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From promoting better sleep to creating a convivial mood, a new approach to interior design is less about aesthetic trends and more about how our spaces make us feel. Daisy Woodward explores the feel-good home phenomenon. I It's no secret that the spaces we inhabit affect the way we feel. From feng shui to the Scandinavian pursuit of hygge, designing the look and layout of your abode to further a sense of wellbeing is a long-established idea. Yet, environmental psychology – the study of the human relationship to surroundings – was not recognised as an academic field until the late 1960s, and is an even more recent consideration when it comes to domestic interior design. More like this: - Inside eight interior designers' homes - The vintage French style resonating now - Why living with plants is good for you "The idea of improving wellness through our indoor spaces is something that has burgeoned," Jean Whitehead, senior lecturer in Interior Design at Falmouth University and author of Creating Interior Atmosphere: Mise-en-scène and Interior Design, tells BBC Culture. "It was already prevalent in healthcare interiors, but now it's crossing over into hospitality and leisure spaces, as well as how we think about our homes." The whole point is building an interior around your personality – Jill Singer Our collective interest in wellness, Whitehead notes, has been accelerated by the pandemic. Rather remarkably, Europeans have been found in surveys to spend up to 90% of their time indoors, and, during lockdown, "indoors" for most of us came to mean "at home". Because of this, many of us began to care less about how our abodes looked, from a trends perspective at least, and more about how they made us feel. As a result, a new, more sustainable stance on interior design has begun to take hold, centred around individuality, mindfulness and self-care. The book How to Live with Objects explores ways we can make our living spaces reflect our personalities and promote happiness (Credit: Charlie Schuck/ Clarkson Potter) The book How to Live with Objects explores ways we can make our living spaces reflect our personalities and promote happiness (Credit: Charlie Schuck/ Clarkson Potter) For Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer, the founders of online design magazine Sight Unseen, the pandemic brought about a newfound appreciation for the myriad objects they had both accumulated over the years. "We were sitting in our homes and our objects were really bringing us comfort, and making us feel less lonely," Khemsurov tells BBC Culture. This sparked the idea for the duo's book, How to Live with Objects: A Guide to More Meaningful Interiors, published this week, in which she and Singer offer up their tips on "how to maximise the visual and emotional impact of your space" through objects. This involves taking a more intentional approach to both acquiring and living with objects, prioritising heartfelt connection over what Khemsurov dubs a "keeping up with the Joneses" attitude. "It's the basic idea that an object can very easily become imbued with meaning and memories," she says. Whether it's something a friend made you which reminds you that you are cared for, or a nick-nack purchased while travelling abroad, she observes, objects allow us to relive moments, or feel closer to loved ones, at a glance. "In terms of the aesthetic of the object, we tend to be quite agnostic," Singer adds. "The whole point is building an interior around your personality." Surrounding yourself with treasured objects is, of course, only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to compiling a personal space that makes you feel good. Lindsay T Graham, a personality-and-social psychologist specialising in how we affect – and are affected by – the spaces we inhabit, suggests taking an intuitive stance right from the start. "First, go into the space, and look at how it currently makes you feel," she tells BBC Culture. "Don't overthink it, just ask yourself, 'Am I feeling stressed? Or happy? Am I ready to wind down? Or am I amped up?' Then take a step back and think about what you want to be feeling. Noticing the mismatch between the two will offer clues to what needs to be shifted in order to create an environment that's really going to support you." Home sweet home From there, it's all about selecting the right tools to achieve the desired psychological effect. One element is lighting. "Lighting can transform a space instantly," says Graham. "Plus, there's been so much research about its influence on our circadian rhythm, which impacts both our mental and physical health." Much of this research centres on using different coloured lights to incite different moods. "You can buy warm or cool light bulbs," environmental psychologist Sally Augustin, PhD, tells BBC Culture. "If you're trying to create a calming atmosphere where people will enjoy spending time together, for example, you want a warmer, softer light, whereas for something that requires concentration, you want the light to be cooler and more intense." Warmer light is most effective when emitted from a lower level – "say, from tabletop or floor lamps" – Augustin explains, while cool bulbs should be placed in ceiling fixtures or overhead lighting sockets. Colour, texture, lighting and choice of objects are all factors in creating a feel-good home (Credit: Charlie Schuck/ Clarkson Potter) Colour, texture, lighting and choice of objects are all factors in creating a feel-good home (Credit: Charlie Schuck/ Clarkson Potter) Likewise, textures can powerfully alter our emotional response to a space. "If you stick to one basic texture, particularly one known to make us feel good, you'll get a more relaxing effect. And if you use multiple textures, you add a little more energy into the space," says Augustin. "Studies have found that soft textures – like the materials that baby clothes are made from – are most relaxing to feel." It is also helpful to consider textiles' acoustic influence on a room, she explains. "When you're designing, remember to consider all of the sensory implications. In your living room, if you have at least one rug, upholstered furniture and curtains on the windows, those softer surfaces will absorb sound and prevent echoing, creating a more pleasant environment." Another easy way to cultivate calm at home? "Any time you can bring nature into the equation is a win," says Graham. "Plants are great," says Augustin, "especially green, leafy ones with curving leaves and stems." But, she adds, naturalist or biophilic design extends far beyond plants and views of nature. "We tend to find curving lines most relaxing – either in two-dimensional patterns, or in three-dimensional forms, like the shape of the back of a couch – as they evoke forms we find in nature. While natural materials, particularly unpainted wood, are really great for keeping our stress levels in check." How we want to feel at home, however, will inevitably vary depending on the space we're inhabiting and how we're using it at any given time. If you're accommodating multiple people within a space, for instance, you may wish to position your furniture to promote better conversation, Graham explains. "To create cosiness and the ability to connect with others, we want our furniture facing each other," she says. While Augustin notes that "if you want to encourage the most collegial, convivial interaction, everybody involved should be seated at more or less the same height. It's the same as the advantages of a round versus a rectangular dining table." When it comes to bedtime routines, surrounding yourself with warm lighting and soothing textures helps There are plenty of other ways to tap into the psychology of space. "Colour can be very impactful," says Augustin, "Something light and not very saturated will have a calming effect – a sagey green with lots of white mixed into it, say – while warm colours can spur our appetite and make people appear friendlier to one another." Objects can similarly set the mood of a space, says Graham, "whether that's a piece of furniture, an artwork or a specific thing that lights you up, and you can use that feeling to anchor, or drive the momentum of the whole room." Singer also suggests shuffling objects around to recontextualise them – "maybe move something somewhere unexpected like a bathroom, or place a chair at the end of the hallway." We are instinctively drawn to curvy, organic shapes in objects and furniture because they reflect the natural world (Credit: Charlie Schuk/ Clarkson Potter) We are instinctively drawn to curvy, organic shapes in objects and furniture because they reflect the natural world (Credit: Charlie Schuk/ Clarkson Potter) When it comes to getting a better night's sleep, meanwhile, the way you arrange your bedroom can, of course, make all the difference. "You need to think about your night-time behaviours and routine," says Graham, "and what's going to put you into the best space to shut out the thoughts or anxieties of the day." This can range from surrounding yourself with warm lighting and soothing textures to making sure that your work space – which may remind you of pending tasks – is hidden from sight. The same goes for visual clutter, which, according to Augustin "is stressful generally, and in the context of trying to fall asleep is particularly problematic". And a clear view of the door to your bedroom can make you feel calmer, she says. "That goes back to our basic survival instincts and seeing the entry point to our space." However you're looking to adjust your space to better support your needs, experts advise us to view our homes as idiosyncratic and constantly evolving organisms – just as we ourselves are. "Assembling and curating an interior that makes you feel good takes time," says Whitehead. "It's a process of trial and error that should continue throughout our lifetimes". Khemsurov agrees. "We say in the book that you shouldn't treat your home like a museum," she says. "If you set it a certain way and never touch it again, that doesn't leave space for you inside your own home. The more you touch and interact with your space, the more connected to it you become." The magic of personal spaces, no matter how big or small, is that they have the ability to "really transform our emotions and who we are," concludes Graham. "And if we take the time to be mindful about that, it's a really powerful means of living more functionally, while feeling more fulfilled." |
Is being calm about passivity and numbness, or is it a superpower that makes us strong? Lindsay Baker explores the ideas behind serenity, and ways that we can achieve it. I Is calmness a passive state of being, involving numbing oneself to what's really going on? Is it in some cases unnatural – sociopathic even? Or is a sense of tranquillity one of the greatest qualities we can have? Here are five ideas about calmness, from the philosophy of serenity, to the music, art and poetry that can make us feel peaceful – and how to find our "flow". More like this: - Eight nature books to change your life - The sci-fi genre offering hope - Inside Japan's most minimalist homes Stoic serenity "Stay calm and serene regardless of what life throws at you," advised the Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Sounds easier said than done, you would think. But in fact, the Stoic Aurelius had a knack for making calmness seem easy to achieve. The philosopher Epictetus and other Stoics believed that finding calm was essential – and within our control (Credit: Alamy) The philosopher Epictetus and other Stoics believed that finding calm was essential – and within our control (Credit: Alamy) Aurelius's famous work Meditations is, according to John Sellars – author and Reader at Royal Holloway, University of London – all about "putting our everyday cares and concerns into wider perspective". As emperor of Rome, Aurelius faced huge pressures but, Sellars tells BBC Culture: "He often reminds himself how brief his life is compared to the vastness of time, and how small it is compared to the whole of the cosmos." In line with his Stoic life view, Aurelius also reminds himself constantly that "whatever frustration or negative emotions he might be feeling are ultimately the product of his own judgments or interpretations about situations, and so, as a consequence, things within his power to control," says Sellars. In order to make good decisions we need a calm frame of mind so that we can pause and reflect, rather than behaving merely reactively – John Sellars But why the emphasis on being calm? Is it really that important to find peace? In the Stoic mindset, it seems, calmness is everything – it is strength. As Aurelius writes in Meditations: "The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength." Sellars explains: "Calmness is essential to living a good, happy life, Marcus and his fellow Stoics would insist. This is because a disturbed or troubled mind isn't going to be able to make sensible, rational decisions. The person in the grip of violent emotions, for instance, literally isn't thinking straight. They have been overcome and may act impulsively or violently. In order to make good decisions we need a calm frame of mind so that we can pause and reflect, rather than behaving merely reactively." According to the Stoics, we just need to see that calmness is within our control. Whatever is going on in the world, "it all depends on our judgments and interpretations of situations, not the situations themselves," explains Sellars. The philosopher Epictetus, he adds, who was Aurelius's primary influence, wrote: "When we are frustrated, angry or unhappy, never hold anyone except ourselves – that is, our judgements – accountable." This core Stoic idea was, says Sellars, "a huge influence on the founders of modern cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and its effectiveness has been proven by the many studies of CBT that have been made". The electronic album Stellar Drifting by George FitzGerald is inspired by the cosmos – Setting Sun is a particularly tranquil listen (Credit: George FitzGerald) The electronic album Stellar Drifting by George FitzGerald is inspired by the cosmos – Setting Sun is a particularly tranquil listen (Credit: George FitzGerald) Electronic escape From supposedly soothing pan pipes to ambient rainforest sounds, we are all accustomed to the stock idea of soundscapes as a calming backdrop. But of course the sounds that each of us find restful are by definition a personal thing, and there is no one-size-fits-all soundtrack that will promote peacefulness for all. Just as the Stoics emphasised perspective and how small each of us is compared to the whole of the cosmos, electronic music artist George FitzGerald looked to the universe and the stars for inspiration for his 2022 album Stellar Drifting. The musician told MusicTech: "To me, [space] represented the furthest point away; the grandest vision of humanity." FitzGerald spent time in New Mexico driving in the desert and stargazing. "Space gets you out of yourself. It reminds you that we're tiny and insignificant." He took images of the universe collected by Nasa and, by feeding them into new software programmes, converted them into sounds, which he then developed into the 10 tracks on the album. He also used audio recordings from probes that were floating around the solar system. Electronic, garage and house music have for decades been a form of escapism, first evolving in the interesting margins of society, and uniting disparate groups. And according to FitzGerald, the stars in the sky are an escapism, one that connects all of us. Probably the most calming track on the album is Setting Sun, to be enjoyed not necessarily on a busy dancefloor, but rather lying on a sofa or standing on a hillside, contemplating the vastness of the universe – and our own insignificance. Hilma af Klint's The Ten Largest, Group IV, No. 3 Youth 1907 will feature in an upcoming exhibition at the Tate Modern (Credit: Tate/ Courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation) Hilma af Klint's The Ten Largest, Group IV, No. 3 Youth 1907 will feature in an upcoming exhibition at the Tate Modern (Credit: Tate/ Courtesy of the Hilma af Klint Foundation) Art of tranquillity Likewise in visual art, one viewer's tranquil, meditative experience is another's intense psychodrama. The New Yorker describes the work of Swedish artist Hilma af Kilmt as "fearfully esoteric" and resonating with a "restlessly searching mood in present culture". For other spectators, masterpieces such as The Ten Largest, Group lV, No. 3 Youth 1907 are quintessentially peaceful in their enigmatic otherworldliness. A Swedish mystic and painter, Af Klint developed her own lexicon of pastel-hued shapes several years ahead of other more feted abstract artists. An exhibition this April at London's Tate Modern will explore her work alongside that of Piet Mondrian. "At the heart of both of their artistic journeys was a shared desire to understand the forces behind life on Earth," says the Tate. Like others before her, Af Klint viewed our existence as only a small element in the larger scheme of things Af Klint began her career as a landscape painter, inspired by nature, and then her work began to represent natural forms that veered towards abstraction. Spirituality, theosophy and philosophy were central to her out-there vision, and her work reflects that sense of something bigger than us at play – in fact she actually believed her works were painted under the direction of higher spirits. Like others before her, she viewed our existence as only a small element in the larger scheme of things. Undeniably woo-woo though her vision was, her interest in metaphysics and theosophy was intricate, even semi-scientific, and with its own internal logic – she was drawn to both the spiritualist writings of the founder of the Theosophical Society, Madam Blavatsky, and the philosophical ideas of the Medieval mystic Christian Rosenkreuz. She wanted her work to facilitate spiritual mediation that would transcend physical reality, and to visualise a kind of astral world. Who knows the precise motivation or meaning behind these extraordinary, liminal, enigmatic artworks? And perhaps that mystery and other-worldliness is what makes the act of looking at them, to some of us at least, such a profoundly peaceful experience. Harmony of haiku The traditional form of Japanese poetry, haiku, which consists of 17 syllables in three lines, is widely considered to have a calming effect on the reader. The structure of haiku follows a strict syllable count, and it encourages the poet to focus on a single image or moment, which in itself has a meditative effect. The use of nature imagery in haiku also evokes feelings of serenity and peace. The brevity and simplicity of haiku allows the reader to contemplate and consider the meaning and the imagery without feeling overwhelmed by excessive ideas and language. Matsuo Bashō of the Edo period, the best known haiku poet – his complete poetry is translated in the book On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho – was born in Iga-ueno near Kyoto in 1644, and he began writing verse while acting as a companion to a local aristocrat. Bashō was not only a master of haiku, but also a Buddhist monk and a great traveller – when he travelled he relied entirely on the hospitality of temples and fellow poets. His gnomic poems combine the Zen idea of a oneness with creation with kurami, or lightness of touch. Each of his poems evokes a scene from the natural world – a leaping frog, a summer moon, cherry blossom, winter snow – which suggest the smallness of human life in the context of the vastness of nature. Pithy and spare, his most famous haiku is The Old Pond: "Old pond/ A frog jumps in –/ The sound of water". Another is A Leafless Branch: "On a leafless branch/ A crow comes to rest –/ Autumn nightfall". Bashō led a solitary life completely free from possessions. Arguably, his haiku are the result of a keen eye and a meditative mind that have been left clear from the distraction of "stuff", and so he is more alive to the beauty of the world around him – and closer to his own intuition. |
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