Look around you. What do you see? Grey or Green. Love or depression? Kindness or competition? Today I am asking you to really look and feel, the past, the present and look into the future. What has changed in your particular lifestyle in the last 20 years?
The silly game “do you remember when?” is not so silly when you really think about it.
Food was organically grown, by farmers and not mega cooperations, the back yard was one powerful app with a huge selection of games, friendships were human relationships, watching a movie was more than looking at a 50” HDV flatscreen and industrialization way more comprehensible.
Today the need for convenience is attacking our planet, everything needs to be a finger snap away and we the people are the biggest audience of an unstoppable nightmare.
We are a whiteness, a conductor, and also a victim of this rapid change which jeopardies the health of our planet.
So in 2017 with the fastest rate on record, we have used up a full year’s worth of Earth’s ecological resources in just over seven months.
Breathing clean air today is a privilege.I feel very fortunately that i have that privilege every day of the year, because of where I live.On a tiny island away from pollution, surrounded with old growth trees and a forest which renews a clean air supply by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen day by day. Ichoose this island, this lifestyle, because I believe in being healthy and that has a lot do do with living mindfully and thus supporting a sustainable future.
I know that for the majority of the population it is not that easy to choose where and how they live. It took me years to make this happen. I lived in very big cities where the smog was so dense that I couldn’t see one street away.Cities which could offer me anything I wanted including money and fame.An abundance of entertainment and endless distractions to not be true to myself.I can not deny that I had fun back then, that my life was good.Until I woke up.
Unfortunately time seems to run much faster since consume output and it’s technology behind it entered the ultimate race to catch everyone in its spiderweb. The planet became the playground of a few major players which try to control even our most basic human needs –food and water. They try to manipulate our opinions and deny our freedom of speech.
Although history has shown us that the power of people could and did successfully make changes in crises, the world has now changed so much that people are now controlled by power.Us, the people became puppets of a giant monopoly game of power hungry politicians and cooperations,but also to our own demise, “followers” became friends,“likes” became the measurement of self-esteem
and control means success.
The internet and the media channels influence and dictate the wants and wishes people dream of and that makes it very easy for all beneficial parties to create an artificial lifestyle bubble, a money machine working on death row.
Decreasing the demand of useless and wasteful products will wake up the suppliers when humans act united.A shift to a minimal world could bring back old values, where we choose kindness over corruption and clean air over consumption.
I choose to step away from a consume oriented society and exchanged convenience with patience. I believe in anticipation,just like when I was a little kid waiting for my birthday.
How about you? If you share some of my thoughts it might be time for:
1. Join a movement like 1million woman a movement which states: “The world needs a lifestyle revolution.It’s easy to sign a petition or to put pressure on governments and march on the streets, which we have to do, but we can’t do that on the one hand, and then live our lives with overconsumption on the other.” Natalie Isaacs, 1 Million Women Founder & CEO
3. Exchange your Facebook session with a dinner party, invite your best friends for brunch, a card night or a picnic in the park. Let your phone rest at home.
4. Invest in quality and shop local, say no to GMO and avoid online shopping.
5. If you are a runner start being a plugger.A new fitness trend coming from Sweden which went viral already for runners. The combination of running with intermittent squatting or lunging to collect rubbish will get you in shape even more.
6. Write down where your money goes for one month and re-consider your expenses when it comes to consume versus needs.
7. Vote, make your mark.
8. Learn how to fix things, it is a very empowering experience to repair stuff.
9. Use public transportation whenever possible.
10 .Turn off your wifi if you do not have to use it, you will all a sudden have much time on your hands.
Well this list could be endless and I will leave it to your imagination what you personally can do to reduce, reuse, refuse and recycle,to make a difference for securing a sustainable planet.
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