Blog Highlight: Caring about living a more simple life, a life free from the chains
of consumerism, can be the answer to helping you feel happier, more
fulfilled and connected with the people around you.
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Howdy! Having a baby sure does eat up ALL your free time! Thankfully I haven't gone astray from my journey to "save the planet". I'm still up to my ears in do-gooderness. :)
I recently picked up a book that I have had on my bookshelf for a few years now called Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness by Wanda Urbanska. 12 pages in and I'm hooked. It is singing a tune that I recognize, and have motivated me to start blogging once again about living a more compassionate, sustainable and simplified life. Another book I'm reading, This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, scares the whiskers off of me, but in a good way. It is fueling a powerful movement inside of me that I hope to share with others. I welcome ideas, support and critisim; anything that gets people thinking and talking about the nescessary change we all need.
The message that I am piecing together from the two books is this: consumerism is one of the key players in our depleting eco-systems and accelerating climate change. But how can that be? After much reflection and introspection I finally understand exactly how these things are interrelated.
You recycle, so you're doing your part to counteract your purchase right? Not quite. We all know that the merchandise in stores got there somehow, but have you ever really stopped to think about the impact that keeping stores stocked with such a variety of merchandise has on our environment? They require:
- production
- transportation
- maitaining property
- destruction (even recycling produces loads of emissions; trucks pick up your recycling, which is then dumped and processed at a plant, all of which burns fuel that would not have been used if we hadn't consumed in the first place).
My very basic knowledge of science is enough to understand the (potentially radical) impact; the vehicles used to transport goods all produce emissions (which are presumably the cause of climate change). When you see a label you probably think "Cool! This came from Spain/Italy/Mexico" etc. Yet somehow it never really occured to me that by purchasing that item, I am supporting an unmeasurable amout of emissions being injected into our air.
The definition of consumerism, promoting of consumer spending for the economic benefit of society, leaves me feeling puzzled and annoyed. I did not find any definition that included satisfaction, happiness or contentment. It seems there is really nothing benefial, at a core level, for the consumer. So why do we continue to fall into the consumer trap, allowing profitable corporations to dictate what we need to be happy? Becau$e there are million$ of people employed in the adverti$ing indu$try who are being paid to fabricate creative way$ of $elling you thing$ that you don't actually need. Think of it this way, if you really need something, your body will tell you? You don't need someone (especially one who is profiting from you) to tell you that you need it.
It has been proven, statistically and through unilateral personal experiences, that wealth, monitary and paraphernalic, do not amount to happiness. I personally find keeping up with trends exhausting; the endless expectation to look a certain way or posses certain things in order to belong or feel good. When we allow ourselves to consume to our heart's content, we somehow always want more. If we instead take only what we need in order to survive, anything extra then becomes a treat, and therefore makes us feel happier about it. This can apply to everything.
But why should you care about any of this if you don't believe in climate change? Caring about living a more simple life, a life free from the chains of consumerism, can be the answer to helping you feel happier, more fulfilled and connected with the people around you. If we stop allowing the consumer market to tell us what we need to be happy, we can instead focus our attention on building a stronger community. However far fetched it seems, it is possible.
My plan: I am now on a quest to simplic living. Each week, I will make a change in my life. Some will be easy, others will be difficult, but all will be working towards living a more sustainable life. My goal of writing this all down, in my limited free time, is to motivate others to change as well. We all have everything to gain from making these changes, whether you are a beleiver or non-believer.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Howdy! Having a baby sure does eat up ALL your free time! Thankfully I haven't gone astray from my journey to "save the planet". I'm still up to my ears in do-gooderness. :)
I recently picked up a book that I have had on my bookshelf for a few years now called Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness by Wanda Urbanska. 12 pages in and I'm hooked. It is singing a tune that I recognize, and have motivated me to start blogging once again about living a more compassionate, sustainable and simplified life. Another book I'm reading, This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, scares the whiskers off of me, but in a good way. It is fueling a powerful movement inside of me that I hope to share with others. I welcome ideas, support and critisim; anything that gets people thinking and talking about the nescessary change we all need.
The message that I am piecing together from the two books is this: consumerism is one of the key players in our depleting eco-systems and accelerating climate change. But how can that be? After much reflection and introspection I finally understand exactly how these things are interrelated.
You recycle, so you're doing your part to counteract your purchase right? Not quite. We all know that the merchandise in stores got there somehow, but have you ever really stopped to think about the impact that keeping stores stocked with such a variety of merchandise has on our environment? They require:
- production
- transportation
- maitaining property
- destruction (even recycling produces loads of emissions; trucks pick up your recycling, which is then dumped and processed at a plant, all of which burns fuel that would not have been used if we hadn't consumed in the first place).
My very basic knowledge of science is enough to understand the (potentially radical) impact; the vehicles used to transport goods all produce emissions (which are presumably the cause of climate change). When you see a label you probably think "Cool! This came from Spain/Italy/Mexico" etc. Yet somehow it never really occured to me that by purchasing that item, I am supporting an unmeasurable amout of emissions being injected into our air.
The definition of consumerism, promoting of consumer spending for the economic benefit of society, leaves me feeling puzzled and annoyed. I did not find any definition that included satisfaction, happiness or contentment. It seems there is really nothing benefial, at a core level, for the consumer. So why do we continue to fall into the consumer trap, allowing profitable corporations to dictate what we need to be happy? Becau$e there are million$ of people employed in the adverti$ing indu$try who are being paid to fabricate creative way$ of $elling you thing$ that you don't actually need. Think of it this way, if you really need something, your body will tell you? You don't need someone (especially one who is profiting from you) to tell you that you need it.
It has been proven, statistically and through unilateral personal experiences, that wealth, monitary and paraphernalic, do not amount to happiness. I personally find keeping up with trends exhausting; the endless expectation to look a certain way or posses certain things in order to belong or feel good. When we allow ourselves to consume to our heart's content, we somehow always want more. If we instead take only what we need in order to survive, anything extra then becomes a treat, and therefore makes us feel happier about it. This can apply to everything.
But why should you care about any of this if you don't believe in climate change? Caring about living a more simple life, a life free from the chains of consumerism, can be the answer to helping you feel happier, more fulfilled and connected with the people around you. If we stop allowing the consumer market to tell us what we need to be happy, we can instead focus our attention on building a stronger community. However far fetched it seems, it is possible.
My plan: I am now on a quest to simplic living. Each week, I will make a change in my life. Some will be easy, others will be difficult, but all will be working towards living a more sustainable life. My goal of writing this all down, in my limited free time, is to motivate others to change as well. We all have everything to gain from making these changes, whether you are a beleiver or non-believer.
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