?? Are you in a TOXIC environment???

*Long post*

Over the last 30 episodes of the Open Up Podcast (released and recorded), there has been one constant in response to the question “What have you removed from your life to improve the quality of it?”. That one constant has been that they’re all improving their environment by cutting off the negative or toxic people in their lives. Jim Rohn famously said "you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” which still rings true today, and I'm sure we all know someone who’s outgoing/bubbly and makes us smile, or someone who’s glum and just makes us feel down while we’re with them.

The reason this environmental factor plays a significant role is because we tend to model ourselves off of the people we spend the most time with. For example, do you have any of the same traits that your parents have? Maybe you say the same dad jokes as your old man or maybe you bite your nails when you’re nervous like your mum? You more than likely do and thats absolutely fine, in fact its normal as humans, it’s how we’ve evolved and survived over time, by learning to do what those above or ahead of us do. As children this imitating of behaviour is to either remain out of harms way, or to please our parents. As we grow older and strive for acceptance in our peer groups, we begin to model the behaviour of our closest friends, whether good or bad, because being a part of a tribe is ingrained in us as humans. So in essence, surrounding ourselves with positive, driven, ambitious and kind hearted people will offer us only those behaviours to imitate and visa versa, thats why it so often comes up and that is why it’s such a powerful method for healing.

There are other environmental factors that you may also be unaware of. Ones that hang in the background and keep us from healing without us really being conscious of them. Environmental factors that in this digital era, are so influential because escaping them has become an anxiety inducing, habit breaking attempt in itself. That factor is content and our consumption of it. Content can be anything from music, FB posts to the news or even youtube. "But hows that stuff going to keep me from healing?”

Music:

Well have you ever felt sad and listened to a sad song? chances are you become even more glum. It’s the same with aggressive songs, why do you think the whole 90’s era East Coast vs West Coast beef was so problematic? Because people were consuming hateful and aggressive music, for the most part about shooting and killing others. We tend to delve into emotions far too much and diving into that sort of aggression or sadness will impact the people around us until we revert back to homeostasis.

TIP: Listen to aggressive music before a workout or anything that requires that type of energy. Ive found in the last month that country music has been my “release” because for the most part its about love and good times.

Facebook/ Instagram:

Have you ever seen a post, left a comment and had someone troll you? Its like being shot in the ego. OUCH! Most people would then become consumed with rage or hate, looking for the worst possible “burn” so they can “win” their keyboard war. The thing is, doing this not only causes you stress, but if you also find a high, will create a feedback loop which tells you that you can get a quick hit of dopamine by circling back to something like this later on. Not ideal!

TIP: Do not read something that you know will enrage you and stay away from commenting on something that you know will provoke a negative or defensive response.

News:

What about the news? For the most part its negative stories, about war, what Donald Trumps said, or how the politicians are squabbling amongst themselves. Consuming that every night will get your body used to inducing a fight or flight state, dumping a whole load of stress hormones in response, which isn’t healthy, unless you’re being chased by a god damn bear. #leodecaprio

TIP: consume your news somewhere else, like informative youtube creators or flick the channel over when the stories become negative. If its about puppies or footy, you’re good to go LOLOL.

Youtube:

Ahhh youtube. Did you ever see Logan Pauls vlog in Japans famous suicide forest? The one where he actually shows the body of someone who took their own life? The hateful backlash is still in full force months after. Thats a lot of emotion! The content we consume has the power to change or amplify our emotional and physical states, so do everything you can to ensure you’re consuming high vibration content that will only lift you and the people around you up. Lastly, these you tubers are now influencers and they've been titled so because they literally have the power to influence others through their content.

TIP: Choose the influencers and channels you consume, wisely. Decide early on whether or not you want this person to be a part of your circle because if you consume enough of what they produce, they're going to become one of the 5 people you spend the most time with, and you’ll ultimately model certain aspects of your behaviour off of them.

Physical:

Now this is the obvious one. Its the environment we cant escape until death do us part, so its probably something worth discussing. Everything we’ve talked about above, plays a significant role in our body and the ease or dis-ease it find itself in due to automatic response. If we’re consuming bad food or over indulging, we’ll harm our internal environment and end up with inflammation or worse. If we consume negative content we’ll likely cause stress and increase hormones which aren’t meant to be so frequently abundant. Not good! This is dis-ease, and seeing as we’re so aware of our physical pain, allowing this to manifest will result in a reduced ability to consciously detect mental strain or pain due to the somatic being so prominent, which will only hurt our attempts to heal mentally and spiritually.