As we have all been spending so much more time in our homes; here are some ways to improve health, wellness and comfort through home design and style.

Air Quality

There are plenty of ways to set up a house for good air quality, whether it’s designing spaces to create cross breezes or installing air purifiers. Another is adding a living walls, which adds a pleasing natural element while helping to purify the air. For example, horticultural therapy lowers blood pressure and heart rate. Tending to gardens, houseplants and fresh flowers at home can help to promote wellness.

Incorporating plants into home design also establishes a link with nature to create healthy indoor environments. In addition to plants, the use of natural materials can help establish these links. Create the feeling of a favourite outdoor place through artwork, colour and materials in your home. Choose colours that evokes a mood and enhances comfort.

Lighting

Using lighting to promote wellness means incorporating natural light and creating a pleasing ambiance with artificial light. Today’s LED lighting options can change colour in a way that helps change mood. Controllable and adjustable lights can work with our natural circadian rhythms. This results in a more productive day as well as a good night’s sleep. For example, in the evening, amber light can promote calmness. While the natural light pouring in through a skylight or window can help wake a person up in the morning and prepare them to face the day.

Comfort And Movement In Space

This includes creating floor and furniture plans that make it easy to flow through a space. This means removing any obstacles, and leaving enough space between furnishings to pass through.

Comfort also means achieving an uncluttered feeling in a space. This doesn’t have to mean a strict minimalist style, but it does mean curating favorite books, knickknacks, photos and other mementos and maintaining a clean and airy feel by finding proper places for them. Comfort also includes individual pieces of furniture. For example, even if the current work-from-home situation doesn’t last, a proper ergonomic chair is a worthy investment.

Thermal Well-Being

Maintaining a comfortable temperature is another key element of promoting wellness in design. Technology can be a big help with this, whether it involves a smart thermostat or heated floors. Homes with a tight envelope also promote thermal comfort. Windows or doors that aren’t drafty allow for greater control over heating and cooling systems.

Achieve thermal comfort on a smaller scale by placing things like throw blankets and warm slippers where needed.

Auditory Comfort

This refers to finding a quiet refuge at home. While the average house may not have space for a dedicated meditation or quiet room, any place of relaxation will do. It can be as simple as a favorite reading chair in a bedroom.

Music also plays a part. Match your music to the mood you want to evoke. The soothing sound of water splashing in a fountain is another example of acoustical comfort.

Put Work Away

When it’s time for unwinding, put work away. If a desk is in the bedroom, put papers and electronic devices away when the workday is over.

Think About Scents 

Engaging any of the five senses can affect mood. Adding pleasing scents such as fresh eucalyptus or lavender will enhance the way you experience your home.

How Your Home Can Help You Feel Good

* Think about the goal of feeling good as soon as you walk in your home.

* Consider how you want your home to look, feel, smell and sound.

* Remove, fix or put away things that are bothering you, particularly dust-collecting clutter.

* Make small changes to enhance your mood —

                    light a favorite candle;

                    experiment with different furniture arrangements until it feels right;

                    locate your desk under a window with a favorite view;

                    place a speaker where you want to listen to your favorite music;

                    pot a grocery store basil plant and put it in the kitchen;

                    cozy up a place of respite with a throw blanket;

                    change out a lightbulb that’s not warm enough;

                    put your lights on dimmers.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise in Canada, new guidelines for isolation have been released.

Anyone who is symptomatic, or has a household member who is symptomatic, should self-isolate pending COVID-19 test results. 

The individual who is showing symptoms must stay in his/her own room and use his/her own bathroom — if possible. Individuals should not use common areas such as the living room or kitchen. If for some reason the symptomatic person has to enter an area where other people are, or will be, the individual must wear a mask.

If the test results come back negative, then all asymptomatic people in the home no longer need to self-isolate.

This change is to help stop the transmission of the virus. This means no one in the household goes to school or work until the test results come back. The only people this excludes is health-care workers and first responders; other essential workers maybe exempt as well.

How To Properly Self-Isolate

Self-isolating individuals should use their own dedicated washroom. If that cannot happen, then the isolated individual must wear a mask to the washroom, flush with the lid down and wash their hands with hand sanitizer or soap and water for at least 15 seconds. The area should be disinfected after use.

People who live in a condo or apartment building must stay in their suite. If a person has a private balcony, they're allowed to use it as long as it is two metres away from their neighbour's balcony.

People living alone, or with someone who is self-isolating, must have groceries and other supplies dropped off at their door.

A person self-isolating should cancel or notify any service providers.

How To Care For Someone Who Is Self-Isolating

In the event that a child or dependent is symptomatic or contracts COVID-19, then only one person should be a caregiver.

The person providing care should not be someone who is at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, such as people who are 60 years old or older, immunocompromised or have underlying health issues.

Caregivers can lower their risk of getting sick by washing their hands, wearing a mask and other personal protective equipment including eye protection. Eyeglasses are not enough.

When handling the person's laundry, the caregiver should wear disposable gloves and a mask. Dirty laundry should be put in a laundry bag or basket lined with a plastic bag.

Use regular laundry soap and set the washing machine to "sanitize or hot," then thoroughly dry the clothes.

Reducing Household Cases

The new regualtions are meant to cut down on additional cases within households.

Once a person tests positive for COVID-19, then investigators need to track down who may have been a close contact with that person — someone who was less than two metres away from the case for more than 15 minutes. Close contacts are then advised to self-isolate.

Many household members are also becoming cases, because the person who tested positive is unable to successfully self-isolate from others.

So please do your part to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 if a household member is suspected of having the virus stay home until you know for sure.

Feeling a little anxious with the ongoing pandemic — and no end in sight — turning your life topsy turvey, you might be down to your last nerve.

What you’re going through is completely understandable. It’s even physiological.

“When you’re waiting for something that’s driving you crazy — especially when there’s a threat element to it — that’s what makes anxiety so strong and that results in cortisol, a stress hormone, being released throughout our body,” says Steve Joordens (psychology professor at U of T).

Here are some suggestions for how to deal with the tense days ahead as we all wait to see what happens.

Distraction is key - Finding a way to take your mind off the present situation — and there’s a lot of ways to go about it.

For many people, focusing your mind on something else and really concentrating on it is an easy solution. That could mean concentrating on a work-related project or even a hobby you love. You’ll be getting something done, feel productive and get your mind off your present worries.

Taking a break is another way to approach the problem and will probably be more enticing. Four things that increase vitality are singing, dancing, laughter and activity. If you can somehow find a way to get a break from what’s making you anxious and engage in those sorts of activities, they release endorphins which counter the cortisol response.

So find something that makes you laugh — a favourite film, a TV show — and then immerse yourself in the laughter for as long as it takes.

Something as simple as going for a jog is really helpful. Aerobic activity leads to a positive state of mind.

Music and the nostalgia it can sometimes evoke is also a really effective way to distract yourself while chasing away the blues. Music connects us to periods of time in our lives. When we listen to a song, it has the power to transport us back to that previous time. Create a playlist that can pull you mind to another place and help lift your mood.

Sunshine is a simple solution get outside and enjoy it whenever you can. Go for a nice walk or just sit and soak up some of that sunshine and realize you still live in a beautiful world.

Finally, even though we all have to maintain physical distancing because of COVID-19, that doesn’t mean we can’t renew the social connections with those who mean the most to us. Social bonds are our go-to when we’re feeling anxious and stressed. When things get scary and tense, our family and friends make us feel safe and secure. There are plenty of ways to reconnect with the loved ones we have in our lives, both family and friends, so lean on them and vice versa to get through the next few days, weeks, months.

Reaffirming that you have people in your life who are there and they care, that grounds us all and helps our feeling of security which is being a little shaken right now.

For all the men and women who have fought for and helped to protect the freedoms of our country, we all Thank You.

We Remember the sacrifices in life, body and spirit you have given; though we cannot attend ceremonies, assemblies or other public events this year.

We still remember those who have served in the past and those who continue to serve today.

We Will Not Forget!