HEALTH Creating the right environment for good mental health

Creating the right environment for good mental health


Mental Health
Jannah Walshe

When you look around you, what do you see? What kind of life have you surrounded yourself with? For example, where do you live? Who are the people you associate with? What do you do on a daily basis?
Every so often it is important to do a personal life evaluation, starting with questions like those above. It’s easy to get so caught up in day to day living, and to forget to stop and look around, to examine where we are at present and ask whether anything needs to change.
Like other living organisms, we are intrinsically designed to want to reach our full potential. With the right environment, this is easier to achieve.The Oxford Dictionary describes ‘environment’ as, ‘The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal or plant lives or operates’.
Plants don’t grow well if out of their ideal environment. Any gardener who sees a plant that is not flourishing will immediately know that it is the result of a deficiency in its environment – too little or too much water, too little or too much sunlight, not enough nutrients in the soil etc.
If we look at human beings in the same way as the gardener studies plants, we can ask: What does this person need in his/her environment to flourish and reach his/her potential? Think about it this way. If you surround yourself with energetic, positive, generous people they will bring out the best in you. They will believe anything is possible and you will pick up on this. Conversely if you are surrounded by negative, lacklustre, inactive people this will also have an effect on you, often drawing your energy levels down. You may be left feeling like everything is too much trouble and not really worth it anyway.
There are many different studies and theories arguing about what we need in our lives to thrive, be it sleep more, eat better or be more socially active.
However, instead of looking for the answers outside of yourself, I would encourage you to look at what you may need personally. Again, like in the example of the plants, we are all individual and our individual needs will be different from that of our neighbour’s.

Mini inventory
So what do you need to thrive in your life? Are these needs been met at present? If not, what could you do differently?
Find a quiet spot. Take out a piece of paper and jot down a few notes. Do a mini inventory of your life. Using the following headings write how things are currently in each area:
Home environment: home you live in; area you live in; family; friends; neighbours; nutrition; time spent outside or exercising; sleeping patterns; amount of time spent at home.
Work/study environment: Place and location you work or study in; work colleagues; management in the workplace; sense of enjoyment or achievement at work; amount of time spent at work; lack of work.
What have you discovered as you have done this? Hopefully you can see that the current environment that you surround yourself with is one in which you can thrive, grow and be happy in. If not, ask yourself, which area could easily be changed or added to?
 
Jannah Walshe is a counsellor and psychotherapist based in Castlebar and Westport. A pre-accredited member of The Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, she can be contacted via  www.jannahwalshe.ie or at 085 1372528.