Conscious consumption

*This is an old article, which may not completely reflect the current view of the author. However, it is still worth considering, as a healthy body and a healthy mind go together. Noted March 2021

In today's life, we see and hear about many different groups of diets. We hear about Vegan, Vegetarian, Fruitarian, Pescetarian, Omnivores, Carnivores, and who knows what else! In some cultures, it is not only about the food being consumed, but about the social status it brings.

Yes, we are identifying with our diets! How often do we hear someone saying "I am Vegan" or "I am Vegetarian" instead of saying "I follow a Vegan diet". We feel so strongly about what we consume, that we start to make it our identities. We can see this all over on social media and television. It has become a 'thing'. It is a social status.

With this new identity we take on or that we give others, comes a lot of ideas and concepts. We feel that some of them are evil, some of them are selfish, cruel, hippies, wise, kind, and so it goes. We place each other and ourselves in mental boxes, and then we place even more labels on these mental boxes we create, completely separating ourselves from others again, feeding the egos with false identities. Yes, there are a lot of crazy ideas out there!

Maybe, we can take another approach to all of this. Maybe, there is another way we can look at mindful consumption.

How do we understand mindful consumption?

Now, what does this mean? Mindful consumption? That we only eat 'free-range' eggs or 'bio' fruit? This may be beneficial, but it is still not what we want to talk about, when we think of mindful consumption. Let's go into it a bit deeper.

Regardless of what we consume, we need to think about how we consume. Most of us may feel that we do consume mindfully, respectfully, but is this true?

We may label ourselves 'Vegetarian' or 'Vegan', but if we are just packing away blocks of imported tofu on a daily basis, is this mindful consumption? We get the same extremes where some of us just eat steaks each day, drink liters of soda each day, six beers a day. In the end, it is not purely about what we consume, but how we consume.

The combination of being aware of how and what we consume, can lead to mindful consumption. Respectful consumption. 

Appreciating our food

Another perspective we can look at is the way we express gratitude towards our food. We may pray before we eat, dedicating our food towards the hungry, the formless, those suffering, but are we truly doing this from our hearts, or are we merely saying this? Is all of this just virtuous speech? We need to check up!

Before we consume our food, do we actually think of the process it took to get to this point where it lies on a plate before us? From the farmer having to sow the seeds, the water needed for the lands, the people to harvest the fruit or vegetables, the sorting, and packing, transporting, the shelf packing, all of it leading up to being in front of us?

There are so much time and energy dedicated to this, and then we sometimes consume food respectless, like it is nothing. Just shoving food into our bodies, never thinking of the process that happened behind the scenes. Farmworkers working at minimum wage to support a family, shelf packers packing long hours, trying to support a family, the insects that died through harvesting the crops. All these things we tend to forget, and we rush the food down in a matter of minutes, or just chasing our desires, wanting more and more of it.

The same goes for the clothes we buy. The amount of energy and time invested into this, most probably at minimum wage, water needed to go to crops to grow cotton, this whole process. Still, we consume mindlessly, just following the brights lights, glowing in the letters of "Sale! Sale! Sale!"

Let's take a moment of clarity, and let's consider what we are doing to nature. Not just with the food and vegetables, but also the meat and dairy, the cotton, all of it, the collective. Are we not busy extorting our Mother Nature? Our Mother that supplies us with oxygen, water, food, beauty, healing medicine. Are we not draining Her resources, while we fully and completely depend on Her? We need to consider this.

Having a healthy balance

What does all of this mean to us? That we should not eat or drink anymore, never buy anything again? No, not at all. Let's enjoy what we are offered, with an appreciating heart, in gratitude. Think of the Buddha, how he taught the middle-way.

We do not have to follow an extreme Vegan diet or refrain from buying imported products or anything extreme. As long as we are mindful of what we are doing. Respecting our environment, respecting our Mother. Just one person consuming mindfully is already a great benefit! It rubs off on those around us, and we start to create a consensus reality of mindfulness and respecting Nature.

As we have said in a previous article, Nature is aware, conscious, and extremely intelligent. If we treat Her with love and respect, we shall be surprised to see what we get in return!

In order to cultivate such an attitude, we can think about each meal before we consume it. Even if we just take one minute before we rush into our plate, just one minute to think about everything that had to happen, in order for this meal to be possible. When we make this a habit, we shall start to experiencing and expressing gratitude on a whole new level.

We can pray with more thankfulness, we can offer the food with more grace, and our overall experience can be one of more peace, thankfulness, and a feeling of connectedness towards our Universes. 

It is not purely about what we consume, but how we consume.