Essential Elements of Sustainable Living

Sustainable living is a lifestyle which caters to our needs to enable a healthy and joyful life without compromising on the ability of future generations to exercise a consistently good living option. The following constitute the essential elements of sustainable living:

Self-Reliance

Being empowered to realise one’s potential, strengthening community connections, valuing human relations, caring for the weak and needy, and designing adaptable structures that provide for adequate availability of resources and their optimal utilisation.

Dignity

A lifestyle that provides for the most basic human needs including food, shelter and clothing, creates an environment of respect, compassion and equal opportunities, and helps develop a perspective that nurtures a thinking of abundance and completeness.

Resilience

Ability to withstand adversities by developing skills and strategies, overcome challenges by designing creative solutions, pre-empt disasters by adopting measures which reduce their probability, and define plans to reduce impact and recover quickly from any eventuality.

Happiness and Well-Being

A state of being filled with love and compassion, that encompasses purpose and passion in a way that fills us with gratitude and appreciation for what we have and who we are, and nurtures our body, mind and soul to lead a healthy, joyful and fulfilling life.

Sustainable living is a fulfilling lifestyle that is joyful and considerate of others; driven by passionate purpose; borne of compassion and sense of social, economic and environmental responsibility; possessing a creative craving for designing lasting solutions to overcome challenges

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When we identify ourselves with our materialistic possessions - houses and cars we own, the clothes we wear and the official title that goes with our names; we are tagging our worth to these things. When we seek and discover something worthwhile within ourselves, we need not cling on to something to feel worthy and the path ahead reveals a purpose to live on. The choices of sustainable living are personal to each individual. One can discover his/her own purpose and apply the principles to design a joyful and fulfilling lifestyle. Whatever be the purpose, the outcome remains the same - designing a life which incorporates the four essential elements of sustainable living.