5 Ways To Build a Sustainable Lifestyle
Looking to make changes to be more environmentally conscious in your day to day, but feeling overwhelmed? Here are 5 tips to help you get started.
By Nicole Meliora
It’s safe to say over the past few years we’ve all awoken to the need for a different lifestyle, not just for the environment, but for our own mental and physical wellbeing. But with all the information out there about what to do, it can be overwhelming and lead us to hide our heads under the sand (or under the covers with Netflix).
In the face of our current climate crisis, a lot of people have developed what is known as eco-anxiety. Lucy Jones, author of Losing Eden, posed the question in her book “ [is] there a danger that, as people wise up to ecocide and how human activity is wiping out other species, the guilt will be so paralysing and extreme that it could lead to mental health problems or widespread spiritual sickness?”
What we know for sure is that it can often feel very overwhelming to want to make lifestyle shifts, and the limiting thought that “my individual actions will never be enough” are all too common. However, we need to remember that our small everyday changes can amount to wider and greater change.
Here are 5 tips to help you get started on your sustainable lifestyle journey:
1. Assess your current situation
I was watching a French TV show over the summer called Super Nanny, a reality TV show where an experienced child-minder comes into a family home to help improve the dynamics between parents and their children. Before she gives any advice, she spends two days with the family observing their normal routines. This is the same approach to take with any lifestyle change: before you can make a change, you have to know where you’re starting. Spend a week or two just being conscious of your day to day habits: What products do you use? Where do you shop? How much waste do you produce every week? Maybe keeping a journal of this can be helpful. This is not to make you feel guilty about your habits, but to simple to start to make you aware and conscious of your day to day actions.
“Big changes are unsustainable, leaving us feeling frustrated and disappointed. We can’t overhaul our entire life at once.”
2. Choose one area and start small
Once you have an idea of where you’re starting, you can start to begin to make small changes. The keyword here is SMALL. Big changes are unsustainable, leaving us feeling frustrated and disappointed. We can’t overhaul our entire life at once. Choose one area of your life that stood out in your assessment, and pick one small thing within that to change. For instance, you could start with your bathroom, your kitchen or your wardrobe. In your bathroom, maybe you switch to a bar soap instead of liquid hand soap in a plastic bottle to reduce that waste. In the kitchen, you can look for a shop where the fruits and vegetables aren’t wrapped in plastic. Once you’ve made that small change and it’s stuck, you can move on to another area.
One simple way we can all do is try and buy fruit and vegetables that don’t come wrapped in plastic.
3. Share your commitment with your friends and family
I’ve found it hard as I’ve started on this journey not to feel the urge to push the changes I’m making on friends and family. I have to tell myself that everyone is on their own journey, and also that it is best to lead by example. However, I have found it helpful just to explain what I am doing, which can sometimes lead to people being curious, asking questions, and, possibly, inspire them to make changes themselves. For instance, if I’m speaking about shopping with friends, I mention that I’m trying to be more conscious about where I’m purchasing clothing and that I’m not buying from fast fashion brands.
4. Try not to compare yourself with others
This process is a journey, a marathon, not a sprint. Incorporating changes into our day to day lives takes time. Some people have started incorporating changes a long time ago and may seem ‘ahead’ of you. The fact that you’ve become conscious of your own impact and are starting to make changes is the biggest step to take.
5. Celebrate your wins
This process should feel enjoyable and fun! Every time I incorporate a new sustainable practice into my lifestyle, I feel like I’m doing my part for my community and for our planet, and that deserves to be celebrated! Remember how far you’ve come and take time out to celebrate by treating yourself and acknowledging your efforts.
Small, consistent steps to changing your lifestyle are what will work in the long run. Even if you change just one thing today, that is going to have an impact. Let’s not let the fear of not being powerful or big enough to create meaningful change stop us from achieving a better future for our environment - meaningful change starts with the small, everyday choices.
NICOLE MELIOR
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Nicole is a yoga teacher, lawyer, and former political organiser. French & American, born in New Orleans and having grown up in the US, France, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Switzerland, she now lives between London and Geneva. She is passionate about wellness, sustainability, and activism, the connections between them, and how to spark lasting change.
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