To live Zero Waste, which means to adopt behaviours that would lead us to not produce waste, means to live consciously. For instance, when we’re purchasing something, it means to evaluate if and how the product we’re buying can be reused, or at least recycled and, generally speaking, if we truly need it; and to determine what impact it had on the environment during its production and the impact it will have during its disposal. It means to ask ourselves if there are more sustainable alternatives, or if we can do without it; to ask ourselves whether we’re buying something out of boredom or laziness. Long story short, it means understanding if we are actively polluting the Planet or not.
So, how can we bring awareness to our lives and get closer to a Zero Waste kind of lifestyle?
One of the most common ways, and also one of the easiest in my opinion, is to start meditating. Indeed, to meditate means to practice awareness. It may seem like a difficult thing that takes away time, something that we have to learn how to do: but it’s actually not like that.
It’s incredibly easy to start. A few minutes per day will be enough. And, most importantly, we all already know how to do it.
For instance, we do it every time we do manual activities, when we pay attention to the sound of the sea or the wind, and all those times when we are present, with our mind and our body, in any given situation. We don’t have to meditate sitting in silence. We can do it in any moment: because in any moment we can practice our presence.
So let’s see how to let bad habits go to embrace new ways of living, healthier for both ourselves and others, counteracting with conscious actions the usual and daily re-actions we normally have.
The practice I’m suggesting is one of the most common, used in different disciplines, methods and forms, and that belongs also to the Sutra, which are Buddha’s teachings: Anapanasati, the mental presence of breathing. In Anapanasati, we dedicate ourselves to paying attention to the air that enters and exits the body. We can do it sitting on a cushion, on a chair, but also standing at the bus stop, while brushing our teeth or when we make our bed. Simply, we pay attention to what is.
And when a thought, a sound or a physical feeling distracts us, and it’s normal that it happens, we remember to go back to our breath, and we remind ourselves to be present. We can think: “Inhaling, I know I’m inhaling. Exhaling, I know I’m exhaling.” To focus our attention on our breath means to celebrate our being in the moment we’re living, here and now. And when we do it, we start to live consciously.
Only by practicing our awareness can we truly be free to choose how to live. And, since we can choose, let’s choose to live paying respect to the ecosystem: let’s choose to live Zero Waste. by Claudia Esposito
