by Trent Greguhn

Created on: April 21, 2009

For years I have believed we are result of the circumstance and scenarios that surround us. If I get hurt, I react, I may lash out, and I may hurt someone back. If I win money I spend. If I'm loved I feel accepted. These are the common beliefs and feelings most of us hold onto, and that I had too. Think though, the next time something happens to you and you react, is your reaction a direct result of what happened, or a result of yourself and how you believe you should be acting?

I find, astonishingly, that I am a believer now of something completely different than I had believed in the past, something I hadn't even considered. Our environment is a result of us. Who we are. Scenarios will play out and circumstances might change but how we choose to adapt and choose to react are our own choices. In some cases we might find we don't have to adapt at all and still find peace with the environment we're in.

But it doesn't work that way on its own. It's a careful balance though. Note what I said earlier then read what I'm about to say. We're a result of our environment. Yes, we are. I didn't consider the alternative that our environment and who we are, are co-existent, neither one ultimately impacting the other, but subtly, behind the scenes.

It'd be foolish to think that we don't adapt to our environment. We do, every day; we measure what's around us and react to what's going on around us. However, we choose in the end how to react, how to manage, and how to move on. We can choose to be upset, to be angry, to be grateful, or anywhere in between. These feelings and emotions aren't a direct result of what is happening in our environment. They are a direct result of our own self-discipline of the mind and our emotions.

In my time alive I've found that absolutes, certainties, and guarantees don't exist in this reality or any other. There are varying levels of circumstances and everything in life is circumstantial. Circumstances dictate action. If you take your life to any extreme you will end up miserable and confused, such is the case for this. We work with the environment and it works with us. It is a balance, a delicate one, which we must all live in and accept. When something happens to us we need stop, think, and react. The environment might be what causes us to react, but we choose how we do it. When dealing with our environment we should stop seeing in black and white and start living in the grey.

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