From lifestyle changes and self-care to community and professional support, the tool kit for tackling anxiety is getting bigger and more effective all the time. The very spaces in which you live your life can help you to meet its challenges — and we’ve consulted experts of all kinds to show you just how to put them to work. When it comes to starting the day with a calm and collected mind, there’s no place — and no ally — quite like home.

The sleek gas fireplace Fix My Flip’s Page Turner and Mitch Glew installed in this luxurious Florida living room is much more than an attractive architectural add. As researchers have demonstrated, looking at hearths and campfires can induce relaxation so effectively that they can actually decrease our arterial blood pressure. That benefit is just as accessible, believe it or not, if you’re watching a fireplace video. Experts found that focusing on the flames’ appearance and sound “induce[s] relaxation as part of a multisensory, absorptive and social experience.”

Research has suggested that negative feelings about clutter and disorganization can be especially hard on women, which experts speculate may be a biological effect of societal expectations. All of us can reframe how we feel about our spaces with a page from the Unsellable Houses gals' playbook: joy-sparking twins Leslie Davis and Lyndsay Lamb DIYed this once cookie cutter spice rack to create one-of-a-kind kitchen storage that turns disparate items that would otherwise clutter up countertops into a creative catch-all that’s also easy on the eyes.

With a background in psychotherapy, Tulsa designer Jill Croka focuses on residential designs that employ the insights she gained in that training. In this serene kitchen, for example, she foregrounded the naturally soothing patterns in the spectacular stone backsplash and island by choosing finishes that don’t glare and reflect light. “Organic lines, as you see in wood and stone, when they have a matte finish, lower one’s blood pressure,” she told HGTV. “They are cues our body reads from the natural world. I prefer all stone to be honed or leathered to aid in the contribution of resting our senses.”