Here are a few tips to make your home a haven of comfort and help you combat stress. Read on.

Is your job very stressful? These days more and more people are under higher levels of stress than ever before. There was a time when businessmen with steep stakes on the line or the unemployed were the only ones always keyed up, while salaried employees happily took home a paycheck at the end of every month.

Now, with salaries higher than ever, job security keeps reducing and work pressure keeps increasing. This impacts our stress levels to a great degree, and it is not uncommon to see many professionals operating under inordinate amounts of pressure.

Stress is the root cause for various physical and emotional problems, and wreaks havoc with a person's health in the long run. Here are just a few little purchases you can make to turn your home into a haven of comfort.

Wind chimes
Although you may not realize it, the delicate sounds made by chimes tinkling in the wind are very soothing and have a subconscious relaxing effect. Purchase one for each room, and hang them by the windows.

Agarbattis
Agarbattis or incense sticks are not just for the religious. Burning agarbattis is a spiritual, healing and soothing activity. Certain scents reduce anxiety and stress, and function just as well as the best aromatherapy oils. Raman Sethi, a lawyer, says, "I like burning an agarbatti stick every night before going to bed, and placing it in front of a small Ganesha idol in my bedroom."

Another option to agarbattis is camphor. Jagdish Subramanium, a professional in the high-stress field of tech research, burns a camphor tablet in his bedroom every night before going to sleep. He swears it helps him relax like nothing else done. And how does he burn it? Simple! He places camphor (instead of the blue mat) on a mosquito repellent burner, and simply plugs it in!

Music
Music like heavy metal increases your stress levels without your realizing it. However, most forms of classical music help you relax. On returning from a stressful day's work, it makes sense for you to turn on that Ravi Shankar or Bach CD and let it play in the background to help you unwind.

Candles
Scented or non-scented, there is something about the flickering light of a candle that seems to calm your frazzled nerves almost instantly. Naturally lighting a candle in an already well-lit room doesn't help very much, unless the candle imparts a soothing fragrance. To fully appreciate the magical effect of candlelight, you need to have all other lights turned off. Kalpana Krishnan, the HR head of a leading multinational, lights a small lantern every night before going to sleep. She puts a little oil in a diya and places it inside the lantern. The lantern burns for around an hour, by which time she is fast asleep. It is not a very good idea to leave a candle burning, unattended, while you sleep, unless the candle is safely enclosed in a lantern.

Plants and flowers
A few plants and flowers placed around your home add instant warmth. A practical solution would be to have a combination of live plants and dried and fake flowers.

These small additions to your home don't demand a monumental change in lifestyle or a hefty investment of time or money, yet they can make a world of difference to the vibrations of your home, and to your state of mind.