Tips to Start Living More Sustainably
Your regeneration starts from within
Co-published at Regenerative Spiral
Having always lived in cities, I have found it hard to be truly sustainable with my lifestyle. I first started with recycling and reducing. I’d look for more ethical and sustainable clothing or shoe companies to curb my shopping habits. When I realised the amount of plastics, paper, and styrofoam packaging I was recycling could be avoided (and that many cities don’t recycle), I knew I had to make more drastic changes: stop asking for delivery so much, bring my container for take-out, buy produce that’s not doubly wrapped in plastic. I also addressed my shopping cravings. After all, I had all the clothes and shoes I needed and learned the most environmental item is the one you didn’t buy.
Regeneration goes beyond sustainability. Think about it this way: the state of our planet should not be sustained, but rather, restored to her former, pre-destruction glory — regenerated. It starts with us looking within ourselves. Why do we consume so much so irresponsibly with nature? Why do we value speed/quantity over quality? Why do we define wealth as $$$ instead of clean water, healthy food and soil, and laughter with friends?
Changes came slowly and I learned (and am still learning!) a lot along the way. Here are some tips I’d like to share with you.
1. More compassion, less guilt
How many times do I feel guilty a day just because of the decisions I make? Buying my favourite drink in a plastic cup. Ordering delicious food that came in styrofoam boxes. Forgetting to bring my reusable shopping bag. Once we become painfully aware that our environment is being destroyed by the life our system has created — and that we are inevitably trapped unless we have enough disposable income to escape this reality — every little decision may result in guilt that slowly but surely builds within us.
At some point, we may become desensitised to guilty feelings because life goes on, but every news of hurricanes, forest fires, droughts, flooding reminds us that ecological destruction continues. In the place of guilt, we could build compassion. Compassion for ourselves, nature, and our community drives better decision-making. While a bit of angst and anger can shove us out of inertia, compassion is a way better motivator than guilt to keep us in the fight for a better planet.
2. Don’t save time, savour time instead
We’re so used to having instant satisfaction at our fingertips. We’ve forgotten that (good) things take time. Nature certainly takes time. You can’t rush a pregnancy, good compost, growing vegetables, building muscles, or fostering relationships. If we honour the natural timeline of things, we realise that decisions may become more sustainable in our lives. Instead of ordering something straight from Amazon, go to your local mom-and-pop shop. Instead of doing a 7-minute workout, explore a new part of your neighbourhood on foot. While it’s not possible to always take the slower way, attempting to slow things down will have you realising that all the speed and convenience of life was created by the capitalist system, and not for good reason.
Life is not about saving time, it’s about savouring time.
3. Connect with nature within yourself
Humans are nature. We are animals. We need certain things to be healthy, like chemical-less earth-grown food, a good night’s sleep in total darkness, quiet time to destress, social contact with loved ones, clean water; and the list goes on. The sustainable choice is usually the healthy choice.
Connecting with nature also promotes our empathy for all the life around us and makes us want to protect our planet home even more, not that we need more reason to! Instead of coming from a place of guilt or shame (we’ll get to that in a bit!), we will change lifestyles and mindsets willingly, autonomously, and happily.
4. Sharing, not shaming
For those of us growing up in the capitalist system, we’re so ingrained with certain belief systems and lifestyles that it’s hard to imagine otherwise. Instead of shaming others into climate action and living more green-ly, we could share our little daily discoveries. So a friend has lots and lots of plastic bags accumulated from grocery shopping. Wouldn’t it be fun to look up different things to upcycle the bags? Perhaps your sibling is looking for a new blender because their last one burned out, couldn’t you both look for places to repair it instead of throwing it out? Possibilities are endless when we put our hearts and minds together. In the process, we may even learn something new! Speaking for myself, I’ve picked up new hobbies and passions, like gardening, growing mushrooms, sewing, and fermenting!
Sharing is infinitely more loving than shaming. After all, we do this out of love for our planet home, Pachamama, don’t we?
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