How Your Space Impacts Your Mental Health
Words from a somatic therapist on how bringing nature to your space can change the game.
We have all been there, sitting in a doctors office with those weirdly yellow walls and fluorescent lighting, waiting for the doctor to come in and start your appointment. Whether or not you have white coat syndrome is one thing, but we can absolutely say with confidence that the sterilized nature of the environment is not helping your nervous system at all.
Hi, my name is Stevie Olson-Spiegel, and I’m a therapist and the owner of Embodied Healing Collective, a private practice in Prairie Village, Kansas. I am a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with specialized training in touch for trauma healing, and I don’t think we talk enough about how our spaces impact our mental health. Like the experience of being in the doctor’s office, we can often feel internally how our space is impacting us without realizing what is off. Let’s talk about why that is and how to set yourself up for mental wellness by making small changes in your space, whether that is your office or your home.
How your Environment Impacts your Nervous System:
Your brain, specifically your amygdala, is constantly scanning your surroundings for safety. Without being consciously aware of it, your mind is taking in information and making snap decisions about whether or not something passes the safety test. It wants to know “am I being threatened right now? If so, how would it be best to react?”
If something doesn’t feel safe, then we go into fight, flight, or freeze. While these responses can be demonized, they are important responses to have in order to keep us safe. However, if we are in an environment that our amygdala feels is off even if we aren’t consciously aware of it, we might have some subtle signs and symptoms that we are experiencing fight, flight or freeze. Here are some examples for each category:
Fight:
Feeling agitated
Having a smaller window of tolerance than is typical for you
Being “nit-picky” with somebody for reasons you don’t understand
Feeling tension in your body, especially extremities
Flight:
Looking for the door
Feeling internal energy to move or walk
Difficulty concentrating
Thinking about when you can leave
Withdrawal
Freeze:
Feeling numb/”out of it”
Brain fog
Not finding things interesting
Difficulty reading/following a conversation
Ignoring body cues (such as hunger, needing to go to the bathroom, etc.)
How to make your space more nervous-system friendly:
Do you want your mind and body to feel more regulated and present? Do you feel that the spaces that you spend the majority of your time in are working hard against you and sending your body into a state of stress? Here are some things to try and/or consider:
Consider cleanliness.
For some people, an unorderly space creates chaos in the mind and makes it difficult to sit still. This is particularly relevant for people with OCD and with ADHD. Especially in an office space, anything that creates visual distraction can become a mental distraction.
There is a balance here. If you find yourself unable to do any work until everything is in its specific place, then seeing a mental health professional might be the best bet. However, if this is something that you can do in small increments of time throughout the day in a systematic yet doable way, it is certainly something to consider.
Find more comfort.
Again, our nervous systems are constantly looking for safety. A great way to make a space feel more safe is to create a sense of comfort in different parts of each room. Here are some easy ways to achieve that:
Photos of loved ones, especially ones who are or were a source of emotional support
Cozy textures, like blankets or pillows with soft fabrics
Colors that inspire you or make you feel happy
Warm, indirect lighting
Grounding scents
Soothing music
Bring in nature.
There are many studies about how nature improves us psychologically and physically. Think about how important walks got when COVID happened – we all felt this internal need to be in nature and we also all noticed how going outside helped to reset us and give us more capacity emotionally and mentally.
Bringing in natural elements, like wood, flowers, plants, or preserved moss wall art can drastically change how we feel in our spaces. After all, we are all animals and we all need mother nature to make us feel whole.
You deserve a space that feels good to your mind and body. And you don’t have to change everything all at once to make that happen. Try incorporating or changing one small thing and see how it makes you feel, not just mentally, but also emotionally and physiologically as well.
Peace and Ease,
Stevie Olson-Spiegel is a Licensed Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner located in Kansas City. She uses Somatic Experiencing as her main body-based trauma healing modality, as well as EMDR. As an Intuitive Eating Counselor, she uses these principles to help her clients challenge their relationship with their cultural misconceptions about their body and food.
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