what a TOXIC ENVIRONMENT is doing to you 🌱🌎
In today’s post we’ll chat thru…
â‘ Friendly REMINDER- our FIRST SISTERHOOD RETREAT is OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT!
② What ENVIRONMENTAL SELF CARE is and how it impacts our PERCEPTION of the world.
③ INSPO from a PSYCHOLOGIST on how TOXIC ENVIRONMENTS can never SUPPORT OUR GROWTH + GOALS.
LET’S DIVE IN. 🖤
Welcome back friends! Today we’re talking about one of my FAVE TOPICS - ENVIRONMENTAL SELF CARE and I’ve got a really cool analogy that is going to be a break thru moment for someone listening today….but before I get to that I have to remind you…at the time I’m recording this women are already CLAIMING their spots for the VERY FIRST SISTERHOOD RETREAT and if you’re looking for a girls weekend meets self care meets all things growth and making PROGRESS towards what matters most to you…you’ve got to hurry up and grab a spot for our VERY FIRST SISTERHOOD RETREAT. It’s here in Tampa FL, August 30th - Sept 2nd and all the details + link to grab your spot are on my website - www.inspirebeautybritt.com/retreat OR you can DM me on Instagram with any q’s and I’m happy to help. Just wanted to pop in and share that FIRST bc the spots are going to go and once the 10 fill up I won’t have space until I announce the next retreat. Okay…let’s jump into today’s topic:
ENVIRONMENTAL SELF CARE.
This is one of those topics I wish I knew WAY MORE about when I was in my 20’s + early 30’s. Bc here’s the deal - The people, places, and spaces you surround yourself with + find yourself in should inspire you. Motivate you. Excite you. Fill you up. Challenge you in the best ways. Allow you to feel at ease + safe. Protect you. Advocate for you. Make you feel wanted. Hold space for you. Respect you even if they don’t agree with you.
They shouldn’t overwhelm you. Stress you out to the max with no reprieve. Depress you. Make you feel anxious. Or degrade you.
But a lot of times, we don’t know what we don’t know.
It wasn’t until I got around a NEW KIND OF CONVERSATION that I realized the conversations I was having were petty and pointless.
It wasn’t until I saw others creating businesses outside of the box that I realized I didn’t have to settle for a career that didn’t fulfill me.
It wasn’t until I saw examples of homes curated with intention that I realized I could do that, too.
If the examples you’ve had all your life don’t show you a variety of ways, it’s really easy to get stuck believing one thing. That’s why I love conversations and getting to know people’s stories. Because they help me widen my view of the world, ya know?
And if you find yourself after today’s episode nodding along and feeling like maybe you’re sitting more in the latter half of my description…it’s good freaking news. Because just like every other piece of self care, environmental self care is a DEEP OWNERSHIP over the spaces and places around you and also taking inventory + ownership if a space or place no longer serves the season you are in or where you’re headed next.
INSPO FROM A PSYCHOLOGIST
I want to give you an analogy a psychologist shared that really opened my eyes up to the power of our ENVIRONMENTS and truly, ENVIRONMENTAL SELF CARE.
Think about a goldfish in a tank of clean, clear water. Imagine you’re the goldfish and the tank is your life. Like most people’s lives, there are problems that can make the environment toxic., think of a tank when the water gets murky and greenish, right? If a fish is living in that toxic environment, eventually it would get sick, so in order to protect the fish, you would take it out and give it a new environment….clean water, a fresh tank. This is like you going on vacation or taking a break. Getting yourself into a new environment. And it helps. Everything gets better. It feels great. You feel refreshed + renewed. At least for a little while. Until you return and you go right back into the toxic situation again. It doesn’t matter how clean the water was on the break or how refreshed you feel…eventually you’ll get sick again because you’ve placed yourself back into an environment that is no longer good for you.
Friends. If you want to thrive in the LONG TERM you have to focus on cleaning up the environment that is affecting you everyday. This could look like your job. Maybe it’s no longer in alignment with your passions, values, or calling. This could look like where you live. Maybe the city you once lived in isn’t the best place for you to grow into the next level. This could be aesthetic, like cleaning + tidying up your space so that it relaxes you instead of overwhelms you. It could go deeper than that. It could be a circle of friends that you’ve outgrown. It could be a tough conversation with someone you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with. Environmental self care is truly about where you’re placing yourself and if it is elevating you or not.
You know that saying “nothing changes if nothing changes?” I think about this when it comes to goal setting and how that relates to environmental self care. Because sometimes we take ourselves out of the environment for a short term saying “this will be the time (fill in your blank)” only to not actually CHANGE ANYTHING about our environment. Think about it. It’s like saying this is the year I focus on my health and then you keep going to meet your friends at Chili’s every Friday night. Let me try another example. This is the year I look for a new job that pays me what I deserve and allows me to be home more with my family and then you drive to work everyday, complain on your lunch breaks to your co workers, scroll social when you get home to numb out, and nothing changes. And one more. This is the year I make friends and work on my social life. Except you live in the same small town where everyone knows everyone and you refuse to venture out of your bubble to meet new people.
The goal in every single one of these scenarios isn’t the problem. It’s the ENVIRONMENTS you’re putting yourself in. Or the environments you’re choosing not to change.
NOTHING CHANGES IF NOTHING CHANGES.
Here’s a question to ask before pursuing ANY goal you have -
HAVE I SET UP MY ENVIRONMENT TO SUPPORT THE GOALS THAT I HAVE?
A short term change can feel good for a while, but if you then return to a way of living that doesn’t actually SUPPORT the lifestyle change needed to achieve the thing, then this time next year you will be back on the same cycle. This is how we get trapped. Instead what if we really started to take inventory of the people, spaces, and places we are surrounded by. Macro level and micro. And then start to take a deep ownership in making sure those people, spaces, and places support the life we crave, the goals we have, and the direction we desire to move. If not, it’s time to switch things up sis. It won’t always be easy. That’s the thing about the work we do here…it’s not always easy. But I can promise you that it WILL be worth it. And, well, you owe it to a FUTURE VERSION OF YOU to create those environments that will help you become all that you desire to be in this one life you’ve got.
I’m rooting for you friend. And I can’t wait to see you back here next time on The SELF CARE Sisterhood Podcast. 🖤🤟🏼
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