Minimalist Guide To Visual Stress Relief and Creating Better Space
Visual stress relief can play an essential role in achieving better mental and physical health. The good news is visual stress relief is easy to reach.
If you are familiar with the minimalist lifestyle or dislike clutter, you know the calming effect of entering a clutter-free environment.
We are constantly bombarded with visual clutter in today’s world. As our bodies subconsciously fight to block and limit the adverse effects of visual clutter, the attack becomes more aggressive.
As we naturally begin to ignore commercials on all media, advertisers increase the volume of the commercials to jar your attention.
Similarly, as we ignore banner ads online, pop-ups and page welcome mats are used more consistently to get our attention.
When we leave our homes, the world seems to be a giant advertisement. I swear the promos at the movie theater are longer than the featured movie. LOL.
Believe it or not, this visual clutter causes stress, and visual stress relief is at hand.
Create A Physical Place That Promotes Visual Stress Relief
Unfortunately, It’s not just in your head. Visual clutter is causing stress in your life, and there is proof. Even something as subtle as keeping a particular room’s door in your home close to hide the clutter.
If you feel a small amount of panic when the doorbell rings unexpectedly because you are ashamed of the clutter in your home, visual stress relief will solve that stress pain point for you.
Visual stress can also affect your daily life outside of the home.
Many of us subconsciously ignore the causes of repetitive visual stress and then react like the adverse effects are expected. The negative effects of visual stress are not something you have to live with.
Once you understand how your environment has the power to end or perpetuate stress in your daily life, you have a newfound power source.
You can create a physical oasis for your mind, body, and personal space to retreat and lessen the effects of visual stress.
When you can create this, your subconscious recognizes visual stress as not being an endless loop. It will form a mental association that triggers and seeks relief to avoid being overwhelmed.
Like tying a string around your finger to remember something, learning to react to cues subconsciously, and seeking visual stress relief when needed.
If a constant stream of visual stimulation regularly leaves you feeling hyped up and anxious in your life, it’s time to seek visual stress relief.
Minimalist living helps me combat visual stress relief, and you can develop similar methods to help you. Please let me know some of the techniques you may have created to aid you with stress relief in the comments below.
Quick Steps To Promote Visual Stress Relief
Combating visual stress requires a good plan. Ignoring potential problems or responding to visual stress with a knee-jerk reaction will not cut it.
Below are Minimalist Living Ideas for visual stress relief and creating better space.
Declutter, declutter, and declutter.
Decluttering your physical and mental space is the foundation of the Minimalist Lifestyle Movement. Most people enjoy a tremendous amount of stress relief after this process.
Most new Minimalists never realized how overwhelmed and boxed they felt when they had all that visual stimulation around them.
Allow being cognizant of visual stress to be the canary in the coal mine, an early warning system to alert you when you begin to fall back into your old routines.
Bring The Outside In.
The minimalist lifestyle does not mean your home must have bare walls and bare surfaces. The minimalist lifestyle values owning things you enjoy regularly and things that add value to your life.
Bright flowers and plants will do that for most people. A flower or plant placed here and there will bring joy and value and help combat visual clutter.
No Electronics In The Bedroom.
The bedroom should be for relaxation and sleep. It is important for your subconscious self to understand the bedroom is a place to relax. If possible remove the television and any music equipment from your bedroom.
If you can not do that just make your actual bed the island of tranquility. LOL. Anytime you are laying down on the bed, no electronics. Your bed should flood your body with clues that it’s time to actually relax.
Your Refrigerator Door Is Snitching On You.
Yeah, your refrigerator door is a disloyal dirty rat. LOL. Believe it or not, if your refrigerator door is cluttered most likely your home is a mirror image.
According to Rachel Jones (of NourishingMinimalism.com) research shows a correlation between a cluttered fridge door and a cluttered home.
If your refrigerator door is covered with souvenir magnets, restaurant lunch menus, expired coupons, and children’s works of art your home most likely looks the same
You may be in need of visual stress relief. LOL.
Keep Your Kitchen SinkClear.
If you are like me you hate washing dishes and feel guilty for running the dishwasher for small loads. I always feel great when I look over and see a clear kitchen countertop and a clean kitchen sink.
Just thinking about that image floods my body with a warm calming feeling.
Be vigilant at keeping the kitchen sink clean and clear to combat visual stress.
Less Is Best.
Natural Stress Remedies
You are what you eat; your foods will dramatically affect your physical and mental well-being.
Fatty fish. It’s rich in the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, which have been shown to improve symptoms of moderate and major depression and also to reduce anxiety significantly, says Tod Cooperman, M.D., president, founder and editor-in-chief of ConsumerLab.com, an independent evaluator of dietary supplements.
Probiotic-rich foods. Think of a daily dose of pickles, sauerkraut, or kefir. A study in Psychiatry Research suggested a link between probiotic foods and lowering social anxiety.
Leafy greens. Having low blood levels of magnesium and a low intake of magnesium from foods are each associated with an increased risk of depression, says Cooperman.
Protein in the morning. Protein helps synthesize serotonin, a brain hormone responsible for helping to lower anxiety and boost mood, notes Elsa Orivel, a dietician at Foodvisor.
Being Mindful. Whenever you feel anxious, practice some mindfulness techniques, as suggested by Amy Sullivan, a psychologist at Cleveland Clinic. “It teaches us how to stay in the here and now, instead of toward fear and uncertainty in the future,”
Learn much more about Natural Stress Remedies Right Now!
Guided Imagery Techniques
Guided Imagery Techniques involve techniques most of us instinctively use to combat stress. Creating positive and peaceful mental images during a stressful situation.
This technique is most effective when it is systematic and intentional, like meditation. Guided Imagery Techniques are more effective when combined with soothing music, massage, or a satisfying beverage.
Mix and match to choose what combination of Guided Imagery Techniques and physical relaxation techniques are most effective.
Guided imagery techniques are a welcomed distraction from a stressful situation and a non-verbal suggestion to your subconscious mind to feel as if you are actually in a beautiful, peaceful, and safe place.
When you learn to use this form of guided meditation effectively, you detach yourself from stressful moments and enjoy an alternate reality you have created.
As with anything, practice yields better results, and you can learn to propel yourself instantly to any of your many unique places, given the proper settings.
There is no right or wrong way to practice Guided Imagery Techniques, but you can try what works for me and tweak it to your liking.
- Find a private calm space, even a bathroom or closet will do in a pinch.
- Close your eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths to find your center and calm yourself.
- Mentally access your bank of calming images and locations that work for you.
- Feel the stress drain from your body as your shoulders feel less tense and fall.
- Imagine smiling, happy, and having a great time.
- Once you are there mentally, combat your surroundings and sensations to keep you in the zone. Own it. Control it.
- Try to live it and enjoy the perfect world you have created for five to ten minutes or until you feel relaxed.
- Open your eyes and reluctantly rejoin your world.
Conclusion
Typically, visual stress is not something most people consider, and visual stress relief is rare. That does not mean visual clutter is not waging war on you mentally, physically, and spiritually.
You subconsciously recognize it when visual clutter becomes overwhelming but then it’s too late, the damage is done. Learn to recognize and avoid visual clutter.
You will enjoy its calming benefits almost immediately. Follow the tips above and let us know the effects in the comments.
Let us know of anything I missed and anything that helps you achieve visual stress relief.
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