We Do Not Exist in a Vacuum

We do not exist in a vacuum as just simple individuals traveling through space but as a part of the environment that we live in.  This environment impacts us in many ways.  We adopt behaviors from those around us, we are challenged by the stresses of the environment that we live in, and on the most profound level, we are  physically built by the environment through the foods that we consume.  Just as a head does not exist without a body, the human being does not exist without a connection to their environment. 

Some people are surprised to find out that their body today is not the same body they had a few years ago.  It's a common misunderstanding that our bodies grow throughout childhood and teenage years and is somehow complete and "final" by the age of maturity with a subsequent slow decay and breakdown as we age.  This image of a "permanent structure" couldn't be farther from the truth for a biological being.  In fact, our cells die and are replaced by new generations of cells every day.  For some tissues this renewal happens within a relatively short time.  For example, our red blood cells are fully renewed within a few months.  Other tissues take years to completely renew.  The importance of this renewal process to your personal decisions is that what you consume today, this week, and this month is the building blocks that your body uses to regenerate the "new generation of YOU."  Your food becomes your future body and the integrity of this "future you" depends on the food that you consume.  You can choose to build your new body from potato chips and candy or you can build it from a variety of nutritious real ingredients. 

This is why our environment and our coping within our environment is so important to our health.  If you live in a "fast food nation" living off of processed foods and sweet or salty treats, that is what your body is forced to build your new cells from.  While far from ideal building blocks, your body does it's best with these limited ingredients and the result of such nutrient poor food is poor construction of the "future you".  The effects can be seen in illness, weakness, inflammation, and general lack of well-being.

In addition to our nutrition, other stresses from our environment can affect our health.  If you live within a culture that is aggressive, violent, prone to heavy drinking, depression, and other unhealthy coping patterns and characteristics, you can be influenced by modeling these characteristics.  We are often infected by the general mood of those we surround ourselves with and influences by the choices those closest to us make.  

It can be a challenge to live healthy within the context of an unhealthy cultural, social, or physical environment. However, it is possible to design a personal environment within the larger society that supports healthy behaviors.  This change; however, takes conscious action and the ability to maintain focus long enough to develop healthy habits (permanent behavior patters less prone to outside influences).  Without focus and conscious effort to maintaining a healthy way of life, choosing who and what you surround yourself with, and selecting coping strategies to resist the impulsive behavior patterns tied to your past, you may unconsciously keep living as a part of your environment feeling helpless to make changes. 

For example, for the past ten years, I have practically stopped drinking.  I currently drink about 12 drinks a month, which used to be about the number of drinks I would drink in a single night prior to deciding to stop.  However, until very recently, when I would visit my family in Finland where heavy drinking is customary and the social pressure for me to participate is much heavier, I would often relapse into drinking 4 or 5 days a week and with the increasing tolerance, I would often end my two or three week vacation having blackouts and heavy hangovers.  Without intending to drink more, I was no match to my old culture and the customs of my surroundings.  Once my intention to not drink was strong enough, I began to make a change. I simply refused to take shots or drink hard liquor and I would sip any drinks that I did accepted slowly.  I recruited my sister to help me and I would hand my champagne toast to her.  I would offer to go make the drinks for everyone and make myself a non-alcoholic drink while in the kitchen.  I began to find ways to beat my environment so that I could continue on my path to better health.

Our cultural belief patterns can be really ingrained into our psyche and they can be a part of our self-identity.  Thoughts that can keep someone from change include ideas, such as, "I'm Italian so I can't live without spaghetti and food, food, food!" or "I'm a real meat and potatoes kinda guy! I don't eat no rabbit food!" By recognizing these types of thought patterns as ingrained beliefs we have accepted from our environment and consciously re-evaluating them, we can make decisions that support our goals without struggling against an opposing underlying belief.

Sometimes a social or cultural environment can be so strong that it makes change nearly impossible.  Our friends, family, and co-workers can without any real ill will toward us hold us to our old self.  For example, I grew up being a binge eater.  I made huge plates of food and I was always ready for a meal.  My dad loved my appetite and love for food because he is a chef and loves watching people enjoy his art.  As I learned to eat appropriate amounts and stopped binging, I could feel the disappointment in him as he would say, "That's all you're gonna eat?"

Fortunately, I live some 5000 miles from my family, so the impact of them isn't a major issue for me. If your environment puts particular pressure on you to continue behaving the way you have always been despite your desire to change, you may want to distance yourself from the things that reduce your determination to change.  On a personal level this might mean skipping family dinners for a while until you gain more control of your personal choices or avoiding locations that add a lot of unhealthy stimuli to your week.  For example, if you cannot go to the movies without being tempted to buy a bunch of snacks and sweets, I suggest avoiding movies for a while.  In other words, you can avoid the specific environmental factors that you do not want becoming a part of the "future you" and add new factors that you wish to incorporate in your new vision.  

While our social, cultural, and physical environment can have a major impact on us, we are not unconscious pawns in this world.  We make choices about who, where, and what we associate with and how much we allow this environment to impact us.  Knowing that my environment has an effect on me, I choose to view it as a challenge to not allow the unhealthy factors in my surroundings to become the "future me".  If you are aspiring to build a stronger, healthier you, I implore you to take this challenge as well.