Mindfulness plays a huge role in maintaining our mental well-being. But have you ever considered how it can also help save the planet?
Practicing mindfulness can help you build sustainable habits in your daily routine that can impact all areas of your life, from personal transformation to professional productivity.
Adopting more mindful living can certainly have a positive outcome for the planet, too, increasing and deepening your connection to nature and encouraging you to make more eco-friendly consumer choices. Your personal mindfulness journey can even influence those around you to do the same.
Here, we will look at some of the surprising ways that individual mindfulness can actually help to save the planet.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a practice that focuses on paying attention to the present moment. It can help you to deepen your connection with yourself, have a positive effect on your overall well being and physical and mental health. In fact, lots of mental health treatment centers on mindfulness meditation.
Practicing mindfulness can take many forms, from bringing attention to focus on your breath to conducting a ‘body scan’ where you pay attention to noticing any sensations you are feeling in your body.
When we talk about mindfulness, it’s important to remember that it is a practice. That means your personal relationship with mindfulness and the mindful activities you practice may evolve over time, and it certainly doesn’t look the same for everyone.
It’s important not to judge your mindfulness practice, or feel like you’re not good at it. While it can be daunting at first, the more you practice, the more natural it will feel.
Continued practice of mindfulness can help you become more aware of your internal world, and the external world around you, which can lead to a greater sense of presence and connection. This can have a huge impact on how you interact with people and the planet.
Why is practicing mindfulness important for environmentalists?
Being an environmentalist can take a toll on your mental health. The ongoing climate crisis can be overwhelming and cause significant stress and anxiety for people who care about the health of the planet.
Worrying about the planet can consume our thoughts, making it easy to slip into dark, depressing thoughts and become paralyzed into inactivity.
It can also be a challenge to understand how individuals can make any impact on a problem that’s so much bigger than them.
However, practicing mindfulness can provide grounding in the present that can help you to deepen your connection with yourself and where you fit into the wider world.
Mindfulness can help us to cope with these overwhelming emotions, reducing climate anxiety and helping to improve emotional resilience.
This can deepen our connection with the planet, give clarity on sustainable habits we can adopt to reduce our personal impact, and empower us in the present to take action for a better future.
Practicing environmental mindfulness can have some surprising side effects that lead to sustainable habits.
How personal mindfulness promotes pro-environmental behaviors and helps save the planet.
Taking a digital detox contributes to reduced energy consumption.
One of the best ways to decrease your overall energy consumption is to readdress your use and reliance on technology.
Unsurprisingly, technology like laptops and phones contributes to your carbon footprint. However, you can help to reduce this by making a conscious effort to take digital detoxes.
If you even take one mindful minute a day away from screens and other technology to embrace mindfulness, that equates to 6 hours of screen-free time a year! Make your impact even larger by taking periodic digital detoxes, where you avoid using tech like your phone for a longer period of time.
Instead, prioritize mindfulness enhancing screen-free activities, like reading a physical book, taking up a hobby like painting, or spending time surrounded by nature.
Prioritizing our connection and appreciation of nature.
Mindfulness and nature can go hand-in-hand. Spending time in nature can help to deepen your connection to, and understanding of, the world around you.
Pay attention to how nature changes throughout the year, noticing the first buds of spring or the changing color of leaves in fall. This can help you have further appreciation of nature, as well as help to put the passing of time into perspective.
Nurturing your own garden or growing your own tree is a great way to practice environmental mindfulness. In order to tend to nature, you need to have patience, and show up consistently in order to successfully grow your crop.
This can help you to focus on the present moment and the small steps that contribute to long-term growth, key principles that gardening and mindfulness share.
Increased compassion and empathy
We know that in order to save the planet, we need to collaborate and collectively work towards making a change. Practicing mindfulness can increase compassion and empathy, both of which are essential qualities for building strong relationships with people.
By practicing personal mindfulness, we can actually improve our interpersonal skills and our appreciation of all beings. This increased empathy and compassion can lead to further pro-environmental behaviors, such as adopting a plant-based diet.
Veganism and plant-based diets demonstrate deep empathy for animal lives, but also present planet-friendly alternatives to food consumption.
While some may argue that veganism and plant-based lifestyles don’t make much of an impact, the US plant-based food market continues to experience significant growth, with a projected value of $26.72 billion by 2033. This represents millions of animal lives and environmental resources saved.
Supporting green businesses and eco-friendly economies.
Voting with your wallet can have a larger impact than you might think. Being mindful with your consumption habits can help you make more conscious purchasing decisions and support a greener economy.
By supporting smaller, sustainable businesses, you are increasing their income, which can allow for further innovation and expansion, and demonstrating consumer demand, contributing to overall sustainable industry growth.
Simply choosing to consume less and supporting sustainable solutions or services can help change the economy to invest in more eco-friendly practices and businesses.
Helping you find your people and build a community.
By living a more mindful lifestyle, you are more likely to interact and engage with like-minded people. Building a strong community is vital for supporting your mental health and happiness. Finding your ‘tribe’ can help you discover even more ways to practice mindfulness or make conscious decisions.
There is an undeniable power in people. Through growing your circle with people who share similar values, you will be able to have a bigger impact on the planet.
Your sphere of influence may also broaden and encourage other people to make better, more environmentally friendly choices.
Final thoughts
Practicing mindfulness can be a powerful tool for environmentalists to help support their mental health, increase their emotional resilience and act as a catalyst for positive change.
Prioritizing a more mindful lifestyle can help you to adopt sustainable habits in all areas of your life, and help you to grow a community of like-minded people.
Environmental mindfulness encourages an overall stronger sense of connectedness to nature. This, in turn, makes individuals less likely to engage in behaviors that will harm the environment.
