Shape Your Environment, Shape Your Life

Ever noticed how dogs and their masters often really do look alike? The same applies to older couples, who often take on a similar look and manner as the years go by.  In the same vein if you had to play ‘match the living room/bedroom/office’  in which you were given a bunch of pictures of peoples personal spaces and then some pictures of people who might own them you could probably match them up.

Why is this? Well it turns out your granny was right when she told you to hang out with a good crowd, in nice places.  Because we humans we’re pretty porous beings. You are not only what you eat, you are also where you spend your time and who you spend it with.  You are even what you spend your time doing, as well as what you see, hear and say.  Surround yourself with toxicity and eventually you have to breathe it in.  On the other hand if you surround yourself with enlivening and enlightening people and things, well, you can’t help but be affected.

Let’s take a look at some of those elements:

You are what you eat – purely in a physical sense if you eat trash, guess what building blocks you’re giving your body to build itself up with? Take a look at your diet.  If you’re living on chips and fizzy drinks it isn’t doing you any favours.  This is one of my personal soapbox topics, so I’ll resist the temptation to go on about it for days, except to say that if you know your diet is less than healthy, perhaps now is the time to take an audit, and see what you can cut out or reduce and which healthy elements you can bring in instead.  I’ll always remember a video clip that we saw at a Tony Robbins Event – I think it was ‘Unleash the Power Within’,  where this guy had had a heart attack.  The heart surgeon had to go in and try to clear some of the tubes, and he found them to be full of what looked and smelled exactly like white greasy meat fat.  On a whim he asked the man what he’d had for dinner.  Burger and fries.  If you don’t want that stuff kicking around inside you, don’t eat it!

Oh and by the way, have you ever played this game? At the supermarket look at what people are buying and then look at the people themselves.  It almost always matches!  The people with conveyor belts full of snacks and fatty meats, and neon coloured fizzy drinks etc etc, are almost always overweight, pale and exhausted, whilst those who load up on the fruit and veg, a little fish, whole grains etc etc are light on their feet and full of energy. See, now you have something to do when stuck in a long supermarket line!!!

You are where you are – your physical environment affects you.  Just as the earth seems to shape its inhabitants depending on which part of the globe you occupy, every environment you’re a part of will affect you.  Do you live in clutter (embarrassed cough)? Maybe it’s time we had a clear out!  Do you live in a beautiful, natural place?  When you look out of the window do you see concrete and graffiti … if you do, is it at least good graffiti?!?

Many people don’t realise just how important environment is.  If you set up the physical world you occupy so that it supports and nurtures you, life suddenly becomes easier and your goals get closer. If you study or work from home, do you have a desk to do that at? Do you have places for all the important things in your life? What do you decorate your home with?  Why not surround yourself with reminders of the good people and things in your life!

You are who you are with – sorry, but ‘fraid so!  You are, or you become who you hang out with.  Ever noticed how people who work or spend time with kids are often younger at heart than those who never see a child?  There’s a reason for that.  Take a look at your friends.  Can you respect them?  Is there something about each one of them that inspires you?  Would you like it if you had to take responsibility for some of the things they do?  We’re not looking for perfection here – there’s no such thing – we just want to make sure that the people around us represent different elements of who we want to be … because over time we become those things.  I have a theory that this doesn’t just apply to the people you physically hang out with, or even just those you hang out with online.  I also truly believe that the people you hang out with by watching them on TV affect you too! So, do you really want to be one of the people in the Big Brother house?  Or maybe one of those incredible people that they find from who knows where on those daytime shows where they tell the world about their problems and then try to thump each other and have to be held back by security guards …?  Don’t kid yourself that you’re just watching them out of curiosity.  If you spend a long time with these guys, there’s a part of them that reflects who you are – or who you’re going to be.  So pick what you watch based on what you want for yourself … you want to be funny, happy and light, watch those shows.  You want to be inspired and inspiring?  Watch those shows and hang out with those kinds of people.  You want to be strong, understanding, emotionally stable and well developed?  Make sure those people are in your life.  With the power of the internet you can bring anyone you like into your life on a daily basis – use the power!

You are what you do – our daily habits and practices shape us. Physically if you choose to work out regularly, that shapes your body.  If you choose to wake up at a productive hour and do something that adds value to the world, and you do that regularly, then that’s who you are, or who you become. If you occasionally go the extra mile to help out a friend or stranger, that’s who you become!  If you want to be creative, productive, rich, beautiful, happy, healthy etc etc etc, it’s no good just wishing for it, DO what you want to be!

You are what you think and say – and this is where the magic really happens.   Sometimes I talk about the things we say as ‘your magic word’.  Because what you continually and consistently think about and talk about, will eventually materialise for you, good or bad.  I used to have this fear that I’d get out of the car one day and my car keys would fall off my lap into one of the street drains. The fear continued until one day I did exactly that!  I had to laugh at myself… and spend a long time fishing around in said drain with two kind builders who happened to be parked there till I got my keys back!   So if you spend large portions of your day thinking dark thoughts, or moaning about all the thing that are wrong with the world, or the things that you haven’t got… guess what? Your thoughts and your magic word will create that for you.  So think positive thoughts, focus on the good stuff and talk positively whenever you can … and your magic word will create THAT for you, instead!

I can imagine there are a number of people reading this who are a little grumpy with me right now.  They’re saying things like “don’t you think you’re taking this a little far?  What do you mean I’m the product of my environment and of who I hang out with?  You’re saying I have no choice.  I’m more intelligent than that, I’m not a puppet on a string!!”  And I’m here to tell you that …. YOU’RE RIGHT!  Phew, thank goodness for that!  Here comes a huge dollop of good news, are you ready?

When all is said and done, we still have choice. Humans are unique in this world in that we are not condemned to just react to the environment around us – we have the capability of shaping the world around us too.   You see, the porosity works both ways!   The rest of the world is as dependent, as malleable, as vulnerable to being shifted as we are!  What are the telling factors? Strength.  Intensity. Determination. Single-mindedness.   In the interplay between us and the world, the most committed contestant will win.  End of story.

So how can we each become the element that influences the world around us, instead of being at its mercy?   I believe that if we set up our environment, our habits, our thoughts and all those other things  as best we can so that they reflect who we want to become, then we get stronger.  If we push past the limits of what we thought we could achieve and go one step further, we are ever growing. There will always be things or people around you that you can’t change.  That produce a heavy negative aura and influence.  But if you get the rest of your world right, then you become far stronger, and you become the influencing factor.  The rest of your environment will start to be affected by YOU.  Magical, Beautiful, Integral YOU.  Now isn’t that worth getting up in the morning for?

This week, clarify WHO and WHAT you want to be … and then start to shape the things that influence you, so that you become YOU!

Rivka

 

 

Plug for upcoming event:

For the ladies: Here’s a positive thing you could add to your environment … come hang out with my colleague Ronit Gerber and I as we provide you with a cocktail, motivate you to break through your limitations, and give you the opportunity to do a little shopping … it’s all wrapped up in a girl’s night out with a difference!

See here for more details:

http://www.dashofsparkle.com/cocktails_and_consciousness.html

For a limited number of applicants I will also provide a complementary half hour telephone or skype life coaching session for those that book through me … see how much I love my blog readers 🙂

Email me to change your life for the better: rivka@tiqun.com