Adapting To Your Environment
Whether it’s your daily workplace or your annual vacation getaway — sometimes your surroundings can make you feel out of sync with your body and mind. Being able to adapt your environment to meet your needs of the moment can make a your day more productive, be the salvation of your vacation, and maybe even save your sanity (and possibly your relationships!)
Tips for Adapting To Your Environment
Recognize what you’re feeling
Sometimes you just feel out of sorts and don’t know why. You might feel nervous or anxious, impatient or angry, or just seem like you’re senses are dulled and not able to focus. Spend a minute asking yourself WHY you’re feeling that way. Is it the temperature of the room? The noise the air conditioner is making? Is the chair you’re sitting in uncomfortable? If you can’t identify why is causing you to feel distress, how will you know what needs adapting in your environment?
Make a slight change
After you identify what is causing you to feel out of sync, find something small that you can change in just a minute or two that will affect that part of your environment that is bugging you.
- The air conditioner is humming?
Try turning it off for a bit, or resting a book against the vent to stop a rattle or redirect the air flow. - Don’t like staring at the white walls of your office or fabric gray walls of your cubicle?
Bring in art from home or print out some graphics on your office printer and hang those up.
I never like the way the desk faces the wall when I stay in a hotel, so whenever possible I like to move it in front of the window. That simple act completely changes (quite literally) my outlook.
Make it work to your advantage
Don’t like that your office makes you feel claustrophobic because it’s too far away from everyone else and has no windows? Perhaps that means you get to enjoy a little more freedom that your co-workers who have to sit too close to their manager’s watchful eye. Maybe you get to turn-up the volume on your Spotify playlist a little louder and bring in a pair of comfy slippers from home (and a mini-fridge with treats!). Consider inviting your favorite co-workers to use your space as a secret hideaway when they need an escape (or a tasty treat from your mini-fridge).
Don’t just whine and complain about your situation…
Change the things that are in your power to change in order to make your environment yours.
