how does your environment affect your inner peace?

Can you think and feel however you want, regardless of what’s happening around you? Are you calm in high energy, unpredictable, uncertain situations? Do you find yourself down and sad in environments that should produce happier, cheerful feelings? Have you noticed if your inner state of being, your thoughts, feels and vibe, is affected when you go into certain spaces?

What is it about your external environment that affects your inner peace? Is it the people, the visual stimuli, the physical location, sensory overload.. do you know what the exact thing is? There’s an expression, and I’m paraphrasing here, that goes like

“nothing can bother us without our permission”

so just sit with that for a while and think of environments you’ve entered into that have bothered you. Lately, I’ve found myself in situations where I’ve felt uncomfortable, irritable, hating, being petty and other yuck feelings and thoughts I really don’t like and aren’t my “normal” state of being.

I’ve been able to pin point it to certain elements — but then the thought came, “chea check you out Hana, letting other people and circumstances disrupt your inner peace. Neat alright.” Lol the self-talk is real. Needs work ha but still, this thought stuck with me.

I was letting myself, my thoughts and feelings be determined by circumstances beyond my control!

I was letting external forces in the environment affect my internal environment and that’s not a fun place to be. You give up your power and autonomy to people and conditions who have no right to them. Instead of being self-determining and responsible for how you conduct yourself, how you think and behave — you’re at the mercy of everything and everyone else. I dunno about you, but I detest this feeling soooo, so much.

I reached out to some friends to help me out and give me advice and they’re the inspiration for the post this week. They reminded me that while I may not always have control of the environments I find myself in, I’m always in control of how I think, how I feel and how I conduct myself. They reminded me of the practical application of what Houmaitawhiti meant when he recited,

“Purea ō taringa kia turi, ā, kia hoi. Koi whakarongo koe ki te kōrero iti, ko te kōrero iti ka tahuri nā ko te hau aitū”

‘deafen your mind and ears to things insignificant for they will cause your demise’ in his ōhāki (ode) to Ngāti Ohomairangi before they departed Hawaiki. It’s one thing to learn the words, to recite them on the daily and understand the gist of what he was saying. But hohhhh a whole other thing to try and apply the wisdom in real life situations haha.

Always learning, always growing — always relying on tupuna mātauranga (ancestral knowledge) to help me navigate the spaces I find myself in.

Always grateful, tēnā tātou,

Hana.