Living a luxurious lifestyle is something many of us aspire to. Research suggests an upgraded lifestyle is responsible for strong emotional responses, including an increased sense of self-worth, boosts in confidence and a feeling of acceptance within society. But why is this?
The life of luxury is coveted by many as being the ultimate way to experience the world.
The lifestyle of the rich and famous, talented individuals and generally successful people — it’s not surprising that being able to indulge yourself in luxury is seen as a positive and desirable thing. Luxury is all about a better quality of life. It’s about enjoying the unnecessary. Why wouldn’t you want to be part of that?
Defining a life of luxury though can be difficult. While you may think of luxury living as million dollar-mansions in LA, private planes and lavish cars, the fact of the matter is, luxury is far more subjective. The definition of luxury itself (according to Google) is:
The state of great comfort and extravagant living.
What this means is to upgrade your lifestyle and enjoy the finer things in life, you don’t need obscene amounts of money or a life in the spotlight. You can live luxuriously by simply changing up a few elements of your lifestyle. But what exactly can you do?
Hire a home cleaning service
Luxury is all about the hands-off approach. It’s about devoting time to relaxation and leisure. It’s about not doing the dirty work. Cleaning, tidying, doing the chores. That’s the dirty work — it’s not relaxation or leisure.
Yes, cleaning is essential and needs doing, but getting down on your hands and knees to scrub the toilet is definitely not the lifestyle upgrade you are looking for. So why not have somebody else do it?
Bringing on a professional cleaning service helps you keep things clean and tidy while giving you free time to explore more enjoyable pastimes. This idea is certainly a step in the right direction when it comes to living more luxuriously.
Turn your house into a smart home
If luxury is all about extravagance and comfort, then making life as easy as possible is surely part of your end goal? If you want to upgrade your lifestyle, you should think about ways to improve your comfort levels at home. Smart technology can help you achieve this.
Innovations in smart-tech allow you to take control of everything from voice command light switches to automated grocery shopping. Smart technology is essentially the modern butler, with applications even available to run you a bath, order you food and answer your door.
When looking to soak up a bit more of life’s luxuries, upgrading your lifestyle may be about upgrading your tech.
Dress like You Live the Luxury Life
The way we dress has a serious impact on psychology, impacting ourselves and the people who see us.
Internally, attire can affect the way we behave and feel. If you dress like a slob, you feel slower and less reactive. If you dress like a professional, you work harder and are more efficient. Externally, if people see you dressed like a slob, they’ll perceive you as such. Dress professionally, though and they’ll have more positive preconceptions about your capabilities on the job.
As you might imagine, this has an impact on a sense of luxury living. Dressing in luxury items can help you feel like you’ve upgraded your lifestyle. You don’t have to break the bank on branded clothing — although you can if you want — as it’s not just about premium quality goods. Instead, it’s about outfitting yourself in clothing that looks and feels like something somebody living a life of luxury would wear.
The way fashion effects luxury is all about perception. It’s all about how it makes us feel. Unlike a hired cleaner or smart technology, it doesn’t directly change how we live. To get a sense of luxury from clothing, it’s a good idea to find inspiration from designers, trendsetters and those who you feel best represent the luxury lifestyle. Upgrade your wardrobe to fit with that kind of style, and you’ll start to feel like you are living the luxury life yourself.
Decorate your home to match luxurious design
Much like clothing, interior decor can have a big impact on the perception of luxury. Our brains are fine-tuned to pay attention to detail and present different responses to our environment based on how it looks. In essence, we understand what at least appears to be quality, and what appears low quality. This then influences our sense of luxury living. If we are surrounded by decor that does not exude style, sophistication and extravagance, we won’t feel luxury within ourselves.
To upgrade your lifestyle, and get a true sense of luxury living, you need to surround yourself with decor that feels luxurious. Again, this is all about personal perception, as much as style. Some may feel that Victorian Era lavishness — old English charm — exudes luxury, while others prefer the modern and minimalist approach of basic design and muted tones.
To succeed in making your home feel like your luxury palace, you must again look for external inspiration. Find a design that makes you feel like you’ve upgraded your lifestyle and work to mould your home around this concept. Remember, you don’t need exuberant furniture or priceless antiques. By just discovering what gives you a sense of luxury, you can start to find items and decorate to fit your tastes without grossly overspending.
Don’t forget your gym membership and diet
Health and wealth have strong connections. Good health and wellness are closely related to the perception of a better quality and standard of living.
You only have to look at A-List stars, in peak condition, to know that being in a good physical state is synonymous with extravagant living. After all, who is it who wakes up at 5 am to hit the gym, drinking a disturbingly green smoothie, if not those living in pure luxury?
A better sense of wellness itself is now referred to as “the new luxury.” The health and wellness industry is seeing massive growth thanks to a rise in interest from those with higher levels of disposable income. In short, keeping yourself in good shape has become a major part of upgrading your lifestyle and living a life of luxury.
Another element of this is learning to cook. Serving yourself up fine foods, as opposed to throwing in a microwave meal or chucking a tray of chips in the oven, will definitely give you more of a sense of luxury living — and support healthy living too.
