Creating a Healing Environment & Healthy Lifestyles- Mind and Body

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Chapter 14

Creating a Healing Environment

Olpin/Hessen, Stress Management for Life: A Research-Based, Experiential Approach , Fourth Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Key Questions

When I walk into my best friend’s apartment, I seem to relax Something about that place helps me unwind. Do things like color, plants, and light really make a difference in how we feel?

If all this new technology is supposed to help me have more time to relax, why do I feel busier and more stressed than ever?

Objectives (1 of 3)

Is it my imagination, or do I feel more stressed and frustrated in hot weather?

My friend said she read a book on feng shui to give her ideas on how to arrange the furniture in her new apartment. What is feng shui anyway?

Objectives (2 of 3)

Define what is meant by a “healing environment”

Describe the role of color, light, smells, air, noise, temperature, nature, and organization in creating a healing environment

Explain how a healing environment helps to prevent stress

Objectives (3 of 3)

Identify the physiological and psychological impact of increasing exposure to technology and how technology can be managed to prevent stress

Evaluate your environment to determine the impact your surroundings have on your stress

Stress and the Environment

External environment:

Objects, conditions, and situations that surround us

Environmental stressor

Some aspect of our environment that we perceive as annoying, distracting, uncomfortable, or stressful

Types of Environmental Stressors (1 of 2)

Some make headlines

Tsunami or a terrorist attack

Others are more subtle

Air pollution, noise, overcrowding, technology

Individual perception

Perception is the important component of whether an environmental factor is stressful

Types of Environmental Stressors (2 of 2)

Learned response and the environment

When we associate a specific environment with something painful in that environment, the two get linked

Dentists are well aware of this effect

Managing environmental stressors

Take a proactive approach

Reduce or eliminate the stressors

FYI: Violence and the Environment

Clear link between a stressful environment and violence

Extent to which stress contributes to violence is hard to measure

Generally agreed that homicide and suicide may result from increased levels of stress

Source: Community and Population Health (8th ed.), by L. Green and J. Ottoson (St. Louis: Mosby, 1999).

Culture Connection: Healing Color

Color has been an important part of healing for thousands of years

Ancient Egyptians ascribed healing powers to various colors

In India, colors and specific meaning are assigned to the 12 chakras, or energy centers of the body

Source: Integrative Health: A Holistic Approach for Health Professionals, by C. Young and C. Koopsen (Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2009).

FYI: Healthy Home

Florence Nightingale believed that a healthy house had five essential characteristics

Pure air

Pure water

Efficient drainage

Cleanliness

Light

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1645993/ retrieved March 16, 2014.

A Healing Environment

Healing environment is one in which:

Individuals are supported and nurtured

Individuals feel calm

Health and well-being are promoted

Color

Can raise or lower your stress and energy level

Chromotherapy

Specific discipline that uses colors to treat individuals who have certain disorders

Light

Form of electromagnetic energy that can have both positive and negative effects on living organisms

Shorter periods of daylight, as occur naturally in the winter, have been shown to trigger seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

Related to melatonin produced by pineal gland

Culture Connection: Scents

Some elderly people in Europe associate lavender with death

Lavender bags were used to keep linen sweet-smelling and moth-free

As bed-ridden person became sicker, the linen was changed more frequently, and the smell of lavender became more prevalent

Source: Mosby’s Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Research-based Approach (3rd ed.), by L. Freeman (St. Louis: Mosby, 2009).

FYI: Smells Good

Natural scent of pine is calming

Source: “100 Ways to Reclaim Your Life,” by S. Calechman, Men’s Health (August 2004): pp. 183–190.

Scents and Air (1 of 2)

Smell is analyzed in the limbic part of the brain, an area associated with emotions

Not surprising that an aroma can affect how we feel

Aromatherapy

Therapeutic use of essential oils

Can lower stress levels

Essential oils vs. synthetic products

Scents and Air (2 of 2)

Air quality

Benefits of good, clean, and fresh air

Study in fresh air

Reduce exposure to tobacco smoke

Remember pleasant scents

Noise (1 of 3)

Noise is among the most pervasive pollutants today

Negatively affects human health and well-being

Hearing loss, stress, sleep loss, distraction, and lost productivity, and a general reduction in the quality of life and opportunities for tranquility

Measured in decibels

See Figure 14.1

Loud and Louder

Figure 14.1 Loud and Louder

An Invitation to Health 2009–2010 Edition, by D. Hales (Belmont, CA; Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2009). Used by permission.

FYI: Indoor Pollution

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that indoor air pollution is one of the top five environmental risks to public health

Indoor air may contain more pollutants at higher concentrations, than outdoor air

Source: “Healing Spaces: Elements of Environmental Design That Make an Impact on Health,” by M. Schweitzer, L. Gilpin, and S. Frampton, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10(1) (2004): pp. S71–83.

Research Highlight: The Nose Knows

Patients administered a pleasant scent during an MRI report lower levels of stress

Sources: “Using aroma to reduce distress during magnetic resonance imaging,” by W. Redd and S. Manne in A. Gilbert, Compendium of Olfactory Research: 1982–1994 (New York: Olfactory Research Fund, 1995).

Mosby’s Complementary & Alternative Medicine: A Research-Based Approach (3rd ed.), by L. Freeman (St Louis: Mosby, 2009).

FYI: Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow

As many as one in four college students have mild hearing loss

Could be the result of use of personal music devices and extended use of earbuds that deliver sound close to the eardrum

Source: “Exposure to Transit and Other Sources of Noise among New York City Residents,” Environmental Science and Technology, 46 (1) (January 3, 2012): 500-508.

Noise (2 of 3)

Perceived noisiness

The subjective assessment of noise that combines the decibel level and the context in which a noise occurs

Research Highlight: Quiet Down

Typical levels of office noises can elevate epinephrine levels

Source: “Stress and Open Office Noise,” by G. W. Evans, Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(5) (2000): 779–783.

Noise (3 of 3)

Effects of noise

Noise pollution can disturb the nervous system, creating an increase in stress levels

Relaxing sound

White noise helps to drown out other sounds that may be distracting and stressful

Temperature

Heat hypothesis

Hot temperatures can increase aggressive motives and behaviors

Heat effect

Higher rates of aggression by people who are hot relative to people who are cooler

FYI: Hot-Headed

There are 2.6% more murders and assaults in the United States during the summer than other seasons of the year

Hot summers produce a bigger increase in violence than cooler summers

Source: “Temperature and Aggression,” by C. Anderson, K. Anderson, N. Dorr, K. DeNeve, and M. Flanagan, in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, edited by M. Zanna, 32 (2000): 63–133.

Taking Control of Your Surroundings (1 of 2)

Review and reflect on how sensory input, such as sights, sounds, and smells, contribute to your daily quality of life

Identify aspects of your environment that either contribute to, or take away from, the balanced, healthy life you desire

Taking Control of Your Surroundings (2 of 2)

Take control

Incorporate more nature into your life

Organize and simplify

Feng shui

Lo-pan used to determine energy characteristics of building or room

Balance the energy so it will have a positive effect

Time Tip: Organize

Organizing your environment can save time

Culture Connection: Healing Places

Ancient Greeks worshipped the god of healing by building healing temples within cypress groves near the ocean

Ancient Egyptians decorated their healing places with murals because they believed the murals helped patients maintain their interest in life

Source: Integrative Health: A Holistic Approach for Health Professionals, by C. Young and C. Koopsen (Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2009).

Ergonomics

The study of individual workers and the tasks they perform, for the purpose of designing appropriate living and working environments

Major goals

Make work safer

Enhance worker and worksite well-being

Technology and the Environment

Technology and the constant flow of information from it need to be managed

Technostress

Feelings of dependence, incompetence, anxiety, and frustration associated with use of technology

Technosis

When people become so immersed in technology that they risk losing their own identity

Are You a Victim of Technosis?

FIGURE 14.2 Are you a Victim of Technosis?

Yes	No	Do you feel stressed if you haven’t checked your voice or e-mail within the last 12 hours?
Yes	No	Do you think you can’t cook a meal without technological gadgets?
Yes	No	Do you become upset when you can’t find an ATM for quick cash?
Yes	No	Do you have difficulty writing unless you are sitting in front of your computer?
Yes	No	Do you have a hard time determining when you are finished researching a topic on the Internet?
Yes	No	Do you feel less adequate than your highly technologized peers?
Yes	No	Do you rely on pre-programmed systems to contact others?

Source: TechnoStress: Coping with Technology @WORK@HOME@PLAY, by M. Weil and L. Rosen (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998) © M. Weil and L. Rosen. Used with permission.

Figure 14.2 Are You a Victim of Technosis?

Source: TechnoStress: Coping with Technology @WORK@HOME@PLAY., by M. Weil and L. Rosen (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998) © M. Weil and L. Rosen. Used with permission.

Technology and Stress

Causes and effects

Continuous partial attention

Multitasking madness

Wired for distraction

Information overload and continuous change

Lack of alone time

Alienation and isolation

Physical consequences

FYI: Changing Times

With instantaneous communication like texts, tweets, Facebook chat, and Skype, teens are using e-mail less

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/teens-email-use-study_n_1268470.html, retrieved March 16, 2014.

FYI: Face Reality

Facebook statistics

757 million daily active users on average in December 2013

Users spent 20 billion minutes per day on Facebook in June 2013

Source: Facebook Statistics retrieved from https://newsroom.fb.com/Key-Facts, on March 16, 2014.

Managing Technology Stress

Take a pro-humanity rather than an anti-technology stance

Just because technology is capable of doing multiple jobs at the same time does not mean that we are

Avoid techno-cocoons

Conclusion

A healing environment starts with you

The impact of our environment on our health and well-being is profound

Lab 14.1: How Healing Is Your Environment? (1 of 2)

Evaluate your environment by responding to the following:

Name the location you are assessing

Describe the environment in as much detail as possible

Identify aspects of the environment you find to be relaxing and explain why

Identify aspects of the environment you find to be stressful and explain why

Lab 14.1: How Healing Is Your Environment? (2 of 2)

Assess how technology impacts your environment

Identify what you would or could do to make your environment more relaxing and healing