With the year still feeling new, but many of our woes, worries, and the boxes of old trinkets that you promised to get rid of from last year are still staring at you, you may already feel behind on the “new year, new you” trend. If you are juggling work, family, social stressors, and caring for yourself, finding the emotional energy to clear your space might feel like an uphill battle. When you come home or leave your designated workspace after working from home, it is hard to relax amongst physical and emotional clutter when there is no break in sight. This experience can be defined as stress, the physical or mental response to a situation or cause outside of ourselves. The National Institute of Mental Health (2020) says experiences of stress can happen once or become chronic over time, and the American Institute of Stress (n.d) states this experience can affect everything from our nervous system’s ability to calm itself down, while also increasing our risk of respiratory and heart strain, as well as decreasing our sexual drive! Even with people working from home, which can be seen as a blessing, it also blurs the lines between work and relaxation within your space, giving your stress more room to thrive. This experience can feel like an impossible cycle that feels void of true rest and restoration.

So, how can we find ways to reclaim our spaces during times when overwhelm and turmoil flood the rooms of our homes? Here are three gentle suggestions for you to get started on releasing the stress from your home and making space for healthier and restorative emotional energy:

You are the Compass of Your Space

The answers you need to release stressful emotional energy in your living space to better align with how you want to live or feel is first to give yourself the permission to make the change. It is easy for us to look at material changes to adjust how we feel, such as obsessing over the new color swatches from the local hardware store; this is the mistake many of us make in using things to replace or represent how we feel. Before you break out your wallet, let’s center the most valuable thing we can already offer to our space…ourselves. Using yourself as a compass to how things should look and feel should be the first step to you internally understanding how to choose to eliminate emotional stress from your space. Think, what are some things you love or are naturally drawn to? What are the smells, scents, symbols, and structures that get you through the day? What are some things about your ancestry or lineage that color your individual path to wellness? Using ourselves as a compass to align our energy with the spaces we inhabit isn’t just about being financially practical, but respecting who we are spiritually, culturally, and intuitively. Imagine: A part of the answer of shaping your space and releasing energy that is not allowing you to feel liberated and centered might be hidden in your history all along. Nothing better to beat external stress than internal strength!

Redecorating by Adding Your Magic to Old Things

Now that you have made your decisions on what to change, the fun part happens…decorating! This can easily be a stressful part of the process, especially if you are one with high taste and shallow pockets! After watching endless videos on Instagram and reading countless Home and Garden magazines, the task of re-shifting your home through decorating and rearranging probably feels like you need to go on a shopping spree to West Elm or The Container Store. Let’s not make this process more stressful than it needs to be; we are trying to eliminate, not add stress! Before you buy all the things in your Amazon account, think about the small touches that could be done or the items that you already have to spruce up a room. Just getting a sample can of paint to add some color to wall trimming to brighten a room, or rearranging furniture from one room to another, may scratch the itch of buying new or pricey things until you are able. Also, think about what is the space is already naturally offering to you—where is the sun prominent, in the morning or the evening? It might be nice to decorate a sitting area in the sunlight, or a place to plan your morning tea.

Okay, so you really get joy out of purchasing new knick-knacks, but still on a budget? This is where you can find hidden treasures in discount, thrift, and second-hand stores if you are low on funds. Finding items for your bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen, like trash cans, baskets, or soap dishes, can be great finds in larger department stores, especially if you are not quite sure of your theme but want something cheap that can be easily replaced later. Second-hand store purchases can be magical as well, giving you the opportunity to add your energy to a previously loved charm, painting, or book, and good for adding older, comforting energy to your space. Also, remember from our first point: this must feel good to you. Trust your own intuition; whatever energy lies inside that item, believe in your natural and ancestral ability to cleanse it and add your own magic to it!

Surround Yourself with Living Things

Lastly, beautiful sentiments from authors such as Joseph Campbell, who discusses creating sacred spaces as places where you can “find yourself again and again”. In the book The Temple in the House: Finding the Sacred in Everyday Architecture, Campbell speaks of the experience of when you enter through the doors of your abode, the items in your environment should uplift your spirit and be a place of “creative incubation”. This is a dreamy way of saying your space should be a place of evolution and growth. We are all human beings and the experiences of stress, we hope, are temporary, so have faith that there will be days of light, ease, and rest coming your way. Until then, build a space that allows you to move and change with you. This connects to the beginning point of giving yourself permission.

As the world turns, so do our emotions. If we are choosing to release stress within a space, we need to have a place to send it, or else it will just be swirling between our own walls and unkindly meeting you again and again. Make a path for the energy to move out of your space by opening your doors and windows often and connecting to nature by bringing in plants to help add oxygen to the space, stones or crystals, or low-maintenance living beings, such as fish or snails! Lastly, when you are comfortable, open your space to other people! Small gatherings, brunches, arranging playdates with your kids and their friends, or quietly sharing a bowl of popcorn with a good girlfriend during a movie, just might be the energy you need to replace the stress you are experiencing.

And, just as a bonus tidbit, it is important to recognize that this concept can be a bit complicated if you have kids or other people living with you, such as family members, roommates, or partners. Though it might feel like wind is taken out of your sails by sharing your space and not feeling as if you have a certain level of autonomy or control, making this decision communal helps you realize you don’t have to release stress all by yourself—you have living beings that can help! Once you have claimed a space to theme for yourself, does it feel ok to let your child decorate the bathroom in all Bluey décor? If you can achieve the hot pink you wanted for your bedroom, does it feel okay for your partner to move in that old leather couch from storage that has been passed down from generation to generation for the entertainment room? Dividing up the emotional energy of planning a space can also be a release, especially if we remember that no matter what age you are, stress can affect us all.

References

The American Institute of Stress. (n.d.). Stress effects. https://www.stress.org/stress-effects/

Campbell, J. (1994). Making a sacred place. In A. Lawlor, The temple in the house: Finding the sacred in everyday architecture (p. 145). G. P. Putnam’s Sons. (Quote found within Hunter, C. (2022). The African American Church House: A Phenomenological Inquiry of an Afrocentric Sacred Space. Religions, 13(3), 246. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13030246

National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). I’m so stressed out! Infographic (NIMH Identifier No. OM 20-4319). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/sites/default/files/documents/health/publications/so-stressed-out-infographic/so-stressed-out-infographic.pdf