On living sustainably

Living a sustainable lifestyle is associated with renunciation, sacrifice, discipline, missing out, being an outsider, being a hippie. I found sustainability to be the exact opposite. 

When I started to approach a sustainable lifestyle, I encountered an ocean of cognitive dissonance. I knew what was right to do and yet wasn’t able to do it. My mind was constantly in battle with itself. I felt like a walking contradiction. I wasn’t able to live up to my expectations. It tore me apart. I lost hope. 

To overcome this inner battle, I went down the rabbit hole of self-discovery. I wanted to know what the human condition is. How the mind works. How the world works. 

What I found was a new worldview. I realized that my understanding of the world was not only insufficient and very limited but causing harm. To myself and to the planet. Adapting a new understanding of the world led me to embrace all of life, its ups and downs equally. It also allowed me to stop judging myself for not living up to what I had in mind. 

Instead of renunciation, sacrifice, discipline, missing out, being an outsider, being a hippie, I felt closer to myself and others than I ever have before. 

I am not saying that the transition was easy, nor that I am done, but sustainability is the greatest opportunity for humanity to tackle many of our psychological problems and reasons for unhappiness. It asks us what life is really about and how we should live, how to make our life worthwhile, what goals to strive for, what to become as humanity, what to evolve to. It asks us the most fundamental questions of life.