Your Environment is KEY!

I make my own Field Notes-style notebooks and keep 'em in a cigar box

I have this pet theory that is at odds with how my wife thinks. She believes we are how we are regardless of the environment around us. I believe my environment is a key component in how I feel, how much I do, how I live. 

My immediate surroundings undergo a constant transformation. I'm always tweaking this or that to find the best surroundings for me. It is the same theory that if you don't wanna get fat eating Oreos, don't even bring Oreoes in the house.

I have carried this attempt to tailor my environment - which, let us admit, involves certain control issues - to many, many aspects of my life... from this blog, to my clothing (I only wear three colors and I order custom dress shirts and design my own tees), to the little notebooks I make myself, to the aesthetics of my improv performances and content of plays. I am literally trying to design the immediate world around me.

I was wonderfully surprised to stumble across this article by Jonah Lehrer in the Wall Street Journal the other day.

"Recently, scientists have begun to focus on how architecture and design can influence our moods, thoughts and health. They've discovered that everything—from the quality of a view to the height of a ceiling, from the wall color to the furniture—shapes how we think.

I realize, in order to interact in the world, a person can't control every environment they find themselves in ( Oh man, I wish I could design any waiting room I find myself in), but an awareness of what gives you good vibes is a good thing. Notice we go back to the same spaces again and again, sometimes. A particular booth at a restaurant or a movie theater or something...