Spring Clean Your Brain!
By Madi Shealy & Katie Sardone, PhD
The sun is setting later and the flowers are in full bloom, spring is finally here! If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, or in need of a change, it may be time for a little spring refresh to boost your mood and your aesthetic! Try out these three tips to improve your mood, boost your productivity and enhance the joy you feel in your home or office:
Spruce Up Your Space
The aesthetic of your living and working spaces are closely linked with your mood and well-being. Whether it be repainting your walls, changing the layout of your furniture or adding artwork, research shows that appreciation for and engagement with art, nature and beauty are associated with positive mental and physical outcomes (Williams et al., 2023).
Add Greenery
Try out indoor greenery! Don’t have a green thumb? Don’t worry! Evidence suggests that both real and artificial plants can increase mood and even decrease anxiety levels (Safitri & Rachmayanti, 2023). Additionally, indoor greenery can promote your physiological well being as an employee if you are one of the 22 million individuals that works from home in the United States (Parker, 2023). According to Elsadek and Liu (2021), employees felt a significant increase in comfort, relaxation and cheerfulness when their office included flowering plants, particularly blue and purple flowering plants.
Say Goodbye to Clutter
Research shows that clutter can negatively impact focus and increase confusion and tension. Struggling to clean up your space? It’s okay to ask for help! Consider these helpful hints:
Enlist that support system! Make the task of cleaning your home fun by having a friend or loved one help. You could turn the cleaning into a productive dance party by blasting your favorite tunes! Whatever helps motivate you.
Break that big task into bite size pieces. Cleaning can be time-consuming, so setting realistic goals is key. Plan out times to clean throughout the week that you realistically can accomplish. Setting unrealistic goals can increase frustration, promote a sense of failure and make it harder to try again. But, when you set small realistic goals, you’re naturally motivated to try to tackle the next task!
If you think your struggles are caused by mental health issues, bring your concerns to a mental health professional that is trained to help you find creative ways to meet your goals. What better way to declutter your brain than with a professional?
Spring cleaning can feel like an overwhelming task, but with small changes, you too can reap the benefits of a new environment.
References:
Elsadek M, Liu B. Effects of viewing flowering plants on employees’ wellbeing in an office-like environment. Indoor and Built Environment. 2021;30(9):1429-1440. doi:10.1177/1420326X20942572
N. Safitri, A. A. S. Fajarwati, I. Rachmayanti; Indoor greenery effect as anxiety reduction to improve human health and wellbeing. AIP Conf. Proc. 20 April 2023; 2594 (1): 020012. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0113721
Parker, K. (2023) “About a third of U.S. workers who can work from home now do so all the time.” Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/30/about-a-third-of-us-workers-who-can-work-from-home-do-so-all-the-time/
Williams, P. G., Johnson, K. T., Bride, D. L., Baucom, B. R. W., & Crowell, S. E. (2023). Individual differences in aesthetic engagement and proneness to aesthetic chill: Associations with awe.Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 17(6), 735–747. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000458