Why Your Environment Matters
On self-nurture, being kind to your nervous system, and the beauty of Autumn for your mental health.
Do this little mind experiment with me
Imagine you're standing on the footpath of a very busy road. Cars, trucks, and buses are roaring past in a big hurry. Horns honk, a car goes past with music blaring, and crossing signals blip and beep. People seem to be rushing this way and that while holding their phones and checking who-knows-what. It's all on!Â
How would you feel? Probably slightly bewildered, edgy, anxious, self-protecting, and somewhat disconnected from everyone else. You'd be more in survival mode than anything else.
And what would you want to do at that point? Probably block it all out with music in your headphones, or get away from it as soon as possible.
Now, imagine a different scene
You're standing on a beach at dawn, with hardly anyone around. The sun has just popped up on the horizon, the seagulls are flying overhead, and the waves gently swoosh up on the sand. The air is cool and clear.Â
Again, how would you feel? Probably calm, peaceful, expanded somehow. You'd feel connected to it all. You'd want to stay and enjoy it for a while.
These two scenarios are two of the countless environmental options we have in our lives. They may include sitting at home in the lounge, riding on a bus, being cooped up in a cubicle at work, sitting in a cafe sipping our favourite brew, being surrounded by invoices and paperwork at home, attending a sports match, and so on. Depending on several factors, they all have a different vibe.
In all cases, and specifically by paying attention to this little road/beach experiment, we can see thatÂ
our environment obviously matters.
It matters because the conditions of an environment influence our minds and emotions. We can feel calm or anxious, safe or worried, rushed or slow, pushed from all sides, or like we have plenty of room. This strongly affects our thoughts and feelings of self, our relationships with others, and our general sense of psychological well-being.
Environment also matters because it influences our body, specifically our nervous system. If we're in environments that keep us on edge or in a state of depression, the expression of hormones in our body has a particular signature. You probably know the hormones involved in stress regulation - cortisol, adrenalin and epinephrine, among others1.Â
Too much of them as a general pattern in our daily life will affect how we feel physically, how we react, and how creative our minds will be. This flows on to affect how we approach our work, how well we communicate, and the degree to which we do or don't enjoy life.
So, clearly, our environment influences us.
Sure, it's not the only thing. Our current workload and financial situation affect us, as do macro-environment factors like the state of world affairs or the economy.
But you can't do anything about macro factors.
And workload and finance are lag factors resulting from prior decisions you've made. Trying to improve those without looking at your life's inputs, as it were, would be like putting the cart before the horse. It seldom works for long!
What you can do
I've found that consciously choosing to place myself into environments that nurture me is vital to a daily sense of peace, calm, gratitude, and creativity. Especially as I have a tendency to experience mild depression. It's like arming myself with positive resources I can use to approach and navigate what's ahead.Â
And so, after breakfast this morning, as on many others, I walked the pooch down one of our favourite walkways near our home.Â
It's Autumn here in New Zealand and it's one of my favourite times of the year. The slightly cooler temperatures feel refreshing. The beautiful colours of the trees are like walking inside a wonderful painting.
It feels good. Real. Expansive, somehow.
This prepares me for the day but is also, I feel, a healthy way of balancing out other environments that I might have to experience during the week.
I hope this inspires you to actively craft the life that matters most to you.
Over to You
Pause for thought.
Do you need more self-nurturing in your life right now?
What kind of environments would nurture you? How so?
How can you place yourself into them as often as possible?
To have the time to do so, what might you need to choose against?
When can you get started?
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