Can Biophilic Design Reset Your Nervous System At Home?

Your nervous system reset may have been hiding inside your home the entire time. If you've tried therapy, supplements, and better sleep but still feel chronically stressed, the missing piece might not be a habit it could be your living space. This episode is for anyone ready to stop managing symptoms and start designing a home that heals.

Licensed Professional Counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist Healey Ikerd shares research-backed findings on what natural light, indoor plants, and even a simple view of nature actually does to your cortisol levels and what happens to your healing when those things are missing.

New Normal Big Life host Antoinette Berrafato used nature therapy — archery and kayaking to recover from physical limitations, finding passion, purpose, and people as her recipe for mental health. In this episode, she and her husband put biophilic design to the test inside their own Northwoods cabin. Not with a renovation budget, but with intention.

The research is clear. The question is whether your home is working for you or against you.

Chapters

• 0:00 When Your Home Adds To Your Stress
• 1:26 Chronic Illness Inside Your Home
• 5:53 Searching For A Healing Place
• 8:35 Sick Home Syndrome And Toxins
• 12:23 Three Biophilic Design Principles Light Order Life
• 16:31 Biophotomodulation or Light Therapy And Natural Sunlight
• 18:27 Declutter Your Home For Peace And Focus
• 22:48 Bring Nature Indoors On Purpose
• 25:15 Get Family Buy In Early

Transcript

When Home Adds To Stress

Speaker 1 0:00

A licensed professional counselor whose research back take on biophilic design and nature therapy as a nervous system reset changed how we see every room in our cabin, and it may change your home too. Welcome to the New Normal Big Life Podcast. We bring you natural and integrative health information and stories about nature that we hope will inspire you to get outside in adventure, along with a step-by-step plan to help you practice what you've learned to create your own new normal and live the biggest life you can dream. I'm your host, Antoinette Berrafato, the Wellness Warrior. Let's get into today's topic. Most people blame their stress on their job, their schedule, or their relationships, but what if your home was the hidden threat all along? Using biophilic design methods in our home created unimaginable stress relief and a nervous system reset that changed my life forever. If you listen to New Mobile Big Life podcast for a while, you know that I'm a veteran and that my husband is a veteran also. But I never knew that something so simple as indoor plants for in-home nature therapy could have such a huge mental health impact. But small changes made a huge difference in my health and my husband's health too. After struggling with my health, I discovered how to transform my home into a sanctuary for healing. This is the story of how specific design choices and faith-aligned principles can completely restore your well-being

Chronic Illness Inside Four Walls

Speaker 1 1:26

too. Have you ever felt like your own home was working against you? Like no matter what you did, the doctor's visits, the prayers, the sheer force of will, you still felt exhausted and sick inside your own farm walls. I've been there. My health was at an all-time low in 2014, and my soul felt just exhausted as my body. I was trapped in a cycle of chronic fatigue and anxiety, depression, chronic pain, widespread inflammation, mobility challenges, and cognitive decline. I had to give up my career as a tech chief executive officer and found myself using a walker, a service dog, and a full-time caregiver just to make it through my day. The one place that should have been my safe harbor felt more like a contaminated indoor space. But then I stumbled upon a truth that's both powerful and profound, rooted in faith and backed by design. Our homes are meant to be places of healing. Isaiah 32, 18 says it best. This is how we are meant to live. Our homes, whether it's an urban apartment, an RV, a single room, an apartment in the suburbs, or a cabin in the woods like mine, are supposed to restore us. This is the story of how I stopped fighting against my home and start working with it. It's how I transform my space into a nature therapy reset and in doing so transform my health and my life forever. For years, my life was just a blur of symptoms. While I was wrestling with this bone deep fatigue, feeling too tired to dress myself, there was a constant buzz of anxiety that stole my peace and a brain fog that made even the simplest tasks feel overwhelming. I was so depressed and in need of stress relief that it felt as though I had fallen into a black hole so deep I would never climb out of it. Losing my ability to communicate effectively because the words were in my head but always just out of reach was devastating. I was doing all the right things, or at least I thought I was. I listened to my doctors, attended the therapies, occupational, physical, cognitive, behavioral, and speech. I took all the pills 20 a day at one time, and had five surgeries. And I prayed for deliverance from this health crisis, but I just kept pushing myself to keep going until I couldn't anymore. After a long struggle, something was still deeply wrong. My home, a newly built luxury condo in a prime location, a place I truly loved, just felt heavy. I felt allergic to my surroundings. And this is how toxins can impact your nervous system. The rooms of my home were filled with stuff. Years of things I collected because I thought they brought me comfort and joy. I could smell the off-gassing of the toxic materials used in the construction materials, in the paint, the cleaners, the carpet, the home furnishings, and I had the best of everything, but it felt like anchors weighing me down and stressing me out. The natural light seemed dim, the air seemed stale, there was this quiet sense of chaos that I couldn't ignore. I would wake up already feeling the chronic fatigue like carrying the weight of another human on your back. I walked through my cluttered living room and literally felt my stress levels climbing. My neat clean home was mirroring my inner turmoil rather than calming it. And I know that sounds odd that my home was neat and clean, yet felt cluttered and chaotic. But I'll break that down for you in a moment. I remember one afternoon just lying on my sofa crying as the sun struggled to get through the thick curtains. I felt like a failure, feeling my family and friends, my faith and myself. I pray for a sign, a breakthrough, anything that would point me toward healing. I just knew my home should be a place of stress relief, peace, and renewal, not stress and exhaustion. It was in that moment of complete surrender that a new idea started to grow. What if my environment wasn't just the backdrop to my struggle, but a part of it? And what if with faith and real intention I could turn it into a powerful partner in my nervous system reset and health recovery?

Searching For A Healing Place

Speaker 1 5:53

I was already on my new normal big life journey to take back my health and my life, so I added a self-reflection on my current living situation as a step in the plan. Where I live was a place all the tech nerds like me wanted to be: a saltwater pool, outdoor living rooms, kitchens, grills, fireplaces, a great room, a free Starbucks, a combined gym, yoga, pilates, and dance studio with a 24-hour video trainer and an on-site dog park for my then service dog Phoebe. The lovely inside my 10-foot ceilings and open floor plan was what I was supposed to want, right? But somehow I wasn't happy there. When I asked myself what I wanted in an ideal living space and outdoor space, I realized the hard truth. Not only was I not living in a healing home for my specific needs, but I also wasn't even living in the right part of the country. As a result, I packed up everything I own and my dog Phoebe, and we set off on a big adventure to Colorado. I thrived there for a time, but the desert mountains made me hypoxic or oxygen deficient, and it worsened my chronic cognitive impairment after traumatic brain injury and broken back. After Colorado, I moved to a cabin in the Midwestern Northwoods with my new husband, and it changed my life and his life for the better forever. Matthew is also a veteran who survived two traumatic brain injuries and IED explosions. But we learned about biophilic design and it opened our minds to the possibility of stress relief through nature therapy. So here's what biophilic design means and why your nervous system cares. The turning point wasn't a lightning bolt moment. It was more like a quiet whisper. It was this deep conviction that God wants us to live in peace and that our homes can be a physical expression of that divine peace. The Bible talks about a sanctuary, a holy place set apart for God to dwell with his people. And I started to wonder, what if I could create a sanctuary right here in my own home? Not just a pretty space, but a home intentionally designed for wellness, a home that honors the pentaprils of order, light, and life that you see all through God's creation. Proverbs 24.3 says it best. Through wisdom, a home is built. By knowledge, the rooms are filled. This idea set me on a journey. I started learning about how much our physical surroundings can influence our minds and our bodies. There's a growing body of research that suggests that creating a restorative environment can help improve our mood, provide stress relief, and serve as a nervous system reset. Exactly what two veterans

Sick Home Syndrome And Toxins

Speaker 1 8:35

needed. Imagine leaving the chaotic world outside behind and retreating to your nature therapy zone using biophilic interior design principles. I learned about biophilic design, which is really just a simple practice of connecting with nature in our homes. The thinking is that natural light, views of nature, or even just having indoor plants around you could help lower your stress hormones and improve focus. In season two, episode 66, Suicide Prevention: The Myth Costing Veterans Lives and How to Help, licensed professional counselor Healy Eicherd said this.

Speaker 9:42

I say, look, we got all this research. We should have no more depressed and anxious people. There is so much research out there to show how to improve your mood. The fact that we're not doing it is frustrating, but I think that we have enough information that we can't actually feel better. We just have to be intentional about doing that, not accepting like, oh, I have depression instead of I have depressed feelings, but I'm going to work at changing those things.

Speaker 1 10:12

It became so clear my home wasn't just a passive thing, it was an active player in my health. So my husband and I decided to give our new cabin a makeover, but this wasn't about following design trends or buying expensive furniture. This was a soul-deep, faith-led mission to turn our home into a healing home, making specific intentional choices that would reset the nervous system and support our health and recovery alongside the medical and home care already part of our lives. I'm going to show you the key biophilic design principles I followed so you can start cultivating your sanctuary, a healing home of your own. Before I begin, I want to encourage you and anyone who has a chronic illness, a trial with ADD or ADHD, or is a caregiver to someone who has a chronic illness to budget for a sick home syndrome inspection. You can do this as a DIY project, but I'll take you through the professional method first and then we'll talk about DIY. The price range for a sick home syndrome inspection is $300 to $800 nationally, and it was the best $500 we've ever spent. We then spent $28,000 making our cabin in the woods environmentally safe and remove toxins from our home materials and furnishings. The return on investment was priceless. The work took four weeks and we immediately felt the difference in our health. Some people are living in a home that's making them sick, and you might be one of them. And no matter how much you improve your health, you're pushing a boulder uphill because you will never remove the toxins in your environment that are contributing to your poor health. This is our forever home, and yes, we could have spent that money on other things. We're not wealthy people. We worked hard at multiple jobs for years to afford this huge life and health change, and it was worth every penny. With research help from AI, PubMed, and the National Institutes of Health and Buildness Associations, you can learn how to do much of this work yourself. But this was more budget-friendly model that we were too sick to take on at

Three Principles Light Order Life

Speaker 1 12:23

the time. So here are the biophilic design principles that I use, and you can choose from several. I landed on three core biophilic design principles that I feel are divinely inspired and are supported by design science. The principle of light, the principle of order, and the principle of life. The very first biophilic design principle I tackled was adding light to our home. In scripture, light is tied to God's presence, to truth, and to life itself. And practically speaking, our bodies are designed to respond to light. Photobiomodulation is a type of low-level light therapy that uses specific red and near infrared wavelengths to influence how cells function. Photobiomodulation or PBM is being studied and used as a non-invasive way to support healing, reduce inflammation, and modulate pain by affecting cellular production and signaling pathways. Matthew, our 15-year-old dog Phoebe, and I use a patented photobiomodulation patch 12 hours a day to activate our stem cells for healing and longevity. You can learn more about light therapy at New Normal Big Life Podcasts and click on Timeless Vitality. The patches are less than $100 a month, and you can use Light Therapy to improve your health at home and on the go. Photobiomodulation uses non-ionizing light, particularly red and near infrared, delivered by LED patches like what I use, or low-level lasers to tissue at doses low enough that it does not heat or burn. The light is absorbed by molecules in cells, especially in mitochondria, your DNA, like cytochrome C oxidase, which can increase ATP production, leading to changes in inflammation, blood flow, and tissue repair. I have photos on my website at New NormalBigLifePodcast.com that are seven years old, five years old, and three months old, and you can see my face age in reverse. Just imagine what it's doing to age reverse my organs. ATP or adenosine triphosphate is the primary energy carrying molecule found in all living cells. Clinically, photobiomodulation or PBM is used or studied as an adjunct or add-on for wound and soft tissue healing, musculoskeletal pain, arthritis, oral mucosystitis from cancer treatment, certain skin conditions, and aspects of medications and rehab after injury or surgery. Getting enough natural light helps regulate our internal clocks, which can improve sleep. It's also a natural mood lifter. Some research suggests that sunlight exposure can help the brain release serotonin, which helps us feel calm and focused. It's a nervous system reset using nature therapy. My old homes were dark. The heavy curtains, dark paint, and even the way my furniture was arranged were literally blocking the light. So in our new marital home, we made some specific but honestly radical changes. We opened the heavy drapes before sunrise to let the sunlight pour in. We selected low VOC or low volatile organic compound paint and chose cool colors for areas where calm relaxation are central to the space, like a pale blue-gray for our bedroom, with warm earth-tone colors and rooms where people gather, like the family room and kitchen. The rooms instantly bounced more light around and felt bigger, brighter, and warmer. We even hung a few mirrors across from windows to push that light into the deeper corners of our home. The difference was immediate. Walking into a bright, sun-filled room in the morning started to energize me. This house didn't feel oppressive like places I'd lived before. It felt hopeful. It felt like I was physically letting God's light into my life in a brand new way.

Light Therapy And Natural Sunlight

Speaker 1 16:31

The second biophilic design principle was order. 1 Corinthians 14, 33, for God is not a God of confusion or disorder, but of peace. So here's how to create order as a stress relief support. Well, our brains seem to agree that order is preferred. Many researchers believe that living in a cluttered space can increase our cognitive load, amp up our nervous system, drain our mental energy, and keep our bodies in a state of low grade stress. For me, the clutter was a constant nagging reminder of having too much stuff and a life that felt out of my control. Tackling it was an act of faith and an act of stewarding the space God gave us. It wasn't about becoming a minimalist, but about creating breathing room for my soul. We went through every room and asked for each item. Does this serve a real purpose, bring me genuine joy, or help create an atmosphere of peace? Try it in your home. If the answer was no, thank it and let it go off to goodwill to support its nonprofit mission or wherever you like to make donations. The process was emotional, but it was also freeing. We created empty space on the shelves and walls. We made sure everything had a home and returned it to its place at the end of each day. This was more than just cleaning, it felt like a spiritual practice, resulting in incredible levels of stress relief. We were making physical room for peace to enter. And as the physical clutter disappeared, I felt the mental clutter start to lift too. My ability to focus got better, and that constant humming anxiety started to fade. My home was finally becoming a place where I could truly rest, think clearly, restore, and find refuge from the virtual world's noise where I do much of my work.

Declutter For Peace And Focus

Speaker 1 18:27

So here's what indoor therapy in practice looks like. The final biophilic design principle was to intentionally bring life inside by incorporating nature. God speaks to us through his creation, and that connection we have to the natural world is so powerful. So if you don't have a connection to the natural worlds through spending time outdoors as a hobby or an exercise practice, it might be the reason you feel so disconnected from everyone and everything. So I highly encourage you to binge listen to New Normal Big Life because in every episode we have an adventure story that's a short break that helps you imagine how you can connect to nature through outdoor activities. Connecting to nature is the heart of biophilic design. Studies suggest that even just looking at nature or bringing it indoors can help lower blood pressure and reduce stress. Plants are like living sculptures, but they also work for us. With some types like ferns, even help purify the air, making indoor plants a must, no matter the size of your living space. Most of our walls and floors are made of natural unvarnished wood. Our furniture is made of natural materials too, for the most part. We don't have much space for plants, so I brought the outdoors in through wildcrafting projects. And wildcrafting is making something out of natural materials that you forage for. There were old crepe myrtle tree branches lying in the ground from a tree that isn't hardy in the Midwest, so it was no wonder it didn't survive in our forest. Picking up dead limbs to use for indoor firewood or campfires is a necessary land stewardship practice. Allowing this wood to stay on the forest floor would serve as kindling, making a future forest fire burn hotter and longer. Matthew was very intentional about managing our forest, and I'm his faithful helper. From my wildcrafting projects, I attach wooden airplant holders to the tree limbs and then bolted the limbs to our cabin wall for a sturdy planter. Throughout the spring and summer, I foraged for wildflowers that fill a family heirloom crystal vase in the family room and mason jars in the kitchen and dining rooms when in season. These small touches of life have a huge impact. They soften the hard edges of my home and gave me gentle, beautiful living things to look at that weren't a screen. Misting my pants became a small, mindful ritual that grounded me in the present moment. The greenery was a constant reminder of God's creation and growth and resilience. This is somatic healing and practice. You can learn how to get started foraging and wildcrafting and episodes of New Normal Big Life Podcast. If you're looking for a fun foraging activity to do with children, check out our episode on Dandelion Tea's benefits, and you can find my recipe for dandelion gummies. Next, we added shark air purifiers with help of filters in all the major rooms. Each will purify up to 2,500 square feet of air, but we're purifying three times the volume of air. And finally, we avoid using household laundry and personal care products made with its synthetic ingredients. We added another element of light, several electric candles in every room. It serves two purposes, and we love things that are functional, beautiful, and multi purposed. First, as the daylight fades, we dim all the lights in our cabin so. So every light in our cabin is on a dimmer, and we brighten dark corners with wall-mounted and tabletop e-candles. This helps your brain prepare to wind down throughout the evening. And when the power goes out and we're on precious solar power, we reduce our lighting usage by using electric candles and USB rechargeable lights mounted over doors and under cabinets. We use air cleaning essential oil, diluted and filtered water to purify the air of germs and add a fresh scent. You can learn more about the antimicrobial essential oils on New Normal Big Life Podcasts and blog. Finally, we made our home as functional as possible to support our busy work-from-home jobs and our adventure sports lifestyle as sponsored adventure athletes.

Bring Nature Indoors On Purpose

Speaker 1 22:48

Now, when we go to bed each night, our house looks like Airbnb guests are arriving the next day. This allows us to start each morning in a clean, neat, functional, peaceful, and fresh smelling space. It literally takes us five extra minutes before bed because we're using things and returning them to our proper place throughout the day. We start the day steeped in nature therapy with a daily lemon water detox with bone, brain, and muscle health boosting creatine monohydrate. I've talked about my running routine in several episodes, so make sure you binge listen to get the details. My home wasn't just a structure anymore. It was a living breathing space that resets my nervous system and nurtured me back to health. You can do this in your home too, making healthy lifestyle choices like deep restorative sleep, quality, toxin-free whole foods, drinking half your body weight in ounces of water, no screens after 6 or 8 p.m., and quality supplements made by a trusted MD using patented light therapy patches and spending time adventuring year-round with family and friends can help you take back your health like it did for Matthew and me. But implementing a biophilic home design in the place where we spend the most time is a game changer. Here's a family pro tip on implementing biophilic design. Everyone living in the home should be involved in implementing biophilic design home changes for two reasons. First, your husband's personality should be readily apparent in the home. Far too many relationships, but the woman in charge of home decor decisions and everyone can see your dominating, overbearing, narcissism on display the moment they walk through your doors when they notice how it doesn't even look like Jim lives here, they might say. Don't be that person. Also, allow your children to have an age-appropriate say in the design of their rooms to make them feel included and seen. Remember, this is your child's nervous system reset through nature and biophilic design too. So they should give input and what things give them peace and joy. Lastly, give your pets a cozy corner with their favorite things. And the second reason to include everyone in biophilic design is that when people are involved in the process, they stay engaged and excited about maintaining it throughout.

Get Family Buy In Early

Speaker 1 25:15

So here are the biophilic design home makeover key takeaways. Following these three principles, light, order, and life didn't just change my home, it changed me. The nervous system reset transformation was radical, but it was real. Today I'm a sponsored adventure sports athlete and an outdoor influencer. In addition to my work as a health and wellness columnist with 1.5 million readers in 200 countries, a public speaker, a blogger, and podcaster at New Nomal Big Life. But through these simple, intuitive changes, the crushing exhaustion lifted, replaced by a more consistent, robust energy level. The chronic anxiety and depression ended its grip, and my mind felt clearer than it had for years. Of course, my medical treatments gave me a foundation for recovery. Nutraceuticals supplied the nutrients my body needed to heal, and prayer gave me the strength to keep going by changing. My environment was a missing piece that helped me finally begin to thrive. And you can do this too. If you feel like you're just surviving, let's start thriving. Make lifestyle changes today that can serve you for a lifetime. It's not too late to reverse any health challenge you're experiencing, whether you're 6, 66, or 96 years old. My home had become my partner in healing, and it was the sanctuary I had prayed for, a restorative space that supported my well-being on every level. Imagine you wake up in a bedroom filled with soft morning light and feel calm. You walk through your home and instead of stressful clutter, you're met with peaceful order and little signs of nature throughout. Your home finally feels like it reflects the peace you found inside. It's a space that doesn't drain you anymore. It restores you day after day. This journey taught me that creating a home through biophilic design isn't a luxury. It's a profound act of self-care and a beautiful expression of faith. It's about intentionally crafting a space that allows your body, mind, and soul to do what they were designed to do to heal you. My favorite Bible verse for resilience and recovery is 2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. I love this because it reminds me that no matter we have walked through, God can make us new again. Turning your home into a place of wellness and a sanctuary for your soul is one of the most powerful things you can do for your health. Remember, if you don't focus on your wellness today, you will be forced to focus on your illness tomorrow. You don't need a huge budget or a designer's eye. You just need to be intentional. Start with one small thing. Open your curtains all the way, clear off one countertop, or buy one little indoor plant. Small steps truly do lead to big changes. Your home should be the place where you and your family the most peaceful, most restored, and the most you. It can be an incredible tool for your well-being. You are not alone in this, and there is so much help

Small Steps And How To Connect

Speaker 1 28:38

for healing. Remember, when you subscribe to our newsletter, you'll immediately receive a password that unlocks our entire library of free ebooks and guides to help you implement everything you've heard in this episode and all the episodes that we've ever published and will publish in the future, including the biophilic design guide for beginners packed with key takeaways, resources, and links from this podcast episode. I would love to hear from you what's one small step you can take this week to make your home more of a healing sanctuary. Share your thoughts with us on social media or send us a text through the show description. I read every single one, and I really believe we can learn so much from each other. And if this story resonated with you, please tune in to New Normal Big Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, and 10 plus platforms. We're now available in audio and video. And as always, we appreciate your star rating and review because it helps others find us. And thank you for everyone who's been giving us ratings. I've been so blessed by reading your feedback and messages of support. Love you, wellness warriors. Until next time.