Wellness for the Indoors: Clean Air, Cool Minds

Summer isn’t always a season of ease, especially in urban environments filled with noise, overstimulation, and relentless heat.

In times like these, wellness begins where we are: inside. Not just inside our homes, but in our breath, thoughts, and daily rhythms. Here are a few ways we use to reclaim clarity and calm from within.

1. Start with the Air You Breathe

Try this:

Open windows early in the morning or after sunset to circulate fresh air.

Use a high-efficiency air purifier. We recommend the Windmill AC for its clean design and strong performance. 

Add air-purifying plants like snake plant, pothos, or rubber tree. They help filter VOCs and improve oxygen flow.

The EPA reports that indoor air is often two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. That matters—for your energy, your health, and your sense of well-being.

Practitioner's Tip:

This is one we learned at the Chopra Center when the treatment rooms ran hot: if you don’t have an a/c unit or windmill, fill a bowl with ice and water, put a washcloth in, wring it out and place it behind your neck. It immediately takes your body temperature down.

 

2. Use Scent to Shift Your State

Scent connects directly to the nervous system. It can calm, energize, or re-center in under a minute.

You might:

  • Diffuse essential oils such as vetiver, cedarwood, or bergamot.

  • Simmer citrus peels and fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme on the stove.

  • Mist your linens with lavender and witch hazel.

  • We’ve been using Primally Pure’s Everything Spray at home and in the studio to reset between tasks.

A 2022 review in Frontiers in Psychology confirmed that aromatherapy can help reduce stress and improve focus.

 

3. Create a Cool Corner

Even a small, intentional space can shift your experience of a room.

You’ll only need:

  • A soft surface—a chair, rug, or cushion

  • One object that soothes you, like a crystal, plant, or art piece

  • A fan, a bowl of cold water, or a cloth scented with peppermint oil

  • A playlist, a journal, or just quiet

It doesn’t need to be perfect. What matters is having one place where your body knows it can relax.

 

4. Reset the Room, Reset Yourself

Wellness indoors is about regulation, not decoration.

Between meetings or before sleep, pause and try this:

  • Sit with your feet on the floor

  • Inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for six

  • Notice one thing in your space that brings you ease

  • That’s enough to activate your parasympathetic nervous system.

Final Note

We can’t always change the temperature outside or the pace of the world around us. But we can find moments of calm and clarity in the spaces we shape for ourselves.

That’s what conscious wellness means today: simple, lived, and close to home.

For more at-home rituals, subscribe to the UWM newsletter.

Be/WellUWM Editors