Your environment affects your mood

As I'm sitting here on this gorgeous Sunday morning working on my website and blog, Clint out in the woods looking for a big one, the above notion pops into my head. I was trying to think of topics that you all would actually enjoy hearing from me and/or that would be beneficial to most of my readers, and I kept drawing blanks. I was feeling pretty..."blah". Then I realized that the reason I was feeling that way was because my house was a total mess. I looked up from my computer and all I saw was clutter...everywhere. Plus dog hair (EW) and dust. Nothing was in its place and I felt this shiver run through my body. That shiver was telling me...BECCA GET YOUR ISH TOGETHER.

I love my little house here in Springfield. But I'm also someone who likes to make changes fairly often. So, with my little house, I'm always looking for ways to update it, make it look a little different, make it feel more like home. That or I'm looking online for a "newer, bigger, better" house to move into and raise our future family. So, probably once a week, I have to recognize when I'm being a little...crazy...and be thankful for what I already have. My little house is something I have to be so very thankful for. BUT, when I let it get in a giant mess, that's usually when I start getting the itch to change something. When in reality, all I need to do is get it back into an organized shape and then I'd be completely happy with it once again.

So, after I realized this (for probably the 100th time), I immediately started cleaning and organizing. And then what happened? I immediately started feeling better and feeling a little bit more inspired to get ISH done. :) This same notion applies in all scenarios of life, not just within your personal home or even within your physical environment. Your work environment is obviously something that can have a great impact on your physical and mental health. If you constantly find yourself stressed out or in a negative headspace after work, maybe it's time something changes. Same goes for situations you may put yourself in outside of work. If you feel negativity after being around a certain group of people, that probably means that group isn't meant to have a space in your life. Yes, it's all easier said than done, but why would you want to continue to put yourself into a situation that doesn't make you feel good?

This is advice I really could've used in college. Granted it all goes back to wanting (and needing) to branch outside of your comfort zone to find who you really are. And in reality it's probably good that I did some things I wasn't entirely comfortable with, but it would've been beneficial to be 100% comfortable with sticking to my guns and knowing that it's okay if you're not like everyone else. That it's okay if going to bars three nights in a row every week isn't your thing. That it's okay if after drinking all day on game day you'd rather just go back to your apartment to chill than go drink more at a bar. I wasn't the norm in college. And I put myself in a lot of situations that didn't make me feel very good...because I didn't want to have FOMO or, more than anything else, have people judge me for being the girl who didn't go out all the time.

While branching out and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone is very important in order to discover who you really are and to grow in your personal journey, if you're constantly putting yourself in the same scenario and every time you don't feel good afterward, that's probably a sign it's not for you. And that's okay. Everyone is different and everyone handles situations differently. You don't have to be like everyone else. In fact, it's a good thing if you're not. If you notice that a particular environment you're in is constantly causing negativity in your life, look at that environment and determine if, simply, something within it needs to change? Or if you just need to cut it from your life completely. Obviously with my house this morning...I don't need to cut my house from my life...lol...I just needed to get it back into working order. But there may be environments that need cutting. And while that's scary to think about cutting something from your life that may have been there for years, think about the positive impact that could have on your mental and physical health. We need to stop living for others and living for ourselves instead.

A place to be #unapologeticallyme.