When we think of self-care, that’s exactly what we think of, the self. This is not so bad an idea, after all, you don’t practice self-care to make sure others are pampered, and for many who focus on caring for their families and loved ones all day, a little me-time is healthy. As such, sustainable self-care might sound a little paradoxical. When caring for your wellbeing, you’re not necessarily focusing on the entirety of the environment around you. But of course, the environment is us in how we rely on it and how much it affects us through and through.
Can self-care be sustainable, then? And to what extent can we make good decisions on that front, without necessarily depriving ourselves of the rejuvenating comfort we need to get through the year? In this post, we’ll discuss a few methods you can use to achieve that exact outcome. It just feels better to know that your actions have made the world a better place or offset the resources you used. Without further ado, let’s get started:
Mindful Eating Habits
A good diet is tantamount to self-care. It’s also good to try and focus on sustainable efforts when and where we can. Of course, organic produce has been grown without the interference of artificial chemicals that may be toxic or harmful to the wildlife or environment. While you might not wish to become vegetarian or vegan, and that’s valid, it can be nice to bring in some of those products to lessen our meat-eating. Meat alternatives such as tofu, protein-filled beans, lentils and more can help us curate a diet that depends less on the animal agriculture industry, which can help you rely on that system and its intensive use of resources.
Exercise without Resources
Some people enjoy exercising in an air-conditioned gym, and there’s nothing wrong with that, particularly in the winter. That being said, exercise can also contribute to almost zero emissions or energy uses if you implement it well. Using basic equipment like running shoes or yoga mats can and will last for years, while also allowing you to exercise on your own time, burning no fuel getting to and from the gym or contributing to its operational capacity.
A run in the park during the summertime, yoga poses at home, stretching, and implementing bodyweight exercises, all of that make a healthy difference and it lessens your impact on the environment, too. It’s also a great excuse to get out into nature and have fun, which is the grounding principle of anyone who begins to fall in love with sustainability and eco-living.
Eco-Friendly Self-Care Products
The products we both support and use, just like the foods we eat, can affect wider industries. For example, supporting products made with completely natural ingredients at local stores, learning when to use a sulfate-free shampoo, trying to minimize your plastic use (soaps and refillable soap containers can help here), and even taking less showers (such as with baths to conserve water usage) can be a fantastic help. Ultimately, there are no perfect products that will be completely emissions-free, even handcrafted soap will need to be gathered or delivered through some kind of logistics, but the truth is that you can drastically reduce your environmental impact with these efforts, especially over time.
Relaxation Practices
Sometimes, the best approach to sustainability you can curate is that of adjusting your attitude. Now, let us discuss something quite different from simply knowing and educating yourself about climate or environmental impacts, which we’re sure you do anyway. To put it simply, it’s very easy to feel very tense, worried, and even outraged at climate issues. From the inaction taken by various countries to companies polluting the environment, to those who might not care about their impact. All of this can be frustrating, especially if you are quite sensitive to these issues. Unfortunately, this can quite easily cause you to feel less objective and focused on what you can achieve – which is plenty.
So, relaxing, meditating, and looking to the small changes you can make, as opposed to those you can’t, will help you sustain your sustainable practices over the years. This is as much for your mental health as anything else. If you need to curate your news feed, or focus on a few small tasks (like keeping a veg garden) and doing them well, that’s fine too. Climate issues cannot be solved from the perspective of crippling worry, but instead optimistic self-directed effort. You deserve to enjoy that latter approach.
Community Engagement for a Greener Cause
Certain hobbies or practices are not only healthy habits or hobbies, but they can help connect you to social causes that help tip the scale in a positive direction, even if only in your own area. So for example, perhaps you hope to become a little more self-sufficient. A noble goal, worth investing in. To achieve that, you might decide to rent out space in the local allotment. Here you not only support through your rental payments the green lot itself, but you might also bind yourself to a reforestry project through that, or simply pick up litter in your local park. Having this available to you can feel inspiring to say the least, as you feel connected to the general movements towards sustainability in your area.
Being local-focused can also remain a fantastic measure of supporting your environment, because after all, the environment is not a vague monolith, but also that which is located around you. For this reason, having a direct impact on the small-scale changes you can see, including in your local politics, will have a tangible effect.
Imagine if there were a dozen just like you (and there often are) affecting every local area someone could live in. Well, that would drive change and healthy improvement more than almost anything else. Moreover, your hobbyist approach allows for self-care through productive worth, working comfort, and a sense of making real change. With this advice, you’re sure to see how self-care can inspire a worthwhile sustainability effort.
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