LIFE IN BALANCE
Part 6. Your Environment
by Elena Greco
LIFE IN BALANCE is a multi-part series exploring health–
what it is, how to get it and how to maintain it, easily and naturally.
Read other parts of the series here: Life in Balance.
Typical reading time: 2 minutes
Your Environment
In the first part of this series, we learned that health is balance, and that to be healthy, we need to learn ways of keeping our balance, physically and mentally, in the midst of life’s many challenges. We took a look at some healthcare paradigms and learned the value of using a holistic healthcare system, one which takes all aspects of you and your health into account, and which views health as much more than being free from symptoms of illness. And we learned that true health is reflected in vitality and resilience. Then we began an assessment of your traits and lifestyle that will form the basis of your healthcare plan.
Let’s continue with assessing traits and lifestyle. To recap, there are four areas that we look at and evaluate in our Assessment: physical body, mind, environment and lifestyle. So far we’ve looked at the traits and condition of our physical body and our mind. Now it’s time to examine our environment.
Think about what your life looks like in this area. Again, there’s no judgment about this, no good or bad; just notice. Here’s a list to get you started. And again, keep these assessments together so that you will have a complete picture at the end of the process.
3. Environment
a. Water source
i. Do you drink municipal tap water, filtered tap water, or bottled water?
ii. Does your water or the container it comes in contain toxic chemicals or helpful minerals?
b. Food: We looked at food in Part 1 from the standpoint of what we are able to control in our food, which is intake. Now look at what you don’t control, that is, the conditions in which your food is raised, and the toxic chemicals it might contain: pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, antifungals, growth hormones, toxic minerals, toxins from cookware, and radiation that degrades nutrients.
i. Are you able to access non-polluted food, i.e., food that is free from pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, GMOs?
ii. Do you cook in Teflon or heat your food in aluminum or plastic containers?
iii. Do you use a microwave oven to heat or cook your food?
c. Air quality—e.g., mold, dust, toxins, pollution—in home, office, outdoors
d. Toxic chemicals
i. at the office: toner fumes, carpet shampoo, cleaning chemicals, co-workers’ fragrance
ii. in the home and personal care products: deodorant, soap, laundry detergent, floor polish, cleaning agents
e. Electromagnetic radiation
f. Fluorescent light: in home, office, public transit
g. Noise
i. city noises: honking, ambulances, airplanes, construction
ii. home: neighbors, apartment renovations, white noise from appliances
iii. people: kids crying/screaming, loud talking/yelling
h. Visual surroundings
i. Beauty: pleasing colors, artwork, symmetry, order, lack of clutter, good lighting
ii. Absence of beauty: dull or unattractive colors, dirt, disorder, clutter, asymmetry, poor lighting
iii. Plants and flowers (yes, artificial ones count)
Assignment: After doing your Environment Assessment, notate any ideas that come to you of how your environment contributes or detracts from your health. Again, no need to “fix” anything, and no need to think of everything. This is just about notating any ideas that come to you as you make your assessment.