Stressful Surroundings? How Environment
Causes Stress (And How to Reclaim It!)
Stress can significantly impact health, performance, and body composition, as discussed in detail in our MEGA Guide to Stress & Stress Management. In the whirlwind of our modern lives, stress often takes the spotlight, overshadowing the silent orchestrator of our well-being: our environment.
Perception Becomes Your Reality
Imagine life as a symphony, with each sensation playing a unique note – sight, sound, touch, scent, and taste. These notes hold the secret to how we perceive stress. Our
brains dance to this sensory tune, responding to every whisper and shout from our surroundings, even if it's not always at the level of conscious awareness.
Consider the world of your built environment – the bustling streets, the vibrant
workplace, the sanctuary of your home. Urban settings, with their fast pace, loud noise, chaotic crowds, often serve stress on a silver platter. But hidden within the concrete jungle lie occasional oases – the parks, the green patches, the quiet coffee shops – where stress recedes. Are you making the most of this?
Home Sweet Home: Sanctuary, or Stressor?
Your home isn't just walls; it's a sanctuary for you, your family, and your soul. An
organised home exudes calm, while chaos breeds stress. Colours, lighting, and design are more than aesthetics; they shape where you will spend much of your time, and thus how you emotionally respond. It may sound inconsequential, but creating an environment that you enjoy being in, and that allows you to relax, makes the recession of daily stress much smoother each evening.
Stress on the Go: The Commute
The commute – a battlefield
where stress often reigns supreme, especially for the reactive person. But it doesn't have to be like this. There's a way to transform the chaos, whether it be what you listen to while commuting, the route you take, or, importantly, how you react to the chaos. Maybe it's other people that bother you. Consider road rage, and how you might respond...
"When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognised that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of
the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Building Your Life of Peace (Occasionally...)
Remember this: your environment is not just a backdrop; it's your stage. Your life is your masterpiece, and every corner of your surroundings has a role to play. So why not take charge?
Is social media a stressor for you? Why are you using it?
Are work deadlines a stressor? How could you reduce procrastination?
Is it your environment? See above...
Are there people that constantly stress you out? Have you considered discussing this issue with them, or spending less time with them?
Are you drinking every weekend? Maybe cut it down...
Building a peaceful life is not easy, and it's not always desirable either. Some chaos every now and then is just part of life, but there are certainly things you and I can do to reduce unnecessary stressors, or at least reduce the effect they have on us.
If you are ready to take charge of your training, nutrition, and lifestyle, stress management is something we often discuss with clients. If you are interested, we now have spots available for coaching clients with physique transformation goals!.
If you'd like to maximise your understanding of nutrition to coach others on their journey, join the waitlist for Triage Nutrition Certification V2.0.
