Meditations about Environment
We are different. We differ because we were brought up in different settings. And yet we are all the same. There are some governing principles that are true for everyone. The shortest chapter of this book is about them.
The tipping point.
We are blank in the moment of birth. Empty. Our brain is like out-of-the-box hardware without an operating system. From the very first moment of our life what we perceive from the outer world is recorded by our brains and becomes us. Before our consciousness is developed enough to be able to organize incoming information into a sensible worldview, everything we perceive is collected without any order piling up into what later becomes our subconsciousness.
The environments we get raised in shape us a long time before we become able to process their influences. They condition our behavior before we acquire skills and awareness required to make adjustments to it as we feel compelled. Our tastes, our choices, and our decisions are predefined by the environment we grow in. The city you live in, your country of origin, the language you speak, your family, friends, acquaintances, everything and everyone contributes to the mosaic of your identity — your ego.
The tipping point is a notional moment in life when your personal growth finally reaches the level at which you ask yourself a question:
Do you choose to remain being randomly influenced by the current environment or instead you start handpicking your environments so that they would help you to shape yourself in the direction you’ve consciously chosen?
The way you choose to answer this question will either make you initiate a fundamental reinterpretation of who you are or stay someone who lets the world define it.
The environment is a derivative of a choice.
We don’t choose a country and a family to be born in but once we gain sufficient mental strength, we become capable of identifying things that are under our control and acting upon them. Once we are ready, we start to sculpt our reality with our own actions.
We are able to cut toxic relationships and create new ones. We are able to minimize the time with the family if we see that all that family does is dragging us down. We are able to find a way to change the country of residence if we are highly dissatisfied with the government and the collective mentality of the people who live in it.
Once we take full responsibility for the environment that surrounds us, we stop being spineless victims forced to live by exigencies of circumstance. We become its rightful creators.
An environment is a tool for self-improvement.
Desired qualities and skills can be acquired by placing yourself in the environment abundant with people who already attained said skills.
If you want to become good at rock climbing, enroll in rock climbing classes. If you want to upgrade your intellect, dive into the world of academia. If you want to learn a new language, befriend native speakers. If you want to be more tranquil, place yourself in the space within.
Immerse yourself temporarily in different environments to get a taste of each. The use of the environment is a powerful catalyst for personal growth and should never be neglected.
Separate the wheat from the chaff.
Unfortunately, not all environments shape us in a way that does us good. In order to avoid the adverse effects of environments practice introspection. It will help you to start eradicating things that are being programmed into you but don’t serve you.
Do you have a religion because you grew up in a religious family or it was a conscious choice? What tastes for food, music, movies, leisure, entertainment do you think were programmed into you bypassing the filter of critical thinking? What habits and behavioral patterns were thoughtlessly absorbed, not deliberately cultivated? Which beliefs you admit were picked up by you unconsciously add up value to your life?
Don’t be afraid to ask yourself uncomfortable questions. If your belief system withstands your test by questioning it will only be evidence that your worldview is indeed robust and solidly aligned with the universal principles of life.
But what if your world quakes? What if your logic falters and you realize that you lived a comfortable life because you have been avoiding asking yourself the right questions? The realization that you have been living blindfolded could be a disorienting experience but isn’t it the most important step towards true life?
I am not here to question your world model. It is not my job. It is yours.
Allow your world to be shattered.
Thank you for reading my book “Meditations of the Millennial”.
If you want to support me on my mission, please, share this book with someone you love. Maybe they will find what they seek on its pages.
