Environmental Wellness

What would we call environmental wellness? Most would be thinking in terms of that green trash can in the garage that we put things in that can be recycled. Environmental wellness though is not just about taking care or respecting our environments it is also about getting fulfillment from our surroundings. Partly that comes from how we practice a gracious attitude towards what nature. The very permanent foot prints that we leave on those natural resources.

I find the best way to appreciate and respect my surroundings in nature is to run in it. Any kind of activity I can do outside. The practice is all about immersion and a deep dive in your environments. Being in them and surrounded by them. Especially in my area of the world with seasonal changes every few months taking place. I get it all. So I run in it. I run as often as I can outside. You can run, walk, bike, take the kids for a hike down the road, or take a walk to work that you normally haven’t taken. Immerse yourself in nature. The picture below was one of those trips.

Another thing I like to do to be more self-aware of nature around me everyday is take a picture of the moments. Capture nature at its most raw, beautiful, and memorable. This isn’t just about the picture, but more about what you felt when you took that picture. Now every time you pull that picture up, you’ll be reminded of how that moment made you feel. Let it remind you about your commitment to take care of it. What would our lives be like with out the sun above if we constantly lived in a overcast world due to smog?

Some other things you might find helpful in practicing environmental wellness:

• Compost as much as you can
• Stop using the sleeves Starbucks gives you with every drink and bring your own; at the very least recycle one over and over again
• Use reusable shopping bags versus getting paper or plastic with every shopping trip; keep them at hand in your car
• Visit a library or little library and recycle books instead of constantly filling or throwing away ones you use

Living a life that is much more accountable to nature will change you. It’s impact is closely tied to emotional and spiritual wellness aspects of our lives. Threats or things that turn our environmental wellness into a low are noise pollution, chemicals we are uneducated about, water pollution, and second-hand smoke. To achieve wellness we have to realize these effects through our daily habits and how they contribute to the world around us.

Some questions we can ask yourselves to start to get there:

Do I recycle?

Do I volunteer my time to worthy causes that can make my own or others in the environments more positive?

Am I aware of my own foot print?

Answering no to any of those questions is a great start to your own self-awareness and a map for you to be more accountable by. They’re reflection points to improve your presence in nature that surrounds you. Imagine if you didn’t have clean air to breath as you take a stroll to your car to go to work, what would that be like? That dark future isn’t that far away at our current rates of consumption and waste.

I’m not challenging you to go from 0-100 mph with your environmental wellness, but you need to start at some point. Use some of the other dimensions we’ve covered this week to compliment this one:

• Go for a run, walk, hike, or bike. Observe the outdoors. See something, impact something. You will be working on environmental, physical, and mental aspects of wellness through one simple act.
• Mediate outside versus indoors. Listen to nature as you focus, what animals are in the area? How can you protect them more by being more accountable to your yard? Your covering environmental, spiritual, physical wellness areas with this simple practice.

Those are just a couple. There’s many more as you continue to focus on wellness in different ways as well as in combination with the other dimensions of wellness. Two more dimensions to cover before we reach Nov.

Be awesome this weekend. Be well. Thanks for viewing.

Shawn ✌🏻