Changing Your Environment Regularly Improves Your Well-Being

As I'm typing this note to you, I'm sitting on a white cotton-upholstered sofa with my laptop on my lap. I'm propped up by a nautical-themed pillow, looking through a wall of windows at a large lawn, and watching the birds fly by. Less than a mile away, there are ocean waves hitting the beach. Earlier today, I took a long (and chilly) walk along that beach.

I send you greetings from Middletown, Rhode Island!

Over the past couple of weeks, I had noticed a sense of monotony setting in for me. Maybe you've noticed it for yourself too?

After working from home every single day for the past two years, with hardly any in-person meetings and virtually no travel, I was starting to feel trapped. The urge to do something different was getting louder and louder.

So when my friends who live in Rhode Island left for their vacation, I asked them if my partner Charles and I could work from their home while they were away. And they said yes. (Let's celebrate our awesome friends!)

I'm so happy to be here; so happy for a change of scenery; so happy that I can do my work from anywhere (as long as there is WiFi).

Spending a couple of days working out of their home and taking daily walks at the nearby beach cheered me up in a big way. I'm feeling reenergized.

Being at this different location is such an important reminder that we regularly need a change of scenery for our mental well-being.

A change in location can help to break up the monotony. As a result, it increases our productivity and motivation.

In a 2020 study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, a team of researchers from New York University found that days with varied experiences were associated with more positive emotional states than days when you're situated in the same place all day.

To get the mental benefits of this change in venue, it doesn't always need to be a full-fledged vacation to a new destination. Sometimes it's as simple as working from a different location (a hotel, a friend's home, a coffee shop, etc) or even simply working from a different room within your home.

Are you always working from the same desk at home?

If you want a change of scenery, could you find an alternative location in your home to work at? Maybe put a table in front of a window with a nice view? Maybe work from a comfortable sofa?

Once it gets warmer, could you take your computer to the patio for an hour a day? In the meantime, could you take your computer to a coffee shop for an hour a day?

Just switching it up every now and then can give you a big mental boost!

"A simple change of scenery can bring about powerful shifts in the flow of time and emotions." -- Haruki Murakami (Japanese writer)

What do you do to switch things up? I would love to hear from you.

Best,

Christine

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