If you’ve been around these parts for a while, you know I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with St. Louis. To be totally transparent, for a long time, it was much more hate than love, and I’ve not been shy in talking about it. (Side note: funny how much can change in a year.)
There is just something about being in an environment that you don’t love that permeates everything you do, everything you feel, everything you think about. When it’s not great, it’s really not great.
And wow, winter is when it really seems to come to the forefront.
There’s research about this stuff, but I think beyond that, if we really open our awareness, we can feel it. When your office has bad light, you know it affects your productivity. When your house is under construction, you know your whole life feels like it’s a construction zone too. When you really hate the weather where you live, you can’t focus on anything else. When you don’t feel like you’re a part of a community, you just never feel like you can find your feet.
Basically, environment matters.
From your cubicle to your city, environment matters.
It’s worth acknowledging that in the first place. But more than that, it’s worth acknowledging that no matter how powerless we feel, we do have at least some level of agency over what our environment looks like. Even if it’s just a slight perspective shift, which I alluded to in an Instagram post this week, there is a way to feel a little more love toward your environment.
Luckily, I’ve been feeling a lot more love lately, and it shows up throughout my life, just as much as it did when I wasn’t feeling so great about it. I can’t even explain what kind of relief that brings.
Again, this has been a personal struggle for years, but it’s also one I know I’m not alone in. So, Emily and I talked about it on the podcast recently, and I’d love for you to check it out. If you’re not feeling as happy or fulfilled or in love with your surroundings as you’d like to feel, I know you’re going to find some nuggets in this one for how you can shift your love/hate balance a little more toward the love side.
Listen now.
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