I've been reading this great book, The Blue Zones, about the healthiest people on the planet. What they eat, do and who they are. While we know that diet is a huge factor in health there are many other things that factor into being healthy. The Blue Zones are places in the world where there are more centenarians than any place else on the planet. More people live to be 100 and beyond than anywhere else. Why? What do they have that we don't? Or what don't they have that we do?
Well one of them is stress. These people just don't have a lot of it. They have an amazing network of community, social serenity, and the move. They move all the time. They don't go to the gym to get in a 50 minute, high-intensity workout; they move all day long. Walking to and from stores, friends houses, and they move within their homes. There are no robot vacuums doing their job, convenient tools and appliances or shortcuts to make their life easier. They do it all. And it really got me thinking. We are conveniencing ourselves into an early grave.
So, what does this have to do with real estate? Well, I ran across an article about de-stressing your home and I am now more interested in creating a stress-free environment of my own. It's not just about the lack of stress but everything working together; community, a sense of belonging, diet, exercise and low stress.
So how can we make our homes less stressful? It's not about changing everything in our lives, but one or two things at a time. Taking just a couple minutes each morning to center ourselves and be conscious of our breath. I'm not taking all new-agey mumbo jumbo, but really just slowing down our minds so we can tackle everything else in our life throughout the day. We can't eliminate everything we need to do, but we can approach it from a more grounded and peaceful place.
Several ways we can create a stress-free environment in our home is by de-cluttering. We, as Americans, just have too much darn 'stuff'. Do we need every advertised gadget that will usually just break or get forgotten about in 6 months? Are we buying with intention or just because we saw someone else have it and think we need to compete to be happy? Go through your house and see what you can get rid of. Donate things, sell them or throw them away. You'd be surprised as to how freeing it feels.
Houselogic has these simple steps for decluttering:
- "Adopt the Rule of Five. Every time you get up from your desk or walk through a room, put away five things. Or, each hour, devote five minutes to de-cluttering. At the end of the day, you've cleaned for an hour."
- Don't let dishes pile up. "A clean sink will instantly raise your spirits and decrease your anxiety."
- Pare down photos. "Put snapshots in a family album, which will immediately de-clutter many flat surfaces."
- Aim to actually see your refrigerator again. "Researchers found a correlation between the number of items stuck to the fridge door and the amount of clutter throughout the house. Toss extra magnets, file restaurant menus, and place calendars in less conspicuous places."
Plants, flowers, and gardens also have a positive effect on stress levels. Now, if having a garden stresses you out, then this may not be for you, but even a few live plants indoors, fresh flowers on the table or an herb garden in the window can lower your stress and provide added oxygen for your home. These centenarians all have gardens and they spend time in them each day. Pulling weeds, planting seeds, picking fresh vegetables all have great rewards across nearly all the longevity scales.
We don't have to get all hocus-pocus-y to bring down the stress levels in our life. We just need to breathe, create quiet space in our homes, bring positive energy in and make others feel welcome and comfortable as well.
Again, what does this have to do with real estate? Well, if you are planning on selling your home, it can be a very stressful time but if you stop, take some time to breathe, de-clutter and create a peaceful setting, it can not only help you feel less stressed, but those that enter your home will sense it too.
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