On Environment
There is a simple, very effective and popular coaching tool: the Wheel of Life.
It provides a framework for dedicated reflection on different, yet interconnected, aspects of our life experience: Health, Career, Significant Other, Family and Friends, Finance/Money, Personal Growth, Leisure and Environment.
Environment?! What has Environment got to do with the other important things in life listed there?
If you are anything like me, you just read this string of labels and frowned at the last. The same feeling we have when sentences don’t end the way we potato.
If that happened to you too, fear not. You are not alone. Many of us tend to dismiss the Environment category at first sight, immediately drawn to other categories that we consider of higher priority and relevance. That is ok, there is nothing wrong with it per se.
This post is just to invite us all to acknowledge and remind ourselves of an undeniable truth: our surroundings, the places and spaces in which we live and operate - from macro (e.g., our country, region, city, natural environment) to meso (e.g., our neighbourhood, home, office) to micro (e.g., our desk, drawer, bedside table) -, and the way we inhabit them and interact with them, play a significant role in our life experience. In return, this can affect each and every other aspect of our life.
So let’s spend a little time playing with the concept of Environment.
First of all, what does environment mean to you?
What spaces and surroundings does this label include and represent for you?
How satisfied are you with your current environment?
Which is the level (macro, meso, micro) of your environment where you most would like to improve your level of satisfaction?
What does this level of environment provide you with?
What characteristics does this level environment need to have, in order for you to be fully well and thriving?
If one (or more) of these characteristics is currently missing or unsatisfactory, what is the first, small, next thing you could do to find more of it?
How would improving your environment affect all other aspects of the wheel?
If you have a few minutes, try drawing, writing about, or visualising the environment you wish and need for yourself. Contemplate it from a distance and then zoom in, bringing your attention to the details. Experience it with all your senses, describe it, begin to bring it to life, and move into it. What do you notice?
Written by: Maddalena Fumagalli, Practitioner Coach & Mental Health First Aider
Photo Credit: Unsplash
