Hello everyone ! Welcome back ! Today I would like to talk about society. It’s been a while ( along one actually) since I talked about an aspect of our society and how I see it. The topic I would like to talk about is consumption, being more precise, high consumption. You all know that this a problem in our society, a problem that many people already adressed.
I would like to talk about that matter, in 2 parts. Today I would like to talk about the process of changing, giving you my keys for an effective change, from a psychological point of view, the things we need to think about before changing and for example stopping consuming as much as we may do nowdays. Then, next week, I would give you actual advices, tangible things to do to stop consuming the way our society makes us do.
I hope these thoughts will help you, get you interested. Let’s get started !
Over the last decades our society has taken the path of consuming, immediate consuming, fast-fashion, fast-food, consuming a lot and instantly. Everything goes toward that easiness, swiftness. The society has built that economic model as the only answer to our problems, our search of happiness, there’s no other way they say. But are we really happy this way ? No, we are not. As everything seems to easy and fast to get, we lost the ability to wait and appreciate making things. Someone who is used to have everything right before they ask, will never be happy and always be unhappy.
This model is absolutely not right. How many people can peacefully wait for a new piece of clothes, of furniture etc to arrive into their hands ? How many people still have the patience to meticulously handmake something ? How many people can tell how long it takes for fruits and vegetables to grow and during which season ?
Indeed, in nowdays’ society, especially in cities, many people have lost patience and the ability to live slowly, following the rythm of the seasons. For many people, life is going fast, online. You want new clothes, or rather the fashion industry makes you want new clothes, you can buy them instantly on the Net and get delivered a few days later to your door. You want eat oranges in Summer, or apples in Spring, you just get them at your local gigantic supermarket.
However, not everyone is abiding by this frenetic model. Some people has chosen to follow the path of minimalism, a complete opposite way to live. Others choose to go back to vintage ways, vintage clothes. We usually call that slow-living, slow-fashion.
But not everyone can go in such an opposite way from the society. It may be about courage, about living environment (cities do not allow such lifestyle), about social pressure and so on. So how ? And why ?
The first key to remember is « Step by step ». Changing drastically and suddenly isn’t the best way to change. Such changing doesn’t last and traumatize. Just like zero-waste, it doesn’t have to be done overnight, but little by little. One have to be patient when changing, with oneself and with one’s environment.
First change something that’s easy to change and get yourself used to it for several months, until it becomes an habit. Then, change something else. As time goes by, and more things changed in your way of living, you’ll be able to change multiples things at the same time, as you got used to change things in your life and stick to them. Just like brushing your teeth, hair, showering and making laundry in the same morning is easy to you, for example.
Accept failing to change at the first attempt. It does happen not to be able to effectively change at first. Accept that you failed and try something else. You’ll make another attempt later. You may try stronger, in another way, but try again later, after you succeed changing something else. This way the feeling of winning will help you this time. If you try again after failing, you’ll get stuck with this bad feeling and the process would get even harder to go through.
Changing your way of living is really is about patience with yourself and what surrounds you. Changing your way of living is about finding back patience.
Patience is the answer. When you have the patience, you have achieved a lot. We probably can say that patience is the absolute achievement for Mankind.
The second key is about humility. Be humble when changing. Do not make a show of it. You’re not changing for others to see. You’re changing for yourself, your children, their children and so on. Also, changing is your personal choice, so do not enforce others to change the same as you do. Everyone is free to do as they like, everyone is different, with different situations and so on. Everyone goes on its own path, at its own rythm.
The third key is about empathy. Even if you shouldn’t enforce others to change, you have the duty to have empathy for those who don’t change and for those who change. For those who don’t change, be kind to them, accept them as they are. You cannot make them change but being mean to them won’t make them change. On the contrary tehy’ll choose the opposite way and shut themselves in their usual way, far away from you. So let them be and be kind to them. For those who change, be kind to them and accept them. Show them empathy, encourage them during their changing process, show them that you can help them if they wish. Offer to them to change together, as sometimes doing something with others is easier and better. Do not put pressure on them, let them change more slowly or faster than you. Let them change at their rythm and the way that works the best for them.
In conclusion, before starting any changing process, remember to hold into your hands and heart these 3 keys : patience, humility and empathy. In my opinion, these are the most important. And it works for anything, not just about changing your lifestyle, your economic model and so on, but also changing your way of thinking, your way of speaking, anything.
That’s all for today’s post, I hope it’s useful and interesting. Feel free to tell us what you think in the comments. Having others opinions and views on a certain subject is always very interesting and helpful actually. stay tuned for actual advices for stopping consuming that much in next week ‘s post !
Thank you for passsing by and reading my blog. Your support, even silent, is always valuable to me and bring me more joy than you can imagine.
I’ll talk to you soon in a next post.
Until then, take care of yourself ❤
Ady ❤
Little House of Ady 