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Home | Personal Development | Supportive Environments

Supportive Environments

Providing Nutrients for Personal Growth

BY: T. Franklin Murphy | May 2018 (edited November 22, 2021)
 A lady in a field of wheat. An article on supportive environments
Adobe Stock Images
We must create surroundings that supports wellness. 
A delicate flower blooms when the environment is right. The sun, the soil and the moisture interweave to provide the necessary nutrients for survival. When the environment provides in abundance, the flower flourishes, blooming in abundance. Our environment is also essential for our wellness. With enough nutrients, we survive. In exceptionally kind environments, we flourish. ​

Inner and Outer Environments

Human environments our rich with people, social systems, and information. Our environments also include inner happenings. Health, emotions, thoughts also provide or borrow from life giving sustenance.

Antonio Damasio, a Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at the University of Southern California, explains in his book The Strange Order of Things, "the 'surround' of a nervous system is extraordinarily rich... It includes the world external to the organism...that is, the objects and events in the environment surrounding the whole organism. But the 'surround' of the nervous system also includes the world within the organism..." (2019, location 1,179).

Behaviors, beliefs and thoughts are major contributors to the "surround" of our nervous system. The environment is supportive or draining. Our well being depends upon the conditions—a supportive environment. We are not impermeable. People and places also contribute or subtract. External environments matter.

We provide nutrients as part of  the environments of others. They respond to us and we respond to them. By providing or subtracting from their wellness, we initiate and invite a reciprocal response. 

Key Definition:

Outer environments are the external elements surrounding our organism such as employment, partners, family, social groups and governments. 

We Can Compensate  for Lack

We can compensate when a few critical elements are missing. However, we can't consistently ignore the imbalance. When a person in our outer environment harshly violates our tender being, we suffer. The maltreatment draws from our strength. We can temporarily compensate for the grating external pressures with internal kindness; however, eventually energy to compensate diminishes and the abuse injures our souls.

Conversely, supportive others in our outer world may lift our spirits, but when their goodness is filtered by our nasty inner critic their decency loses potency, leaving us unnourished and empty.

Key Definition:

Inner environments are the inner elements of thought, beliefs, and emotions that stimulate our nervous system. Elements of the inner environment interact with outer elements, increasing or decreasing the impact of the outer element on our wellness. 

Cultivating Supportive Environments

​Our positive actions contribute to the environmental nutrients by cultivating the good and distancing from the bad. Whether our environment is rich or impoverished, we can adjust, improving the conditions and harvesting more of what we need.

If our histories are sparse, missing necessary mentors to guide, we must reach a little further, opening new doors to find the support that change demands. Climbing from the valley of death to the bountiful golden fields of plenty isn’t a simple adjustment. Just as one child may drift from a genealogy of greatness, we can also prevail over a bleak heritage of lack.

See Trajectories for more on this topic

Cultivating an External Supportive Environment

The wellness dogma that outer environments don't matter is bunk. We don't choose every emotion. We don't make lemonade out of abuse. Our wellness can't thrive in emotionally deprived relationships. We don't naturally grow from systemic suppression. We must work to improve outer environments in community and personal levels.

Community Environments

Community level change is stubborn, involving many resistive elements and varying needs. Yet, we can't forget the importance of contributing to these necessary ingredients for fair and equal support. We can't sit on the sidelines complaining, expecting others to make necessary changes.

​We can:

—Vote

—Volunteer

—Mentor

—Contribute Resources

"Ideally, schools should be supportive environments for students. Unfortunately, zero-tolerance policies tend to funnel vulnerable students out of schools and into prisons, low-income jobs, and poverty." ~Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Individual External Environments

We must believe in the possibility of transformations. We don’t have to carry our parents' burdens. The path to an unfamiliar lifestyle is often obscured by inherited limits on vision. We can't strive for successes we can't envision.

We need new exposures that open possibility to developing necessary skills, and knowledge to know what actually needs to be accomplished. We need supportive mentors to guide us through the awkward steps of change into unknown territories. For our output to change, we must attend to the input.

​We must take control of our world. Accepting personal responsibility for the quality of our lives motivates action. Certainly, community level obstacles impact, but we can compensate.

​We can:

—Leave Abusive Relationships

—Cultivate Supportive Friendships

—Improve Employment Skills (Education)

—Budget and Save

Individual Internal Environments

​We can't ignore our internal environments. We need a well functioning system to support the heavy demands of life. Self-care is essential.

​We can:

—Exercise

         (See Exercise and Mental Health)

—Prayer, Meditation, Quiet Reflection

       (See Finding Peace)

—Nutritious Diet

       (See Ten Power Foods)

—Optimistic Attitude

       (See Realistic Optimism)

—Passion and Purpose

       (See Passionate Purpose)
You may also enjoy reading Wellness Basics
Our wellness is sensitive to surrounding environments. Desires to change behaviors while ignoring environments is a fool's game, setting up for a failure. Whether we are abandoning addictions or practicing healthier habits a supportive environment is necessary. When we improve our environments, growth naturally sprouts. A properly nourished life from supportive environments blooms, giving fragrant joy and flourishing confidence.
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T. Franklin Murphy
T. Franklin Murphy
Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
​T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He tirelessly researches scientific findings that contribute to wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.

Resources:

Damasio, A. (2019). The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures. Vintage; Reprint edition

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​Other Flourishing Life Society articles of interest on this topic:

FLS Link. Realistic Optimism: Optimism brings energy to action, motivating persistence in the face of difficulty. Our wellness benefits most from optimism when it is based in reality.
Living is serious business, give yourself a break. Harsh judgments hurt the soul and slow progress.
FLS link. Neuroplasticity and Learning. The Brain and new habits
FLS Link: Hope Theory: Motivation to Succeed. Hope is more than an optimistic reliance on unseen forces. Hope, according to Hope Theory, is a combination of three elements: realistic goals, energetic determination, and intelligent pursuit.
We must approach change mindfully, keeping energy to push our dreams forward.
FLS internal link. Courage to Become: We need to courage to reach past comfort zones and encourage personal growth.
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A Flourishing Life Society article link. Gentleness
FLS Link. Entangled relationships
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People of Character. Facing Life Challenges with Character. A Flourishing Life Society article image link
Internal Link: Life is difficult- Working through the emotions of living, seizing opportunities, and keeping expectations grounded.
FLS Link. Fredrickson's Broaden and Build: Positive emotions promote growth by encouraging approach and observation.
FLS link. Self-Sabotage: We hurt ourselves. We sabotage healthy endeavors to escape the discomfort of change, settling back into our self-made prisons of stagnation.
We making choices daily for our health,security, and connections. Life constantly beckons us to act. Often one action may serve one need while neglecting or damaging another need. We must find balance, somewhere in the golden middle.
As adults, we can create better surroundings to encourage our continued growth. Some do the opposite, surround themselves with others and influences that begin the process of decay.
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