Post by ruth on Jun 7, 2007 0:52:47 GMT
Yes You Can!
CREATE A HEALING HOME
More experts are realizing what the Chinese have known for centuries — a pleasing environment can promote good health. Want to feel less stressed? Add touches of the great outdoors — moving water, plants, and images of nature in artwork — to your home. Want to feel more energetic? Splash a touch of red around your living room.
The field of health design is attracting increased attention these days, from consumers and healthcare professionals alike, as research mounts that our environment can have a profound effect on our physical, mental, and spiritual health. "To be truly healthy, we need to feed all areas of our life," says Hope Karan Gerecht, a feng shui practitioner in Stevenson, Md. "The key word is balance," says Gerecht, author of Healing Design: Practical Feng Shui for Healthy and Gracious Living.
Feng shui, a Chinese system of interior/exterior design that dates back thousands of years, is based on the idea that the items in our homes, and how they're arranged, can affect our life. The three fundamental principles of feng shui are to improve our lives by:
(1) Encouraging the flow of vital energy (chi) in our living environments.
(2) Eliminating negative energy (sha).
(3) Creating balance in our homes by including the five aspects of nature — water, wood, fire, earth, and metal.
Gerecht's 3 general rules of feng shui that support these objectives are to:
(1) Have nothing broken in your home.
(2) Get rid of clutter.
(3) Rid yourself of things you do not love.
When Gerecht enters a client's home for a consultation, she looks for subtle clues that the environment isn't supporting the people in the home the way it should. If a client is having trouble sleeping, she will look to see where the bed is arranged and what surrounds it. Placing the head of the bed against the wall, for example, and using a solid wooden headboard add a sense of stability and improve sleep, she suggests.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Gerecht says, can be traced to a lack of light. One of the principles of feng shui is that all spaces in our home and workplace should be brightly lit (unless you're trying to create a specific mood). "Brightness supports more physical movement, and movement is life-giving," she says.
This isn't hocus-pocus, says Santa Rosa, Calif., architect Carol Venolia, author of Healing Environments: Your Guide to Indoor Well-Being, and co-founder of the National Building Network. This area of concern is finding its way into our homes and offices, but it's also entering healthcare institutions, says Venolia. "Designers and researchers are increasingly looking at how our surroundings can help us heal and thrive," she says.
In a 1984 issue of Science, Roger S. Ulrich, PhD, of Texas A&M University reported results from a pivotal study on healthcare. After examining records from a hospital recovery wing, he found that patients whose windows looked onto a green landscape had shorter postoperative stays, took fewer pain medications, and received fewer negative medical evaluations on their charts than patients with similar conditions whose windows looked out onto a brick wall.
Many healthcare institutions are acknowledging Ulrich's findings and are beginning to incorporate aspects of healing design into their spaces, says Venolia. To promote relaxation, the University of Arizona's Integrative Medicine Clinic — uses diffusers to spread the scent of lavender; decorates with a lot of blues and greens; has fresh flowers brought in every day; CD players in each room mask routine hospital sounds, and the art on the walls is chosen for serenity.
You don't have to go to a hospital to take advantage of a healing environment, says Venolia. The first and most powerful thing you can do in creating a healthier home of your own is to be aware, she says. "Tune in to your senses," she says. "Note what's around you and how it affects you. If something is annoying you or making you feel bad — whether physically or mentally — that's what you need to fix first."
~Carol Sorgen, WebMD Health.MSN.com
CREATE A HEALING HOME
More experts are realizing what the Chinese have known for centuries — a pleasing environment can promote good health. Want to feel less stressed? Add touches of the great outdoors — moving water, plants, and images of nature in artwork — to your home. Want to feel more energetic? Splash a touch of red around your living room.
The field of health design is attracting increased attention these days, from consumers and healthcare professionals alike, as research mounts that our environment can have a profound effect on our physical, mental, and spiritual health. "To be truly healthy, we need to feed all areas of our life," says Hope Karan Gerecht, a feng shui practitioner in Stevenson, Md. "The key word is balance," says Gerecht, author of Healing Design: Practical Feng Shui for Healthy and Gracious Living.
Feng shui, a Chinese system of interior/exterior design that dates back thousands of years, is based on the idea that the items in our homes, and how they're arranged, can affect our life. The three fundamental principles of feng shui are to improve our lives by:
(1) Encouraging the flow of vital energy (chi) in our living environments.
(2) Eliminating negative energy (sha).
(3) Creating balance in our homes by including the five aspects of nature — water, wood, fire, earth, and metal.
Gerecht's 3 general rules of feng shui that support these objectives are to:
(1) Have nothing broken in your home.
(2) Get rid of clutter.
(3) Rid yourself of things you do not love.
When Gerecht enters a client's home for a consultation, she looks for subtle clues that the environment isn't supporting the people in the home the way it should. If a client is having trouble sleeping, she will look to see where the bed is arranged and what surrounds it. Placing the head of the bed against the wall, for example, and using a solid wooden headboard add a sense of stability and improve sleep, she suggests.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), Gerecht says, can be traced to a lack of light. One of the principles of feng shui is that all spaces in our home and workplace should be brightly lit (unless you're trying to create a specific mood). "Brightness supports more physical movement, and movement is life-giving," she says.
This isn't hocus-pocus, says Santa Rosa, Calif., architect Carol Venolia, author of Healing Environments: Your Guide to Indoor Well-Being, and co-founder of the National Building Network. This area of concern is finding its way into our homes and offices, but it's also entering healthcare institutions, says Venolia. "Designers and researchers are increasingly looking at how our surroundings can help us heal and thrive," she says.
In a 1984 issue of Science, Roger S. Ulrich, PhD, of Texas A&M University reported results from a pivotal study on healthcare. After examining records from a hospital recovery wing, he found that patients whose windows looked onto a green landscape had shorter postoperative stays, took fewer pain medications, and received fewer negative medical evaluations on their charts than patients with similar conditions whose windows looked out onto a brick wall.
Many healthcare institutions are acknowledging Ulrich's findings and are beginning to incorporate aspects of healing design into their spaces, says Venolia. To promote relaxation, the University of Arizona's Integrative Medicine Clinic — uses diffusers to spread the scent of lavender; decorates with a lot of blues and greens; has fresh flowers brought in every day; CD players in each room mask routine hospital sounds, and the art on the walls is chosen for serenity.
You don't have to go to a hospital to take advantage of a healing environment, says Venolia. The first and most powerful thing you can do in creating a healthier home of your own is to be aware, she says. "Tune in to your senses," she says. "Note what's around you and how it affects you. If something is annoying you or making you feel bad — whether physically or mentally — that's what you need to fix first."
~Carol Sorgen, WebMD Health.MSN.com
I have been thinking lately that I need to create a healthier environment, my problem is that I don't like to get rid of objects that people give me but I guess that if the objects are not working with the flow of things I could always store them away ;D
I have also heard that if you do not use an item for a year that you should also part with it.
