Light & Meditation As The Psychological & Physiological Aspects Of One’s Life

Light has always been a predominant element in the activities of mankind. Numerous efforts have been made to design buildings that use a great percentage of natural light, in both the developed and the developing countries. Enormous amounts of money, which almost surpasses the cost of a building, are used to light up spaces in buildings. On the other hand, meditation plays a significant role in modelling an individual’s mind and body that is the psychological and physiological aspects of one’s life.

Meditation is a voluntary collaborative procedure where individuals who have a conflict with one another identify issues, develop options, ponder alternatives, and develop a consensual contract. Trained mediators facilitate open communication to resolve dissimilarities in a non-adversarial, confidential fashion. Apart from trainers, lighting also plays a significant role to help accomplish the same. The study shows the need for daylighting strategies to be a fragment of the design procedure, such that they may be used to determine the possibilities of providing for passive solar gain or aim to diminish solar and interior loads with appropriate daylighting techniques.

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Designing a meditation room can be an incredibly enjoyable and satisfying procedure. The quality and feel of the venue to which we are invited makes it so greatly diverse when time and energy are put into creating a great space to meditate. A warm and inviting positive atmosphere is desirable for the attendees to make it so much easier to relax and get into the precise frame of mind for meditation.

Ideally, meditation room should be a peaceful space that is free from any mess and clutter and is quiet. A design theme that reflects a unique personality, and an atmosphere that enriches one’s mood should be existent. It should also be comfy, not just in terms of furnishings, but also in terms of temperature and lighting, as they play a very significant role in modelling the psychological aspect of the attendees.

Colour and light interplay with each other in a variety of ways, dramatically affecting the way we identify the space around us. For instance, a room that has been decorated in warm colours may still seem cold if the incorrect type of lighting is used. Similarly, a room may seem smaller or larger depending on the approach colour and light are combined. A lack of lighting will make colours seem darker than they truly are, and too much lighting may wash out the colours in the room.

The human body has seven chakras or putative nodes amongst which Sahasrara or crown chakra is the topmost and is considered to be the highest spiritual centre and the state of pure consciousness which is needed in meditation for proper alignment of other chakras. Setting the mood for meditation is significant in being able to focus on the mind and on the self, away from physical distractions and opting for natural lighting is one of means to attain the same. The control over light is vital. For instance, openings in a meditation room might need blinds, curtains and diffusing glass. Overhead lights with dimming function will allow to have entire control over the light levels. Complete darkness is not recommended.

Warm lighting is the paramount choice for a meditation room. Fluorescent light is to be eluded being the coldest. Lamps are an outstanding way to add more controlled lighting options to a meditation room and highlighting one part of the room may provide with the right atmosphere. Salt crystal lamps are a popular choice for meditation rooms these days, but are hardly the only option, candles in coloured glass containers to cast a vibrant glow can also be used. Shoji screens can be used for incorporation of diffused lighting in the meditation room to certify a state of consciousness.

Light can be characterised into two shades, one being natural: created by sun while the other is artificial light originating from an electronic display or device. Natural light has numerous aesthetic and health aids. For instance, scientists at the Lighting Research Centre (LRC), in Troy, N.Y., have testified that day-lit environments escalate occupant efficiency and comfort, and provide the intellectual and visual stimulation essential to regulate human circadian rhythms.

The circadian rhythm (means roughly a day) is critically significant to our health as it has effects on our immune structure, capacity to fight off disease, hunger and obesity, blood pressure, and cognition. It controls our sleep wake cycle so vital for brain function and body regulation and for appropriate functioning of it a synchronised mental and physical health is required which can be accomplished by meditation.

According to studies worldwide, emotion demonstrates itself in three distinct sections -

1. Physiological (i.e. objective measures),
2. Psychological (i.e. subjective measures),
3. Behavioural.

1. There is a nearby correlation amongst emotions, heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC). Henceforth HR and SC are anticipated to be good physiological measures of ecological conditions on people.
2. Illumination Engineering Society of North America (IES) summaries that lighting can play a significant part in reinforcing distinct perception, activity and mood setting.
3. Light should yield a mood and atmosphere in a room, which corresponds to people’s request and expectation.
4. Changes in the concentration of a light source can also revise the perceptual mood of a space.
5. Light and colour unquestionably affect body purposes just as they exert an influence above so called awareness and emotion.
6. Psychological effect of lighting

For the reason that the sense of sight is contrast sensitive, the brightness contrast of a space governs its emotional impact (separate imitations of a space are a function of brightness contrast).

• the relationship of facades that are lighted to those left in the dark
• the emphasis or foreground to the surround or background.

Overall illumination in a part of building will permit vision. The emotional influence of an interior through the manipulation of brightness contrast is an actual challenge for the artistic lighting designer.

Lighting monitors six fundamental principles like,

1. Eluding direct penetration of sunlight.
2. Consistency of light throughout space.
3. Eluding glare
4. Establishment of control of daylight by louvers, diffusion screens, etc.
5. Electric lighting structure and daylighting designed to be complimenting each other.
6. Planned interior spaces with daylighting design establishment.

The above specified fundamental principles can be reformulated permitting to designing of built forms as specific rules for the design –

1. Window width is between one fifth and one quarter of depth of room,
2. The window height is almost two and one-sixth the window width.

These rules can be extended into more acquainted forms:

a) Maximum room depth is four to five times the elevation of the window,

b) Window area is roughly one tenth of the square of the room depth.

From the instances delivered by Palladio, it appears that his favoured window to floor area is of the order of 25% and his window to window wall ratio is nearly 35%.

(i) Maximum room depth is 2 to 2.5 times window head height for uninterrupted fenestration and curtain wall construction where window heads are nearby to the ceiling (Kaufmann, 1975)

(ii) Room depth is 2.5 times window head height for continuous or near continuous windows beneath overcast skies and 3 to 3.5 times beneath a clear sky (AIA, 1982),

(iii) 2 times for uninterrupted clear glazed and curtain walling (Rea, 1993),

(iv) 2.5 with a daylight factor of 2% (Standards Australia, 1994),

(v) 1.5 or 2.5 times with a south fronting light shelf (O’Connor, 1997),

(vi) 1.5 times for office work, 2.5 times for inhabited spaces (Schiller, 1992).