I normally preface these zines with a note to give you an update on my life and how I’m feeling in general. I guess all that I really want to say right now is I can assure you I am well. Despite any evidence to the contrary, life is pretty good. I am studying a subject I love and I’m surrounded by amazing friends and I feel really good about my instagram and the steps im taking to be more environmentally friendly and those are my main focuses right now. I obviously still have my fair share of worries but I’m choosing not to focus on those right now. I recently moved into my second year flat and my flatmates have now joined me here. It’s a different living situation to any I’ve experienced before but I think it will be a lot of fun and I’m just trying to embrace it. I’m very excited to see what surprises second year holds for me because we all know you can never get through even six months without life throwing in some curveballs. I personally found summer very stagnant so i’m excited to feel like I’m being productive again. Don’t tell the cool kids, but I’m excited to start studying again. I’m not really sure what I want to do with my life in the long term at the moment. I’m very much just enjoying my life right now as it is and it’s the first time I’ve felt like that so I’m just trying to make the most of it. However, that doesn’t stop tutors and parents from reminding me that I need to be thinking about my future and gaining some work experience. :S I hope you are all well. I hope you enjoy this zine and that you find it insightful and thought provoking.
Most people that I talk to about being more environmentally conscious say that they would happily do more if they could, but I have found that their efforts are often limited to changes that do not make their own lives more challenging, that come at no expense to themselves. I’m not going to try and attack anyone, especially not individuals, it would be hypocritical to do so as I myself hardly thought or cared about being environmentally consciousness two years ago. However, I now feel we need to kill this notion that you are doing your part if you make one or two small changes. It’s a good way to start but it isn’t enough and we owe it to the planet and to each other to do more. Most of my friends and family live, at the end of the day, very comfortable lives and are capable of being a lot kinder to the planet than they currently are, but they choose not to. This is not to say that they make no attempt to be more environmentally conscious, but rather than they have only made a few small changes in their lives, such as switching to reusable coffee cups instead of accepting disposables, when they could be doing much more. For example, they will argue that their local supermarkets do not offer many plastic free products and that they therefore cannot make a change. However, they could choose to use different markets and green grocers etc. a few extra miles away, which other than a slight price increase, would not cause them much harm. I would almost like to extend this argument, given that I live in a country that has declared a climate emergency, that if sustainable items are more expensive then you should choose these and cut back on luxury items to account for the price difference (luxury items being chocolate and new clothes etc.). Our current first world lifestyles are unsustainable. We are destroying our planet. We are doing wrong, and we should stop simply because of that, regardless of the difficulty or the pros and cons to us as individuals. Many of us are aware of the damage we are doing to the planet, yet we fail to prioritise being sustainable and instead repeatedly choose what is most convenient for us. The size of the impact is almost irrelevant as we are choosing to do harm when we could do otherwise. So the questions to ask then become ‘Why Do We Choose To Harm The Planet For The Sake Of Our Own Convenience?’ as well as ‘How Do We Encourage More and More People Not To?’. I believe the answer, as it very often does, comes down to a lack of information. I believe people are not making fully informed choices. To use the example of single-use plastics, many people are not aware that choosing plastic wrapped food is bad for the environment and even more believe that as long as they recycle the plastic, there is no harm done. Many are also aware that it is doing harm but are not aware of the extent of the harm and therefore it does not weigh heavily enough on their conscience for them to choose alternatives at the expense of their own convenience. I do believe many people are shifting towards better practises with the current rise of environmental activism, journalism and awareness. I believe we are moving in the correct direction and have just not moved far enough yet.
I am far from perfect. Especially while being home for the summer and living with my parents or living with others at university, it is much harder for me to do what I can to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. However, the information that I have slowly learnt over the last year or so about the severity of the climate emergency means that it is constantly on my mind and I am determined to make very big changes in my life over the next couple of years. I must choose to go out of my way, give up more of my convenience and use more sustainable options. If I do not, I fear I will be incredibly weighed down with guilt. Many of my friends that do care about being environmentally conscious are cynical and believe that the general population will always choose their own convenience at the expense of the planet, but I am far more optimistic. I honestly believe that most people are not currently making fully informed choices: that they are not aware of the severity of the situation and what they can do to be better. I believe that if they truly understood the severity and knew how to make more of a difference they would almost weigh in their hands the choice of convenience or sustainability and would choose sustainability, at least much more than the do currently! We are destroying our planet, and most of us are capable of being a lot better, even if we will never be perfect.This is not an argument of whether we want to be kind and generous to the planet, making it a better place, this is an argument of whether we want to stop actively causing our ecosystems harm. We need to stop saying “here’s how you can be kinder to the planet” and start saying “you need to be kinder to the planet and here’s how”.
I think I have come to the conclusion that pretty much everything I ramble about online comes down to two words: Intentional Living. I first heard this idea several years ago from The Minimalists, but I think I finally understand the extent of its reach. At a climate change event I attended recently, one speaker said that we could solve climate change, the mental health crisis and financial equality at the same time. While this might seem unrealistically optimistic, when you think about it, they’re not wrong. This is because it all boils down to one thing: Intentional Living. Intentional living is not a new interior design movement. It is the philosophy that underpins minimalism. Minimalism is not about owning as few items as possible. Instead, it is about only owning the items that improve your life. It’s about going through your possessions and making reasoned decisions about what you want to keep and then removing the excess so that you have space for clarity and pursuing whatever it is you actually want to pursue. In other words, it is about being intentional about what you have and do. And once we arrive at this fundamental philosophy, we can then apply it to almost everything in life. It applies to my studies when I intentionally choose to approach them with compassion and study ahead of time for exams instead of cramming at the last minute. It applies to my steps to reduce my waste because I am intentionally choosing to go out of my way to avoid buying plastic. This is a decision with a lot of thinking behind it. I am choosing not to take the easiest and most common option. Intentional living therefore also applies to my diet when I decide to eat less meat and dairy. It applies to how I fold my pyjamas (using the Marie Kondo style) and the fact that I take the time to make my bed every morning. It’s about looking around you and at every decision you are making and deciding whether that is something you want to continue doing or whether you are just doing it because it is what you have always done. When that speaker said that we could solve climate change, the mental health crisis and financial equality at the same time, I think what they meant was that all of these problems could be alleviated if we all approached life with more intentionality. They all have the same answer. And that is simply for us to assess what we are doing and make the commitments to stop doing the actions that we determine to be net bad. I’m not suggesting that every single decision in your life should be thought out. Sometimes we make unforgettable memories because we took a risk or went along with an unexpected opportunity. However, I do think more of our decisions need to be intentional, especially the ones we make in the supermarket and in other seemingly mundane areas of our lives. Many of us have not stopped to consider what we are doing and are doing it instead simply because it is what we have always done. We deserve our best chances, in both our personal lives and as a society. However, you will only ever have you best chance if you plan and think about your choices instead of on impulse or going along with the flow. You deserve to achieve your dreams and I don’t know about you, but I want the human race to be around for a little longer. Those things are only going to happen if we act intentionally.
1. Be more minimalist!!!! When I first heard about minimalism I thought I had stumbled across a goldmine. I thought that it was the answer to so many of my problems and I was confused as to why so few people were talking about it. Then I reasoned that while this method may work for me, it won’t work for everyone. However, the older and more cynical I get, the more I think everyone could benefit from minimalism. You don’t have to take it to an extreme. As I’ve already said, the main focus of minimalism is intentionality and as I’ve already explained, everyone can benefit from this. I do also agree with minimalists that owning fewer items allows for your life and brain to feel less cluttered and therefore allows you to pursue more of what you actually love, but I accept that not everyone believes their life will be better if they own fewer items. My request is simply that they give it an honest try before they dismiss the idea. If you want to learn more about minimalism, I suggest looking up The Minimalists. They have written books, recorded hundreds of podcasts, filmed a Netflix documentary and also write blog posts; so whatever format of content you prefer, you will be able to find useful resources on their website: theminimalists.com
2. Plan and Set Goals. You have so much time and energy at your disposal. Probably more than you realise. Planning will help you to utilize this better and will also give you direction if you are unsure about what steps you need to be taking to achieve your goals.
3. Think about what you can do to be kinder to the planet. We are in an ecological crisis. If you don’t know much about this, don’t feel bad about it because that doesn’t help anyone, but I would suggest taking the time to learn now. Here’s a great article as a starting point: conserve-energy-future.com/15-currentenvironmental-problems.php
The biggest ways you can have an impact as an individual include: - Cut down your meat and animal product intake - Reduce your plastic consumption (especially single use plastic) - Consider parties/candidate’s opinions towards the environment when voting - Buy second hand where possible (books, clothes, appliances, furniture etc) - Vote with your wallet by financially supporting ethical companies (and not supporting less ethical companies) - Take part in activism events 4. Review your life. You can do this with both physical items and less tangible ones such as your timetable. But take the time to sit down and review an aspect of your life. Decide what it is you want to declutter and get rid of it. Decide what you want to maximise and take more advantage of it. Decide if there is anything you would now like to add if you have newly found space. Set yourself some goals or plan so that you can be sure you are remaining intentional in your approach to this aspect of your life. This is definitely a subject I want to talk about more so I will give you plenty more suggestions in due course, don’t worry. I just need to learn more myself first!
Do you ever read a book and think ‘I wish everyone had read this, the world would be a better place if everyone had read this book’? Well, this year I’ve read lots of books that made me think that so I decided to start a list. I would love to hear what books you wish everyone had read.
How to have a better mindset and more control over your own life It offers some amazing insight and advice. It definitely fits in with the minimalist philosophy of living an intentional life. I've read/listened to a lot on this subject, and this book still had new stuff to add. I did find the "narrator" (that was what it felt like) a little judgmental or harsh at times but it is worth looking past that for what this book has to offer. I listened to this as an audiobook on the Scribd app and I'm definitely going to get in as an ebook or a physical book at some point so that I can highlight sections and engage with it a little more.
Empowering Women in the Workplace
All the small sexist BS does a lot of damage
Racism from dierent perspectives
This book feels like mockingbird revisited in a modern context with a particular focus on race instead of prejudice as a whole. Jodi Picoult's genius was to write from the point of view of three characters: a black woman, a white supremacist man, and a white woman who is not necessarily racist but still benefits from a racist culture. I don't think it would have been possible to gain so much from this story if we had not been able to get inside the heads of all these characters. There are also so many clever descriptors of images or feelings and in the beginning that was what captured me, it felt so very human, but by the end of the book I was focused on the morals. We need to talk about racism and I think everyone should read this book.
How and why divorce aects the children involved as much as it does
How to raise a daughter with feminism in mind The way that children are raised is so fundamental to how they feel when they reach puberty or even adulthood and begin to ask big questions about the world and their place in it. It is very easy for us, I think, to raise a child in a way that isn’t secretly feminist when examined. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie provides many thought through ideas about how parents interact with children and what habits would be beneficial and which would not. If I could have my way, this book would be compulsory reading for every new parent even if they disagree with what is written instead, just so that it forces them to question these everyday practices.
Big thank yous go to Helena, Linsey, Gemma and Maddie who helped to turn my rambling into something readable :D