The Health “Hack” No One Talks About
When I worked at a psychiatric hospital in the suburbs of Kansas City, one aspect of patient care left a lasting impression on me.
Part of treatment involved observing a patient’s personal environment. No one was forced to clean, and it was never framed as punishment or compliance. But we paid attention to their space.
Was the bed reasonably made?
Were clothes put away?
Was the bathroom kept in usable condition?
Was the bedside table free of old food, empty cups, or excess clutter?
These observations weren’t just about aesthetics. They functioned as clinical indicators.
A patient’s ability to maintain a basic level of cleanliness and organization was often considered when assessing readiness for discharge and independent living. It reflected executive functioning, cognitive clarity, emotional regulation, and capacity for day-to-day self-care.
In practice, the pattern was consistent. When someone was overwhelmed or acutely unwell, their environment often deteriorated alongside them. As they stabilized, their space tended to follow. The room came back online as the person did.
This wasn’t about perfection or rigid standards. It was about bandwidth.
My Relationship With Cleaning
That insight landed differently for me because my relationship with cleaning growing up wasn’t neutral.
I grew up in a household where cleaning often carried stress. Sometimes it was framed as punishment. Other times it was reactive—everything left until the last minute before guests arrived, resulting in panic, overwhelm, and feeling behind before we even started.
As an adult, I had to consciously unlearn the automatic anxiety I associated with cleaning and organizing. The root of cleaning anxiety connects to the broken fiat monetary system we find ourselves in as well.
Over the past several decades, the economic reality for families has changed significantly. Since the 1970s, the percentage of households requiring two full-time working parents has roughly doubled. This is where my family fell. Mom is a school teacher. Dad runs a small business. Growing up, my mom briefly worked as a stay at home mom before financial demands becoming unmanageable, forcing her back into the classroom. At the same time, inflation has steadily eroded purchasing power, leaving families with less margin—financially, mentally, and physically.
Many households weren’t disorganized because of lack of care. They were and are stretched thin.
When both parents are working, time becomes scarce. Energy becomes rationed. Tasks like cleaning shift from maintenance tasks to luxury tasks when time permits. Not because people don’t value order, but because they’re operating at capacity.
Environment as an Indicator
What I observed in clinical settings helped reframe this further.
The state of someone’s environment wasn’t treated as a character assessment. It was information. One data point among many indicating how much internal capacity someone had at that moment.
That same framing applies outside of hospitals.
A disorganized environment often reflects:
cognitive overload
nervous system strain
lack of time for recovery
prolonged stress without adequate support
Improving one’s environment can reduce background stress and make daily functioning easier. Sometimes internal stability leads to environmental order. Other times, small environmental changes help create the conditions for improved clarity and regulation.
A Practical Reframe
When we talk about improving health—through nutrition, movement, light exposure, or sleep—a tidy environment is rarely mentioned. Yet it quietly shapes how easy or difficult daily life feels.
The internal and external tend to move together. Paying attention to one can offer insight into the other.
It’s all connected.
So the next time you think about ways to “optimize” or improve your health, consider your environment.
What does its current state say about your life?
Is it organized or chaotic?
Disheveled or intentional?
Are there objects you’re holding onto that belong to a past version of yourself?
You may find that by tending to the external physical world you live in, you also begin to create more space, clarity, and calm within your internal world.
“As an engineer the way I describe it is that the input signals we need are in nature. We just have to embrace them.”
Love the simplicity of this quote from
@Tristan 🌞⚡️ from decentralization and health panel run by
@Efrat Fenigson at
@Bitcoin's Parrot - thank you for resurfacing this stellar content.
Also on the panel
@Dr. Alexis Cowan , Kevin McKernan, & Jack Kruse.
I couldn’t find Kevin or Jacks tag so please tag below if you know it.
