we are, how productive we are, and how well we are mentally overall. Taking care of your surroundings is the practice of environmental self-care. A such self-care routine is crucial, especially for people who spend a lot of time at home.

You may promote both your health and the health of your community by learning about the environmental aspect of self-care in this article; we also gathered some environmental self-care examples here. 

What Is Environmental Self-Care?

One of the eight dimensions of self-care, the environmental dimension, is concerned with environmental health, or how you relate to and interact with the environment. This aspect of self-care enables you to reestablish contact with the earth’s natural cycles, give something back to your neighborhood, and build holy areas for solitude and renewal.

Designing your environment to work properly for you is the definition of environmental self-care. Your surroundings should inspire you rather than overwhelm and exhaust you. Additionally, environmental self-care enables you to build a thriving environment for yourself.

Your environment includes where you spend most of your time; not merely the trees outside your house, your home’s air, the mess at your office, and even the space in your car, all contain it. The majority of people inhabit a world that others have designed. However, you can change the environments in which you live and work to expose yourself to more uplifting cues and less obstructive ones.

Some Amazing Ideas for Home & Environment Self-Care

To assist you in creating a healthy lifestyle, consider the following environmental self care ideas:

Home Environment Self Care 

Your home’s interior environment significantly impacts your health and happiness. According to studies, allowing things to get out of hand may lead to worry, anxiety, and a sense of helplessness.

Additionally, a lack of cleaning might increase the buildup of mold and indoor allergens. Dust mites, pollen, and pet dander are examples of allergens. While they frequently exist inside, an excessive amount of any of them can harm your health, particularly if you suffer from respiratory conditions like asthma.

You better purge your spaces of clutter. Less clutter means fewer hiding spots for indoor allergens. Cleaning will be a lot simpler if there is less clutter. Long-term mold exposure can cause symptoms such as congestion, headaches, and coughing.

Mycotoxins are found in several molds, which have been connected to various malignancies and kidney problems. Find the sources of moisture in your home and clean them with vinegar or borax to reduce mold growth. Food can also grow mold, so keep your fridge free of perishable items and thoroughly clean it every so often.

Keep Your Car Clean

The average commute time is roughly 26 minutes each way, even though many individuals may not be commuting as frequently as they formerly did since the pandemic. Even if you spend less time driving, that time is still important. Like excess dirt or clutter at home, extra dirt or clutter in the vehicle might impact you. 

The same dust, pollen, and dander you breathe in a dirty house surround you in an unclean air filter. You may practice appropriate environmental self-care by regularly obtaining a new air filter, washing your vehicle to eliminate debris, and keeping the area tidy and uncluttered.

Don’t Forget About Your Workspace

Lack of focus may be caused by clutter. Work becomes easier if you can focus, and hard work makes you unproductive. You should be productive if you are going to work, right?

Depending on your profession, you can spend a lot of time at your office; therefore, the office environment will greatly impact your feelings.

Declutter Your Space

Decluttering your workspace is a fantastic place to start if you want to practice healthy self-care; examine old documents, discard or shred anything that is no longer necessary, organize the items you need to keep so you can find them quickly, and be always aware of which things you need and which you should get rid of.

Add Plants to Your Space

The Outside Space

For our health, spending time outside and being in nature is crucial. Humans were not designed to live indoors like our societies have been accustomed to doing over the past few decades, which may negatively affect our health.

Our physical health may be enhanced by spending time in nature; by lowering heart rate, blood pressure, tension, stress hormones, depression, and anxiety symptoms. It is believed that even watching natural scenes may have an effect. According to research, hospitalized patients with windows that look out onto natural scenery or plants in their rooms recover more quickly than those who do not.

Creating a natural area outside to practice environmental self-care might be beneficial. Gardening is one example. Scientific studies have shown that soil microbes can boost your mood and strengthen your immune system, just as well as antidepressant medications. Having a garden also means having access to fresh fruit and vegetables. 

Do not have enough time for gardening? That is alright! You can simply plant lower-maintenance plants around the exterior of your house that require less work than a vegetable garden, such as some perennial flowers. You may also enjoy some nature even by planting a tree outside. Try beginning with a snake plant in your home if that still seems intimidating. 

Other Environment Self Care Examples

• A lot can be done to improve aesthetics and reduce stress in your home by adding art. Making and appreciating art has been demonstrated in studies to reduce stress hormones.
• Try reorganizing your house if you have noticed that your energy has been blocked recently. Rearranging your furniture may modify how your energy flows, and occasionally it might make a change you need easier to achieve.
• Monitoring your technology use is another effective method of practicing environmental self-care. Spending too much time in front of a screen might worsen sleep problems, stress levels, and feelings of worry. Too much screen time has also been linked to atrophied gray matter, such as in the insula, which is responsible for our capacity for empathy and compassion, and a decrease in the brain’s white matter, which makes it harder for the left and right brain to interact.
• Working from home can make it easy to feel like your personal and professional lives are colliding. You can be fully present in both parts of your life if you designate separate areas between your workspace and your “living” space.
• It is essential for you to feel completely at ease and at home in your surroundings. Your space should make you feel at ease and foster happiness and tranquility. Candles, warm blankets, colorful coffee mugs, and calming music are some ways to make your space feel cozy. Plants can also be a good way to give your space some life and greenery.
• Adding personal touches that reflect your preferences and “who you are” is another way to make your surroundings feel like home. You might want to display a particular kind of art or décor, or perhaps having framed pictures of loved ones in your home brings you joy. Personalizing your environment to suit your preferences is entirely up to you.
• Light a few candles and dim the lights.
• Right before going to bed, mist your pillows and sheets with lavender.
• Get rid of anything that makes you unhappy.
• Utilize products and packaging that are more reusable and sustainable.
• Before bed, ensure your kitchen and other personal spaces are clean.
• Every day, look at the sunrise and sunset to remind yourself how amazing nature is.
• Realign your actions with your values and goals to prevent you from leading a life you do not want.
• Spend the weekend away from home in a faraway place and completely disconnect.
• Reduce impulsive decision-making.
• Never eat at your desk; deliberately switch off from work during meals.
• In your home, create a sacred space just for you.
• Consider what you can take away from your life to make you happier rather than what you can add to improve it.
• Limiting how much you scroll on social media or stopping watching the news might be the simplest solution.

HealWiser‘s Last Piece of Advice

It is essential to keep in mind that self-care varies from person to person. It all comes down to what works for you and makes you happy. As with all of the ideas in this article, we urge you to experiment with these environmental self-care examples before fully committing to them to determine which ones help you truly thrive.

Create a self-care timetable or tracker to keep track of appropriate self-care ideas you have enjoyed and ideas you would like to do again. Rate each ritual with 5 stars. Ask yourself, “How did this practice make me feel?”

Share your experience with Healwiser and others in the comments section below this post.