Environmental Interventions for Depression Treatment | Depression Quickstart Guide

This episode was pre recorded as part of a live continuing education Webinar on Demand. CEUs are still available for this presentation through all CEUs. Register@AllCEUS.com Counselortoolbox you I'd like to welcome everybody to today's presentation, 100 Plus Practical Tools to Defeat Environmental Interventions. Now this is part six of the six part series. So, you know, we're kind of wrapping it up today, but I like to end with this one because it's kind of a fun intervention or whatever you want to call it. We're going to discuss how all of your senses can either help you feel happier or more stressed and identify happiness triggers and ways you can incorporate them into your home, car and office. And you know, most of us think our home and that's great. You want to have your home be awesome, but your car. A lot of us spend a lot of time in our car and at our office. We're there 40 hours a week. Now. Not everybody can have all kinds of personal stuff in their office, but most of us as clinicians are allowed to have some things on the wall. And even if it's not personal stuff, you may not want pictures of all your kids or whatever you can have. For me, I like pillows. I'm one of those people who really likes colorful pillows and flowers and those sorts of things. So there are things you can do to make your space comfortable and your own. So I want you to think about before we really get started, you know, a place that you've been that has really had an impact on your mood and I'll share with you. The first place I worked, we used to have these walls that were kind of this pukey pea green gray color. It felt very cold and very institutional and very depressing. And I mean, we had the bright fluorescent lights and nobody looks good under bright fluorescent lights, especially with the that hue kind of echoing off of you from the gray green walls. And it just, it didn't feel warm and inviting. The decor was very stark. And so it was just one of those places that felt stressful. And you know, I can't put my finger on exactly why it felt stressful, but I can tell you, like, the color of the walls, for example, reminded me of other institutions that I'd been in. It wasn't a cheerful, warm color. Your cooler colors are going to tend to be less cheerful, maybe more calming. And your warmer colors are going to tend to be more exciting, if you will, or more warming. So we'll think about those things as we go through it. I'm also really sensitive, like most of us are. Smell is our strongest sensitive sense for triggering memories. And I'll walk into places and I will smell something, and it will trigger a reminder. I went into my doctor's office here, is based in a hospital, and my kids were in the neonatal intensive care unit in the hospital in Florida. But I guess they use the same cleaner because when I went to the doctor's office here, I walked into the bathroom and I smelled that familiar smell. And I was like, oh, I remember that smell. And it brought back, surprisingly, all kinds of warm, fuzzy feelings because it reminded me of when I had my two children. There are lots of little things that we can do, but also lots of little things that we don't consider that we discount, that we could actually address that could help our environment feel more comfortable. So your environment plays a big role in how you feel. A soothing environment will trigger calming physiological responses. What is soothing for one person is not necessarily soothing for another. So you do need to take into account your preferences and your level of, you know, how well you're able to filter out extraneous stimuli. For my son, for example, he's got ADD and, you know, has since he was knee high to a grasshopper. And when he would do his schoolwork, if he would sit in a room with a window and there's birds flying around and things that he can see and lizards and whatever else, he would be all over the place. Same thing was true if there were lots of books on the, on the shelves, because he would start going over and picking up books and looking through them. He just couldn't filter out stimuli. So that wasn't a soothing, calming environment for him. He kept seeing more things that he wanted to know more about. So you need to figure out what works for you. I personally find a library very soothing. So, you know, yes, there's a lot to learn, but I can sit there and be sort of immersed in it. A stressful environment can trigger anxiety or depression. Think about your office right now. You know, if your office, when. How should I say this? What types of things are present in your office when it's stressful? You know, loud noises, bright lights or really dim lights or, you know, what's going on when it happens to be super stressful in your office or kind of in your world, if you're stressed or depressed, your environment tends to end up reflecting that. So I'm looking at my desk right now. Thankfully, y' all can't see it, and I've got about six different projects going on. And I've got six different piles on my desk right now because I'm just kind of trying to keep it all contained somehow. And a lot of times when people get depressed, you know, they don't have the energy to do the basics, let alone clean and straighten and do all that kind of stuff. So a lot of times when people are depressed, you'll see their environment so start to deteriorate. When they're overstressed and they're trying to, you know, hold it together, you may see their environment start to deteriorate. And I'm not saying it's going to get filthy. I'm just saying, you know, we call. In our household, we call it flat surface. Itis. Every flat surface starts to swell with piles of, you know, you've got the bills here and then the junk mail there and this and that. So being aware and encouraging clients to be aware, because sometimes that is the first sign to them that they may be, you know, running out of energy, getting depressed or something. If they look around and they're like, yeah, you know, I haven't changed my sheets for two weeks, or whatever it is that, you know, is a clue to them that, you know, maybe they're not attending to their environment. And why is that? When you're happy and energized, your environment often reflects that as well. So think about, how is your home different when you're depressed versus when you're happy or when you're sick? You know, we can even take that when we're sick, when we're fatigued, when we're overly stressed versus when you're happy. And I can tell you when I get up in the morning and I come out into the. Into the main part of the house to make my coffee and stuff, if I walk into the house into the main part and the pillows have made it on the sofa all night long, and the dogs haven't knocked them off, and the kitchen is clean. There aren't dirty dishes piled up in the sink. Oh, that drives me crazy. But those sorts of things actually make me smile. I'm, like, more relaxed when things are orderly and content. And maybe that's just a little bit of ocd, I don't know. But I know that's my preference. I know what I like and what makes my environment happier. When my environment is. When I'm happy, my environment is also. It also smells better because I'm always doing cleaning or putting essential oils on the air filters or whatever in order to make it a happier place. To be with four dogs, you really got to fight the stank. But think about. And you can have clients think about a place that they've walked into that had bad energy. And there was one place that I worked, and I did take a job there, but I remember going in for the interview, and I walked in and it just felt oppressive. The minute I walked in there, nobody looked happy. They were all grumbling, looking at the floor. And yeah, it did happen to be the place that had the institutional walls and everything, but it was just. It was not a cheerful, optimistic, nurturing energy. And you want to ask yourself when you walk into those places, what is giving me this sense? And encourage clients to be aware of bad energy, because that may be their subconscious telling them that something about this place is reminding them of a place they've been before, or it's, you know, trying to communicate to them. Why is that important? Well, because we want people to be in a good place energetically, as much of the time as humanly possible, because that's going to help them feel less depressed, less anxious, less angry, all that stuff, which is hopefully what we're trying to help them work toward. Then there are other places that you may walk into that have good energy and they're cheerful and all that kind of stuff. My kids, when they went to preschool, we walked into this preschool that they went to, and, oh, my gosh, it was cheerful, but it was over the top cheerful. Every single wall was a different bright color. I mean, it was cheerful and, you know, it was good for like, half a second. And then it started getting sort of overwhelming because it was bright yellow and bright purple and bright blue. And then there were toys everywhere, and it was put up. I mean, it was organized, but there was just so much bombarding your senses in addition to the smells and the sounds and everything else. So people need to figure out what constitutes good energy for them in terms of their environment. And one thing you can do when you're. If you want to do a group activity on good energy versus bad energy or whatever, you can brainstorm these sorts of things on the whiteboard and ask clients, when you walk into a place and it feels calming, what do you see? And you're going to hear people talk about different things. I mean, some people like crisp lines and the more sort of modern decor that's, well, crisp lines. And then others of us prefer, you know, I like things that are fluffy and they look comfortable, like they're gonna, like, swallow you up if you sit inside them. So not everybody likes the same thing. But it's important for people to know what they like. So sites, we're gonna start with the most obvious one. When we talk about an environment, people often think about, what do I see? And extroverts and introverts have some different preferences. With sites, you know, I'm an extrovert. I tend to like to be around people. So when I go to the library, you know, I like being at the library, not because I'm talking to everybody, but because there are people around and there's activity and that sort of thing. Introverts may get overwhelmed by too much in the way of people around and those sorts of things. So extroverts tend to like to be in open spaces where they may get interrupted, you know, sitting at a cafe, eating, studying, doing that kind of thing. Introverts may prefer a carol at the library where they know but nobody's going to bother them and they're not seeing anything because they've got sort of virtual blinders on. That doesn't make one right and one wrong. It's just what your preferences are. Introverts know a lot more about what's going on around them. And taking in environment, especially one that is constantly changing and fluxing and all that kind of stuff is exhausting to some people who are introverts. And that's, you know, not all introverts, but a lot of them, those of us who are extroverts, really, we draw energy from the energy in our environment. So if things are moving around, that's really cool. Sites also include pictures, colors, people and things. So I remember when I was in college, the receptionist had a bunch of posters behind her desk, and she had that one that I think, you know, 15% of people in America have that have the little kitten that's hanging onto a clothesline that says, just hang in there. I don't know why I found that thing so cute, but I did, you know, for six years when I walked in and out of that office, I loved that poster. So think about pictures. It doesn't necessarily have to be pictures of you or your family or your friends. It can be, what other pictures would you like to have around? And I guess I'll share this real quick. I don't know if you guys can see the eagle tapestry that I've got thrown over the easy chair. You can get those tapestries online for like $45 or something. They're not super cheap, but they're a lot less expensive than a really fancy painting. And you can put a Strip of cloth across the back. And I usually use sewing pins in order to do it. So I can take the strip of cloth off if I ever want to use it as a blanket. But then you can hang it up as a wall tapestry. So you create a little pouch for the hanging rod with the strip of cloth. And it doesn't have to be a pretty one. I just use a strip of sheet and put it across the back so you can have those things on your wall. The other benefit with that is that it dampens the sound when you have more things on your walls, especially cloth will tend to absorb sound. So you don't have the ricocheting of kids screaming or dogs barking or whatever you have in your house. Colors are another important thing for people to think about. And we do an activity when we do this in our groups, and I'll go through each color, and I'll just ask people, when you see the color yellow, what does it make you feel like? What things do you think of that are yellow? Name the first five things that come to your mind that are yellow, and we'll kind of brainstorm those things for a while, and then we'll talk about what the research says different colors do. For example, red, yellow, and brown are supposed to make you hungry. Black tends to be a calming. So does white, because they're both very neutral. Black absorbs all the energy, whereas white reflects all the energy or all the other colors, whatever. You know, what colors you like. My daughter gets on me because I tend to like earth tones, browns, black, you know, a little green here and there. I'm not one for bright colors that pop. And she's like, mom, you gotta add some interest into the house. I'm like, but I like my subdued colors. Encourage clients to think about how they can incorporate color into their environment. You're probably not gonna be able to paint the walls at your office, especially if they work somewhere, you know, where they don't have a personal office. They're working at, you know, Hungry Howie's or, you know, who knows where. What kinds of things can they do in order to improve the area or improve the moment? If you work in an office and you can't paint, you can bring in, you know, blankets. You can bring in little throws. You can bring in pillows that have colors on them. You can have a mouse pad that is a color that you like or that has a picture on it that makes you happy. You can have your screensavers and your lock screens be pictures that make you happy, not just that stark. Black or blue color, that is the default thing. So there are a lot of different things, places that you actually can affect change in what you see, the people that you're around. You know, that's probably going to affect you too. You know, what you're seeing and the things that you're seeing. And I hate to put my pets in as things. They're not people. They think they are, but they're not people. But animals make me happy. Whether they're domesticated animals or the little bunny rabbit that hops around outside in the morning. You know, I love being around animals. I love seeing birds come to the feeder that's outside the window. That makes my environment happy. You may not be able to bring it into your workspace. It may have to be outside at your break area. You know, maybe you have a picnic table or something. But encourage people again to think, how can I improve my spaces so they feel more comfortable in your car? You know, make your car as comfortable as possible. I keep one of those little tubs of wipes in there so I can, when I'm at a stoplight, I can like wipe things off and dust because, you know, living on a farm, I tend to drag bits of who knows what in with me all the time. But that way I can keep my car looking and smelling relatively clean. What else can you do? You know, some people will put pictures on their, on their visors. You know, what other activities can you think of or things can you do to improve your car space? Oh, and we'll get there with sounds too in a few minutes. While y' all are thinking about that, we'll move down to lighting. Fluorescent lights are stressful because they do have this ambient trigger, especially when the ballasts start to go and can trigger migraines in a lot of people. And when the ballasts start to go and they do actually notably flicker, it can trigger seizures in people with seizure disorder. So we really want to pay attention to that and maybe try to avoid, you know, especially the old fashioned fluorescent lights that, that do that. The new little fluorescent bulbs don't do that quite as bad. Too dim or too bright lights at the wrong times can mess up your circadian rhythms. So when you wake up in the morning, you want it bright and pleasantly bright. You know, whatever you find pleasantly bright, whether it's the soft white lights or it's the daylight bulbs or just opening the window, but get it bright in there so your body knows it's time to be awake. That helps people get energized. It helps Them get ready for the day and get out of that funk that they may be in when they first wake up and they're like, oh, where's the coffee? And two dim lights. A lot of us who are therapists tend to keep the lights kind of dim in our offices during counseling sessions. Now, I can't say that I do that. I tend to keep it bright all the time. But I know some people do have a preference to have dimmer lights during therapy sessions, and that's fine, but it's important not to stay in that all day. People I think I've shared with you when, when my kids were in the nicu, they keep it really, really dark in there because the babies are supposed to be sleeping all the time. They're still supposed to be, you know, basically cooking. They're not ready to be out yet. So it's dark and you need to get out of there. If you're working with a family that has a baby in the nicu, it's going to be really important for them to be getting outside, you know, and not just sitting there in the dark all day long. So making sure they're paying attention to the light levels. Natural light is definitely awesome. You know, you want to try to get as much of that as possible. You don't have to be going out in it and all that kind of stuff and worried about sun and whatever bright lights. Keep the windows open and try to keep as much of the bright light coming in as possible. That can really help set your circadian rhythms. Total room light is not necessary, though. Focused bright light can be very effective, especially for people with add. So, I mean, think about being in a room that's dark. You know, it's the middle of the day and you're still trying to stay awake. But if people with ADD have difficulty filtering out extraneous stimuli, you know, like what I'm doing right now. So if they have bright light that's focused around their desk, that can be helpful for them. You know, I still tend to find it a little bit depressing myself, but some people have. That I've worked with, have sworn by, that they can have it really bright in their workspace, and then around them is sort of grayed out, if you will, because they don't have the overhead lights on. So we've talked about lights, we've talked about pictures, and there you can get memes I showed you in if you weren't in the group the other day, Tuesday. Well, you can take pictures and you can put them together in A collage. And you can order them to be printed on a fleece blanket. And you can do, just like I was saying with that tapestry throw, put a little strip of cloth across the back to serve as a pocket for the hanging rod. And you can hang a personalized tapestry, if you will, on the wall that has pictures of your family or your pets or whatever it is you want to. And that can be a really warm and inviting thing to do for a room. So smells are some of our strongest memory triggers. Aromatherapy uses essential oils to trigger physiological responses, but everyday items can also be used. I grow in my garden. Catnip is a great plant for repelling a lot of pests. So I grow a lot of catnip between my crops in my garden because I don't use pesticides. It's wonderful. And I'll cut it off and I'll hang it in the house. I actually brought in a whole bunch of it this morning and it was in a five gallon bucket. And I put the bucket on the table and oh my gosh, not five minutes had passed. I turned around and all four of our cats were trying to climb into the bucket. They were just amazed with it. And you can smell it and it permeates the house. So you don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money on expensive essential oils like catnip oil and oil of essential oil, of valerian, both kind of pricey, as are essential rose oil. But if you bring in roses, you can smell them. You can do a lot with natural scents that will trigger your memory responses. And yeah, good point, Erin. They make essential oil diffusers for your car that you can clip onto the AC vent so you don't have to do it sort of the redneck way like I used to, and take a dryer sheet and put the essential oil on that and then shove it in the AC vent. It wasn't really attractive, but it served the purpose. And Erin also pointed out, going back to light, that there are places like Alaska and Scandinavia that can go days or even months where the sun doesn't rise or the sun doesn't set. Right now they're in the period in Alaska where it's daylight all the time and some of my friends are there for a wedding and it's like really freaking out their circadian rhythms because it's 11 o' clock at night and it's like bright daylight. So there are times when you have to kind of artificially set your circadian rhythms to be on that 24 hour cycle. People who Live in places like Oregon and Washington, where there are seasons where you go days and days without sunlight. People can really experience a lot of seasonal affective disorder. So it's important for them to pay attention to the fact that, you know, when they don't get enough sunlight, whether it's because their circadian rhythms are out of whack or they're not getting enough vitamin D, both things need to be addressed when you don't get enough sunlight. But it is really important for them to recognize that the weather has a significant effect on a lot of people's mood. Okay, so activities for group. You can have people identify five scents that bring back happy memories or feelings of calm. And there's a lot of things people don't think of. You know, different perfumes can be in there. Baby powder, roses, brownies. What is it that you smell? There are even certain fabric softeners that I smell, and I'm like, okay, you know, I can go to sleep happy now. So knowing what scents do it for you? Lavender. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't. I use a lot of aromatherapy with our foster animals, and when we got our donkeys, they were about 20, 22 when we got them, and they were a little stressed out because of the change. They came from a breeder, and the breeder didn't want them anymore because they couldn't breed. And so I took them, and they're living out their life very happy, but they were really stressed. So I brought down a little tin with all of my essential oils in it, and we just tried one at a time. I took the top off and held it out. Didn't touch them with it. Just put it close enough where they could smell it. And, you know, we went through a bunch that I thought would work, like peppermint and lavender, and none of those worked. Valerian, that was. That was the one that seemed to calm down Whoopi the most. So, okay, so we would put that on her halter right before the farrier would come, and she would buck a lot less when he was trying to do her heel, do her hoofs. Being aware, as humans, we're the same way. I encourage people not to just go online and buy essential oils. Go to a health food store and smell them for yourself. You may smell one, and you're like, oh, definitely not like patchouli. Sometimes patchouli just hits the spot for me, and other times I smell it and I'm like, oh, that is way too strong. No, thank you. Knowing that your preferences can Change other things like clove. I love the smell of cloves, but I don't need essential oils for that. I have it in my kitchen. I have catnip outside. I have spearmint outside. There are a lot of things that you can grow or just buy at Publix or Walmart or something in the spices aisle that can produce a similar response for you because you're not necessarily triggering anything but memories and you don't need the essential oils to trigger memories. Wax tarts are another thing that you can use. They're the little wax things that you, you can plug something into the wall and it has like a 15 watt bulb, melt it and smells really good. Oh, they have one that's called sugar cookie and another one that's called cake and ice cream. Oh my gosh. They just are very warming smells. I can't tell you why. They don't even make me hungry. They just smell really good and they're really comforting. So thinking about having clients identify what scents make them feel calm, then we go to what ones help you feel energized and clear headed. Bergamot is supposed to make essential oil is supposed to make you feel energized and clear headed, as is rosemary. And I would agree with the rosemary on that one. And there are others peppermint can as well. Pretty much anything from the mint family may make you feel energized, but that isn't true for everybody. So asking people what works for you is really important. What, what do you smell? Pine Sol. You know, I love the smell of pine sol because my grandmother used to have that in her house all the time. So it reminds me of grandma's house. Oops. And then have them identify 10 ways to distribute fragrances. And this is kind of, kind of a fun one because you're brainstorming. You can put it, put them on a cloth in the sock drawer. You can put them lightly on your pillow in a spray bottle. If you're using, like if you grow rosemary and you're using dried rosemary, you can put it in a sachet and put it inside your pillow between your pillow and your pillowcase when you're not sleeping on it. Then pull it out before you go to bed because that's not real comfortable to sleep on. And it gives you enough of an aroma. We don't really need strong aromas. You can put essential oils mixed with something like a little bit of dish soap. So the oil and water will mix in a spray bottle. They sell light bulb rings. They're These little rings that, guess what? You sit on top of a light bulb, and the heat from the light bulb makes the smell permeate. I tend to dust my ceiling fan blades with a little bit of essential oil whenever I dust them, which is not often enough, but people come up with all kinds of really creative ideas using cotton balls, dryer sheets, a variety of different ways to integrate these essential oils and smells, if you will. Another thing, this kind of goes along with sights. I guess I should put that before smells is order and organization. Most of us have a place in our house, if not a whole house, that just collects stuff. And if you've got kids or multiple people living in the house, it may tend to be more often than not. So there are several ways that you can figure out what to keep and what to let go. There's one called the three box method. You have a box that is the keep it box. You have a box that is the it's time to give it away box. And then you have the box for the stuff that's trash that's not good enough to be donated or anything. And you're just merciless. When you go through everything in your closet, you only want to do one room at a time. Because this is an emotional process sometimes. And some of us, it's hard to let go of stuff. So keep it, give it away, or trash. I have compromised on this one and added a fourth box to not sure if I'm ready to give it away yet. And we put it in the box, and at the end of six months, if the person has not looked for it or used it or needed it, then it goes for donation. So that's another way to kind of identify things. My kids didn't want to get rid of their Tinker toys and stuff for the longest time. And, I mean, my son's 18 now and my daughter's 14. We just got rid of them last year because they had this emotional attachment to them, which is fine if we only had a little bit, but we had. They had lots of, you know, Tinker toys and stuff. And so finally I took all of those toys and I turned the shelf that those things were on were on around because I didn't have a box to put everything in. And I didn't say anything to them about it, and they didn't say anything to me because they didn't notice. And six months later, I'm like, have you guys done anything with those toys lately? And they didn't even realize I had turned it around. So I Was like, okay, it's time to donate those. So that's one thing that we can do with kids too, to help them figure out what do I want to keep. I always used to sort of, I don't know if bribes the right word, my son, when it would. We'd be getting close to birthday or Christmas time and I'd say, okay, you gotta make room for the stuff that you're gonna get from your granny and pop. Because they always got big toys. What is on your shelf right now that you're not playing with anymore? What can we move or donate to some other little boy or girl for them to play with so. So you can play with your new stuff? And that helped us kind of move through some of his toys. Hanger turn is one you can use, obviously only for clothes. Turn all your hangers and it may give you a nervous tick. But bear with me. Turn all of your hangers so they're, you know, facing out, which is kind of opposite. And then as you use things, as you wear things, turn the hanger back around when you hang them back up. So you turn everything around so all the hangers are wrong way. And then every time you wear something, then you hang it back correctly. At the end of the season or the year, anything that is still hung the wrong way gets donated because you're not wearing it. Either it doesn't fit or it's out of style or whatever. Mount Everest is another one that you can do and one we do in our household. I will walk in. Well, when they were younger, I would walk into my kids rooms and it would be in a little bit of disarray. They were great about keeping the main areas clean, but their rooms, not so much. So I would clean everything off the beds, everything off the flat surfaces, and I put it all in a pile in the center. Clothes, knickknacks, everything, even the dishes. And I'd say, okay, now you've got the Mount Everest of stuff. When you're finished cleaning, the pile will be gone. So they weren't having to try to figure out, where do I start? I'm like, start at the top of the mountain and work your way down. And that worked for them because it gave them a single focus of what they needed to get done. Flat surface itis is the same way, just on a smaller scale. Go around and take everything off of every flat surface and put it into a box and then figure out where those things go. But that can help if you've got a lot of flat surface itis you may want to consider investing in bins, because bins help you keep things a little bit more organized. And, you know, you all may be great at this, but all of these are tips that clients may be able to use. A lot of times, clients are, you know, struggling to get through the day, so thinking of trying to put everything in its place may be overwhelming. But if they think about bins, that's a little bit easier. And bins can be overwhelming for some people. It's just what you personally like. My kids when they were growing up, instead of having, you know, specific shelves and everything, we had the Transformers bin, we had the Tinker Toy bin, we had the Balls bin. So they didn't have to be quite as compulsive about organizing things as I probably would want if they left it on the shelf. So those are all ways people can order and organize and make things work. You can get on Pinterest or Life Hacks and find all kinds of ways to create affordable storage. And that's a fun activity that some clients really like to do because it, you know, it's productive. It's something that helps them make something. It improves their environment. There's a lot of benefits to it. So some clients can get really excited about even organizing one room. And I suggest to clients, create start small. You know, we want to make your everywhere happy, but start small. Create a corner in your house that is your sanctuary, and then make that corner into a whole room. Once that room is the way you like it, then maybe move on to another room that you spend a lot of time in. But you don't have to do the whole house in a weekend or even a month. You know, take your time, do what you like, and make it yours. Oh, another way to change the walls. If you don't want to do tapestries, you can buy wallpaper, but don't glue it to the wall. You can use thumbtacks to put it up. You can use the clear thumbtacks so that it doesn't show as much. It's not perfect, but, you know, it is an option that you can. You can use making a house a home. And this is a fun activity for interior design. And hello, I already have it open over here. Feng Shui for Dummies. It's a book that I have in my library. I really like it because it's simple. You know, some of the feng shui books get really intense and theoretical and, you know, which is great if you're into that. But to get started, to see an improvement in Your environment. And again, thinking about how much more energetic you are if you know there's not just clutter everywhere. It talks about the feng shui octagon, and in the center is health. And then you've got different aspects of your life in different places. I don't emphasize this so much right away when I'm working with clients. I just want them to start feeling more energized. We talk about the colors gray, black, blue, green, purple, red, pink, white and yellow. And we'll talk about those more in a minute. They talk about placing fountains, clearing the entryway to your home. You know, that's a lot if you're not trying to struggle getting in the door, if it's welcoming, you walk in and you're like, I'm home versus oh no, I'm home. Look at all the cleaning I've got to do. Make sure your home encourages learning. Get rid of unwanted frustrations by fixing broken objects. Spice up your life with plants. And they generally suggest having plants in groups of three. Now, you have to be really careful if you have animals in the house because there are a lot of houseplants that are toxic to cats, and cats seem to like to chew on everything. So you do have to be careful. There are some you can use, but you can also use, if you really want to, artificial plants just to give you a warmer feeling. If you can get some really nice looking ones. Position your bed to feel safe, loved and great. They say you should never have your bed under a window and you should always be able to see the entrances and exits to your room. So if you've got your bed like I do, where it's against the wall, but there's a window on either side, having a mirror in front of you so you can see anybody that might be coming through those windows. And I can see the doorway which walks inwards towards me, so I can see all the entrances and exits. And there's a theory that that reduces your stress when you're not going to be surprised about anybody coming into the room. Encourage helpful people in your life by hanging a pleasant sounding wind chime. I don't know if it encourages helpful people or not, but I do like wind chimes. And again, position your desk so you don't get surprised, so you don't get startled all the time. So you want to be able to see who's coming and who's going. And my office is a very bad example of that. There are a lot of other tips in the feng shui for dummies Book a lot of time. Most libraries have this. Always remember to check your library because libraries have a treasure trove of stuff that a lot of us forget about until we have kids. And we're going to the library like every week to try to find a new book to read because we don't want to read Chicka chicka boom boom for the 76th time. Jesse did point out that you do have peel and stick wallpaper. So, you know, you might be able to use some peel and stick wallpaper if you're. If you're allowed to stick anything to the wall. So colors. Think about red and pink. How does it make you feel? Red is an intense, passionate color, and theoretically, it makes you hungry. Pink tends to be more friendship and, you know, it's. It's happy. I associate it with friendship and little babies and that sort of thing. Blue. Now, there are all kinds of blues. There's pale blue, there's sky blue, there's royal blue, there's electric blue. Thinking about what color of blue that you like, I'm partial to periwinkle. I don't know why. Black is something that they suggest you have in your room, every room, to absorb some of the excess energy. Not a lot of it. I tend to overdo it with my black. But have some sort of object that is black in the room that serves to absorb excess energy. And maybe as a focal point, white can be really energizing. My husband hates white. I love white. I'm like, let's just paint everything white. That way it's clean, clean. And I can bleach it, because I love bleach, but not so much yellow. And you can have everything from a soft butter yellow to a bright canary yellow. Whatever makes you happy. The more muted the color, the more it's mixed with white, the more muted the feeling generally associated with it. And then you got brown, which, I mean, think about things that are brown. The earth, the soil, brownies, you know, I've got to bring up chocolate. It's just who I am. There are a lot of things that people can do to make their space more comfortable. And this is what environmental activities are all about. Because is it going to make them not depressed anymore? Well, maybe not. But if they're sitting at home and they're looking around and everything they see reminds them of something that makes them sad. Right after one of our dogs got hit by a car. And, I mean, I took it really hard. So anytime I saw a picture of him, it made me sad. So guess what? For a while I took those pictures out of the house because it made me sad. I didn't want triggers for sadness. I wanted triggers for happiness. So I put pictures of the kids up. I put pictures of bunny rabbits up and those things that I could look around and feel happy, feel content. The tapestry in our living room right now is a rooster and a hen right outside a barn. That type of thing makes me happy. So, you know, it's not everybody's cup of tea, it's mine. So encouraging clients to put in triggers to remind them of the happy times in life so they're not focusing the negative. Encourage them to do things to reduce stress in their environment so they have the energy to do the happy things. I mean, if they're constantly going, where did I leave my keys? And walking around for 20 minutes looking for their keys, it's stressful, maybe just a little bit of stressful. But all of those little bits of stress will add up over a while. I generally go through this group with clients, and then we talk about making a plan. And I have them spend the next week between groups figuring out ways they can improve their environment and do it cost effectively. A lot of the clients I work with, cost is a factor, and I get that. So we talk about how can you kind of do this on the cheap with colors and pictures. There are a lot of apps that you can order prints now for like, next to nothing, except for you pay for shipping. So you can order a lot of little pictures. You can go to Goodwill and get picture frames, or you can get a cork board and you can make a collage of pictures. A lot of things you can do. Organization, plants, furniture and furniture placement, use of mirrors. What can they do that makes it happy? What can they do to improve the smell? What can they do for the sound? Wind chimes. Oh, we didn't talk about nature sounds and music and waterfalls. Now, obviously, you probably don't have a lot of nature sounds in the middle of downtown, wherever you're at. But you can get the little white noise machines real cheap off Amazon. You may find them cheaper somewhere else, and they have the nature sounds. Or you can get the DVDs with the nature sounds. Or for Xero, you can go onto YouTube and you can Google nature sounds, and they have some videos that are like eight hours worth of just nature sounds. And you can get the jungle, you can get babbling brook, you can get whatever and just keep it open in a tab on your computer while you're working. And you have that pleasant sound going. Music. Music has A huge impact on And Aaron says there's also phone apps for nature sound. Did not realize that music has a huge impact on my mood. You know, there are some playlists I have that are very calming and relaxing. You know, my Jimmy Buffett playlist, you know, I'm usually chill. Then I have my running playlist and my working out or my cleaning playlist. That's more energizing and more powerful and intense. You know, sometimes it's pop, sort of hip hop stuff. Other times it's, you know, hardcore hard rock. So, you know, it kind of depends on my mood. But music for me has a huge impact on my mood. And then when I'm really looking to calm down, you know, we go to instrumentl and Mozart and Brahms. Waterfalls are really awesome. You can also obviously get the waterfall sounds, but you can also get water like tabletop waterfalls. The biggest thing when you order those is you want to make sure the one that you get doesn't have a habit of splashing out onto your table because then you're constantly cleaning up water drops. Been there. They can be a little pricey, but especially if you're putting it in your office, it can be well worth it. Fish tank is another one that you can get the sound because you have the bubbler going in the fish tank and you can have the Zen of the fish swimming around. Pay attention to temperature. What makes your area comfortable, and if you know, like, used to be, I was cold all the time, so I would always bring a jacket with me wherever I went. Now I'm hot all the time, and, you know, there's only so much I can do about that in public. But having a fan available to me, that's something so I don't freeze everybody else out. Smell. What do you like to do? What do you like to smell? What colors do you like? What. What decor do you like? What type of furniture do you like, and what type of lighting? Lighting also makes a huge difference. I typically like the soft white that has more of the yellow hue to it because it's not quite as harsh. But my husband prefers the bright daylight bulbs because that helps him with his mood, and I'm all about helping him with his mood. So your environment can trigger a variety of different feelings based on your prior experiences and personal preferences. Environments that are too noisy, bustling, and chaotic can be exhausting for introverts. But environments that are too quiet and subdued can make extroverts feel depleted because we get a lot of energy from what's going on around us. Environments that trigger memories of happy times can help people feel less alone, less more energetic and empowered. Yeah. And a lot of times you can get prints online for a lot cheaper than the actual paintings. And they've gotten to the point now where you can also order photographs that you've taken and they come out on a canvas so it looks more like a painting. If you want to have something a little fancier for your office and you can do that through like Walgreens or I'm sure there's a bunch of different services online that you can get them through. I don't know which one's the cheapest, but Walmart. Okay. Walmart's a good place. I love Walmart. Alrighty, everybody. Well, I don't have anything else. I really appreciate all of the input you guys gave me today. On different ways we could do these sorts of things. So have an amazing weekend and I will see you next week when we launch into the book Journey to Recovery. And we're going to start by talking about transtheoretical and trans diagnostic approaches, which just sounds awful, horrible, but it's really fun. I promise it'll be fun. If this podcast helps you help your clients or yourself, please support us by purchasing your CEUs@Allce.com or or getting your agency to sponsor an episode. A direct link to the on demand CEUs for this podcast is@allce.com podcastce that's allce.com podcastceus to sponsor an episode of Counselor Toolbox and reach over 50,000 clinicians per week, go to allce.com sponsor thank you.