How to Turn a Stressful Environment Into a Peaceful One
© Ante Hamersmit
Many people go through the pressures of fulfilling daily obligations that can sometimes take a toll on them. Changing your environment is probably not an option, and you have to make the best out of it. If you are consistently in a chaotic, stressful environment, you can negatively impact your mental and physical health.
You can control the damaging effects of a stressful environment by finding a way to make the space more peaceful. Here are a couple of tips and guidelines to remove stress and bring serenity into your environment.
Set the Mood
The mood is a complex emotion that the stimulants in the environment influence. Stressors like negative emotions, unfulfilled obligations, running late, etc., ruin moods. Positive life experiences like interacting with people who bring you happiness and indulging in your hobby, among other pleasant activities, greatly uplift temperament.
Hence, you can set the peaceful mood you want for your space. Choose calming things you can easily access, e.g., soothing sounds or music. You can incorporate a favorite scent with an essential oil diffuser. You can also lower the lighting in a room to make it feel calmer.
Creating a less stressful environment starts with setting the ambiance you want for the space. Before long, you find yourself immersed in positive energy, lessening the impact of underlying stress like unmet work deadlines, overcoming grief, etc.
Remove Distractions
Distractions in the environment can be a hinderance to your inner peace. Disturbances like loud noises, too much light, monotonous movements, high temperature, etc., exacerbates a stressful situation. Take away the things that make the space feel stressful.
You can turn off TVs or other gadgets that introduce unwanted noise in a room. Remove cell phones that may be tempting to get pulled into and distract you. If people are the problem, ask them to leave or try to minimize the amount of time they need to be in the space. You can take a walk or go into another room to enjoy your solace.
A quiet reflection time calms you and allows you to recharge before you go back to your usual lifestyle. You feel re-energized to deal with whatever stressors you cannot avoid as you work at getting through them.
Incorporate Comfort
If you can’t change your environment, find ways to make yourself feel comfortable in your current space to alleviate stress. There are many ways of enhancing comfort, e.g., getting yourself an ergonomic work chair or a mattress that is a perfect fit for your sleep needs.
Adults typically need seven to eight hours of night sleep every day to function optimally. If you have a stressed-out life, you do not want to compromise your slumber time as it can adversely affect your health. Also, take care of your sleeping implements to enhance your sleep quality.
A mattress is the most critical slumber item that determines your night comfort. Ensure you make a suitable selection like mattresses for cool sleeping from Nolah Mattress that have a reputation for pressure relief and durability. In addition, make sure the room temperature is comfortable for you or consider opening a window to let fresh air into the room.
Get Some Green
Incorporating plants into your office or home has been proven to help reduce stress. Research shows that specific actions like having indoor plants reduce psychological and physiological stress in adults. The floras have a calming effect on the nervous system, making the atmosphere more bearable.
If you want to go green in your space, remember that natural plants need the care to make them bloom. Find plants that fit well in your living area and the level of care you can offer. For example, particular plant species do not need a lot of natural light and thrive in small spaces. Hence, you need not feel disadvantaged with your small living area or if you fail to remember to water the plants.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of having dreary-looking plants because you did not get a good fit or lacked time to care for them. Such a situation ends up counterproductive because the sight is an eyesore and contributes to the stressors in your life.
Change Your Behavior
The mind is a powerful determinant of how you experience life daily. You can train your mind to take in a stressful situation and control how you react to the stressors. If a space feels stressful, find a way to go inward to experience peace. Your stressor may be a particular person who incessantly tries to provoke damning reactions in you.
You can train your mind to calm down every time you encounter such a person. In a chaotic environment, a deep breathing exercise or meditation helps to remove your mind from the disorder. You could also take a break by doing a puzzle to take your mind off the stress. The time away calms your nerves, and you will spare yourself the encounter.
Mindfulness of the stress and what is causing it can also help bring down its effects and add some calm. You should be aware of the stress triggers and avoid them at all costs or, at the very least, see them approaching.
Maintain the Peace Amid the Chaos
It may sound ironic, but you can experience peace amid chaos. A chaotic environment is an external phenomenon, and a peaceful experience is internal. You may not control the place you spend most of your time in, but you can maneuver your emotions and reactions. You can also provide yourself with a positive emotional experience not to feel the devastating effects of the external environment.