Auditing Your Environment For Stress

I grew up in the woods of Connecticut. There weren’t any stoplights, but there were deer, coyotes, llamas, water, lush greens, and lots of space to explore. It’s peaceful, beautiful, and very freeing. I love visiting CT. 

But there was a lot more to living in CT. Growing up I hated it. I felt suffocated, anxious, bored, and desperate to get out. I wanted to get to New York City, which I eventually did - then lived there for over a decade before I moved to California.

Hating my environment wasn’t just about the setting; it was about so much more. It didn’t reflect who I was or what I wanted. As a kid with dreams of performance, curiosity, and hunger to see the world…where I was meant missed opportunities, stress, lack of belonging, and more.

Auditing our environment is an important tool in managing stress, emotional endurance, and resilience because they can fill you up, or they can be toxic and stifling. Doing an audit brings awareness to what’s working and what’s not. There will be things within your power to change and in other cases, you might need to leave, or make a big change. Here are a few aspects of your environment to audit for:

Connecting with people

We underestimate people’s effect on our mental and physical health. Social isolation and unhappy relationships are associated with poor physical and mental health. Loneliness is associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide, especially in marginalized communities. It’s also correlated with an increased risk of dementia, heart disease, and stroke. Unhappy partnerships increase your chances of getting sick by 35% and even shorten your life by an average of four to eight years! Who you surround yourself with plays a huge role in your well-being! Are they supportive, fun, safe, and positive? Do you constructively work through conflict? Even casual, brief social interactions have an impact on your mental health. How often are you filling your social cup by getting out, or engaging with strangers? When I left CycleBar after 4 years, I underestimated the energy and life it gave me each day. Take a look at who you have, where the gaps are, how you’re engaging with one another, and how often. The people are as impactful as the space you occupy, and they make up your space.

Prioritizing food, water & sun

Sure, you have them in your refrigerator, and our your window.  Your bottle is on your desk, and technically you can walk outside because you’re working from home. But how often are you actually doing these things where you are? Is it a reactive, or proactive process? Dehydration, inadequate nutrition, and lack of sun exposure all contribute to feelings of anxiety, depression, and fatigue - AND if you already experience these, their absence will intensify them. Planning these breaks, and having close access is key. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve powered through work or an event because “I just need to get through this!”, or have said, “I don’t have time because they’ve booked up my calendar back to back”. The majority of my clients have to work on doing these things that seem very simple, but aren’t! They’re new habits, require a  fundamental mindset shift (how you view and value yourself), and in some cases are counterintuitive if you’re neurodivergent or on meds. If you have anxiety, depression, or are on meds for ADHD for example, you likely have to disregard what your body/brain is telling…which is likely not to eat, and not to go outside. Remember you are not powerless, that you are the foundation of well-being, and that it’s going to take a planned, consistent approach to make the changes stick.

Aligned with what’s important

There isn’t a right or wrong place to live or spend your time. What’s most important to you, the type of people you feel connected to, the pace, your values, and the opportunities a place provides all factor into where you’re going to be at your best vs. where you feel stressed. One of my friends told me how overwhelmed, and anxious visiting NYC made them feel, and for me, it is the complete opposite! Each time I leave for NYC, I feel like I can breathe again. I’m energized, home, and with my people. I feel the same when I travel from my area of Silicon Valley, to the East Bay. The thing about environments is that they will change as you do, which will inevitably cause misalignment at some point. Sometimes you can make changes to improve alignment  - like moving homes within the same city for example. Other times, there’s a bigger problem like a leadership change at work, and you need to accept it, make changes there, or leave. Cut yourself slack if a place that inspired you before, is now creating tension or making you question things. If you are feeling a mismatch, ask what you want now, what has changed in you, in your environment, and what you can do if anything to affect it. Then you can start to make a decision on how to move forward.

Physical and emotional clutter

Your environment is as much digital, mental, emotional, and physical, as it is the literal space you occupy. Organizing, and decluttering these facets will give you more emotional and mental capacity, increase productivity, and improve your decision-making - which all improve your holistic well-being. Is your physical workspace messy, or organized? How does your body feel? What you’re wearing (is it comfortable), and the extent to which you’re moving throughout the day directly impacts whether you’re holding onto stress, or shedding it. On the mental and emotional side, how are you managing all the meetings, difficult or heavy conversations, or stress from deadlines that are being thrown at you? How organized and guard-railed is your calendar and schedule? Are there boundaries to communicating with others, and how are you prioritizing your energy and time each week? How stimulating is your space? For example, are you sensory overloaded (a lot of noise), or under-stimulated? There are a lot of things to consider, but start small, and try 1-2 things you can declutter over several weeks to see how much relief they bring!

Are you ready to create a stress-free environment? Click the link below to setup your free discovery call to learn how I can help!