Nature = ultimate boost for your health & well-being. Want proof?
Have you ever sat in a conference room for an entire day - with no access to natural light, no views of nature, surrounded by a sea of beige, only to leave the room at the end of the day and it’s already dark.
It’s disorienting.
Maybe your brain feels a little cloudy. You feel depleted. A little zombie-fied.
VS if you went to an event hosted in a room with floor to ceiling windows, opening out to beautiful gardens, with natural light streaming in.
You don’t need me to tell you nature has an impact on you.
Yet there are still so many built environments that don’t take that into consideration and have no natural elements added in.
For thousands of years, feng shui has sought out to locate and create the safest, most comfortable, most enriching environments to live and thrive in. It’s formed from observing nature, trusting our instincts, and ensuring all our needs are met.
Over the decades, we’ve built up cities, become immersed and intertwined with technology and spend more and more time indoors and out of touch with nature.
That’s why more and more research over the years has focused on the impact of nature, or lack of natural elements, on human beings. Not shockingly – we’ve discovered nature has a massive positive impact on our physical and mental health and well being.
Thus Biophilic Design was born.
This discipline weaves in many of the fundamental elements of feng shui and studies the impact of incorporating nature into our built environments. It seeks to quantify these impacts and back up the findings with research, to truly show, we cannot thrive without this nature connection.
When you think of how to add natural elements to your space – plants may be an obvious go to, and there are so many different alternatives.
Two experts in the field – Dr. Stephen R. Kellert and Elizabeth Calabrese – collaborated to summarize 3 categories of attributes that can be used to add biophilic design elements.
In our ever-modernizing world, the benefits of biophilic design and feng shui will be even more needed. Here are some of the reasons I believe embracing nature in our built spaces is so important:
Proven to lower blood pressure, stress, anxiety
Lower illness symptoms and decrease time spent recovering in hospitals
Increase satisfaction, motivation and comfort
Increase morale, attention, concentration, problem solving and creativity
Decrease turnover, absenteeism and foster happiness in our places of work
Increases engagement and appreciation of nature, and has the power to bring more awareness to global environmental challenges
Shifts attention from constant technology engagement and improves social interaction
To give you an example of biophilic design brought to life, here are some pictures from my recent stay at the JW Marriot Hotel in Orlando this past weekend. There were biophilic design elements EVERYWHERE, down to the leaves printed on the paper towels in the bathroom. This environment FOR SURE left me feeling delighted, inspired, nourished and engaged, and completely set the tone for the Mindset Retreat I was attending.
