Sustainability Means Living Consciously

At an event at the Sustainability Resource Center at the Sedona Public Library, I was asked an interesting question. “What are five things people can do to become more sustainable?” Frankly, I was surprised by the question, though I should not have been. I’ve been engaged in the dialogue on sustainability for more than 20 years now. But I’ve never been asked that particular question before.

After giving a fair response to the question, I began thinking about the guiding principles for living sustainably. I like simplicity when it comes to guiding principles. The more I think about it, the more I know that there is one thing we all can do to live more sustainably, and that is to Live Consciously. It was that realization that led to the development of the Living Consciously Forum in Sedona.

So, do I think that most people are now living unconsciously? Do I think that people sort of bump around in a kind of fog, doing whatever they do in a day without being truly aware of it? Well, yes, that is exactly what I think. As a person who has done precisely that at times in my life, I know how easy it is to live unconsciously. In fact, our entire consumer-based economy is built on developing a population that lives unconsciously. For, if people were truly conscious of how they lived, they wouldn’t continue to be thoughtless consumers. If people lived differently, they wouldn’t shop where they were told to shop, buy whatever they were told to buy, eat what they were told to eat, vote for whomever they were told to support, and on and on.

Okay, so what do I think Living Consciously means? To me, it means being aware of who you are. It means appreciating how you are connected to all things. It means understanding how the everyday decisions you make impact people, communities and the environment in ways that you cannot immediately see. It means allowing that knowledge of your connectedness to guide you.

Mindfulness – An Important Part
When I describe Living Consciously in these terms, I am asked, “Is this like Mindfulness?” As I understand Mindfulness, it is a practice of becoming intentionally aware of your thoughts and actions in the present moment. The practice can be done during meditation, becoming aware of your breathing and what you are thinking, for example. Or it can be practiced during normal activities, becoming aware the sun on your face and your own internal monologue about your experiences as you walk along.

In many ways, Mindfulness is part of Living Consciously. Developing an awareness of yourself in time and space is an important step. However, practicing Mindfulness also involves being non-judgmental about what you are doing and thinking. Living Consciously involves making judgments all the time.

Connecting with Nature
Being aware of your connections with the natural environment around you is also a key component of Living Consciously. As the outdoor guide, Steven “Benny” Benedict put it at the Living Consciously Forum, it is discovering the synergies between you and nature. We, like all other living things, depend on natural systems for our survival. For example, plants take the sunlight, water and nutrients from the soil, and, using photosynthesis, grow stalks, leaves and fruit. And in the process, they take in carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) and give off oxygen critical to life.

We depend on this process of plants for our food and the very air we breathe. In a basic way, we have a symbiotic relationship with plants. When we are Living Consciously, we help plants thrive so that we may thrive. When we live unconsciously, we encourage the destruction of plants, such as the loss of vast tracts of forests used to create junk mail. With that destruction, we threaten our own existence by killing off “the lungs of the world.”

Connecting with the Economy
Living Consciously also means understanding your intimate connection with the economy. That connection is more than getting a paycheck and shopping at your favorite stores. Economy comes from the Greek and means to manage your home or where you live. At the global economic level, it is how we manage our lives and the resources on Earth.

Whenever you buy something, you are telling the economy that you want more of that thing. If it is locally made by people who earn a living wage, you are saying, “Do more of that. I like that.” If you buy cheap products made by near-slave labor in Asia, you are saying, “Do more of that. I like that.” But do you like that? Do you like encouraging the continuation of destitution in other parts of the world for your convenience here? If not, and you continue to shop at big box stores instead of buying locally, you are living unconsciously.

The same holds true of your investments. Jan Bryan is a consultant in socially responsible investing from Prescott. At our Living Consciously Forum, she showed ways to make good money on your investments by supporting companies that uphold your values and work towards sustainable development. “We find that companies that have better safety and environmental records, that offer better employee benefits and support their local communities often have better management than other companies,” explained Bryan. “There are good companies all around us. You just have to do a little research before you invest.” That too is part of Living Consciously.

Connecting with Your Community
Living Consciously means being engaged with your neighbors and the community around you. Here in Arizona, around 17 percent of the eligible voters actually vote in the primary elections where the slate of candidates is chosen. It’s from those candidates that we select our representatives in government. So, do they represent only 17 percent of the people of Arizona? No, they are representing all of Arizona, even though all of Arizona did not vote for them.

Similar numbers hold true in states around the country. We are living unconsciously when we either don’t vote or don’t take the time to find out who the best candidates are before we do vote. Television advertising is the resource for the unconscious. For many, our recent election is an example of the power of 30-second sound bites. For the conscious among us, this recent election was an example of grassroots engagement that might lead to the changes we need in the world.

Barbara Litrell, president of Keep Sedona Beautiful and a volunteer with a number of other organizations, spoke at the Living Consciously Forum about engaging with the community. She said that becoming engaged need not require that you give up your life. Just take the time to check in on local politics to learn what’s going on and why. Help out with a fund-raiser for a local nonprofit that supports something you care about. Attend the public forums to learn about the issue affecting you, your family and your neighbors. Then share your opinions with your elected representatives.

Be a Good Neighbor
Connecting with your community begins with being a good neighbor. When someone new moves into the neighborhood, stop by to welcome them. Introduce them to others. Help them feel at home. It doesn’t take much to create good feelings that can help you get through future problems, like barking dogs or late-night parties.

Being a good neighbor is actually fun. When you engage people in line at the grocers or at a City Council meeting, you get to develop a larger circle of friends and allies. If you hear an ugly rumor about someone, take a little time to call that person and check out the facts. Most of the time, rumors turn out to be untrue, and little consideration saves a lot of trouble later on.

Living Consciously, connecting with the environment, the economy and the community, is the way to living sustainably. People often thrash about seeking the solution to the problems we face today. There is no one big answer to the problems we face. There are only millions of little answers. And we discover those answers by Living Consciously Together.