Who you are remains constant in the moment you are in right now. You are not your body, not your mind. You are the awareness of the body and the mind. Your level of awareness will be the same if you are in Florida, Switzerland, or Oklahoma in this moment. So, instead of worrying about making a new job decision or big travel choice based upon “where” you may land and how it will feel, focus on how you feel now and how you desire to feel in the future.
I struggled with the “where” for a long time. Worried that if I move to this place, or travel to that place, I’ll end up happier than I would be in the other place. Etc. BUT this was black and white thinking, futuristic day dreaming that appeared real. The bigger issue at hand was brushing emotional challenges or problems I needed to work on under the rug. I was using thinking and logic systems that to make big decisions that were not helping me anymore.
Yes, places and your natural environment DO influence you and your character development! However, the critical piece is not “where” you go, but what mindset you have, what level of awareness you achieve in this point in your life.
Environmental factors that might determine health and happiness are talked about today frequently by psychologists and scientists, such as urban sprawl, pollution, access to green spaces, and even contact with the ocean or a body of water. It is true that people who are near nature experience reduced anxiety, stress, and increased positive benefits of improved mental health. So, thinking about environmental context is important to your health.
However, if you have emotional baggage that needs to be dealt with, you can not push that under a rug and expect your big move to Europe to eliminate those problems. You need to put in the work to process, to clarify, to identify thought patterns that might be detrimental to your happiness, and to redefine new thoughts and behaviors to help you reach your highest potential and self-actualization.
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