Environmental Wellness...say what??

Now, this might sound weird, but our wellness is affected and influenced by so many things, including our environment. Environmental wellness is about both the Earth and your physical environment. We must take care of the Earth because it gives us life. Likewise, your physical environment, where you exist, needs to be healthy and sustainable. Being surrounded by a healthy environment can help us thrive.

Think about it this way, when we go on vacation and get out of the city we always come back feeling better and refreshed. That’s because we are breathing in cleaner air, we typically get more exercise, we ignore things in our physical world that may be harming us (think sitting on your computer working all day), and we can connect again with the earth. When I go hiking or on vacation I almost always sing “Below My Feet” by Mumford and Sons in my head because it truly embodies what I’m feeling.

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But what if we could have more of those “being in the mountains on vacation” feelings more often? Living in an apartment, I can’t completely recreate that but there are things I can do to create a similar wellness experience.

Here are my tips for physical environment wellness: 

1. Decluttering. Clean out the closets. Get rid of things you don’t need. We accumulate so much stuff and it truly weighs us down and can create more chaos in our brains. (This is a big one for me because I am SUCH a hoarder!)
2. Make your bed. This is such a small one that I have started doing every morning for the past month. It is amazing how it changes my mood to walk into my room throughout the day and have my bed made. It brings a sense of calmness. 
3. Plants. Indoor plants can be air purifiers and outdoor plants get you outside and feeling the earth. This connects you back to the earth. 
4. Clean. Although you don’t need to every day, a little cleaning here and there makes you feel better to be where you are. Again, it goes back to calmness in your environment. 
5. Diffuse essential oils or use a candle warmer. Having pleasant aromas in your environment will help enhance and lighten your mood. ​

Likewise, there are things I can do to promote the wellness of the earth. 

1. Recycle. Speaks for itself. 
2. Turn off the lights and lower your AC. Reducing energy consumption helps the earth to not be as drained. 
3. Turn off the water when you aren’t using it. Speaks for itself. 
4. Shower less. Whether this means quicker showers or not every day. I shampoo my hair once a week so that cuts down on both my shower time and how often I shower (I shower more frequently than once a week, don’t worry). 
5. Meal plan and prep. This may be more of a surprise but it’s crazy how much food goes to waste each year and this can have detrimental effects on environmental wellness. By meal prepping and planning, you are less likely to waste food and more likely to eat what you have. This helps keep stress levels lower throughout the week and keep food waste lower. ​

As an environmentalist, environmental wellness has made a rather large impact on my life. However, the physical environment wellness is more of a new concept for me. I am excited to continue to find new and healthy ways to help keep our planet healthy and maintain a healthy lifestyle.