OUR TOP FIVE HOW TO MAKE YOUR FASHION URGES MINDFUL AND SUSTAINABLE
If you are familiar with the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the world’s leading spiritual teachers, you might know his book ‘Fear’. Thay as the Zen master is known, writes about how people spend much of their lives worrying. Unable to save themselves from their own personal suffering.
Our quest for wealth, fame and sexual gratification provides the perfect hiding space from the truth about challenges facing the world, and only leads to greater unhappiness.
Our addiction to material goods and our hectic lifestyle is a temporary cure for our emotional and spiritual sadness. We can be liberated from fear when we understand that we are more than our physical bodies, that we did not come from nothingness and will not disappear into nothingness.
But how do we overcome our fears, the complexity of our lives and the overwhelming choices offered by our consumer society? Thay offers a simple alternative: Switch off the non-stop noise in your head and focus on the core of mindfulness; the joy of breathing, of walking, of contemplation in the present moment.
On companies that produce harmful products, Thay says: “They should not continue to produce these things. We don’t need them. We need other kinds of products that help us to be healthier. If there is awakening in the ranks of consumers, then the producer will have to change. We can force him to change by not buying.”
Simple right? 🙂 At Elsien Gringhuis we really support this theory, but we still do need a number of things in our lifes, right? Things we need to buy every now and again, like clothes for instance. How do we go about that?
Here’s our top 5 of things you can do to make your fashion urges mindful and sustainable. If you buy in a conscious way, you will find you really do not need that much. It gives a lot of (mental) freedom to have only things that serve you.
- Buy organic and animal friendly
- Buy only what really adds something to your life
- Choose quality over quantity
- Forget about trends, make conscious choices
- Only buy what suits your personality best
When choosing wisely, we can put an end to unnecessary overproduction, animal abuse, unfair and child labour, terrible environmental issues and so on. If we do this collectively we send out a signal to the corporate world that change is needed… and… it will make you feel a lot better about yourself too!
So ‘buy less, choose well and make it last.’ You can change the way it is!