6 Powerful Ways Self-Care Can Sustain The Planet
Too harsh? Bare with me.
Say you broke up with your partner. The next thing you know you’re eating all the high-carb processed crap you can find. You don’t sleep as much. Your walk to work morphs into a drive. You feed your loneliness with mindless spending.
In your moment of pain, it's hard to care. But your choices create a ripple effect.
Now, let's flip the coin.
According to a study called the Greenlandic Perspective Survey, 90% of Greenlanders acknowledge that climate change is happening. This is causing them to develop a condition called climate anxiety. [1]
Psychiatry Research found that children who are exposed to dirtier air by the age of 12 are three or four times more likely to develop depression by the age of 18. [2]
Anxiety. Depression. Just a few of several effects that creep in when we’re having a hard time. And it can happen when we don’t take care of where we live.
Mindfulness. How can it help the planet?
Take a deep breath. Exhale. Now take another one.
Ah. Mindfulness…
Taking care of our mental health is the center of all our actions, whether we notice it or not. You can tell how good your day has been by the actions you took to maintain it.
Mindfulness practices such as meditation and breathing exercises allow you to become aware of your actions. It draws attention to everything you do, from the food you eat to the entertainment you choose, to your transportation, simply because you are thinking about what you’re doing.
Keep breathing…
...And keep a gratitude journal to recognize the abundance in the here and now, thus being grateful for what you already have.
A strong mental capacity helps clear the cobwebs of the issues you may face.
Next time you’re feeling crappy, breathe deeply.
And then take a walk. Make a good home-cooked meal. Read. Notice how you feel - if even on a microscopic level - when you mindfully choose something that benefits you.
And while you may not notice your good choices, rest assured those choices will carry down the line to your environment.
Go the earth-friendly transportation route.
The single largest contributor to air pollution comes from planes, trains, and automobiles.
Transportation increases global temperatures and eats at the ozone layer. It creates acid rain, which damages crops, vegetation, and buildings. It causes oil leaks, which seep into groundwater, contaminating lakes, rivers, and wetlands.[3]
Wanna improve your health and curb the harmful effects of pollution? Get your sweat on, increase those endorphins, and walk or ride a bike. Some fresh air and a little Vitamin D wouldn’t hurt either.
Your mind, body, and planet will thank you for it. Are you noticing a theme here?
Food: Buy local, buy whole.
Food. Please tell me you’ve thought about where it comes from, how it's processed, and the impacts it makes on our environment. And if you haven’t, you should. Because the choices we make regarding our food conjure a whole slew of impacts.
Now, I realize not everyone has access to healthy fresh food. That’s a subject of human and political inadequacies that could dominate the internet. (Which frankly, it should.)
But consider this: the introduction of GMOs has proven harmful to animals that consume it. It has reduced the level of biodiversity. And because GMOs use bacteria and viruses to modify, they adapt to create new bacteria and viruses.
Yikes.
Speaking of a lack of biodiversity, sugar is a commodity that is responsible for more loss than any other crop, according to a report by the WWF. This is due to habitat destruction, water usage, pesticides, and wastewater discharged during production.[4]
To put this in perspective, thousands of acres of the Florida Everglades have become lifeless marshes due to excessive fertilizer runoff and irrigation drainage, all due to sugar cane farming. The Great Barrier Reef also suffers due to large quantities of pesticides and sediment of sugar farms. [5]
And then - yet again - there’s transport. Some food travels on long truck trips and overseas. Look at the air pollution and fuel consumption, not to mention the energy required to pack and store food in facilities.[6]
This is all something to think about next time you reach for something not local, processed, and packed with sugar.
Eco-friendly your lawn care.
Ask yourself. What’s the one thing you love about being in your backyard? Or in any green space? Could it be that it’s (gasp) green? That there is something grounding and fresh-smelling and lovely about it that centers you?
Nature, baby. Gotta love it.
Why should you care? If your dog is anything like mine, they like to munch on the grass now and then. Which should make you think twice when you consider lawn pesticides contribute to the risk of canine malignant lymphoma by as much as 70%. [7]
Where’s the peace of mind in that?
What’s more, toxic chemicals seep into the groundwater and travel to local vegetation, rivers, and streams. This in turn pollutes waterways, fish, and a great deal of other living things.
Remember that mindfulness thing I mentioned earlier?
Turns out that being outside in a beautiful (if small) green space can do some good. I know lawn care may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But getting outside and playing in the dirt is quite therapeutic.
So while you’re out, here’s what you can do. Pull the weeds instead of spraying them with harmful chemicals. If you must spray, make your concoction.
Wanna know how? Here are a few suggestions:[8]
Pour boiling water over them. Yes, really. This won’t kill the weed at the roots, but in a pinch, it will work.
Place newspaper in your garden and top it with mulch. This cuts access to the sun and air supply and prevents new seeds from forming. Plus, newspaper will naturally decompose.
Use lemon juice. Its high-acidic content kills weeds within one or two days. If you need something a bit stronger, you can mix lemon juice with vinegar.
There’s one more thing. You might want to consider growing a garden. Don’t give me your excuses. No matter where you live, it can be done. Save the plastic waste (more on that later), lower the risk of ingesting harmful chemicals, and grow the damn thing. Plus, your taste buds will thank you.
Want to know how? Check out my blog post here.
Choose all-natural household products
Hold onto your knickers. This may scare you.
Did you know that cleaning products are not regulated by the FDA because they are not meant to be ingested?
Like, really?!
Nevermind what the kiddo might put in his mouth or what the dog might lick up off the floor, let’s be completely clear about the other ways to ingest the thing.
Like touching the thing. Or inhaling the thing.
Sloan Barnett, author of Green Goes With Everything, states that companies only have to list “chemicals of known concern.” She continues by saying, “The fact is that the government has no idea whether most of the chemicals used in everyday cleaning products are safe because it doesn’t test them, and it doesn’t require manufacturers to test them either.”[9]
This statement should be enough to give everyone pause about what exactly they’re purchasing. It’s only been since 1978 that lead was finally prohibited in paint. (And by the way, I don't believe paint was meant to be eaten…)
It should stand to reason that maybe - just maybe - there’s a chemical that can do the same amount of damage, if not more, and it’s lurking in the products we use daily. And that’s friggin scary.
Not that I’m trying to fear monger…
But let’s not forget those toxic chemicals have to be discarded somehow. Every time we throw those toxins in the trash or pour them somewhere... no matter how safe we think we’re being, nature still has to eventually face them. And by the way, nature has to face them when they’re manufactured in the first place.
So it’s like double taxation. And nobody wants that.
My point is this: Every time you buy a natural cleaner, you protect yourself, your family, your community, and your green earth. And every time you choose a natural cleaner, you allow nature-promoting companies to flood our stores with good-for-you (and thus good for the environment) products that weed out the toxic ones.
Food for thought. For your two-year-old, perhaps literally.
Single-use plastic. Just don't.
Not only can it be toxic to your health, but there’s a whole lot of ocean out there that can show us why plastic is a huge no-no.
Check this out. In a study commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, if we continue to produce and consume plastic at the current rate, we could see over 2.5 times more plastic in the ocean by 2040. That’s 661 million tons. [10]
Need another reason?
Over 800 animal species are affected by marine plastic pollution.
That’s a whole lotta stupid.
The time is well overdue to invest our consumer dollars in companies who take measures in refill and reuse efforts. These companies encourage subscription-based models. Basically, you use the thing, you turn the thing in, and then they refill the thing for future use.
It’s a fairly new concept, but mark my words - it’s coming. And as much as it’s in dire need, it will encompass business practices in a very big way in very short order.
One more thing… Recycling can only go so far. But if nothing else, doing our damn due diligence to recycle can help.
Our choices determine our alignment with nature.
Some people may think, “Living things? Meh… Why should I care?”
And if your dream is to live in a Mad Max hellscape, then I get it.
I think.
Not really.
What I’m trying to say is whenever we start concentrating on the way we treat ourselves, our practices change. We start making better food choices. We start exercising or taking more walks. We start going to sleep earlier and getting more rest. We start choosing products that protect our bodies.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, our choices are rooted in alignment or misalignment with nature. And thus we determine the burden on the natural world.
If you’re an eco-friendly company and you like this blog piece, schedule a call with me. Let’s discuss how I can help you with your own blogs, website content, ads, emails, and much more.
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517811830800X
[3] https://sciencing.com/effects-car-pollutants-environment-23581.html
[5] https://www.treehugger.com/foods-that-are-bad-for-the-planet-4869286
[7] https://www.livetradingnews.com/lawn-chemicals-linked-2-types-cancer-dogs-4602.html
[8] https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/homemade-weed-killer
[9] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/toxic-ingredients-cleaning-products/
[10] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/plastic-waste-oceans-solutions_n_5f196154c5b6f2f6c9f1f636