If thinking about your home surroundings triggers stress and anxiety, it may be time for a makeover.
While the notion that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is not new, the emerging corner of science called Neuroaesthetics challenges this position. This discipline researches the brain mechanisms that are engaged during aesthetic and similar encounters. It bridges cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and aesthetics.
Semir Zeki, its founder, is professor of Neuroaesthetics at University College London, coined the term in 1999. Zeki has studied what happens in a person’s brain when they look at a painting or listen to a piece of music that they find beautiful and what happens when viewing something that strikes them as ugly.
Why Beauty Makes Us Happy
He discovered that when his study’s subjects experienced a piece of art or music they described as beautiful, their medial orbito-frontal cortex — the part of the brain just behind their eyes — ‘lit up’ in brain scans. Whereas art they found ugly stimulated their motor cortex instead. Zeki found that whether the beauty came through their ears, in music, or their eyes, in art, the brain’s response was the same. Beauty gave the brain a dopamine reward by increasing blood flow to the brain.
An analysis of Zeki’s findings support the idea that beautiful art and other aesthetic experiences are not so subjective, but objective. They also support the notion that beauty is rational and has a divine origin.
Consider the equation of beauty—1.618, known as the “golden ratio” and the “divine proportion, which explains why our eyes inherently love forms that encapsulate this ratio. This is also why many classical artists and interior designers incorporate it into their work.
Even if you ask AI its generally perceived to be true. Beauty is not just subjective preference but has an objective rational basis, linked to principals of order, harmony, and proportion, like those found in mathematics and nature. For example, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras, linked beauty to mathematical rations and proportions. He observed fundamental order in music, nature, and art that was both rational and beautiful.
Beauty Can Lower Stress Hormones
Because viewing beauty influences the mechanisms of brain activity to produce dopamine and lower stress hormones, it behooves us to design living spaces that bring us joy, while also lowering stress.
Dr. Lizbeth Alter, physician and founder of Complete Wellness located in Coral Gables, FL, supports this claim.
“Serene environments, such as natural landscapes or thoughtfully designed spaces, can reduce stress and cortisol, fostering relaxation and mental well-being. Whereas chaotic, cluttered settings can elevate stress and cortisol, heightening anxiety and impairing concentration,” Alter said.
As an interior designer, I have explored why beauty is so powerful. It’s worth noting here that beauty is also the reason why staged homes sell more quickly and for top dollar. It was my own uplifting experience with beautiful spaces that led me to pursue a career in interior design. I consider promoting the key relationship between thoughtful surroundings and personal wellbeing a higher calling.
Beauty is not merely a luxury, but a staple for a well-balanced life. When designing a home for yourself, or others to enjoy, it is not enough to simply declutter. Instead, go for the dopamine-inducing state of wonderment that will grant life-changing dividends for you, your family, and your community.