Why Mental Health Is Key To Living A Sustainable Lifestyle
What exactly does it mean to live a sustainable life? Is it growing your own food? Eating less meat? Buying local? While diet may be an important part of sustainability, there is another component that is often overlooked.
Is there an ideal diet?
If there is, then it’s unlikely to be found any time soon. In an article published by Scientific American, Patrick Mustain explains the two factors that make finding an ideal diet difficult:
the inherent complexity and difficulties in performing human nutrition research
the money that’s at stake any time changes come up that might shift people away from the Standard American Diet.
With so much money being invested in preserving the current American diet, it’s unlikely that a massive shift will happen quickly. But, maybe not everything about the way we eat has to change immediately. The truth is, since the beginning of civilization, humans around the world have sustained themselves on a wide variety of different food, depending on what was available.
But even if there isn’t one ideal diet, there do seem to be some dietary rules that are better for both humans and the planet. For instance, Dan Buettner notes in his 2008 book Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who Have Lived the Longest that the longest living people eat very little meat and almost no processed foods or saturated fats.
Diet is only one part of the equation, though. Buettner notes that these long-living populations have one other important thing in common: good mental health.
What makes for good mental health?
The long-living people that Buettner studied were living in healthy communities where interpersonal connections were strong and members shared a common purpose of community-sustaining processes like agriculture.
Buettner notes that “Most people living in the Blue Zones enjoy physical activity incorporated naturally into their daily lives (like gardening or walking); a sense of purpose (like caring for grandchildren or civic volunteering); low stress levels and a slower pace of life; strong family and community connections; and a diet characterized by moderate caloric intake, mostly from plant sources”
How can we incorporate these lessons into our own lives?
The individualistic nature of capitalism combined with the isolating effects of digital media has pushed many of us into lonely lifestyles. This fractured sense of community is evident in every aspect of our life from neighborly relationship to politics. With no connection between community members, we are unable to understand each other’s perspectives, wants, or needs…. Which greatly reduces our capacity to be empathetic.
Even the environment is impacted by our disconnection from each other. Our competitive and individualistic culture does not foster the unity necessary to make changes at a local level, pushing environmentalism further from our daily lives and making it feel even more abstract and hopeless.
While communal farm living may not be an option for all of us, there are some things we can do to take a more holistic approach to health and sustainability. Joining a community garden, volunteering, or taking part in local environmental initiatives can all help you find both community and a sense of purpose… both of which can improve your mental health and help you lead a sustainable life in a more holistic way.