Connecting Through Sustainability
Humans need connection to each other and nature in order to thrive
For today’s Acorn Land Labs article I’m thrilled to feature our first guest writer, Sam Colbert Ph. D. Sam’s perspective on connection provides a truly unique lens. Enjoy!
Connecting Through Sustainability
As a psychologist, I believe that one of the largest sources of human suffering is a lack of connection- connection with one's self, with others, with our environment. I believe that working towards more sustainable living can help us better connect to something much larger than ourselves-our planet. And in the process of doing so, we can learn to better connect to ourselves, our loved ones and our community.
Connection is far greater than the sum of its parts. In my mind, connection is the synergy that is created when we feel a part of something larger than ourselves. Through sustainable living, we are connecting not only to our planet, but also to a higher cause- living harmoniously alongside other organisms. We are ensuring the continued survival of our planet, our race, and that of other species.
The antithesis of connection is isolation. When we are isolated, we feel adrift. Both in my professional and personal life, I see the negative effects of being disengaged from our environment. We know that depression is linked with isolation. In traditional clinical ways of thinking, this isolation refers to separateness from other people, however I argue that it extends beyond this to something larger than the human race. In the industrialized world, we have been isolating ourselves from the very entity that sustains us-our environment. By connecting more to our ecosystem, through sustainable living practices, we can decrease our sense of loneliness and increase our sense of connection.
Let’s Change Our Thinking About Sustainability
We are constantly hearing bleak messages about the future of our world. These warnings are not without merit, but also leave people feeling deflated, hopeless and helpless about the future. Through taking small steps (steps that are tailored to each individuals’ unique abilities), we can help decrease the helplessness we experience due to climate change.
We do not have to think about sustainability from a deficit mindset. For example, we often hear about the dangers of running out of energy. However, the amount of energy hitting the earth from the sun is about 10,000 times the amount used by humans. To be blunt, we have plenty of energy. We just need to learn how to harness it better. We have the opportunity to come together and enjoy thinking about the sheer number of ways to employ new technology in order to capture the abundance of energy our world already provides.
Learning to live more sustainably can empower us. All around me, I see the effects of feeling powerless in the face of climate change. There are studies documenting a new phenomenon, climate change anxiety to describe the very real fear people are experiencing due to our changing environment.
Climate change can also cause people to feel helpless about the future. There is a well documented psychological phenomenon known as learned helplessness. Learned helplessness occurs when an organism does not try to better their circumstances even when there is the ability to do so. This happens when one previously learns that their actions do not have an impact on their environment. The organism then incorrectly applies this learning to future situations and misses out on actual opportunities for change. I fear that this sentiment is becoming more pervasive when we discuss our climate. Taking even small steps to live sustainably can build our sense of confidence and limit the impact of learned helplessness.
To be more connected to the very processes that enable our survival can feel simultaneously enlivening, enriching, and joyful. In the current model of living, we are disconnected from many of the means of sustaining life.
Although living sustainably can increase our daily workload-whether that be having to tend a compost pile, harvesting veggies from the garden, putting in work to make our home more eco-friendly, etc., I believe the rewards far exceed the costs. In a world where we have very little control over many of the conditions of our life, engaging in sustainable living is one way that we can feel more empowered. In this way, the very process of engaging in sustainable living can feel fun, meaningful and exciting.
My Experience of Connecting through Sustainability
When I plug my phone into my photovoltaic cells, I feel connected (bad dad joke?) In all seriousness, I do feel connected on multiple levels…
I feel connected in the very literal sense that I’m charging my phone. I feel connected that I can scroll on social media, call my family, respond to email. I feel connected to a cause I care about- using renewable energy. More profoundly, yet perhaps more subtly, I feel connected to an energy source larger than myself…the sun. I am literally connecting my phone with energy that traveled 93 million miles from a fusion reactor that is 4.5 billion years old. I’m in complete awe…(by the way, there is research demonstrating that awe can increase prosocial behavior…so sustainability really is the way to go).
Recently, I went to the beach and for the first time I brought my solar array- a little portable 16W panel. As the sun beat down, I began charging my phone. My friends, who moments before looked at me skeptically as I laid out my solar array gingerly on a towel of its own (I promise, I do actually have friends), were now asking to charge their devices. In this moment, I was able to relate with them in a new way through educating them about a cause I’m passionate about. Whenever I charge my devices using power that I’ve harvested, I feel such a sense of accomplishment, of agency. This helps me combat a sense of powerlessness in the face of our climate crisis. In essence, I get such a charge from my photovoltaics (sorry…another bad pun).
Leaning into the Struggle
Humans are quite the interesting species. We are capable of so much and yet often find ourselves so limited. I find myself living quite paradoxically (another way of saying this is… hypocritically, however I’m choosing a positive framing!). I simultaneously want to live more environmentally friendly while also finding myself throwing away plastic when recycling is not readily available. Part of my process in learning to live more sustainably involves understanding where my growth edges occur and how I can work to strengthen them. In this way I can learn more about what I need to make behavioral change. A harm reduction model can help us be more gentle with ourselves and our neighbors when trying to make behavioral changes. The purpose is not to eschew responsibility, but to make change more likely. In this model, we accept that we cannot change everything at once, but instead can make small incremental changes to reduce harm. We can try to do what we can to live more sustainably while also acknowledging the pressures of our modern world and the limitations that might constrict our ability to do so. We don’t have to make drastic changes overnight. Little by little, we can accomplish great things together. We can do this through working to live more sustainably (through choosing to adopt systems that work for us-whether that be a vegetable garden, solar panels, a wind turbine, eco-friendly homes, compost piles, choosing to invest in eco-friendly companies, buying environmentally friendly products, taking public transit, etc. etc. etc.). Little by little we can make changes to heal our relationship with the environment and in so doing, increase our psychological health and wellbeing.
Sam Colbert Ph. D. IG: @sam_colbert_phd
www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-m-colbert
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