Healthier Consumers
In the spirit of the last few posts, I’d like to broach a subject that is very real for me right now. It is a subject that every group leader must start to ask themselves in the near future, and it is becoming evermore pressing and uncomfortable as time ticks away.
The pressure comes from the difference between our global population’s “business as usual” activities, and its understanding of the consequences of such an attitude. I am of course speaking of the increasingly harrowing state of our atmosphere, our oceans, our land use, and the staggering decimation of our fellow travellers on this beautiful planet, but most of all, of our financial-leaders’ catastrophic denial of it.
It seems the only shield available to filter such information is through humour - particularly satire, so here’s a couple of recent commentaries on climate-deniers-deniers, and 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) meeting - they’re both equally brilliant, and equally troubling.
I’m not about to wheel out the latest conclusive updates from every-single environmental agency around the world - its just too depressing ! And anyway, those keeping abreast of such things already know the state of affairs, while those who prefer their head in the sand, usually only bury it deeper upon exposure to such fun factoids.
It is of course good to understand the dire straits that we are in, but unless we can feel connected to the solution, then it seems only to deepen us into our traumatised consumer activities.
Hardly surprising that we all feel as disempowered as this orangutan defending its home from the machines that are tearing it down.
I have written much in the past on the power of our individual choices on these matters, and no doubt I will continue to do so.
What else is there to do…
But this is exactly my question… What else is there to do ?
I have spent the last 20 years whittling away my own version of this - wherever possible :
Stopped flying, stopped buying new things, running my car on chip fat, reusing and recycling everything, never leaving a tap running, heating my home on wood, choosing banks for their ethics, minimising food miles and supply chains, eating organic or growing my own, and making nature-friendly household products.
As well as making me feel good about minimising my footprint, I always thought I’d be an example to my community, my friends, my family… But alas, despite being venerated for my sacrifices, it never had the impact I thought it would - and my friends are pretty ‘out-there’ already...
Maybe that is harsh. Maybe we cannot measure the impact we have on one another…
And then there are the companies I have run, attempting to bring greater consciousness to how we affect ourselves, our bodies, and our planet with the choices we make.
I have sought to do this by citing the profound, the miraculous, the beautiful, in the hope that this sense of awe will reconnect us to the magnitude of our lives, and soften our perceived needs. But I don’t know that it has worked.
Maybe that is harsh. Maybe we cannot measure the impact we have on one another…
So this brings us, inexorably, back to the bedrock of my question…
Through the 20 years of detox retreats, and the 10 years of organised consciousness explorations, my attempts have been to encourage my brothers and sisters to walk lighter on the earth, with more reverence, more gratitude and with more understanding of what we are leaving for our grandchildren. Has it worked?
Or am I simply making healthier consumers ?
Metrics
There is no doubt that many have left the retreats feeling better about themselves. The glowing reviews and repeat custom say all they can - people do feel more engaged with their lives, more empowered, more energised, more enthused, and more grateful. No question.
But how to measure if all this effort has had any actual effect - on the ground ?
And what would that actually look like anyway ?
It seems to me that there is only one useful metric by which we can tell if someone actually feels better, more connected, healthier, more content - aside from the lip-service we pay to such concepts.
It all boils down to the one thing . . .
The choices they make
If we are actually feeling good about ourselves, then we naturally need less stuff.
There is only one way that contentment shows up… Otherwise it is just words.
And words ain’t gonna buy us more time in this beautiful world.
Disconnected
Poly Higgins - Ecocide lawyer
Imagine a society so disconnected from itself that we no longer recognised our innate urge to care for our children. A time of such selfish orientation and short-sightedness that we would have to legislate parents to look after their own kids, under threat of fine and incarceration.
Sounds terrible, no ? Apocalyptic ? Dystopian ?
Well, it is not so different from the current reality that we are having to inaugurate laws to protect the earth itself - the very well-spring of all life.
It is a sorry state of affairs when we are having to invent laws to define ‘Ecocide’ to protect the source of all health, food and well-being for us all… And worse than that, those laws are being resisted, diluted and undermined by the governmental and corporate powers.
Such is our level of disconnection from our most fundamental of family members - the very breast from which we all feed.
So yes, there is major movement available to us all in the power of our consumer £££s, but also vital is petitioning the bigger powers that be to speak, act, and believe, on our behalf… There is always more to be done on that front.
As a wise friend once said to me - “any 5 year old can see the solutions to this planet’s problems”….
My personal perspective on such things is massively informed by my experiences in Asia, where I lived for over a decade. Big chunks of this time were spent living on the edges of the forest, and on the periphery of the ‘civilised’ world.
When forced to carry all of one’s food and equipment from the markets down below, one gets a sense of the weight we have upon the world. I was fortunate to have a crystal-clear spring close to my house, but still I had to carry the water I used in my day-to-day.
This gave me a personal connection between my needs and the effort it took to fulfil them. To this day, I cannot stand the sound of a running tap, which harks back to those days, where if I carried it myself, there is no way I would let it run into the ground unused.
So I have a direct understanding that if I didn’t carry this water that leads to my house now, something else carried it for me. I ‘feel’ the effort that it took to bring it to me, even if the effort was not mine.
In our modern world the effort to bring water (and all other resources) to us is performed by electricity, which in turn is created by the burning of fossil fuels. Thus the effort comes from the earth.
I affectionately think of the earth as my mother ; that which feeds, clothes and houses me; she brings me everything that I need to survive. So if I leave a tap running, then I am deliberately wasting that which I have asked my mother to bring to me. And I am sure not going to waste the efforts of my mother - who works so tirelessly for me to be alive.
I also believe that we all share this ethic; this respectful connection to those that work hard for our benefit.
It is, of course, made more distant from our consciousness by modern living. IE: if we witnessed the effort that it took for someone (we love) to bring these resources to us, we would naturally be more respectful of their effort, and make full use of their gifts, so that they didn’t have to work so hard.
Wouldn’t we ?
So the question, as always, is our sense of personal connection to that which puts in the effort for us to have the privileges that we have.
I also had experiences much later of cycling on a dynamo to charge my phone (at a festival). It is incredible how much ‘ooomph’ it takes just to charge a phone, let alone a blender, a tv, electric lights, etc. And I thus give thanks for every drop of that energy too - that I don’t have to produce, but someone does. Someone to whom I owe my entire existence already.
And the knowledge that a car’s fuel tank contains the same calorific energy as a year’s worth of 40 hour weeks’ hard labour : - every tankful ! So, no, of course I don’t leave my car running unnecessarily…
And am constantly going round turning lights off when not needed.
But I do struggling with being the ‘energy police’…
Which leads us back to the question at hand…
How to convey the miracle that we are…
In a way that inspires awe and wonder…
And generates a deep respect for the Earth…
And leads to healthier people…
That are naturally happier people…
That ultimately need to consume less…
But more importantly, people that consume more consciously…
So as to leave more space for the myriad animals to live alongside us…
And buy us more time to learn from the older cultures that do all this inherently…
People that are so gloriously in love with themselves, each other, and the whole of Life, that they couldn’t possibly cause harm, and would do anything to protect that which they love.
I could do with some help with answering this question…
Any ideas ?