Be Informed: Enacting a Conscious Family LifeSTYLE
It is safe to assume because you are reading this article, like us, you have an interest in adopting a more mindful, joyous, conscious and/or sustainable approach to your family’s current lifestyle. From our experience, if you embark on a journey toward mindfulness it inevitably leads you toward a consciousness of many things. How you came to this enlightened journey is either quite personal or simply a fluke chance-- possibly rooted from a complex social or emotional journey or a need to get in tune with the world around you. Perhaps your journey began as simply as staying up one night surfing NetFlix, after the kids went to bed, then deciding to watch a documentary that ended up changing your whole perspective. Now, this random decision, has you in a frenzy trying to change your family’s lifestyle & the world; realizing that there are major issues to tackle--- socially, economically and environmentally that are challenging families and our planet. The titles Netflix has in its documentary category are powerful and persuasive, bringing light to profoundly important concerns WE SHOULD all share & ENACT changes in our lifestyles to lessen our contribution.
Unfortunately, your frenzy to make a positive contribution likely has little guidance at the moment, with a plethora of information that only seems to complicate the solutions, therefore offering little hope for any actual success you're seeking to achieve. This fact is especially true considering what needs to be accomplished. BUT your good intentions are centered in great merit and we applaud you for taking the first steps! We know they're hard, because we're there with you, seeking the best success routes for FAMILIES--- and that's a lot of dynamics!
Take Lifestyle Changes SLOW
Its widely known that to be successful at any sustainable changes there are strategies. Setting goals and moving toward them slowly--understanding that the benefits will come with effort, dedication & information are important things to remember.
AddyPresLifeSTYLE Supports Your LifeSTYLE Goals
We hope to support you with REAL SOLUTIONS that will help your family’s approach toward a mindfully conscious lifestyle!
A First Step: Get Informed
The absolute first step toward a conscious family lifestyle is to be informed. This list of documentaries and books will likely change everything, AND IT SHOULD, just don’t try to watch them in a marathon! We're not going to beat around the bush, this information is hard to see & hear, especially as parents and mindful human beings. Still, it requires our collective attention. *NOTE: These are not kid friendly suggestions. We recommend watching them together as a couple, without your children. Your children will learn through your lifestyle changes and anything you choose to share with them.
- CowspiracyÂ
- Fed Up This will give you a whole new approach to the kids pantry!
- The True CostÂ
- The Minimalists While these guys are awesome and their message is spot on, it would be very challenging for an average American family to have the opportunity to adopt an extremely minimal lifestyle, which is promoted in this film, but the film offers great suggestions that can be adapted to a family lifestyle to offer improvement for higher good.
- Forks Over Knives
- 13 Reasons Why
- Also Read the books by Patagonia’s Founder, Yvon Chouinard: The Responsible Company & Let My People Go Surfing.
- Because educating our children and ourselves with tools that are required to stay mindfully balanced in a fast paced, high expectation world, we highly suggest reading Goldie Hawn's 10 Mindful Minutes--- the strategies will certainly help you cope with the information bombardment after watching all the documentaries!
Now that you're informed, DON'T feel overwhelmed or that you should go to the extremes to enact drastic changes right away. Slow and steady transitions with what you feel are important for your family to contribute is what you can focus on now.
WHY is it important to change our lifestyles? Because our current ones are not only stressing our kids, ourselves, our teachers & our communities completely out but they’re also draining our planet of all of its natural resources. As parents, teachers and communities, it’s our job to teach our children to be good, kind, centered people--- it’s also our job to leave a healthy planet behind for them to live, thrive and ultimately grab the reigns of. There isn’t one of us who can solely end bullying, improve education, stop the loss of species, lower CO2 emissions, end deforestation, hunger or GMO's or halt environmental damage--- but all these issues hold hands and if we collectively make the choice to improve our own actions, we CAN SOLVE THE PROBLEMS with time or in the least, improve things!
You've embarked on a worthwhile journey for your family to take part in a more mindful, conscious, and joyous existence with groups of people who are right beside you! This decision will positively influence your family's life, your community, your children's education and planet we all share, that we'll leave behind for our little people!
