Interior design for well-being

Do you know that some interior design and architectural elements can influence your eating habits meaning that a thoughtful interior design can support your goal to achieve your desired ideal weight? Our appetite is affected by multi-sensory interactions in our brain. Flavour is just one of them in addition to what we see, smell, touch, and hear. We receive appetite triggers, often arising simultaneously, not only from food products and dishes but also from our environment; for example, temperature and light are also factors that influence our food consumption.

Scientific research in environmental psychology has proven that any choice we make in selecting furnishings, colours, lighting, art and decorative objects for our home affects our senses. Consequently, our mind-and-body responses to such triggers alter our emotions, thoughts, mood and behaviour. This means that a thoughtfully curated interior design in accordance with the needs and desires of the residents can contribute to pleasant experiences and make a home a healthier place to live.

We all have felt it at some stages of our lives for shorter or even longer periods of time. Demands of relationships, work or the environment can become overwhelmingly stressful. Mental symptoms, such as nervousness, tenseness, crankiness and panicking, can soon merge with feeling physical pain, lack of concentration and sleep problems. It's like a snowball that rolls and gets bigger and bigger. We even “infect” others with our nervousness, because stress is “contagious”, so observing someone who is stressed, makes us feel the same too (empathic stress).

It’s a normal reaction to seek out the comfort and security of our home when we feel overwhelmed with stress.