What are you committed to? How does that make you feel – trapped or free?

If you yearn for a simple life when you’re actually living in the Rat Race, you’re living by someone else’s values and it’s your commitment to that that forms your prison.

Isn’t it amazing that just that little “c” word – commitment – can put the fear of God into some people and endows others with a warm, cosy feeling of comfort and security. How does that happen?

Perhaps it will help us if we first look at the opposite of commitment – ambivalence – the “wait and see” approach. Ambivalence can seem like an easy option in life on the surface of it. What if we’re unhappy in our job or in a relationship? The easiest solution might seem to be to just “wait and see” what happens and hope that someone else will do something that will make our decision easier – make us redundant, offer us another job, be unfaithful to us, fall in love with us. There is a case I think for taking this approach for short periods of time whilst we accept our situation and become aware of how we really feel about it.

Beyond that, whilst we are “waiting and seeing” we are likely to be directing our energies to feed our resentment, anger, frustrations and general discontent rather than using them for more useful pursuits. The biggest problem with ambivalence is that, in lifestyle terms, it represents stagnation. Our life then feels stuck, boring, lifeless and depressing because, like all living things, in order to stay alive we need to grow.

No-lose decision making.

So, if being in ambivalence is not a good place to be, what’s the answer?

Making a decision.

Now “decision” is another word that some find challenging. When you assume that by making a decision you are depriving yourself of the other choices you have, then you will not feel free in your commitment. To feel free, you will need to know that you still have choices whatever you decide. Those choices are not what you might assume.

Suppose you are trying to decide whether to stay in your highly stressful but well paid job with good promotion prospects or to leave for a position that is less stressful and with shorter, healthier working hours, but with a lower salary. One popular method of helping yourself make that decision might be to write down the pros and cons of each choice and weigh them up against eachother.

Unfortunately, it can be very easy to remain in ambivalence even after doing this and your lists of pros and cons may well be a source of anguish and anxiety for what could be a very long time.

In her book “Feel the Fear and do it Anyway” Susan Jeffers suggests what I believe is a much more positive and effective method which she calls her “No-Lose Decision Making Model”. In this model, there are no “right” or “wrong” decisions, just different decisions.  She suggests that we view each decision we make in our lives is an opportunity for personal growth and so it is not the decisions themselves that matter so much as our attitude to the outcome of our decisions. Having said that, of course it makes sense to research our choices and to listen to our intuition before making decisions. I’m not talking about being reckless in our decision making, but rather being confident enough to know that we are:

• well-informed in what we do and
• can handle whatever outcomes result.

How does that relate to the job situation I described earlier? If you find yourself in this situation, remember that what you are about to commit to is a process, not an end result. In other words, you can let go of the outcome. Your freedom stems from knowing that you are responsible only for the process, not from making something happen that may ultimately be out of your control. Also, you have the additional option of knowing that you can try out both choices. For example, you could:

1. Decide to stay in your current job and take measures to reduce the stressful aspects of your job.
2. Begin to cut your living costs so that you will feel less anxious about leaving for a less well-paid job if that becomes necessary.
3. If you are not happy with the outcome of that, then you still have the choice to leave and in the knowledge that staying in your current job would not have made you happy. You will also have learnt more about what’s really important to you in your employment and this will serve you when making further decisions.

Conclusion.

You can commit to be free when you:

• Know what your values are or are working to uncover them.
• Know what you really want or how you want to be or are making moves to find this out.
• Know who and what are important to you.
• View decision making as an opportunity for growth.

Suggested Reading:

Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway – Susan Jeffers

The Simple Living Guide – Janet Luhrs

In the first part of this article, we looked at our attitudes to food and the way we feed ourselves. We also viewed re-thinking our eating habits as a potential catalyst for change and in particular how this can help us to make the transition to a more sustainable lifestyle. In addition, we considered how nourishing ourselves in a wholesome way re-awakens our links with nature.

Nurturing

Food is not a substitute for love (although preparing a tasty, nourishing meal for someone can be a way of demonstrating your love for them.) Let me explain that a little further. Maybe you have noticed feeling “empty” sometimes. When you examine that feeling a little more closely, you will be able to tell whether the “empty” feeling comes from your heart or your stomach. If it comes from your heart, then it’s love that will fill the gap, not food. That’s the time to do something to nourish your heart, such as reading an inspiring book, watching an uplifting film, or spending time with loved ones. If you want to nurture yourself, then only eat when it’s your stomach that’s hungry.

From the nurturing perspective, food is not designed to be for reward or consolation. Some people reward themselves with “naughty but nice” food when they think they’ve been “good” and use similar food as a consolation prize when things go “wrong”. This is a distortion of the idea of nurturing oneself. When you think about it, it is actually a form of self-harm if it becomes habitual.

So, on a more positive note, how do we cultivate health, sustainable ways to nurture ourselves, where food is a natural and wholesome part of our everyday lives?

Sensuality

Eating can be a wonderfully sensual experience and I guess it was designed to be otherwise we would not have survived as a species. Rather than just being a means to an end, preparing food – chopping, washing, peeling, grating, stirring, smelling, touching – can be a pleasurable, relaxing and social experience. Thus, nourishing ourselves becomes a stress-relieving activity. In order to enjoy it in this way we will need to make time for food preparation and for enjoying eating our creations. That is all part of downshifting i.e. spending fewer hours each week earning a living and more time re-discovering the joy in life of which nourishing ourselves is a very important part.

Gratitude

According to abundance theory, when we show gratitude towards nature, farmers and growers,  a higher power or the universe for providing us with nutritious food then we will attract more of it into our lives.  Showing our gratitude towards those who prepared the food and for our good health, which has resulted from eating the food, will also prompt us to consume our meals in a favourable emotional state. This is something which, according to Deepak Chopra in “Grow Younger, Live longer” promotes improved digestion, reduced stress and therefore better overall health.

Spiritual

Our emotional state when eating can also form part of our spiritual association with food.
Think how much more satisfying it is to eat food whose origins we can be sure of and trust and that we know has been produced with kindness, not cruelty.

Food is often part of our rituals in life. I’m thinking here of everyday family mealtimes, special occasions and anniversaries. We use food as a way to demonstrate our appreciation of nature and for our loved ones. Eating then becomes a way to socialise and to connect with others.

Food as education

If you are a parent, grandparent of spend time with children in another capacity, you will probably notice how curious children are about food. Perhaps answering their questions will re-awaken your own inquisitiveness and add to your enjoyment of preparing meals.

Those who spend a lot of time cooking with their children report how much science their children learn from this one activity. By weighing, measuring, observing mixtures and chemical reactions, the effect of heat, cold, and physical processes on food substances children (and adults!) can learn a great deal of what we currently call chemistry, physics and maths.

In growing their own fruit, vegetables or herbs, children readily absorb knowledge relating to the link between food and nature and where humans fit in the food chain. They can learn about the effects of the weather, animals, pests and diseases, cultivation methods and soil type on their endeavours.

We can move from the Rat Race mentality of “food is an emotional bandaid” to the simple living philosophy of “food is nourishment” by making a few simple changes in our lives. These involve:

1. Deciding that our health and wellbeing is high priority.
2. Deciding to nourish ourselves in a way that is in alignment with our values.
3. Taking time from our busy working lives in order to plan how and where we buy food.
4. Making time to prepare homemade meals.
5. Enjoying the physical sensations, the creative processes involved and social opportunities that mealtimes offer.

Suggestions for further reading:

The Science of Cooking – Peter Barham
Grow Younger Live Longer – Deepak Chopra

Are you feeding yourself in a way that is sustainable for the sake of your personal health and wellbeing or are you sacrificing a nutritious diet, and thus your health, in order to survive in the Rat Race?

There are some worrying statistics being reported in the media. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally: more than a billion adults are overweight, of which at least 300 million of them are clinically obese. Obesity is rising faster in Britain than in any other Western European nation and if the present trend continues, half the population of Britain will be obese by 2020. In the USA, the weight of 1:3 adults has reached danger levels.

At the same time, we are throwing away a third of our food, on average, according to a recent report in Planet Ark. Yet, whilst enjoying this apparent glut in the West, we are also undernourished due to the denaturing of our food that occurs as a result of factory farming methods and commercial food processing.

How do we make sense of this and feed ourselves in a way that nourishes us and preserves the planet?

Attitudes to food.

How will you know if you’re sacrificing your health in order to survive in the Rat Race?

If you believe that food is:

1. Something that you use just to combat hunger.
2. Something that you use just to induce pleasant sensations.
3. Something that you use as a reward for good behaviour.
4. Something that you use as consolation when things go wrong.
5. Something that you buy from the nearest supermarket when you can find a few minutes between other more pressing engagements.
6. Often a takeaway or eaten in a restaurant, especially when you are stressed or feeling short of time.
7. Stored mostly in your freezer and cooked mostly in your microwave.

…then the chances are that you are caught in this dilemma.

I suspect most of us will be able to recognise those behaviour traits in ourselves. Many of them will stem from our conditioning; our upbringing in a society where food is big business and our food supply is dominated by a few large, highly profitable manufacturers. The drive of these companies to make a profit appears to take precedence over any social responsibility towards the health and wellbeing of its customers.

What are the alternatives?

How can you downshift your eating habits, de-stress your attitude to food and make nourishing yourself a more sustainable activity for yourself and for the planet?

Change Catalyst

I’ve noticed during my coaching that for some people changing their eating habits can be the catalyst that motivates them to leave the rat race and live more consciously. When we examine the values we want to live by, being in good health often underpins everything else we wish to change. It can be a very easy first step to start substituting fresh, locally grown, organic produce for highly processed food. We can consciously set aside more time for food preparation to ensure that we nourish ourselves. Often the benefits of making such changes are felt very quickly in terms of an improvement in general health and also savings in the food budget.

Links with Nature

Food is an important link between us, as human beings, and nature. That can be a difficult one to remember when what appears on supermarket shelves as “food” reveals very few clues as to its natural origins. We are, literally, what we eat, since the food we eat, at a fundamental, elemental level is what the body uses to replace and replenish itself. Think very hard about this next time you eat or drink something – is this what I really want my body to use as basic building blocks for “me”? How much of what I’m eating or drinking will my body regard as foreign or toxic and how much of it will it recognise as useful, wholesome nutrition?

We can move from the Rat Race mentality of “food is fuel” to the simple living philosophy of “food is nourishment” by making a few simple changes in our lives. These involve:

1. Deciding that our health and wellbeing is high priority.
2. Deciding to nourish ourselves in a way that is in alignment with our values.
3. Taking time from our busy working lives in order to plan how and where we buy food.
4. Making time to prepare homemade meals.
5. Enjoying the physical sensations, the creative processes involved and social opportunities that mealtimes offer.

In part two of this article, we’ll look at the roles that nurturing, spirituality, sensuality and gratitude play in providing ourselves with nourishing food.

Suggestions for further reading:

The Science of Cooking –  Peter Barham
Grow Younger Live Longer – Deepak Chopra

“What is home education?” someone asked, “And what on earth has it got to do with sustainable living?” This voice came from a few feet behind me whilst I was browsing in the shop at the Centre for Alternative Technology. The shop stocks, amongst other things, a wide range of books on various aspects of sustainable living, from using natural building materials and organic gardening, to vegetarian cookery and home education. Not that I make a habit of eavesdropping, of course! It’s just that sometimes an unexpected question posed by someone else can make one stop short and re-examine an assumption.

Home education is where parents elect to take total responsibility for educating their own children rather than delegating a sizeable proportion of it to a school. It is a legal and equally viable alternative to conventional schooling in the UK and indeed in many other countries around the world.

Estimates of the number of home educated children in the UK vary widely from about 50,000 to 150,000 depending on the source. The number of families choosing this option appears to be on the increase. (Membership of Education Otherwise, a leading charity supporting home educating families has doubled in the last two years.)

So in what ways is educating children at home a sustainable activity?

1. It eliminates the school run. This reduces the number of miles traveled, although some of these miles will be made up by families traveling to events and social gatherings.

2. It provides the opportunity for children to take part in daily sustainable living practices. Recycling, composting, growing and cooking their own food, looking after animals, caring for younger children, maintaining the house and garden, learning how to reuse and repair items rather than just throw them away. (Thus learning about how things work and the materials from which they are made.)

3. It provides the opportunity to present information to children in a way that promotes a holistic perspective. Many materials used in schools are produced from the perspective that consumerism is the norm. Some are sponsored by private enterprises who have a vested interest in encouraging children to start using their products from an early age e.g. information on dental hygiene produced by a leading manufacturer of toothpaste who promote the use of fluoride. At home, parents may point out all the alternatives of which they are aware. e.g. the pros and cons of using fluoride as a means of protecting teeth.

4. It encourages children to learn to be in tune with their bodies. They gain greater self awareness through learning how they learn, how they feel about their learning, at what time of day they learn best and how their emotions and health affect them. Children are free to experiment with this and with different learning materials. Therefore, the type of learning is holistic, takes into account their spiritual and emotional wellbeing and is tailored to their individual needs.

5. There is plenty of opportunity for physical exercise e.g. playing in the garden, taking a walk, going for a swim when the swimming pool is quiet.

6. Reduced expenditure on clothing – there’s no need for separate clothes and shoes for school; no need to succumb to peer pressure to buy expensive designer labels.

7. Efficient use of resources at home. The house is well used all day, rather than just being somewhere to sleep or spend the weekend.

8. Efficient use of everyday materials for learning. Much of the equipment used in schools are expensive substitutes for the real thing in the outside world e.g. plastic imitation coins, artificial weights and measures are used in the maths curriculum. At home children learn by using real money, from weighing and measuring real items in, for example, cooking activities, they learn to read from real books. They use the internet and television in the same way as mature students, and conduct their own science experiments using items found in the garden and kitchen and their observations of and interactions with the world around them.

9. Efficient use of time. Little time is wasted traveling between lessons or preparing for them as much of the child’s learning happens spontaneously and during normal everyday activities. Even traveling to and from the occasional tutor led lesson for a home educated child is often filled with purposive conversation, or listening to music or a story tape.

10. Because time is used efficiently, there is more time to engage children in alternative medicine, relaxation and spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation and prayer in a calm and unhurried way.

11. There is also plenty of time to indulge in a favourite subject area or hobby e.g. music, arts and craft, astronomy, bird watching.

If the numbers of home educating families continue to grow, how will this method of education sustain itself?

A strong possibility is by the establishment of learning communities, perhaps incorporating the facilities already present in libraries, village halls, leisure centres and other community buildings. How is a learning community different from a school? According to Ron Miller in his book “Creating Learning Communities,” schools are places where “Learning is divided into subjects and packaged into textbooks and lesson plans. Teachers are not accredited for their mentoring skills but for their training in methods of class management and curriculum delivery.” He sees the need to “reinvent social and economic arrangements that nourish the soul and reconnect the individual to culture, to community, to the organic process and cycles of the earth, and to avenues of spiritual fulfillment.” Thus in learning communities, the participants – adults or children – decide on their own learning programme, which events they will or will not participate in and with whom. They follow their own learning styles and preferences and learn alongside others with similar interests regardless of age, sex or any other differences.

Parents in many home educating families make the decision to reduce their working hours and/or work from home in order to home educate. This in itself releases adults with a wide spectrum of abilities and interests to facilitate workshops and other forms of learning groups. Life long learning is a growing necessity of the information age. It is no longer true that the majority of what we need to know can be absorbed between the ages of 4 and 18 years, spoon feeding fashion, from a minority of adults officially qualified to teach.

We as adults are already finding that we need the flexibility to retrain and diversify in order to remain employable or successful in self-employment. In my view, it is our ability to learn and continue to learn that will set us apart in the future. For our children, this is likely to be even more so as they are faced with the prospect of a longer working life peppered with many technological, social and environmental changes. Working from home or within a learning community cultivates these self-teaching habits and skills which are the keys to sustainable home learning.

Supposing you’ve made the decision to live more sustainably and are leaving the Rat Race in order to set up in self-employment, doesn’t it makes sense to incorporate sustainability into the new business plan? That way your business will be run in alignment with your interests and values and working in it will ultimately lead to a higher level of enjoyment, fulfilment and meaning.

So, what is a “sustainable business”? One official definition goes something like this:

“A Sustainable Business is a constituted organisation that takes full account of its triple bottom line – i.e. managing and contributing to social, environmental and economic improvements in its business practices.”

Simply put, a business’s “triple bottom line can be expressed in terms of the three Ps – People, Planet, Profit, and, most importantly, in equal priority. So now, rather than taking the conventional view and running our business primarily for profit, we are running our business for the welfare of society and of the environment with the same emphasis on these aims as on earning a profit.

Let’s face it, for most of us there are a host of different ways in which we care capable of earning money, even if some of those ways we believe wouldn’t generate “enough” income for our current needs. When we set up our own businesses, hopefully there are reasons other than money and capability that prompt us to do so. These reasons form our Business Purpose and they stem from our Business Values. They are what’s most important to us in our business lives: the non-negotiable parts. Examples of business purposes might be “providing enjoyable education programmes for adults”, “helping others to improve their health”, “enhancing the lives of children/the elderly/new parents”, “making marketing ethical and easy”.

Let’s look at the elements of the triple bottom line in more detail:

People

Think about all of the people who are involved with your business. Even if you don’t directly employ anyone else at present, who else do your actions affect? Who else does your business depend on? Your answer might well include your suppliers, your clients, your associates and colleagues. A sustainable business treats all of these people in a way that’s in keeping with its business purpose and sustainability, for example, by employing staff who live locally and sourcing from local suppliers. You could reduce your clients’ needs to travel by providing your products and services local to them rather than centralised wherever possible.

Planet

Many of you will be familiar with the term “Reduce, Re-Use, Re-cycle”. Maybe you are not aware that those instructions are stated in order of priority. That is, it is more important for us to reduce our consumption than it is to re-use items and re-using items is more important than re-cycling our waste. So, uppermost in the sustainable business owner’s mind will be minimising the negative impact on the planet of running that business by reducing consumption of energy, fuel, water and toxic substances.

Profit

Just because profit has now been relegated to one of three in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organisation.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimise our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced.

To help you in your business planning, I’ve produced a “Sustainable Business Checklist” which you can view here.

Communicating your Sustainability

Once you have incorporated sustainable business practices into your everyday business operations, it is worth considering how you can use that information to communicate your sustainable approach with the outside world. For example, on promotional leaflets you could include the words “printed on recycled paper”. If you are providing refreshments for visitors to your business, you could let them know, for example, that the food they are eating is organic and locally sourced wherever possible.

How will this benefit you? Other people who are endeavouring to lead sustainable lives and run sustainable businesses will be attracted to doing business with you if they believe doing so will make a positive contribution to their triple bottom line. They will feel more comfortable in your company and better able to establish a relationship of trust with you. In short, it will strengthen your business connections with similarly minded people and contribute to your business not only being a financial success, but inwardly rewarding and meaningful for you too.