Importance of Environmental Wellbeing

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When we think of our health and wellbeing, we often think about things like practicing mindfulness, having a mental health toolkit that supports us, having a physical activity practice or having a healthy diet, things like that.

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We rarely think of our environment around us and how it interacts with our mood and shapes our behaviours. I’m talking about things like how your desk is set up, what’s in your fridge, how your bedroom is set up, all of these things are really important and we’re going to talk about them and jump in a little bit deeper into them today.

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Hello everybody and welcome, my name is JP and you’re listening to Zevotalks. What I first wanted to start with was this idea of motivation. A lot of people think they need it, they need lots of it, especially if they want to change their behaviour or develop a new behaviour, especially around that kind of health sphere.

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But personally, I think a little bit that motivation is overrated and that a far more important factor is setting up the right environment for you to succeed. So when making positive health changes, we often repeatedly try to summon up this type of motivation every day.

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For example, you might motivate yourself to exercise or you might motivate yourself to really try to eat healthily or go to bed early, meditate every day or just not eat so much junk food. You’re trying to summon that willpower every day.

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But what I see all the time is motivations like the sunshine. Motivation comes and it goes. And then when a difficult situation comes in, like say your partner suggests, let’s have a takeaway tonight or when you had lots of motivation to go for a run and then you look outside and it’s looking a bit wet and miserable and cold, your motivation quickly goes and it’s gone.

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This is why I believe your environment is far more critical than your motivation. You need to ask yourself, does my environment match the future version of the person that I desire to be? If you wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, for instance, but you live 200 miles from the nearest swimming pool, then you’re not going to be that successful there.

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Either your environment has to change, like you need to move closer to that swimming pool, or your goal needs to change. You might say, hey, I’m not going to be an Olympic swimmer. Can I be anything else?

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Likewise, if you want to lose a little bit of weight, but your partner keeps bringing home big tubs of ice cream every night, your environment’s going to have to change there. Now, I’m not saying you need to ditch your partner, but I am saying maybe you should have a conversation with your partner, because it’s really hard to make good decisions when your environment’s kind of skewed against you like that.

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You need to give them some clear directions on how to support you and why it’s important. So you should always try to see what your goals are, and of course, if you don’t have any goals, you’re going to have to set them first, but once you have your goals, even if they’re not really clearly defined, but you kind of have a rough idea, then you should look and see if your environment really aligns with that goal.

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And if they don’t, well, maybe you should see if you can make some changes. So we often see some mismatches. Say you want to eat healthy, but your kitchen is full of delicious junk food. That’s a mismatch in terms of goal versus environment.

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Say you want to eat stop eating takeaways. Say you eat takeaways two or three times a week, but your phone app makes ordering a takeaway so easy, two clicks, and food’s coming, warm, delicious food. So maybe you need to change something about how your phone’s set up.

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Maybe you need to delete one of those apps. Maybe you need to sort out the environment at home to make it much more easy to cook food. Say you want to give yourself more space and time for being creative in the evening, you might want to do some painting or art, but your spare room that you would do it in there is full of junk and it’s stressful to even open the door.

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Then you need to change that environment that is that spare room. So I prompt you now, without listening to any further of this podcast, take a moment, press pause, review some of those help goals, and have for each of them a question.

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Does my environment support each of these? Or are you swimming upstream? Because if you are, that’s going to be really difficult. You might have the motivation to get through that for a day, two days, three days a week, but long term, that’s when we see things slowly move back to where they were at the start.

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So pause it, think about it, and then come back to me. Okay, if you did pause there, welcome back. So we’re going to shift a little bit, and I want you to bring your attention to the immediate space around you.

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Now you might not be at your workstation, but regardless, if you are, brilliant, it’s going to be even more effective, and if you aren’t, that’s also fine. Just that kind of two feet around you, and ask yourself, how does this space make me feel?

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Does it make you feel stressed out? Is it cluttered? Does it make you feel calm? What kind of motions is it evoking in you? So this is really important, this idea of what’s around us when we spend most of our time and how it’s going to impact us.

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I want to shift it a little bit more directly around that kind of workstation piece, and I wanted to give you hopefully some tips to give you a healthier workstation. Now I know not all of you can adopt your workstation too much.

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It’s much easier if you’re working remotely or the hybrid approach, but even those small touches, if you do or are in a traditional office space, and do what you can. So firstly, I wanted to look at plants and green, nice things.

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So firstly, plants can be important for two reasons. Firstly, what most people think of is that plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Has plants on their root systems, their soil, and the bacteria absorb indoor pollutants like benzene and formaldehyde.

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The impact of this on your kind of real world home and office environments is actually debated due to most spaces being adequately ventilated. A more promising and for me a more important reason to fill your workspace with nature is due to their positive effect on our mental state.

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There’s plenty of research existing that employees that are in buildings with plants are more productive and have better concentration and greater work satisfaction than those in bare offices. A great cheap plant to start with is something called the Mudder and Law’s Tongue.

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It’s those ones that kind of have long, tall, stiff, almost arrow-like leaves coming out and they grow really nicely. That was my first house plant. It takes up a lot of carbon dioxide and it’s really easy to care for.

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If you have no plants at all, that’s the one to go for. You can get it in supermarkets. It’s cheap and then start to expand from there. At this point, I’ve got far too many house plants but they really make me feel good and hopefully they’re making me a little bit more productive.

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Next up in regards to your environment, of course, is the positioning of your peripherals. We’re talking about things like your laptop, your monitor, your keyboard, your mouse, anything else that is essentially in front of you now if you’re at your workstation.

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My guess is that most people don’t think about these at all. They’re just throwing them on the table or their desk and as a result they’re not optimized. This will result in low concentration, pain, injury, discomfort and inability to concentrate.

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You often might think, oh I’m just not productive today or I’m not motivated to have a good day at work and that’s stressing you out. You might just generally not be set up properly and then as you’re working you’re just not optimized, your mouse isn’t in the right position, your keyboard and that as a result is making you kind of lose concentration because you’re just not getting good quality working.

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A podcast isn’t the best medium to tell you exactly how to set them up but spend a couple setting up your chair height, making sure your shoulders are relaxed and down as you’re operating with your mouse and keyboard or whatever tools you use.

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Next up is your lighting so if everything is just popped onto your table without any again without any thought process it’s probably not set up to write for you so really what I would first think about is where light sources are coming into your eyes.

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Most people think of okay there’s a light bulb above me that’s good enough because that’s illuminating the desk on each of your keyboard but the secondary thing we need to think about that many people don’t think about is light actually coming into our eyeballs so from a more vertical sphere and sorry a horizontal sphere so what we’re looking at usually it’s a window that really helps create that better hormonal balance because light is really important to tell our bodies what to release either cortisol or melatonin to make us either sleepy or can’t be able to be productive and concentrating so if you don’t have a window that’s kind of pushing light into your eye from a horizontal point of view then maybe even setting up a light or a source of light that’s maybe not blinding you and coming across like a light bulb towards your eye but some kind of light shaded light coming across is really going to help you set you up especially as your work day comes true and then towards the end of your work day just shut down a little bit you can turn that light off and you’ll start to feel like you’re you’re disconnecting a little bit from work next up is space like if possible don’t cramp yourself into a corner give yourself some room it’s really nice to give yourself room so you can just push yourself away from your desk and stretch and move and stand up if you have the ability to take some walking calls especially if they’re low priority calls do that set up a call you’d be surprised how many people will be delighted to hear hey that call we’re setting up a treat lock do you want to do a walk and talk or you know the at least the option that’s an amazing thing to change your environment that’s really going to be great for you so yeah step one give yourself some space around you step two utilize that space be able to stand and move around step three if you can walk and talk across the day even better so the last thing that’s going to be really nice in terms of your workstation is having water on demand if you’re sitting at your work desk right now or you can see it or you can even think about it and there’s not water and our ability to get hydrated on demand that’s probably not the best and most optimal thing a lot of people start to feel fatigued across the day thinking that they’re just generally tired when it’s often that you’re just not optimally hydrated that’s why i see a lot of people go for coffees two three four times a day because they’re constantly getting a little bit dehydrated not from the coffee just generally from not drinking that much water so next time you do feel that kind of slump across the day don’t just grab a coffee try grab yourself a glass of water better yet just keep a water close to your desk at all times you know keep that two liter bottle a nice good quality one and then try to get through it each day slowly sipping away that’s going to really help you stay hydrated stay productive and and keep your digestion nice and healthy

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Never in human history have we collectively been aware of, and indeed consumed by, our physical appearance. Thanks to widespread access to camera technology and constant exposure to social media where perfection is continuing to be accepted as normal, understanding the effects this can have on our mental health is fundamental to having a positive relationship with your own body and how to deal with the beauty standards around us.

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Zevo Health has a number of trainings that will assist you and your organization on a journey to a better relationship with your body image and well-being. Contact us today to start your workplace well-being journey.

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So the next piece of environmental well-being that I want to look at is your kitchen, your fridge, your shopping list. Yeah we’re talking about food and a lot of people when they think of food and well-being they think of going on a diet or eating healthy food but I don’t want to get completely away from that really from the traditional motivation piece and I want to look at triggers.

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So and how our brain interacts with food essentially through these triggers. So to understand how our brain interacts with food we must realize that our brain is the product of millions of years of trying to survive in a less food rich world than what we’re in today.

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We are hardwired to send several signals to ourselves so we would stay alive and stay nourished. So that’s why the first signal that we’re going to discuss is called reward. So in order for us to seek out that vital nourishment we need we have this instinctive desire for a certain type of food or certain types of food.

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These foods are ones that are calorie and energy dense. They’re the ones that have rich sources of fat, starch, protein and sugar. Why is that? Well because they’re going to keep us alive. That’s the most important factor.

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They have energy in them that keeps us alive. We have no real instinctive desire for spinach or asparagus because they are very low in terms of caloric density. Yes in today’s world they’re important to balance out while we’re eating but of course in previous years they weren’t as important because what we’re seeing is people focused on staying alive in terms of energy balance.

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So in today’s environment we don’t have to seek out food like we once did but that hard wiring is still there to desire those concentrated rich forms of nourishment. And why is that important to our environment?

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Well we need to really understand that if we keep those foods in our environment that reward trigger that we get from eating these foods is going to be there and when we’re going to eat them we’re going to be rewarded and that cycle is going to go on and on and on.

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So we need to be really careful with what foods we bring into our environment and that brings us on to trigger two. Food proximity. Our brain does not solely focus on how much energy is in a food. It also considers the amount of energy it takes to get the food.

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So when foods are close by and they don’t need an abundance of energy in order to obtain it that is an attractive proposition. It motivates us to eat them. Think of it like this wherever you are pick your junk food of choice for me it might be a donut for you it might be a cookie or a bag of crisps whatever it is have a work day and try to work with it or imagine you don’t have to do this but imagine it was literally right beside you in arm’s reach all day ready to go.

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That’s a really hard proposition that’s that food proximity trigger it’s in our proximity and the closer it is to us the more likely we’re going to have it. Now take that junk food or doesn’t even have to be junk food but likely it’s going to be junk food and put it somewhere hard or harder to get to in your home.

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That might be in your kitchen at the back of a visual state makes us less likely to go for it. do it even further. And again, it’s still free. You don’t have to pay for it. It’s just a free piece of food.

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We’ll put it like a kilometer away from wherever you are right now in a, in a wooden box. So it’s going to be fresh. It’s going to be nice. Still, you’re starting to use energy to get to that food. It might, the proposition starts to be less attractive in our brain.

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So we really need to understand that trigger and that environmental trigger, having food at home in close proximity to you is an attractive proposition, especially when they’re those calorically rich foods.

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So when there’s ice cream in the freezer, cake in the fridge, chocolate on the table, it’s going to make you more likely to eat them. If there’s only healthy foods at home and you have to venture out to get the junk food that decreases your likeliness of eating junk food and increases your likeliness of eating healthy food.

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So it’s a really simple trigger, but something we often don’t think about. And this is why the shopping list is an important thing and really understanding that whatever you buy in your supermarket is what you’re going to eat.

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Simple as that. Who throws out junk food? Rarely we throw out those chocolate bars or ice creams or crisps. We eventually eat them. So we need to be really careful what we, whatever we bring into our house and make that decision.

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Do I really want to eat this? Is that the best thing for me? We need to think about that, consider that, consider about the food environment and what that looks like for you, your family, your loved ones.

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How can you understand these triggers and make your food environment a little bit more optimal. The final piece in regards to environmental wellbeing that we’re going to take a look at is that sacred place that people have in their home where the magic happens.

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And yeah, we’re going to talk about the bedroom. And you often hear people call themselves either good or bad sleepers. The reality of that is that the majority of good sleepers are likely partaking in behaviors that support their good sleep habits.

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They are also likely in an environment that supports these good behaviors. And the opposite is likely true about bad sleepers. But how can one hack their environments to support better sleep? So to do this, I’m going to jump through a few things that you can optimize in your bedroom that can support better sleep.

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So firstly, blinds. Ensuring your room is dark is the foundation of a good night’s sleep. This is especially true when sunrise is super early or sunset is particularly late. Blackout blinds is the best option to have a complete control over natural light entering your room.

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And if you don’t have them, they’re cheap. You know, a lot of stores have them and really try to get them fitted really nice so that you can control that light coming in. Next up is temperature. So the ambient temperature around you significantly affects your ability to get and stay asleep.

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Your body needs to drop it at one or two degrees of heat to fall asleep. So having an air temperature in your bedroom that is too warm will prevent you from being able to dump that heat on your body into the air.

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So how can you adjust that? Well, firstly, proper ventilation can help and that’s going to help drop the temperature of the room while ensuring your heating is off is also another technique. A lot of people, especially in the wintertime, keep their heating on until it’s bedtime.

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Their beds fall asleep, turn the heating off, but the air temperature is way too hot in the room. The same thing can be said in the summertime. A lot of people on the warmest evenings of the year, they come into the office.

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Hey, did anyone sleep last night? No, I couldn’t sleep as way too warm, way too warm, way too warm. Same idea when the heating is on. In the summer, it’s a little bit more difficult to change because we often don’t have air conditioned rooms.

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One technique is if the sun is coming into your room during the day and in your house, try to close the curtains or the blackout blind, and that’s actually going to prevent your room from turning into a bit of a sauna.

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It’s going to prevent some of that sun and that heat being generated inside the room. And another technique to adjust that temperature in the dump is actually to have a bit of a shower or a warm shower before bed.

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After that, our body actually tries to cool itself because it was just warmed up and that’s going to help you dump some of that heat a little bit quicker. Okay, the next thing is lighting. So light, be it artificial or natural, signals to our brain that it’s time to be either awake or asleep.

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Not exactly what we want when we’re trying to create a relaxing sleep environment when we have this system in our body trying to wake us up and keep us, keep us alert. So harsh artificial lighting is going to wreck havoc on your attempts to get yourself ready for bed.

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So here’s some options. You can install a dimmer switch to drastically reduce the intensity of the light in the evening. If you can’t do that, I would next look at using a less intense or a warmer color bulb in your bedroom.

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Just screwing it out or popping it out. They’re usually very easy, even if you’re not that witty with these sort of things. And then the next thing, something that’s really powerful for me is developing the habit of trying not to use the light in your bedroom.

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Consider it a bit of a challenge. The only thing you should be doing in bed is sleeping and maybe a little bit of romance. So if you need to get all these things done in your bedroom, then you’re probably not doing it right anyway.

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So pretend that bulb is broken and try to go one week without using it and see what the difference is. So the final thing we’re going to look at is that smell piece. So our smell is an often overlooked environmental factor, but it’s immensely powerful.

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Smells generally provoke different sensations from person to person. But research has pointed to the positive association between smells and mood, calmness and relaxation. So, for example, lavender is a smell commonly cited for its relaxation and sleep inducing qualities.

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But as already noted, smells individual and taking some time to consider what smells relax you will be a good starting point. There are many ways to emit a smell into your bedroom. Some people like a mildly scented candle and udders.

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You can, you know, use a spray and you can put these sprays a little bit on your pillow and these can be purchased and pharmacies are online and they’re excellent methods. So, yeah, again, might be a good idea.

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We’re coming to the end of the podcast here, but again, just take a second just to review your bedroom and the environment of your bedroom. I dare you even to try and challenge yourself to say that, hey, that bulb’s broken.

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I’m not going to use it for a week and see what that does or better yet, even to screw the bulb out and see how that affects you. So, folks, that’s it for this video. If you’ve made it this far, then hopefully you’ve pulled a few tips that you can use your day to day to day life.

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My name’s JP and you’ve been listening to Zevotalks.