I would like to give you some explanation why environments can and do have an impact on our health and wellbeing. Western medicine is indeed remarkable, and its principles continue to play a significant role in modern healthcare. But how many of you know that, with exception of maybe surgical field, it mostly cures symptoms and not the cause?
For instance, in contemporary healthcare, there is a significant focus on prescribing medications.
We don’t hear it at the doctor’s office that feeling safe in our home contributes to our mental health and that the art that we hang on our walls can subconsciously contribute to our disease. But they do! How is that possible?
There are 3 main reasons why:
· mind-body connection = psychosomatic connection
· epigenetics
· biophilic design
Our mind likes data, so let’s start with some pragmatic, western-medicine based results. Thanks to EEG measurements, it has been demonstrated that when we enter a well-organized and harmoniously designed room, basically a room with good feng shui, our brain smoothly transitions from beta brainwaves to alpha brainwaves. Beta brain waves are commonly observed in an awakened state, when we are involved in conscious thinking and they have a stimulating effect. However when they are maintained for too long, they lead to feelings of fear and anxiety. Alpha brain waves occur when people feel relaxed and are not concentrating on anything. They induce feelings of calm and increase creativity.
So let’s talk about the mind body connection.
And again, let’s start with some facts. According to world known hypnotherapist Marissa Peer, 70% of diseases start in our mind. Yahhofinance.com claims that 90% doctors visits in America are due to stress. They result in a yearly healthcare cost to Americans totaling $190 billion. In med school we learn all the time that stress is a contributing factor to basically every single disease in the books. If I never studied and said this illness is caused by stress, I would always get at least one point on the test. And it always occurred to me as weird. Stress was such a huge phantom. But nowadays, brilliant minds like Dr. Gabor Mate link specific stressors with specific somatic diseases. In his works he claims for example that boys that have been sexually abused have had 3 times the rate of heart attacks. Obesity, breast cancer, prostate cancer, ALS and others are proven to be linked with suppressed anger. There are so many stressors in our everyday life, and knowing how hugely the stressors influence our health and knowing that the state of our homes contributes to the quality of our brain waves and can therefore decrease and increase the overall levels of stress in our lives, why would we create conditions to in our homes to increase the level of stress even more?
I would like to briefly introduce epigenetics to you all.
Dr. Joe Dispenza is somebody I greatly admire. He is also putting incredible information from various sources together. Thanks to him, I now understand that our body is composed of 100,000 proteins, with an additional 40,000 proteins that regulate and assist in their formation, bringing the total to 140,000 proteins. Surprisingly, although one might expect 140,000 genes corresponding to each protein, we only have 23,688 genes. The epigenetics model reveals that a single gene can have various variations, up to 35,000 in number. Genes can either up-regulate, activating to produce healthy proteins, or down-regulate, deactivating to produce modified or unhealthy proteins. The type of proteins expressed is determined by the environment, both the internal environment within our body around the cells and the external environment—yes, you guessed it right—our homes.{picture how proteins are made}
According to the newest scientific endeavors, only 1% of all genetic conditions are predetermined before birth. 99% of them are caused by “broken” genes that have ‘become broken’ during our lifetime as a result of stress.
So how does it work?
You have healthy genes, then you are under some kind of strong or prolonged stress, you experience negative emotions, the environment around the cells gets “worse”, genes of lower quality become active, lower quality of proteins is expressed, you become sick.
Let’s reverse engineer this and make it simpler – when you feel good, the environment around your cells is healthier, higher quality genes are turned on, higher quality proteins are created, you are healthier.
We can feel better thanks to our thoughts and it’s much easier to feel better in a physical environment that feels good, doesn’t consciously and subconsciously stress you out, doesn’t induce trauma and does make you happy!
biophilic design
We humans are nature and our ancestors have spent their lives surrounded by nature for thousands of years. Now, living in the houses and cities, we are disconnected from nature. We strive for it, because it grounds us, it has a regulating effect on our nervous system and it raises our vibes. The need for nature is ingrained in our DNA. Biophilic design essentially involves creating living spaces that evoke a connection to the natural world, instilling a sense of being surrounded by nature. While decorating our homes with biophilic design in mind, we focus on engaging all of our five senses and this is what makes our living spaces feel amazingly soothing and helps regulate our nervous system. Homes that engage all 5 senses also help us connect with the space on a deeper level. And as we know by now, less stress equals more health.
In addition to reducing stress, biophilic design is recognized for its ability to decrease blood pressure and heart rate, enhance mental engagement, foster a positive outlook and overall happiness, boost creativity and mental clarity, and accelerate the healing process.
We humans have had a relationship with our homes since cavemen. Yet, we are not aware how much our homes influence our subconscious mind. Even a simple thing like hanging a painting can have an impact on our life and health. Because our subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between a picture and reality. Even marketing knows that 85% of what we feel and do is based on the subconscious and unconscious mind. So let’s make a conscious decision that lets our homes become our friends and allows them to contribute to our good health.