The world around us inspires well-being

“Every ordinary thing is infused with mystery.” – Barbara Holmes

By Meg Mitchell

Our environment includes the places we influence and are influenced by: our workplaces, homes, land, community, and ecosystems. While some may have more choices in this exchange, none of us controls our environment. Science writer Neil deGrasse Tyson points out that although our planet is several billion years old, humans have only been here .007% of that time and dinosaurs were here 4%. We can easily overlook how lucky we are to be part of the diversity of life surrounding us.

What story does the quality of our environment tell about our values? Why do we care about the environment? It is best to ponder these questions with love and joy.

Everything we eat, breathe, wear, live in, cast away, earn, and spend comes from and in turn influences our environment. Everything is related when we follow the daisy chain far enough. How we treat one thing respectfully is how we learn to treat everything that way. Doing so brings a deep sense of contentment and care within and to life around us.

Our individual and collective physical, emotional, and mental well-being depends a great deal on our environment. There is a porous relationship between my interior wellness and the health and well-being of the environment that surrounds me. This includes the obvious quality of the air I breathe, the water I use, and the nutritional value of the food I eat. It also includes my give-and-take relationship with qualities like beauty, creativity, gratitude, and serenity.  This summer I went out to my garden to clear lettuce that had bolted into an untidy jungle. Armed with my gloves and wheelbarrow I arrived at the bed to see all the bees enjoying the lettuce flowers. I left the bed as is with my standards of beauty happily set straight by a handful of bees.

In Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, he writes daily reflections about what delights him. While weeding his garden, he delights in the tiny ecosystem that might go unnoticed if the weeds didn’t bring him closer. It’s a great reminder of the abundance of delight readily available when I look. Our environment also gives us ways to be part of something bigger than ourselves. The world around us has been humans’ primary source of learning, contribution, awe, and wonder for thousands of years. I have only to bask in the night sky for wonderment. Astronauts call the unexpected and overwhelming emotions they feel when they see our home from space “the overview effect.”  When I go to the desert, I notice a similar humbling. Like the bees in my garden, these landscapes set things “in the right order.”  The desert is warmly indifferent to my visitations. I chuckle at how easily I can slip into the idea that I’m a “visitor” or “gardener” in “nature.”  Really, I’m intricately a part of the mysterious and unwritten laws of life, no matter where I am.

As humans, we can tell better stories about who we really are. Stories that connect, elevate, and transform our relationship with our environment and each other. Stories that reflect the best of what it means to be human in this world.

Meg Mitchell is an artist and an employee coach at La Clinica. She is certified through the International Coaching Foundation.