Anchored

Just as our emotions and social interactions impact our health so does the way we interact and leave our mark on our surroundings.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are a big part of our environmental wellness but it doesn’t stop there and it does indeed impact our overall health.

I am blessed to live out of town with trees and grass as far as the eye can see.  I love going for walks, but hate to see the amount of trash thrown out on the side of the road; from cans of soda, bottles of water and sometimes an entire Large McDonald’s bag full of the unwanted food and containers that go along with it.  I’m sure if you pay attention to the sides of the road as you drive, you’ll become aware of the obvious disrespect that our planet receives.  Doesn’t it make you wonder, if someone can have that much disrespect for our earth, how can they have any respect for their own health?

Have you ever seen the movie Wall-E?  I’m a proud Disney fan and just lucky enough to have kids to share with me in all my Disney adventures.  If you haven’t seen Wall-E, or even if you have, it’s about a robot whose job is to clean up trash on earth.  There is so much trash on the earth that trees and plants can no longer grow which makes earth uninhabitable.  The movie starts by showing Wall-e surrounded by garbage pilled as high as the eye can see and he is making small squares and staking them neatly to organize the disgusting state that earth is in.  Then it takes us to humans -they now live on another planet, everyone is so overweight that they ride around on hover boards and float lazily through life surrounded by TV’s and fast food along every street.  In the first few minutes of this movie I was in awe as I could see that this could easily become a reality because of how little respect we have for ourselves and our planet and how directly linked our world’s health is to our own  well being.

Hard to think that our nature’s health is related to weight loss, but hear me out for a moment – if we act disrespectfully to others, it hurts our relationship with them and creates habits within ourselves – making love and respect hard to do.  Wouldn’t the same be true if we disrespect where we live? wouldn’t the true location of where we live, our bodies, not be far behind the disrespect we have for earth?

We have been given two places to live – Earth and our human bodies.  The respect you have for the earth directly impacts the respect you have for your body.  If it’s easy to be wasteful in one area of your life, it will easily carry over everywhere.  To be environmentally healthy you need to be engaged in your role to make, even just your own environment, healthy.

To improve your Environmental Wellness

• Conserve energy – turn off lights
• Recycle
• Volunteer with environmental organizations
• Become aware of Earth’s natural resources. Identify and understand the role of your use of them
• Spend time outdoors and boost  your vitamin D at the same time
• Fresh air helps improve sleep
• Getting away from Screens and being outside prolongs your eyesight
• Nature helps put life into perspective and adds to internal calming

Let’s not be like the movie Wall-E! Let’s instead take care of our earth and our bodies starting now, because it’s really hard to turn it back around if we wait too long.

The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.  For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

Psalm 24:1-2