Going green and adopting sustainable environmental practices is an effective way to ensure a better world for ourselves, kids, and future generations. If we want to thrive on this planet we call earth, we must practice an earthy lifestyle. The earthy living guide is designed to let you understand how you can manage stress, improve your health, and create a better world for yourself and others.
Earthy lifestyle is the practice of living to make the environment greener, better and protected. As a result, it means making sustainable environmental choices that will positively impact humans, animals, plants, the atmosphere of the earth. It means making intentional lifestyle choices that will cause insignificant environmental impacts. To practice a more earthy lifestyle, you need to watch and manage your consumption to include significant portions of natural foods. Naturally-sourced foods are environmentally-friendly as it does not demand too much from nature like artificial ones. Since you can’t always manage what corporations do, you can buy locally-sourced products from a farmer’s market or plant your garden and make your harvest. Reduce your consumption, reuse when you can, and recycle to repeat the process. This is a earthy way of living.
The Definition
Earthy living is predicted by sets of principles and guidelines that keep you from making negative impact on the environment. By implication, you will be mindful of where your resources are sourced from and how you use the resources. Not only this, but you will be mindful of how you dispose of those resources in a bid to leave the environment better than you left it. Put differently; it means practicing intentional living to protect the environment and its inhabitants regardless of who they are. This implies that you are concerned about human lives and all that you want to protect the animals, plants, the atmosphere, and any other co-tenant of the earth.
Earthy living is usually backed by the conviction and wiliness to live intentionally, a lifestyle devoid of excess and selfishness. Intentional living means living for the things that give you joy and satisfaction after realizing that your life and the life of others are affected by the choice you make. As a result, you are forced to evaluate your culture and goals to create a positive atmosphere and a lasting positive impression on the environment. It means learning to make better decisions and live in a manner that aligns with your sense of purpose and self. Do note that the sense of purpose is to find peace with the environment amid the chaos associated with modern living. Now that you know, how do you practice earthy living?
6 Ways to Practice Earthy Living
1. Embrace nature and spend more time in it
The fast-paced life we live often makes us forget how beautiful life can be outside the hustles of our daily bread. However, when you take time off and let things unwind, you will realize you have been missing on so much.
For example, a simple routine like making space for a walk every day can affect your mental and physical health and help tilt a better relationship with nature. The most important part of embracing an earthy lifestyle, is to understand and experience nature first. If you don’t have a forest you can walk in; you can take a stroll through an urban park. Walking for 45 minutes every day, you will have more time to think about plans for your life, enjoy 45 minutes of intuitive movement, and come to appreciate the nature around you. If anything, the green or walking in a natural setting makes us feel calmer and at peace.
While outdoors, you can sit at a nice spot and try to acknowledge your thoughts and let it flow for a few minutes while you are outside. More than helping the environment, you will be doing yourself a lot of good mentally and physically.
While you’re at it, you might as well bring a bag with you on the walk, and start collect some rubbish you see along the way home. 5 minutes of this a day, will keep the climate change away. Imagine all of us doing this exercise every day? This warms my heart.
2. Bring the earth inside
Most products in our homes are either from chemicals or include little to remind us of our connection to nature. Therefore, you should try out more natural products and ingredients over artificial ones products. This could be something easy as just making your own cleaning products with Castile soap and vinegar, or swapping the plastic toothbrush with an eco-friendly bamboo one. In addition, you can also embrace the idea of having garden near your home that brightens the atmosphere and lets you appreciate nature. Here are some easy suggestions to how you can make your home more earthy, sustainable and eco-friendly:
- Plastic toothbrush –> Bamboo toothbrush
- Toxic cleaning products –> A homemade cleaning products made out of Castile soap, water and vinegar
- Plastic dishwasher brush –> Natural wooden brush with bamboo hair
- Women’s sanitary pads –> A menstrual cup or reusable cotton sanitary pads
- Plastic food wrap –> Silicone wrap/bags or beeswax wraps
- New clothes with poor quality in the fast fashion industry –> Second-hand clothes made of high quality natural materials or fix teared clothes
- Buy and toss mentality –> Reuse, repurpose, compost or donate/gift items. This also includes actually eating leftovers or freeze/cook foods that are about to go bad, instead of creating food waste.
3. Watch your consumption
Choosing natural foods above the ones treated with harmful chemicals is ideal for healthy living and a sustainable environment. Hence, you should look for minimally-processed foods grown from parent plants or organic seeds when you shop. Take a trip to the farmer’s market and choose from an assortment of natural foods. These foods will typically come without packaging and prevent further waste of earth’s resources.
Furthermore, by reusing the stuff in your home that you already have, fixing it, or buying second hand, will additionally contribute to a more earthy lifestyle.
4. Watch your energy consumption
Water and energy are significant parts of daily living. However, you should use them in limited quantities if you want the least environmental impacts. Look for means to reduce water and energy consumptions by finding substitutes and alternatives. For example, you can draught-proof your home during winter and use proper insulation or solar heating solutions. Apart from this, if you need less and more effortless changes to do, you can try a more fun challenge. For each time you shower, set the timer on your phone, and shower for 1 minute less than the previous time. See how long you can go. Did you know, that if you shower for only 5 minutes each time, you’ll only create around 2.25 lbs. of carbon dioxide, instead of 4,5 lbs. in a 10 minute shower?
5. Practice optimal recycling
Reusable items are more sustainable than disposable ones. For example, instead of buying a disposable grocery bag, you can buy a reusable one. This way, you will save the cost of an extra purchase, save time on looking for another one, and reduce waste from disposables plastic bags. Whatever you buy and don’t discard immediately will ultimately save cost in the long run. This is crucial to reduce waste, and in turn, to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
Waste from disposables is one of the significant environmental problems. Not just to humans, animals have also had to bear the brunt of this unhealthy practice. For example, most plastics end up in the water and harm precious animals, a situation that is avoidable if we watch and manage how we dispose of our waste.
Always try to reduce your the amount of garbage that you accumulate. However, whenever you need to buy something packaged, recycling will help you reduce how much waste you dispose of for a healthier environment. Make sure to dispose of the items to where they belong in places that won’t litter or harm the environment.
6. Tell a friend
Don’t be silent in your quest for a more sustainable environment. Where you can, tell a friend about the importance of an earthy living to spread the word. More importantly, live what you preach for others to see and let them follow your lifestyle. For example, pick up trash when you see it and let others see it. The idea is to strive to make a difference that will inspire others to make a change. Once we’re actively open about our earthy living, the movement will start rolling, and only get bigger and bigger.
How we act as individuals affects the animals, other humans, and the earth. Hence, you should make decisions that will aid the well-being of everything and everyone. Take time off and slow down. Swap out consumerism for conservatism. The earth has given so much that it is only proper to respect and honor it in return through hearty earthy life choices.