Calming Landscapes Restore the Mind

If you live in a basement apartment with no windows, or only have views of a brick wall, try to invest in a fish tank. Even a laptop screen saver or videos of an aquarium can give you a mental boost.

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Staring into flickering flames is also restorative. "Fire has the same fascination for us as long as it’s contained and there's no danger coming from it.

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You can get a psychological boost from adding plants, as long as you don't go overboard.

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Adding relatively realistic landscape art — rather than abstract — can have restorative benefits too.

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Sunlight is magical and does a great thing for our mood. Water views always have a natural calming effect.

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Watching the countryside allows us to look at our world softly, easily, and consider what might happen to us next.”

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When we look at something that interests us, something that doesn’t require a lot of attention to monitor, we build back up our mental energy and our mood and performance improve. This happens when looking at nature, but also anything that produces a natural, soft fascination.

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When doing knowledge work you deplete your mental resources, whether it’s your job or playing chess. When mental stocks come down, we get to be irritable, cognitive performance and social performance declines, and we don’t get along well with others.

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Environments can have restorative properties. Basically, when people look at nature, it helps restock mental energy. Imagine a home perched on a hill overlooking a rolling English countryside. The green landscape is pleasing to the eye and, subconsciously, your mind can see danger approaching, allowing your mind to relax, drift and replenish.

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