The environment you surround yourself with has an impact on how you view the world and what you believe to be true. How do you use this knowledge to better your own life and the lives of those around you? Read on to find out more about using ENVIRONMENT to your advantage!
The power of re-experiencing
A variety of studies have found that simply re-experiencing an emotion—by remembering an event or looking at an image, for example—can create new neural connections, strengthening those pathways and bringing back that feeling. That could be a positive thing if you’re trying to recreate a happy memory (or one that makes you feel good), but it’s also easy to see how negative associations (such as with fear) can become more entrenched when we’re constantly reminding ourselves of them. One study found that people who just looked at a picture of something disgusting reported feeling like they were in physical pain. If you want to stop remembering something, your best bet is to remove any reminders or triggers from your environment as soon as possible.
Which environment works best for which type of desire?
As stated above, not all environments are created equal. Certain situations can help us succeed in reaching our goals; others won’t get us very far at all. So which environment helps which type of desire? Here’s what we found. The next time gail grisi stenciling you find yourself craving a slice of cake, instead of giving into temptation (and feeling guilty later), consider how your current environment is working against you. Are you surrounded by other people who love cake and will judge your decision to eat it? Are there tasty desserts sitting on counters that make you want to give in? Before digging into dessert or skipping out on exercise, take a look around and think about how your environment is influencing your behavior—and whether or not it supports what you really want. If it doesn’t, maybe now’s a good time to head for an entirely different setting!
How to use your environment when working on more than one goal
Some goals overlap, meaning you’re working towards them at different times. For example, if you want to lose weight and save money, you’ll need to manage two separate goals. Even though they both involve changing a behavior (eating less and spending less), they require different approaches in order to be completed successfully. So how do you decide which environment is best for which goal? Try using your surroundings as a tool by matching your goals with environments that are conducive to success. If your goal involves curbing impulse purchases or limiting calorie intake, for example, try making it harder for yourself in certain settings—like at home or work—so you can stay focused on other tasks without distractions.
Examples from real life
Outside of having a healthy snack, your environment can be used to help you stick to that change you want to make. If you want to work out more, place clothes in your room that make working out easier. If you want to read more books, leave them in places where it will be easy for you grab one and read away. Our environments help us create small or large changes into our lives depending on how we decide to utilize them. The same goes with many other goals that are either difficult to do alone, or have a high chance of failure without some outside help. By creating an ENVIRONMENT that aids you in your goal, it helps ease those worries by giving you a much better chance at succeeding because of outside factors. What are some examples? We often see these methods when trying to lose weight, but there are plenty of others as well such as reading more books.
Tips and reminders
I am a big believer in using your environment to desire a goal. If you want to lose weight, put healthy snacks around you and they will be a choice instead of going to buy them elsewhere. If you want to save money, cut up your credit cards or stop using ATMS and only use cash. If you want to get work done on time and under budget…well then just stop playing computer games! Seriously though, it’s important to know what motivates you and use that as an advantage when trying to achieve a goal. For example, if you love food but are trying to lose weight then don’t keep junk food in your house. You won’t see it all day every day which means it won’t tempt you as much. The same thing applies for people who like clothes – make sure there is nothing tempting lying around so that when temptation does strike (and it always does) at least there is no way for it to win out over self-content.
