How Self-Care Can Actually Save the Planet

"Take care of the earth and it will take care of you." ~ Unknown

In the morning the sky was red and the sun did not rise, so I decided to sell my car. Strangely enough, it seemed like the last act of self-care.

You know, my wife and I are a family of two cars and none of us travel in the Bay Area full of water. So losing a car would not be difficult. Instead, it would be a clear statement of living by my standards. How to put up my protest and live the truth.

Now I understand that this is what my friend John was talking about.

I knew John some years ago when I was living at Adirondacks, and he was an environmentalist. And instead of driving everywhere, he rode his bike everywhere for 365 days a year. Up with the mountains. In the pouring rain. All the way to the store and back, many miles away.

I will never forget seeing the first blur on the road one snowy day. There was John, paddling up a mountain in a blizzard. At the time, I thought it was nuts. Probably too small.

Now I think she is smart and admirable. Because even back there, John really got it. We are indeed living in an emergency.

That’s why creating a low, green life with a small carbon footprint is the next arc of my self-care. What is true self-care but a return to the whispers that often silence your inner voice? Apparently he had been asking for this for a very long time.

All it took me to turn on this switch was to wake up in a strange, dark morning in Oakland recently. I checked the time and it was 8 o'clock in the morning. However my whole bedroom was as dark as if it was 2AM.

I sat, confused and unsure. I suspected the pollution of historical wildfires in the upper atmosphere that it was responsible… but this was excessive.

What is happening then?

I pulled out a sleeping dog, which was also beaten equally. When I tried to wake up our urban chickens, they would not come out. Instead, they sit in their nests, licking quietly and believing, like me, it was midnight.

I went out into the front yard and looked around. The sky was an unusual dystopian orange, and I watched it overflow. That's when I was completely and completely scared. Obviously, the world was very corrupt… and if I had not found it before, I am as sure as hell has now done.

I started to cry. The whole of California was now hot or very polluted, strange natural acts were now commonplace, and I felt younger and less powerful than before.

The dreadful future we were learning about so much, and we thought it would never happen in our lifetime, has come. There are no more exceptions.

And yet. In separation, we can usually be reborn quickly and sometimes reborn. I learned this lesson when my daughter died eight years earlier, and I was forced to resume my life and career. I found self-care at that time, a practice I have written extensively on. Now a new understanding began to enter.

That morning, I sat down and checked the situation. I wondered if it was possible to take care of myself in my new, very urgent sense of nature. Or maybe this was a new self-care, version 3.0?

Because now I know I need both, very, very much.

Here’s what my new ‘green self-care’ habits look like. First of all, I am determined to live up to my standards now, not someone else's. That means I put myself and the world first, before pleading with corporate organizations, such as oil and gas companies, that do not have my good hearts.

I am starting to realize that my loyalty to them has always been a matter of habit, such as thinking of my bike as a "just exercise sometimes".

My new commitment means I will drive very slowly and now I am more reliant on walking or riding my bike. My city has many nice roads and bikes, and I can use them. If I have to drive, I can drive with my wife or friends. There is a bicycle-sharing station just down the road, and I am not a stranger to public transportation, so I will use that too. Somehow, I will get where I need to go.

Here's an angle to take care of yourself: all walking and cycling will be good for my body, won't it? When I lived in New York City and San Francisco, I traveled hundreds of miles and traveled by train or bus every day. I have never owned a car. Now why did I need it now?

I cut completely red meat from my diet. While I used to say I would do this, I would grab myself a burger or occasionally crave a lamb. But now the meat is officially removed from the table. I also think I’ll take it and try to make it vegan for a whole month, to get rid of the cows completely in my life. The health benefits are obvious.

There are also all the low-consumption strategies we can do in our homes, and some are well integrated with self-care. Washing your clothes in cold water protects the fabric much better, and hanging clothes to dry in the sun adds a peaceful Zen touch to the day. Reducing your dependence on screens gives your brain and eyes much needed rest, while minimizing stress on the power grid.

In fact, connecting to multiple electronic media will make my life less stressful in general. Do I need to dive deeper into social media and news feeds for all my devices? No. Instead, I can close them and go back to reading good old books, and write in my notebook. I can start playing my piano and make a lot of jigsaw puzzles. I would call my sisters or old friends just to chat. Meditation seems to balance here, too.

I see a lot of movement in nature and in my future. But this time I will not focus on running the most fun workout.

Now I am inclined to go for a walk and enjoy the beautiful, yet fragile nature. That is, not by accident, what researchers have determined is essential for proper brain health. Not to mention the best way to beat anxiety and depression.

Could it be that by simply accepting the bad habits, my self-care will be tarnished? I say yes