what are ecophilic lifestyles

I consider ecophilic lifestyles to be expressed in new* ways of knowing, being, doing and having.

My approach to eco-lifestyles has five requirements.

  • Effortless. Sustainability is often considered to be a strenuous endeavour in which we have to practice self-control and renunciation. My experience taught me that this approach works – at best – only temporary, until we fall of the wagon. Sustainability has to feel effortless, and it can.
  • Intuitive. Science has it’s place, too. But despite our cognitive biases, we can intuit what brings personal, social and ecological wellbeing. That is, once we overcome our misplaced desires. Our true desires are aligned with planetary health.
  • Attractive. Beauty makes the world a better place. Beauty moves us. A lack of beauty is a lack of aliveness.
  • Authentic. Everyone’s life is highly individual. No one can tell anyone what to think or do. Natural systems work on two premises: each entity is very unique
  • and at the same time deeply relational with everything else. We constantly co-create with all living and non-living beings. Our uniqueness determines what this creation looks like.

*a lot of what constitutes an eco-lifestyle is actually not new at all, but has been part of many indigenous cultures for millennia.