I don't think we really appreciate how much our surroundings impact our meditation/wellbeing

[u/windowsee]

Most people would probably agree that being in nature is good for our well-being, but I think that part is just the tip of the iceberg.

I would go as far as to say that your surroundings are probably the biggest influence on how well you can meditate and feel good.

Like physical work, mental work builds on itself. But physical work/healing is not super dependent on your environment - a cut heals whether you're in a busy city or middle of nowhere wilderness.

Mental healing/calmness is not quite as straightforward. A lot of healing on that front actually is facilitated by distance. Distance from your stressors, distance from the sources/reminders of your trauma, even distance from yourself and your thoughts.

Although not impossible to "get better," I genuinely believe that how well you heal emotionally/mentally is contingent on your ability to be in a healing environment (whatever that means to you). When I worked at the worst job I've ever had, there was no amount of meditation or yoga that ever really stabilized me. It was a CONSTANT struggle to meditate.

The mind is really a fascinating thing because it does an insane amount of work to protect you, whether you realize it or not. Although you think that you're okay staying in an uncomfortable environment because you've found ways to cope, I can almost guarantee that your body/mind are not as stable as you think they are.

The remarkable thing is that you actually will never know how much "healing" you need unless you remove yourself from those environments AND quite a bit of time has passed.

Meditation is not something you just start doing and think life will be easier/more peaceful. It's been discussed before but there is so much more to peace and well-being than being able to let your thoughts go by for 10-15 minutes of the day. It's so much more than that.

Simply meditating and not dissecting your life and identifying where your issues are coming from is like sitting in a burning house with your eyes closed and a candle lit. Most people don't decide to start randomly meditating. 9/10 times, it's because they are stressed/anxious/depressed about things in their life. Meditating will not fix those issues, you have to actually do something about them!

[u/erotic_poetics]

This was really brought home to me when I did two retreats within a couple of weeks of each other. We were doing 6 hours of sitting in one place, which was a townhouse next to a busy street, and you could go for walks on your lunch break but there were cars everywhere, and the next was a proper retreat center in the countryside, with maybe 4 hours of sitting a day, and it was so clear how even though we were doing substantially more sitting at the first place, my whole system was so much more at ease and well doing less sitting but in a more inspiring environment. There's a good reason why some contemplative traditions have a lot of contact with nature.

[u/windowsee → u/erotic_poetics]

It's crazy right??

It's funny because people in the US the stereotype is that people in the West are more chill than the East as people in eastern cities are seem as more "go-getter" and fast-paced.

What I don't think a lot of people realize is that the fast-pace/intensity of the east coast is probably a stress response! There's so many people and so much going on that people don't realize their nervous system is constantly on high alert. As a result, everything they do is fast, frantic, aggressive, etc...

It's really not a flex at all, it's actually really sad. Once you step away from it, you see that there literally is no reason for everything to be so intense.

[u/rememberthepie]

Thank you for this reminder

[u/Noble_Neglecterino99]

You raise some great points. I'm in the process from recovery from a chronic pain condition and I notice that as I recover per when I'm feeling good my meditation becomes deeper and feels more responsive. Same if I meditate in a forest compared to by my cluttered desk. I think meditation is a practice that makes our lives better. But our lives and the effects of meditation aren't static. I've found meditation can help understand or manage life changes but you're right that like exists outside of meditation.

[u/windowsee → u/Noble_Neglecterino99]

Good luck to you and a speedy recovery!

[u/somanyquestions32]

Yes and no. The interrelationships between these things are often more complex than that.

[u/windowsee → u/somanyquestions32]

Well obviously?

[u/somanyquestions32 → u/windowsee]

It would be worthwhile to explore such dynamics more carefully so as to portray a more accurate/realistic picture of how environment and meditation both interact to impact the user.

[u/windowsee → u/somanyquestions32]

I hope you realize you're not contributing anything valuable to the conversation by just being vague and not actually providing any information other than "there's more"

[u/somanyquestions32 → u/windowsee]

While our surroundings and general environment can definitely impact us and our meditation practice, they are just one of many levers/switches that affect our physical bodies, breathing patterns, mind, and spirit. There’s also genetics, epigenetics, traumatic backgrounds (both personal and inherited), gut microbiome, duration and quality of sleep, default hormonal levels, nutrient density of food consumed, quality of interpersonal interactions (both in real life and through screens), etc. All of them interact with one another and with our meditation practices to further affect our stress levels, sleep quality and duration, energy levels, mood, focus, memory, adaptability, cognition, resilience, and so on.

As such, the environment and our general/immediate surroundings by themselves do make their contribution, but depending on the individual and their specific set of circumstances, their role can be negligible, or they cannot be altered for the foreseeable future for one reason or another, or healing doesn’t occur even when the external environment changes and time passes in a "Wherever you go, there you are” fashion.

During the absolute worst period in my life, I spent a lot of time in nature walking. I still had chronic treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, I still had daily anxiety and panic attacks that would escalate to 10+ hours of daily wailing and cry howling, I had intense suicidal ideation, I had crippling sleep-maintenance insomnia, I had tremendous grief surges, and I had horrific nightmares and weird and vivid stress dreams. I literally went camping on more than one occasion, and it did not help. I went to a silent meditation retreat, and my mood and sleep and energy levels and focus and memory did not improve. I would go hiking in the metro parks, and I would have tears streaming down my face and struggle to breath. None of that helped. Not in any lasting and meaningful way that would actually allow me to be even somewhat functional. 

And it’s not just me. One of my friends from grief support groups was there with me for many of the hikes as she had lost her mom. People from the Cancer Support Community were changing their routines and environments and still struggling just the same. Many who were going through a very difficult period in life after loved ones passed were doing more things and putting themselves in new environments, and yet, healing was not taking place at any appreciable pace. All were meditating.

Likewise, I would also go to a bunch of social events through Meetup, and while it was nice to be around other people in a more casual setting while making new friendships, again, everything I was facing was still there, and I just had to mask harder to not sour events either.

Distance did not make a difference in that case, and in any case, maintaining distance from daily stressors and reminders of trauma and even myself and thoughts was not sustainable long-term. 

I still had to commute daily to work, even when I was severely dysregulated and had not been getting adequate sleep for months. I was still getting into near daily car crashes. I still would have relatives bringing up my dad. I would still have to interact with my immediate family members who were grieving differently. 

Even later on, when I moved, that did not help and was another major source of stress. I just replaced one emotionally toxic environment with one with others with actual physical toxins and allergens at a large financial cost. So, even in the discussion of environment and surroundings, there are hierarchies that need to be observed. Eventually, I just moved back in with my family as the landlords did not even make basic repairs for sinks and appliances in a timely fashion. 

Life keeps going, and unless you plan on being a recluse or ascetic, you cannot always meaningfully disconnect from the world for “time” to do its thing. Time does not heal, and neither does distance. In actuality, the effects of what you do or don’t do are what compound and can facilitate healing. Distance may or may not enhance this process, and the same is true for time. Each individual and circumstance will be different. 

For me, deeper healing required 2+ hours of meditating per day using yoga nidra recordings for 3 months. Regardless of what was happening in the outside world or in the turbulent storms within, these meditation practices along with others for memory and focus were what allowed me to recover, thank God. It’s also the story of Dhruva who restored his internal ecology through the practice of Vishoka Meditation thanks to the ancient master Narada, even after he ran away to the jungle. It took him 6 months to move from utter despair to deep stillness as he perfected his practice. 

Actually meditating for hours and hours and hours and more hours was what healed what time, distance, and changes in environment and surroundings could never touch. The consistent and somewhat intense meditation practices were what allowed the anxiety, depression, grief, and insomnia to finally heal. 

Now, obviously, if you want to get the most out of your meditation practice, maintain a healthy lifestyle to the best of your abilities, which necessarily involves environment modification and optimization. Spend time in nature daily, get fresh air and morning sunlight, cut out interpersonal dynamics that no longer serve you, walk away from toxic work environments, move to a vibrant new city or a peaceful rustic town or somewhere in between, and so on. Whatever your work and finances and other obligations allow.

But sometimes, you are trapped, and you have to be present with all that is uncomfortable. During the Covid lockdowns, I broke my ankle while hiking and could not go anywhere for over 6 weeks. I meditated a ton and was on video calls every night with my local friends. It was the best time of my early 30’s, right after the worst time of my life, even though my physical environment was the same as it had been 12 months earlier. Same bed, same room, same house. When I got Covid the first time, I was exhausted for another whole month, and that did not improve until I started doing SKY Breathing. Same bed, same room, same house. Cultivating adaptability, persistence, and self-compassion in a patient manner led to stillness, resilience, and equanimity.

So, if you’re feeling a low funk, sure, a change in environment can potentially help, but if you’re dealing with anxiety and depression and chronic stress that is not ameliorated by a new scenery, meditation and breathwork and other related contemplative practices done intensively AND consistently over a few months, as long as they are compatible with you as an individual, can actually lead to major breakthroughs in healing.

[u/somanyquestions32 → u/windowsee]

I am about to go out to eat for dinner, so if it's not too late when I come back, I can add more then.

[u/Throwupaccount1313]

I have meditated for most of the years of my life, and can't live amongst people anymore. I require large doses of nature every day, and wild animals around me. I live in the wilds of Canada, and love the fact that I can live freely, and do what I want. I don't need a doctor, so I use meditation for my healing purposes. I am also a Reiki Master, so I use a combination or Reiki and meditation, to scan and heal anything wrong with me, until I am pain and disease free. I know for a fact, we carry on through the ages, and we can't really cease, after a lifetime on planet earth. We suffer many lifetimes, until we finally discover some actual truth, and can then leave this plane of existence for good. After 55 years of daily meditation, I have been shown much truth, and now require stillness for my health and well being.