Our environments shape our identity
About two months ago I got myself a pair of Vivo barefoot shoes. Long story short, I've got something in the works for October next year that I will need some serious foot and leg endurance for and thought the regular walking around in a pair of these might help get some incidental training in.
Today I went out for my first run in about 5 weeks and to my surprise found that my running pattern had changed considerably. I'd gone from a long stride with a serious heel strike to a short stride landing nearly always on my forefoot. This wasn't something I'd been training, it wasn't something that I was consciously trying to do, it was just something that my body wanted to do. And the runners out there will appreciate that changing your running style usually takes considerable work, so this was really unexpected.
This one environmental change that I've implemented completely changed how I did something else (it hasn't made me any faster yet, and whether it is a good change or not remains to be seen).
But it did get me thinking about how much our environments influence our identities and our health status.
It could be something small like where you place your morning alarm. Right by the bed and you might roll over a couple of times hitting snooze, get up a bit late and then rush around in a stressful state getting ready and walk out the door with your stress levels already elevated. Compared to having your alarm over the other side of the room forcing you to get up out of bed to turn it off.
It might be leaving your guitar in the lounge instead of in the cupboard in the spare room so you see it often and pick it up for a quick strum.
Or at the other end of the size scale you might be an urban planner designing your city to promote activity and healthier lifestyles. A wonderful example of this in action is Medellin, Columbia designing specific no-car zones and areas that make healthy activity the easy choice.
I’m not saying that our environments define who we are, and our health status, but they definitely play a part. How our environment is shaped makes taking one action easier than another. How our environment is shaped and who is in it creates a set of norms that we (sometimes unconsciously) adhere to.
Think about behaviours you would like to improve. How is your environment facilitating that change? How might it be restricting your change?
It's not always more willpower or self-discipline that creates growth and improvement, sometimes it's the small environmental restructures we can make that grease the wheels of change.
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