Mindfully green

The past few months I started practicing yoga and mindfulness. For me, that's an amazing training to become more aware! Aware of things I do, things I eat, things I consume..It mainly helped me to become more aware of nature around me! By absorbing flower smells more strongly, by listening more consciously to birdsong, by observing nature's beauty more carefully! In my view, being mindful and being green come hand in hand. Once you start realising the little wonders that nature offers us every day (you just need to watch out for them!), you think for yourself "How can we human beings be so stupid to harm nature in such serious ways?"

And that's the moment when you can start thinking about your own habits and ask yourself whether you should change some of them. This doesn't imply a complete lifestyle change! Neither does 'practicing mindfulness' is something only hippies can do! Whoever you are, whereever you come from, you can start today! Just do every little habit you usually do unconsciously with a little more awareness and try to think about the possible impact it has on the environment. I'll give you an example: Imagine you are grocery shopping, walking through the supermarket. You stop in front of the fruits and grab the ones you usually grab, because, why wouldn't you? It's an habit, you don't necessarily think about it. But you should, because then you can decide to avoid buying the fruits that are covered in plastic, or the ones that are imported from New Zealand, or you can ask yourself the question 'Is it normal to eat strawberries in winter?'.

Try this out in one or the other situation (not only during grocery shopping) and you'll quickly realise that a more conscious decision-making can make a positive difference for the environment!