How a Garden Room can Improve your Health and Wellbeing

Welcome to our first guest blog-post written by our friend Mr Shaun Rudden, over in Melbourne Australia, hailing the health benefits of the Garden Room!

Shaun is a freelance writer with a passion for the outdoors and has a very interesting spin on the Garden Room! It’s an honour to be publishing his blog on our site!

Take it away Shaun!

———————————————————-

Building a garden room could actually be beneficial to your health. Now, it may sound like a rather ambitious claim, but not so overly ridiculous when we consider the facts. Firstly, let’s face it, although we often make plans to ditch the sofa and TV in favour of outdoor activities, taking in natural light and fresh air on a regular basis is easier said than done most of the time. So, could a garden room be that simple stepping stone to a more rewarding lifestyle?

The Modern Family In the modern day family, it’s not uncommon for both parents to have full-time jobs. Evenings then revolve around the usual household chores, along with preparing dinner and ‘sorting out’ the kids. By the time the little ones are in bed, mum and dad can only collapse on the couch with barely enough strength to reach for the remote control – perhaps a slight exaggeration, but probably not overly far from the truth.

And it’s not just the adults either; we’re losing the ongoing fight to get our children outdoors. Games are nowadays solely played via consoles and interaction is done through Social Media portals, so getting the kids out of their respective rooms is a challenge in itself, let alone out of the house.

Indoor Routines Whether you’re a parent or not, think about your usual weekly routine and the main components that it consists of: Work, gym, supermarket, drinks with friends? For the majority of us, they’re all located indoors; so even when we’re getting out of the house, we’re still breathing stale air and possibly even relying on artificial light.

In fact, some people even have all the apparatus to complete said weekly activities without even leaving their own four walls (save for opening the door to the Tesco Online delivery man).

Convenience is the main buzzword within our lives now; everything can either be delivered to us or is available ‘on-the-go’, so even our need to venture out for the odd errand is also rapidly decreasing.

Why is Being Outdoors Important? There are many benefits for spending time outdoors:

• Our skin creates and supplies our bodies with 90% of its Vitamin D intake, and it does this following exposure to UV light from the sun. Vitamin D helps to prevent some forms of cancer, as well as heart attacks and depression, and the best thing about it – you can get the majority of it for free.
• According to studies, fresh air has been proven to enhance your immune system and heart rate, whilst also giving you more energy and improving your mood levels.
• Lounging in front of the television actually sends the brain into a more dormant state than when you’re sleeping. The same can be said of performing typical yet mundane activities on your computer, such as perusing YouTube videos or Facebook statuses.
• Exercise your brain by engaging in other activities away from the living room.

Benefits of a Garden Room

Although it’s important to get outdoors, as mentioned previously, it might not always be feasible. So what’s the next best thing?

A garden room is the perfect multi-purpose retreat for the whole family, in your own grounds. By transferring your normal daily activities to your garden, you and your loved ones can benefit from brighter and more tranquil surroundings.

The function possibilities of the garden room are endless: The kids can complete their homework there (because if you can’t get them out of the house, perhaps getting them into the garden room is a step in the right direction?), it can be a relaxation area for you, family meals can be livened up outdoors, social gatherings can be hosted there – you get the idea.

Your garden house could even become your garden office if you work from home, or you bring work home with you.

Whilst you’re not exactly in the ‘great outdoors’ by being in your garden house, it’s still a brighter alternative. Unlike a conservatory, it’s also detached from your home, meaning that you can disengage yourself completely from the indoor distractions. It can also be heated, insulated and covered, so you’ll be sheltered from the unpredictable British weather.

Use a garden room as your gateway to a more outdoors lifestyle.

Blogpost written by Shaun Rudden.