#changing environments

Changing environments, a term I rarely use, but one I am more than familiar with, has been a focal point for me over the past few weeks. As someone who has navigated through various work environments ranging from small to large companies, corporate to non-corporate spaces, down to transitioning through various roles within, I would say my work environments have played a huge part in where I am today and what’s next for me.

So let’s talk about that - what is next for me? Well before we can move forward we have to understand what was learned from the past.

Taking it back to my first job out of undergrad, I spent that summer interviewing for 6 different teams within one organization which spanned the course of 3 months before I was actually hired. Obviously that was crazy and it really had nothing to do with me. They were going through a few transitions which was challenging for the hiring process, but I was fresh out of college looking for an in so I definitely held out to the best of my ability. Fortunately for me, that was my first lesson in adaptation. Once hired on the team I was honestly meant to be on (you know the whole everything happens for a reason thing) I took that notion of adaptation and kept it on my radar. Throughout my time at that organization we went through various changes from people, divisions, leadership and even industry. A lot took place in a short time and I had to jump on board and make it work for me.

Fast forward, I’ve run the gamut on just about anything you can imagine within a business structure - startups, mergers, new divisions, new roles, freelancing, starting anew within a corporate structure (an intraprenreur) and starting my own thing (an entrepreneur). I’ve had over a decade of experience observing my environments: what works, what doesn’t work, what fuels me and what definitely does not serve me anymore. It’s safe to assume that I am well versed on this and came to this conclusion recently when I was asked to speak on a college alumni summit for New York On Tech. The topic was imposter syndrome, code switching and changing environments. Each of these really deserve their own feature, but due to my current status as a freelancer and entrepreneur, my environments have been a huge decision maker in my next steps.

I realized that my adjustment mechanisms of embracing a new environment, you know, the pros and cons it can provide towards my ultimate goal (ie salary/rate, title) are definitely important, but not my only focus anymore. At this stage in the game, being part of a company/brand that literally fuels me is a priority. Being part of a company culture that encourages creativity, cultivation, collaboration and change provides me with hope. Understanding that I get to decide the type of work culture I interact with everyday and its impact has been a crucial revelation for me.

Has it been easy finding that? Of course not, but it’s not impossible and that is where hope and manifestation comes in. I’ve been working this adaptation angle forever and I’ve acquired a lot of tools to help carry me forward so I need them to carry me towards an environment that I can work with. An environment that will not be perfect (nothing is), but one where there is hope that encourages me to believe and always put my best foot forward within that space or for that particular brand/client.

How Amoebas Sense and Respond to Changing Environments

University of Tokyo researchers have demonstrated that the single-cell level response of the soil-dwelling social amoeba Dictyostelium, also known as cellular slime mold, to cell-to-cell communication molecules is based not so much on the absolute change, but rather on recognizing the change in the ratio (fold-change detection) in the concentration of the molecules; and that this property allowsD…

Equipped with high-tech versions of common city fixtures — namely, smart benches and digital information signs — and fueled by a “deploy or die” attitude, MIT Media Lab spinout Changing Environments is hoping to accelerate the development of “smart” cities that use technology to solve urban challenges.

“The idea is to bring simple technologies to the streets,” says CEO Sandra Richter, a former Me…

Boston Debuted Solar-Powered Benches

We previously profiled a company that wants to make street furniture pretty by installing solar panels on street furniture. Now another startup out of the MIT Media Lab, Changing Environments, is bringing solar-powered benches to Boston. The benches, called Soofas, are being installed this week in several city parks.

The idea for Soofas is a little bit different from Sistine Solar; for one…

Boston parks will soon let you charge your iPhone from solar-powered ‘Soofa’ benches

[cfsp key="adsense_336x280"]“The old familiar park bench is great for relaxing,” Jason O. Gilbert reports for Yahoo Tech. “Soon, it could also be great for energizing — your smartphone, that is.”

“At the White House’s first ever Maker Faire on Wednesday, the startup Changing Environments will show off the Soofa, a bench that can charge your cellphone using the solar power it collects throughout…

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When you come into a new environment, or return to one you've been away from for a while, you may find that your energetic body wants to ‘settle in’ by mimicking the energy of that environment. This means that, as an impaired empath, you will naturally take on the energies of the people/animals/plants living there, or the residual energy that the place holds. Even if you have reached the level of functioning empath through daily focus, you may need to re-balance yourself upon shifting environments, as large shifts in your surroundings and strong energies can still pose a challenge to you if you stop practicing your grounding/clearing/self-healing activities.

I received a bit of a wake-up call after returning to my parent’s home recently. Distracted, ironically, by my attempts to readjust to the environment, I kept putting off my meditation. I acknowledged that the energy in that place was different, but it didn't occur to me that I was being directly affected until I realized that my family members were experiencing the same symptoms as me. Aside from subtle emotional energies, I was taking on extreme hormonal fluctuations because of my sisters’ menstrual cycles (this is actually a common phenomenon among non-empathic women as well) and my father’s recently-developed nighttime cold-sweats. It just goes to show that there’s always more work to be done! :)