Anyway you look at it, living in a supportive environment can positively affects the way we live. Criminals usually hang our with criminals, athlete usually hang out with athletes and those in the knitting club, well… usually knit together.
You can tell by the clothes you wear, the words you use, the accent you grew up around, there’s no denying it, we are creatures of our environment.
Thoughts become things, things become actions and what we see on a constant and continual basis is what continually goes through our mind day after day.
It could be negative social media, it could be gossip at 10am in the coffee room or it could be a non profit organization you’re involved with. Regardless, these are the people that we surround ourselves with for a reason; likeminded individuals enjoy being around likeminded individuals.
Does everyone know what a supportive environment is?
I’m not sure everyone knows what it’s like living in a supportive environment. Personally I grew up in the athletic world and with all the competition (between your own teammates) I wouldn’t exactly call it a supportive environment.
However, we did have teammates, we were working towards one goal, and there was support in some way pretty much all the time.
Not everyone has had the opportunity to be on a team. But there are many other ways to find constant support in your life.
Living in a supportive environment will change your life, it will change your entire outlook and give you support where you never knew you needed it.
Unfortunately many of us live our lives without much support at all. So let’s start there before we get into the real benefits of living in a supportive environment.
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Where there isn’t supportÂ
Work
Think about your work life for example. There is adult bullying, there is competition for your job, there are those coworkers you can’t stand either because they are brownnoses or because they’re always putting you down. And many times we have a miserable boss which seems like we can never do anything right.
Given that we spend much of our lives at work, when we don’t have that support it can be very difficult to get through day to day life.
Home LifeÂ
It would be nice to say we’re all living in a supportive environment at home but the truth is the majority of us aren’t. We often have a spouse that doesn’t support us. We may not think of it but when we’re trying to make lifestyle changes, when we make healthy meals and they won’t eat it, when we want to be more active and they won’t join in, this is all lack of support.
You may even be interested in more details on why it’s easier to gain weight in a relationship.
Children is another aspect of home life and support or lack there of. They could be quite young but didn’t start out making healthier decisions because we as parents have just started ourselves. So trying to get them to change their habits is a mission on it’s own.
If the kids are a little older, they really don’t care much about their health. They love candies, chips, pop and anything else marinated in sugar. So getting them to make healthier decisions or eating the new food you’re making can cause quite an uproar and can be a constant and emotional draining battle.
So now that I’ve pointed out some of the major areas where we lack support, let’s get into some benefits of finding that support to live in.
Do we know how much support can improve our lives?
So coming back to, do we know? Honestly I don’t think we do. I don’t think many of us have experienced a supportive group, something like a family, those that are there to support you, listen to you, answer your questions, offer motivation or someone simply to relate to.
Think about a place where you can go that’s safe, where you know there will be positive conversation, information or a smiling face. Wouldn’t that change your day?
What if you had constant reminders of, ‘you are worth it’, that ‘you can achieve your goals’. What if you had friendly people to wake up to every morning?
I thought I’d share an example of what was shared with me on my Birthday from our private and supportive Facebook group. I never expected anything like this and maybe I didn’t realize just how supportive our members are until I read what you’ll read below.
Quite honestly, I had to fight back tears as I read messages and saw pictures of how thoughtful our members are.
An example of my Birthday
This is what I wrote to our group within one of our private membership sites:
I wouldn’t say my BDay is my favourite day of the year. Might sound odd being the face of a company. And although I seem to stand out in different areas I wouldn’t say being the center of attention is my favourite thing.
Take the radio for example. It’s no accident all you hear is a voice, I’d imagine many of the listeners don’t know what I look like. Posting pictures of myself all over the place is still something I shy away from although something I’m getting better at in hopes to better connect with our audience.
Then of course there’s this membership group which fits me perfectly, I never would have considered posting any ‘vacation’ videos and pics publically but because many of us have been together so long, because we talk everyday and because this isn’t a public forum, I feel more comfortable welcoming you in to more of my personal life.
This morning we enjoyed a lovely breakfast sandwich outside with a freshly squeezed orange juice, with the ocean breeze and smell of the ocean.
We then walked down to the beach, and enjoyed a meditation as the waves crashed. This morning I decided to do a meditation on what I was grateful for, which is also a daily written exercise.
And what comes up time and time again, is this group. Words can’t describe how grateful I am to be able to visit with you each day. To come to a supportive community, to find inspiration, both ask and answer questions and feel supported on a daily basis. This was a dream of mine that you all made happen and continue to by being here with us month after month.
Thank you all for being here and being a part of our community that we’ve all built together.
Friends or Business?
Here’s what I wrote on a post on our True Form Facebook Page:
Funny how when they tell you how to run a business they say ‘don’t make friends with your clients’. I’d say that couldn’t be more wrong.
With these particular ladies and the rest of our Monthly Membership, we talk or hear from each other every. single. day. That’s right. We vent, share stories, open up our homes, health and lives. How is that not personal?
I get to wake up every morning (throughout the day), and every evening talking to people that want to live healthy lives, encourage and be there for one another.
I couldn’t be more grateful for the friendships we’ve built together.
From left to right: Dorothy Keith, Louise Landry, Vanda Turney and Rhonda Czerniak. So happy we got the chance to meet in person. You ladies (and our group) inspire me every single day.
I’m not the only one
I recently had the opportunity to visit and then interview celebrity training Jenn Santana and it was clear from the moment I walked into her studio, she had a standard of making people feel warm and welcomed in her own little community.
Myself being a perfect stranger, she welcomed me with a smile, she introduced me to member after member that walked into her studio that instantly made me feel welcome. So I asked her about it and she told me how important it was to her that she created a supportive environment for herself and clients.
Click the play button below to listen to our full interview.
Living in your very own supportive environmentÂ
Picture this, you wake up in the morning and head to you computer or flip through your phone. Except instead of flipping through your news feed you head to a private and supportive group.
You see a picture of food posted from the night before, then you see a healthy breakfast someone posted that instant.
Later that day you see a notification that someone just finished a workout. Someone then asks how to prepare the dinner that’s on the meal plan.
Then you see a positive quote one of the members put up that brightened your day.
Finally you get home after a long day, don’t really feel like working out but you see another posts as you’re sitting there thinking of reasons why you should skip your workout, someone posted their steps for a challenge that’s going on within the group. So you pick yourself up and head to your workout area and push through another workout.
Now you’re not sure what to do but since you have exactly what to do planned for you, you don’t even have to think about it.
This is reality, this is what happens within our Monthly Membership group and this is why it’s so important living in a supportive environment.
The truth is, motivation isn’t always there, direction certainly isn’t, there’s rarely accountability, so no one really knows if you skip that workout. And nutrition, well that’s a beast of it’s own.
What to make, what to buy, how to prepare it, how to make it taste good. Sure you can get a recipe online but is there constant support, is there likeminded individuals making that same meal on that same night almost doing it with you?
Monthly Membership
Within our monthly membership program we have recipes and grocery shopping lists and tell you exactly what to eat and how to prepare it each and every week. We have weekly workout schedules all done for you by professionals that include printable pdf’s, video explanations and more.
On top of that we offer a private and supportive group where you can vent, ask questions, open up, feel supported, stay motivated, and more than anything be around people just like you that want to feel supported and can feel supported by being a part of a team that’s all working towards living a healthy lifestyle.
If you’d like to hear what other members say about our group we have a full page with both written and video testimonials that you can check out here.
