Want to Reduce Stress? Surround Yourself with Beauty!
By Troy Rampy, Editor, The Wellness Blog™
“ We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
This particular stress reduction strategy is a little gem. Even for those of you who feel you don’t particularly care about or are not affected by your environment, beauty does exert its own power and energy.
Not sure you believe that? Okay, here’s a simple example: notice how you feel when you walk into a room where everything is clean, orderly and artfully arranged, as opposed to a room where there is chaos and clutter.
You will probably notice that you brighten up in the cleaner room. Chaos and clutter have a way of dampening our spirits … and of causing a continual, low level of background stress.
When things are brought into order of a certain kind … sometimes referred to as beauty … you tend to feel better. That’s because there is something in us that relaxes and appreciates beauty. We literally open up. Stress falls away and life improves a bit, along with our experience of it.
Beauty, in all its manifestations, has the power to transform and improve our lives … not to mention reducing our levels of stress!
So here are a few simple things you can do to incorporate more beauty into your life. First and foremost for many of us is to clean up the mess and organize your environment. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much difference this makes.
Then, bring in some art, color, light, plants and/or flowers, in other words a sense of artistic design, for the places you spend most of your time … that is your living and working environments.
(Note: A lot of contemporary “art” is fragmented, cynical and jarring. It accurately reflects the dysfunction and neurosis of our chaotic culture. So it’s not going to reduce your stress. In fact, it’s likely to do just the opposite. Be sure that the art you choose is something you truly like and uplifts you.)
In terms of your lifestyle, spend more time delighting in the things you enjoy whether that is good music, poetry, dance, film, theater, fine dining, or anything else of beauty that feeds your soul.
Find grace and beauty in the way you move, relate, talk, and live. Start with the small things, like enjoying a quiet morning cup of tea outside in the garden, especially now that the weather is nice (here in northern California, anyway).
Take time to meditate, eat healthy food, drink plenty of purified water, exercise, and get enough restful sleep. Yes, those five pillars of a well-being lifestyle are also expressions of beauty — the beauty, and integrity, of a life well lived.
Look for and acknowledge the beauty in others, in nature, and all around you every day. This may seem too simple to matter, but soon you might begin to notice that you just feel better, have more energy … and feel less stressed!
Oh the joys that beauty brings.
