Enhance Magazine | Page 40

did you know Mimic TO BRING WELL-BEING INTO YOUR HOME by Kristin M. Wistar According to the EPA, the average American spends up to 93% of his or her time indoors. 87% is spent inside, and the other 6% in vehicles. Especially now that the outdoors are starting to get colder, it’s time to embrace nature in the spaces we frequent most. 2 IMPROVE YOUR INDOOR AIR QUALITY • Open your windows as much as possible to get fresh air moving through your home. • Choose materials that are green and natural. Opt for wood, brick, ceramic, or stone floors, wool carpets, and nonVOC paint for walls. Choose furniture made of out wood, iron and stone and fabrics made from cotton, linen, silk and wool. Avoid synthetic materials as mu ch as possible. • Use plants that purify the air. • Get rid of artificial air fresheners and diffuse essential oils instead. • Use natural cleaners that are free of toxic chemicals. • Use air purifiers and change your filters in your air handlers regularly. 40 HACHEALTHCLUB.COM 3 1 MONITOR LIGHTING to create coziness and sync with the circadian rhythm • Open window treatments during the day to let in natural light. The energy of the space is cleared when the sunlight fills it. A room left in darkness leaves the space lifeless, as if in an eternal nighttime. • Add timers to lights, especially in rooms that aren’t being used. This allows the empty rooms to come to life at nighttime and creates depth of field and coziness in your home. • Add dimmers to lights, so as the natural light starts to fade, your lighting follows suit. There’s nothing worse than coming home at night when the lights are on full blast. • Use the "f.lux" app for your computers and the night time setting on your phone to mimic the amber lighting of nighttime and cancel out the blue light that can disrupt your circadian rhythm of sleep. CREATE MOVEMENT AND SOUND Have you noticed how some people keep television on all day just to see the movement on the screen or hear the noise in the background? Instead opt for: • mobiles or hanging fixtures to create movement, sound and visual interest. • solar powered wind chimes to add sound in the background. • adding an architectural screen at the window to capture the comforting pattern of shadows coming through a window as daylight passes during the day. • play your favorite music or nature sounds to raise the vibration of your home. Granite Photo by David Monniaux; license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode Nature