2020 has most certainly got off to a red hot fiery start here in Australia! With large parts of our beautiful country being consumed by devastating, angry fires. I don’t need to give you all the stats around the devastation (and no one fully understands the total impact yet as there are still fires raging in some parts of the country) - but one thing is for sure, and that is that it’s been pretty awful living through this natural disaster and seeing the impact that it’s had on the environment and the people of this country!
We’ve all heard the saying “You reap what you sow” or more eloquently rephrased “future consequences are inevitably shaped by present actions”. Well fellow humans, THAT is what we are experiencing right now! We have been selfishly consuming our way through our beautiful Earth’s resources at an increasingly rapid rate and not giving nearly enough consideration to how our Earth might to be able to regenerate those resources and remain in equilibrium. We appear to be reaping the fruits of our over-consumption and it’s not a pretty picture. We are living in a world where a terrifying number of humans are suffering from inflammation-based diseases largely stemming from that which they are consuming. And we are living in a world that is so inflamed from our over-consumption of resources that our planet is desperately crying out for help by showing us what it’s feeling - Increasing global temperatures, angry weather phenomenons, species becoming extinct and islands of plastic built up in our oceans that are choking and entangling the innocent little creatures that co-inhabit this planet with us.
(Thanks to www.plasticpollutionsolutions.com.au for this powerful, sad image)
While we, as a collective of humans, have done a great job of causing destruction to both our planet and our own health in recent generations, there IS good news ... we have been so intricately and wonderfully designed and created that our bodies are able to heal themselves IF they are provided with the right environment in which to do so. We have been blessed with this beautiful planet Earth which provides for us and nourishes us and also has an amazing ability to heal and regenerate IF given the right environment in which to do so! Us humans have been placed at the top of the food chain and been given the responsibility to care for our Earth and that which is in it. We form part of an enormous eco-system that includes every plant, animal and tiny little microbe on this Earth and in order for us, as humans, to thrive, we need to be living in a healthy environment that is beautifully in balance and we hold the power to re-create the balance!
As we march on into this new year and new decade, may it be the start of big change in this world! As individuals, we may feel that we are limited with how much we can influence the politicians, world leaders and big corporations, we may get mixed messages about what is actually happening with our waste and recycling and whether it’s being processed responsibly or in fact ditched overboard a vessel into the ocean, but as consumers, each of us holds significant power in our very own hands. As consumers we hold the power to make choices - we can choose to make responsible consumption choices that will benefit our own health and the health of our planet, or we can choose to carelessly over-consume precious resources and accept the consequences of reaping what our over-consumption sows!
I sincerely hope that 2020 is the year in which humans start consuming more considerately (dictionary: adjective “careful not to inconvenience or harm others”), consuming more deliberately (dictionary: adjective “done consciously and intentionally” or “careful and unhurried”) and consuming more sparingly.
Let’s stop worrying about whether our Single-use plastics are in fact being recycled and what’s being created out of them, and start working out how we can live without the single-use plastics in our lives.
Let’s stop living lives where convenience is the number one priority, and start living lives that consider the consequences of convenience being far more important that the conveniences themselves.
Let’s stop thinking that there’s no point in trying if everyone else is continuing to waste resources carelessly and start realising that every piece of food, every take-away coffee cup or lid and every piece of plastic packaging around our food has a health and environmental impact that we, as individuals, can avoid.
Let’s stop blaming others for the state of our environment and our health and start taking responsibility for the things that we can influence in our every day lives that impact our health and the health of our environment.
Let’s stop feeling like we need to purchase and consume more because it is inexpensive and we can afford to do so, and start realising that our health and our environment are far better off when we consume less and focus on quality rather than quantity.
Let’s do less rushing around and do more quality time with the people that matter!
If you want to make positive changes to your health and environment but don’t know where to start, please follow this blog. Over the next few weeks I will be guiding you through area’s in your everyday life where you can make simple changes to your consumption habits that will have the biggest impacts on your health and our environment! I’m so excited for the ripple effect that will follow on from that first change you commit to making ...