[Short premise: for convenience, I’ll use the term contemplative practices to refer to activities such as mindfulness or meditation, that however, in turn, refer to a wide variety of practices. Each of them develops different mental abilities that can affect our thinking and actions in different ways. However, all work in the same way because they pursue the same goal: bringing back the attention to something specific, whether it’s our breathing, observing the thoughts flowing in our minds, a mantra, compassion, a god, and so on].
It might seem odd that, in a guide on how to adopt a Zero Waste kind of lifestyle, meditating not only appears among all the other practical solutions, but it has an entire section of its own.
You might ask what do contemplative practices have to do with a Zero Waste philosophy – and the answer is much more scientific than you would think.
Of course, to practice a contemplative activity is not a Zero Waste solution on its own, as a reusable water bottle or a DIY deodorant can be. However, as we’ve said since the very beginning of this guide, adopting a Zero Waste kind of lifestyle doesn’t mean simply erasing a single-use product from our lives, but to enact a deep change at the core of the way we lead our lives.
Basically, this change requires quitting the consumer lifestyle we have now and acquire more awareness of the choices we make day to day. That means reducing our tendency to greed and curbing our thirst for success and power at any cost that characterizes our lifestyle and, to some extent, our nature. Instead, we can grow our inner capacity to slow down, cultivate a sense of calm, learn to take care of ourselves, be equanimous, grateful, and detached – ultimately, strengthening our perception of what truly matters and makes us feel good and what doesn’t.
Contemplative practices help enable this change. It’s not just a romantic conviction, either. Over forty years of scientific studies prove it, and neuroscientists Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson have finally summarized these findings in their book Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body. It’s precisely from this book that I started to understand why contemplative practices can help us all adopt a Zero Waste lifestyle.
Mental training that favors our wellbeing
I’ll start by presenting one of Inspire’s basic convictions: mental training gives us power, choice, and wisdom, and through it, “we can cultivate qualities of mind that foster well-being” (Goleman & Davidson, 2017, p. 55).
This wellbeing doesn’t consist of money, influence, or the growth of material goods, but rather in the nourishment within ourselves of positive emotions and capacities for things like benevolence, altruism, compassion, gratitude, equanimity, composure, ongoing mindfulness, and realistic confidence – all healthy traits that, according to Goleman and Davidson, when trained through meditation can inhibit unhealthy ones: “The goal is to establish the healthy states as predominant, lasting traits” (Goleman & Davidson, 2017, p. 42).
A lasting trait is one that characterizes our brain and our behavior not only during meditation but all the time.
Through mental training, a healthy and balanced life with ourselves and others can become a permanent trait. Let me be clear: when talking about mental training I do not mean something abstract, but something very scientifically concrete. Indeed, the significant discovery of neuroplasticity helped Goleman and Davidson develop their theory. By meditating, in other words, training the neuronal circuitry of our brain to communicate in a new way, the brain changes, exactly like every other muscle in our body!
Therefore, through this training, we can learn to look at our daily actions in a different light, choosing to do those things that help us maintain our wellbeing and detach ourselves from those that lead us to unhealthy behaviors — until we are free from them once and for all. To put it simply, it would be like quitting smoking by nourishing the pleasure of breathing fresh air so much you wouldn’t struggle to avoid another cigarette.
So, concretely speaking, what does meditation do? How does it act on our brain?
How does the amygdala work?
The main function of meditation is calming the amygdala’s response to signals of stress or danger that it receives with incredible frequency every day.
Indeed, as Goleman and Davidson explain to us, the amygdala is the brain’s radar for potential threats. It receives immediate input from our sensory nervous system, scanning continuously for signs of safety or danger. When the amygdala perceives a threat, its circuitry triggers the brain’s fight-or-flight response, which then dictates our actions and can unleash intense emotional responses.
Moreover, the amygdala responds to anything that’s crucial to pay attention to, whether we like it or not. For example, this dual role explains why, when we are in the grip of anxiety, we don’t seem to be able to focus on anything else and we wonder over and over about the cause. And the same goes for all negative emotions: fear, grief, frustration, rage, and discontent (Goleman & Davidson, 2017, p. 87).
In a world where relentless stimuli and concerns are everywhere – risk of losing one’s job, performance anxiety, fear of not being accepted by others, feelings of inadequacy, worrying over the next bills to pay, the terror of what we don’t know, you name it. However, because of the aforementioned neuroplasticity, meditation helps us by, to put it simply, making the amygdala work better, and allowing us to respond in more rational ways to the “threats” we identify constantly.
Thanks to a more weighed response, we find that we don’t have to batten down the hatches anymore, nor give in to the emotional vortex that leads us to buy what we don’t need, do things that leave us unhappy with ourselves, behave in ways that don’t reflect who we are out of fear of being rejected, or freeze in fear of change or failure.
Weighting Zero Waste
It’s thanks to this mental rebalancing that we manage to make more careful choices and find time for ourselves and the lifestyle we truly wish for. We find the calm of evaluating what we truly want, learn to listen to ourselves and understand what makes us feel good. We also learn what, on the contrary, is just a sedative to not feel the frustration, sadness, and emptiness of a life that doesn’t belong to us or makes us feel perpetually inadequate.
Meditation, in all forms, allows us to stay tuned in to the thoughts and behaviors that make us feel healthy and balanced, and keep us that way. And it’s precisely because we want this wellbeing and balance that contemplative practices are fundamental to Zero Waste. And vice versa: Zero Waste is a practical translation of values that we nurture within ourselves everyday through contemplative practice.
By meditating, we find the pleasure of getting rid of what we don’t need and that weighs us down. And we soon see the pleasure of living a simpler life based on being rather than having.
As Goleman and Davidson state, “when nurtured on a grand scale, these qualities – particularly kindness and compassion – would inevitably lead to changes for the better in our communities, our nations, and our societies. These positive altered traits have the potential for transforming our world in ways that will enhance not only our individual thriving but also the odds for our species’ survival […] we view this ‘curriculum’ as one solution to an urgent public health need: reducing greed, selfishness, us/them thinking and impending eco-calamities” (Goleman & Davidson, 2017, p. 291).
As always, small steps
As in every other situation, no one expects you to become meditation champions overnight: the important thing is to be aware that this practice can help you on your journey towards a healthier and more Zero Waste lifestyle.
So, where to start? “For those about to start a meditation practice, or who have been grazing among several, keep in mind that as with gaining skill in a given sport, finding a meditation practice that appeals to you and sticking with it will have the greatest benefits. Just find one to try, decide on the amount of time each day you can realistically practice daily—even as short as a few minutes—try it for a month, and see how you feel after those thirty days. Just as regular workouts give you better physical fitness, most any type of meditation will enhance mental fitness to some degree” (Goleman & Davidson, 2017, p. 9-10).
I’ll leave you with the invitation to read this wonderful book, one that can truly help us better understand what contemplative practices are, how they work and especially what great potential they represent for all of us – no exceptions.
To conclude, a final quote: “We envision a world where widespread mental fitness deeply alters society for the better. We hope the scientific case we make here shows the enormous potential for enduring well-being from caring for our minds and brains, and convinces you that a little daily mental exercise can go a long way toward the cultivation of that well-being. […] Targeting and upgrading these human capacities directly could help break the cycle of some otherwise intractable social maladies, like ongoing poverty, intergroup hatreds, and mindlessness about our planet’s well-being. […] We have shown the evidence that it is possible to cultivate these positive qualities in the depths of our being, and that any of us can begin this inner journey” (Goleman & Davidson, 2017, p. 290-2).
By Alice Bellini References: Goleman, D., Davidson, R.J. (2017). Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body. New York: Avery.
