Does Environment Effect Mood?
It's been said that your environment is a projection of your emotional state. Do you keep a tidy house? Clean as you go? Always cleaning up after others?
I wondered for a moment, are depressed people living in a depressed environment because they're depressed? Which came first? The depression or the depressing environment?
Then I remembered all the people I know who are miserable and keep a tight house because it's one of the few things they feel like they have any control over.
I also remembered that houses get untidy when they are lived in. Really and truly lived in. Whether the living is done in a depressed, happy or simply content frame of mind has no bearing. So is the theory even partly true?
I do know that cleaning the house when it's dirty and then basking in that cleanliness feels good. I've asked a few people who have admitted that when the house was dirty and cluttered and then cleaned up, having it clean improved the mood of those people, in particular the one who cleaned it. I assume that is simply the feeling of being productive.
Is this pointless? Maybe. But if I got just one person to look around then clean their room, I've done my job here.
With mental health being at the forefront of everyone's mind these days, the little things help. Cleaning up is a little thing that can help one feel better when they're down. I'm here to remind folks how easy it is to boost the mood when in a funk.
Or maybe, I'm just here to get you to really take a closer look at your environment. What's it like where you live? Do you keep a tidy house? Do you hire someone to clean up after you, accepting no accountability for the messes you've made?
There are people who choose to be sick as well, folks for whom it's become a lifestyle, it's literally their livelihood. The problem is that then they have to maintain a toxic environment to maintain the sickness so they can still get paid. Of course, that's just some folks, and it's far too controversial to go into in any depth. Besides, this isn't about them, it's about environment, it's about how we treat ourselves, it's all a matter of choice.
Does your environment say more about you than you thought? Yes. Yes it does.