Your Environment Guides Your Life
In the eighth grade I started noticing that people consumed alcohol and smoked marijuana. I had nothing against people using either, but it was not my cup of tea. Thankfully, people would ask me once and respected my declination. There is a specific scene in my head from when my friends said we were going for a walk and we ended up at someone’s home, where everyone was high and out of it. I instantly felt uncomfortable and told my friends that I was going to leave. Minutes later I got up, left, and actually walked home. I called my Mom and told her I was in a sketchy situation, was walking home, and everything was okay. It was about a 20-minute walk in daylight — I was not worried. Similar situations occur everywhere, and, frequently, I unintentionally end up in one, and, often decide to leave. Recently my college had a spring concert and at the pre-concert event, many people were on Molly. I felt so uncomfortable that this time I did not even tell people I was leaving, and simply left. I even opted to not attend the concert. I went back to my building and watched Good Will Hunting instead.
People often view those who do drugs as bad people or that those addicted are left helpless. First, people are allowed to make decisions for themselves. Second, addiction is not a chose, it is a disease. Third, by viewing those who suffer from addiction as less, we are not providing solutions and are actually making the problem worse. With this being said, eighth grade me was afraid and so was college senior me, but, as I reflect, I should have been more helpful — but when they were sober. Trying to help those with addiction can be incredibly frustrating and take a lot of effort, but as someone who recently lost a family member to heroin, please take the time to help someone. Running from these situations seems somewhat justifiable, but it is crucial to follow-up after with these people and see what you can do to help. More often than not, people use alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc., to fill a void in their life. For example, losing a loved one, being fired, or a tough childhood.
A recent trip to Yosemite National Park. My environment within the environment :)
Who and what you surround yourself with dictates your life, either consciously, subconsciously, or in simultaneously. Today I will provide a few examples in hopes of you either building in your current environment or break out of your current situation and build a better future for yourself and those around you. Before I list a few examples, I want to introduce you to a study I recently read in the Huffington Post.
Rat Park
Newspaper Ad on Rat Park
In the 1970’s, Bruce Alexander, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver, performed the following study: Place one rat in a cage by himself, with two water bottles. One bottle of regular water, and the other laced with cocaine or heroin. A second cage, called Rat Park, consisted of multiple rats, play toys, great food, and friends everywhere. The second cage also had two water bottles, where one was regular water, and the second was laced with cocaine or heroin. Before you read the next paragraph, what do you think happened? Did the rats become addicted regardless, or how did they react? Were they able to survive?
In the cage where the rat was alone, he almost always chose the bottle that was laced with cocaine or heroin. In 9 out of 10 cases, the rat would continually drink from the laced bottle until it ended up killing itself. Rat Park was interesting because all of the rats drank from both bottles. The study states that “The rats with the good lives didn’t like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all of the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did.” Wow. Before we perform an analysis, we need to understand this study took place during the Vietnam War. Time Magazine (also stated by the Huffington Post) stated that there was a heroin epidemic and about 20% of U.S. soldiers became addicted to heroin while in Vietnam. However, once the soldiers returned home, roughly 95% of the addicted soldiers quit and few actually required rehab.
Rat Park 2.0
From this analysis, Professor Alexander found that “Addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you. It’s your cage.” Therefore, he decided to test this theory. He created another isolated experiment with a single mouse in a cage with the two bottles of water. After 57 days he moved the rat to Rat Park to see if it would beat addiction. Soon, the rat had minimal withdrawal, stopped its heavy use, and went back to being a normal rat.
Quote about surrounding yourself in the right environment
No matter how many times I read this article or study, I remain amazed. Apply this example to human life. We need to create better environments for each other and ourselves. We must not settle for less than we deserve, and join communities where we feel respected and empowered. When we are alone we often feel lost, and lack people we can talk to or relate with. The best way to combat this is to surround yourself with people who care about you and vice versa. Far too often we are stuck in an environment and feel trapped or caged in. Some possible steps for combating this include: finding alone time to reflect, going to new events and meeting new types of people, putting your past behind and deleting negative people from your life, or writing about your experiences — either privately or publicly. This is no easy task and if you feel you are in the wrong environment, please contact me — I believe I can help you, and if I cannot, I will be a listening ear to help you find the solution you need.
Lighter Examples
Until now the examples have been quite heavy, so let us talk about some of the smaller environmental situations you might be in. While I never went to my school’s library, I often walked through it to get to my class or print something. It is easy to notice that the first floor is more social, and as you get to higher floors, the level of focus increases. Sometimes the best environment — one that I am often in and love more than anything — is one where you are alone, with headphones in, listening to your favorite band (Coldplay ?). Soon I will be writing a blog on the power of loneliness.
Another example of which I have personally experienced is being an entrepreneur. It is often a lonely world, therefore, you need to surround yourself with other solo-entrepreneurs and create a support network. A lot of people call themselves entrepreneurs, but they are not. Having an idea is not entrepreneurial. Taking action on your idea and making progress towards solving a real problem is. It was important for me to find a group of people who actually do what they say and know what they are doing — you know who you are and I am incredibly grateful for you.
There is one more piece I would like to touch on: your daily environment. Far too often I see people focusing on working from 9–5 PM to only earn money. Also, I observe extreme burnout and exhaustion. While you are busy worrying about your bills, you are limiting the chance of reaching your full potential. While bills are a part of daily life, please take the time to step back, reflect, and ask yourself these two questions: 1) Do I deserve better? 2) Am I capable of more? If you answer “Yes” to either of these questions, please try to explore other options. Every day you are granted 86,400 seconds, please use each one wisely. Life is too short not to.
Ask Yourself Three Questions to Find Meaning and Purpose in Your Life
- When and where do you feel most alive?
- What wakes you up in the morning?
- What keeps you up at night?
In Closing
As always, thank you kindly for reading my article. Finding the correct environment is tough and takes time. Last summer I lived in San Francisco and went back every two months, as I fell in love with the city. The first week I was there I contracted food poisoning from chicken, went vegetarian, and have never felt better. I started using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) for my type 1 diabetes. Started doing yoga and going for runs. Found better ways to manage my tasks and time. Lastly, I felt the environment was right for my mental and physical health. With that being said, I will be moving to SF on a one-way ticket on June 13th. Hope to see you before then and please reach out to me with feedback, questions, or simply to talk :D
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