Taking a very broad macro-view, I underscore the
significance of environments for our health and function by remembering how our
species and all species came to be. The
body that we inhabit evolved to take advantage of the extant available
environmental resources. Our organs and
physiological systems developed as they did because we needed to access and
exploit what the physical environment offered.
We created tools and dwellings from what we found locally or from
materials made from what we found locally.
And we organized our interpersonal relationships to capitalize on the adaptive
skills and assistance of people around us.
A more practical, personal, micro-view reveals that,
like our prehistoric and historic forbearers, we always are somewhere and most often
we are with someone; those facts profoundly influence what we think, feel, and do
health-wise. The three environments—natural,
fabricated, and interpersonal—can be facilitating or debilitating. We must think about them and structure them in
order to effect salutary health-oriented changes.
If you want to become more physically fit, for
instance, the natural environment can be an ally or an enemy. Warm and moderate climates provide a comfortable
setting for leaving your shelter and being active outdoors. If your climate is sub-optimal or interfering
and you want to be outside, you of course can dress accordingly. An indoor activity is an obvious alternative
venue.
The fabricated environment, spaces created by women
and men, includes houses, offices, malls and similar places that we inhabit
when going about our activities. Those
environments inhibit or facilitate our action-oriented physical and mental
health goals. It undoubtedly is easier,
for instance, to study or relax in a quiet than in a noisy space.
Finally, the world of people—the interpersonal
environment—contributes to healthful change promotion or aversion. That influence sometimes is obvious and
sometimes covert. If you want to become
a vegetarian and your family and friends start calling you “rabbit,” even
jokingly, you might be dissuaded from changing.
Conversely, if they all encourage your initiative, your change-oriented efforts
are buoyed. Moreover, “social comparison
theory” (Festinger L., 1954) suggests that, consciously or unconsciously, you continually
compare yourself to those around you. When
surrounded by health-minded others, your explicit or implicit natural social instincts
nudge you toward healthful activities, and vice versa.
So, in contemplating healthful lifestyle change, do
not plan or initiate a program without considering your environments and
without making a vigorous effort to structure them to be as change friendly as
possible. Choose goals that are consistent
with your environments or choose environments that are consistent with your
goals. If neither option is possible,
change your environments to be goal-consistent.
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