Emotional Abundance to the Environment

By Monica Gokaldas

A lot is spoken about protecting and conserving the environment and oft times we take it as a job to be undertaken by the environmentalists. It is often the little steps each one of us can potentially take to be environmentalists in our own right, thus giving the much needed support to the global cause. Environment can be balanced by our thoughts as well as actions.

Pollution is weighing heavy on all of us and no one escapes it. If only we humans take the plunge of saving our planet by taking the shift towards a life of simplicity, Mother Earth would surely impart blessings upon us. We may plant trees and we may attend environment seminars but we can diversify our way of doing things too.

Let’s look at the primary aspect of happiness that we get by buying something new – be it clothes, accessories, vehicles, houses. If only we would realize that the more we invest in want based products over need based products, we are fueling the theory of demand and supply thus leading to more production than what is actually required. In doing so we are to be blamed for exploiting the natural resources just as our excessive food demands and wastage does as well. We have lost the aspect of consuming for necessity hence also lost the aspect of contentment.

The happiness that we are so gaining is most times dependent on other people’s reactions and behavior resulting in depletion of our own inner joy and emotional power. Our elders were richer emotionally and parented with happiness unlike today’s stressful parenting where we are ourselves emotionally week. They had simpler ways of living, didn’t go for shopping sprees to influence the society and most of us had mothers who used and reused those few set aside sets of attire for special occasions hence the stress levels were less. Guests were entertained heartily with perhaps one or two special items on the menu as opposed to the lavish display and wastage we do. They were happy with that way of living but are we happy with what we land up doing?

Thus if we minimize our people based happiness quotient and increase a simpler, self-sufficient way of living, our way of living shall reflect the quality of our environment. Our thoughts of dissatisfaction, jealousy, competitiveness, intolerance breed the air of our environment to be toxic and once we regain our spiritual prowess and simplicity of thought and deed – we shall be contributing emotional abundance to our environment.