When it comes to your health, there are definitely a lot of things that can affect it. For instance, your diet and your lifestyle can have a major impact on how you feel, and neglecting either (or both!) of them can wind up hurting you in the process. Conversely, making your health a priority can have numerous benefits for you, allowing you to live a better, more robust life.

However, did you know that your environment can actually be a significant contributor to your wellbeing? This isn’t just about avoiding pesticides in the air around you or veering away from garish upholstery, either. In fact, research has shown that your immediate environment can impart direct and far-reaching benefits to your health, and choosing specific elements can have notable positive effects.

Even better, you don’t even have to break the bank to test out certain design ideas, either. Many can be quite affordable, meaning that you have no excuse to not try them. If you’re looking to find ways to help boost both your physical and mental health, why not take a look at the room around you? By choosing one – or more! – of these specific design options, you can start making your health a priority once more.

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Embrace Your Green Thumb

Sure, admiring your garden after you’ve carefully pruned away rogue thorns or wilted petals can make you feel a tinge of pride and even admiration, but did you know that plants can also give you quite a few health benefits, too? Studies have shown that having potted plants and flowers scattered throughout your home can help reduce both your stress and your cortisol levels.

Why does this matter, though? Cortisol is your body’s stress hormone, and if it is left elevated, it can start leading to a myriad of harmful health conditions. These can range from everything to insomnia (in the short-term) to even cardiovascular disease (in the long-term). Finding ways to reduce these levels, therefore, can help improve both your quality of life and your longevity.

Some of the other benefits of having plants in your home include better air quality and sharper focus. Because plants can help draw environmental toxins out of the air, which means that the air that you breathe in can be that much better for you. Plants can help you recover from any existing illnesses, too, allowing you to get back on the mend that much faster.

Sweat Out the Toxins

There’s nothing quite like sitting in a steamy sauna after exercising to help you recover your muscles and bring them back up to par after you use them. However, the benefits of enjoying a session in a sauna are more than just that. Yes, they can help you feel invigorated after you have a good workout, but they can also help bolster your general health, too.

Research has shown that enjoying time in a sauna can also help you relax (reducing those dangerous cortisol levels), improve your circulation (allowing you to enjoy better cardiovascular health), and it can also help encourage your thyroid to work at optimal efficiency by raising your core temperature and reducing the amount of effort that your thyroid expends.

The signs of an impaired thyroid include feeling cold all the time, thinning hair, and constant fatigue. While it’s important to not self-diagnose your thyroid health, being aware of these symptoms can get you back on track to optimal wellness. Scheduling an appointment with your healthcare provider, or undergoing at-home thyroid testing, can give you the answers you need.

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Let In Natural Light

Natural light is another one of those not-to-secret ingredients for a healthy life, but it’s not one that we all realize is so important. That said, designing your home to let ample natural light filter in through the windows can help create significant improvements in how you’re feeling. The first benefit is the most obvious: natural light is beautiful, and it can help make your home look more beautiful, too.

That’s not the only advantage of letting in natural light, though. Another key benefit of enjoying those lovely rays of sunshine is that it can help your body produce more vitamin D. This vitamin is essential and works to help make sure you don’t get sick as easily. Being deficient in it, though, can affect your mood and your health and lead to feelings of depression and malaise.

While dazzling natural light can seem counterintuitive toward getting a good night’s rest, it can also actually help manage your circadian rhythms. This means that when the sun does slip beneath the western horizon, your brain can more easily make the transition to alertness to prepare for a good night’s rest. All in all, the importance of natural light simply cannot be overstated.

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Make Sleep a Priority

Finally, if you’re looking to design your home with your health in mind, then you should absolutely take a closer look at your bedroom and how it’s currently designed. Many people focus on style over function when decorating their bedrooms, but what you should really be doing is merging these two concepts to turn your quarters into an inviting sleep oasis.

The dangers of poor sleep are well-documented and unambiguous. Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep can affect your mood and your mental health, leading to depression. It can also raise your cortisol levels, making you more susceptible to long-term health issues in the months and years ahead of you. Chronic insomnia has also been implicated in cognitive decline in advanced age.

Ways to help improve the ambiance in your bedroom include focusing on the layout, swapping out your bedding, and using blackout curtains. For instance, feng shui has historically been used to create a better mood. Using breathable bedding with natural fibers can help you sleep better without overheating you, and blackout curtains mean fewer sleep interruptions and longer rest.

Designed For Good Health

Trying to stay healthy can be challenging in today’s modern, hustle-and-bustle world. Between your career and your personal life, it can easily get overwhelming and your health can fall by the wayside. But by taking charge of the things that you can moderate, you can help ward off many of these issues. Not only will you have a more beautiful and inviting home in the process, but you’ll also enjoy better wellbeing, too!