Have you ever thought of the inside of your house as an environment? It is such.

Behavioral professionals say that our environment affects our mental and emotional state of being as well as our physical daily activities. We are probably not aware of this influence. Have you every looked at your home’s interior and thought about how it affects you?

What is where you live to you? Is it a home or a residence? Is it your base of warmth, security, and love or just a place to fulfill the physical necessities of existence? Is it a sanctuary to let loose and be free from the demands and requirements of the outside world or just a place when there is no where else to go?

The financial advantages of home ownership is often listed as one of the reasons for it. Do you feel that you get non-financial advantages in your place of living?

Pride is often listed as an emotional reward for a house. Are you proud of the place you live and always look forward to going there and being there? Are you happy with what they see when people come to visit you?

Businesses, institutions, places of worship, stores, places of entertainment, restaurants, et cetera all put a lot of resources in their surroundings to make the experience there fulfilling. Is it not worth the same expenditure of resources to make our home environment the same?

As an extreme, some people treat their residence much like a service station only for people instead of cars. They use it as a place to eat (fill up with gas), a place for bodily functions and hygiene (rest room), sleep (rest area), et cetera. Other people go to the other extreme where their residence is the major factor in their non-business life. It is a palace or expression of economic-social status to be protected and preserved and only secondarily for their use (You can’t sit in that chair! It’s an antique!). Where do you put your self on this scale?

It is wise for every one to evaluate the effect their residential environment has on their physical and non-physical behavior and to expend the necessary resources to make that environment the best it can be? Be those resources physical, financial, mental, or emotional resources. Where are you on the matter?

Food for thought.