Call me picky but I just cannot deal with the wrong rooms, neighborhoods, cities, attitudes, or habits.
Wrong anything, really.
And yes, being able to choose your surroundings is a privilege. A big one and I acknowledge that fully.
But I also think not having immediate control over it is not a reason to close your eyes to how much it matters, because your environment in wider sense is everything.
So where is all of this coming from?
Well, I spent a few days in London some time ago, in a part of the city I am not particularly a fan of.
I had things to get done on my laptop and no particular place to be, so most mornings I stayed in my accommodation.
After all, going around London takes time and money and energy regardless of whether you uber or take the metro, so I made the rational decision to stay put in the mornings and go out later.
Good strategy objectively. In practice, not so much.
Why?
Because I felt genuinely uneasy.
The constant noise, the traffic, not much green around, no easy way to just walk from place to place, plus everything coming in plastic.
The things that usually restore me were just not there, and when things take more energy than they give, you find yourself not quite operating at full capacity.
So what does that do to you: you procrastinate.
Somehow, you just don’t get the things done you know you should.
You know, when the flow does not flow as effortlessly.
When the ideas do not come as easily.
You just feel a bit off.
And that is the thing I wanted to tune more into: to understand why I was not able to give my best effort with all the time I had.
Even my Oura ring was telling me my stress levels were accumulating lol.
There is nothing wrong with London specifically, it is genuinely great in so many ways.
But what I noticed is that when something unconsciously bothers or disturbs you, delivering your best effort becomes nearly impossible.
After all, your environment shapes how you show up every single day, and that every day compounds into being your life.
So, I had to stop and did a kind of audit:
Where is my energy actually going?
Where do I stay, how clean is the space, how much natural light is there, where do I exercise, can I ever get real rest from the noise?
Are the people around me adding energy or draining it?
And what i realized is that where i was stying was really killing my “vibe”. It was taking from my energy without giving really back anything.
So I just had to change my scenery and get out from there asap.
And no, I am not saying external surroundings are simply a direct reflection of internal satisfaction.
Some people thrive anywhere and that is genuinely great, but I do think the environment has an impact on all of us, some just more than others.
And some more aware of it than the rest.
This is btw also part of why I am building Unelma.
A brand that brings intentional and deliberate energy rather than takes it from you because I think we need more of that in the urban environments where so many of us find ourselves.
We need more spaces designed to restore rather than overstimulate.
More intentionality and less noise, please.
x Maria