BLOG 4. Week 38 Affordances

This week our focus is on affordances.

M. Butler (personal communication, October 2011) states that when we are occupied we bring about changes in the human world and these activities/occupations can also bring about changes in us. In my activity of exercise, changes are being made to the environment and also by me, these changes occur from the affordances from the environment that allow the change to occur, these happen around me while I’m exercising. An example of an affordance is communication with my fitness instructor when I am exercising. The feeling of non-verbal communication given out from my instructor to me is the key for changing how hard I work on that day. They take on a trainer/ trainee role the way they communicate with their environment (the fitness group/class), they are motivators for the group and this brings about change in the way I think about what I am doing and the intensity I go to achieve my goals.

Ethically fitness can be a burden and this can be a press on the mental state that I am in about exercise. Burden on my activity is the motivation to actually attend my gym classes, the weather and studying (tired), in terms of affordances on this the environment can change how I am feeling, i.e once I am in my fitness class the feeling of burden is lifted because the environment allows for this as stated above. A change has occurred in me once I am occupied.

I have learnt that not only can affordances in the environment inflict change but I can also have impact on change, this can be changes in mood, motivation, others around me or a physical change in my body mind and soul.