The Greening of Gavin

TGoG Podcast 086 – Gardening Therapy

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It has been a sad week.  Kim and I have been grieving the loss of her mother, Pam.  We each have gone about it in our own way, coming together often for hugs and tears.

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To reflect and grieve, I have been practicing gardening therapy, which is something that I discovered a while back.  It always helps me get over the blues or a funk that I sometimes get into.

What did I have to lose by thrusting my hands into the soil and by getting stuck into planting more veg or harvesting our winter crops?  Nothing to lose at all, and everything to gain, especially a sense of fulfilment and joy that one rarely experiences from other endeavours in their life.  Well that is how it affects me.

Gardening Therapy

Gardening Therapy

During the show I mentioned a study that may go some way to explaining why gardening helps combat depression and aids in mental health.  It studied allotment gardeners asked to perform a stressful task and how gardening work lowered their stress levels quicker than a control group where were asked to read after the same task.  According to the authors, gardening elicits powerful neuroendocrine responses that relieve acute stress parameters in a very measurable way.  Very interesting indeed.

So please join me by listening to this episode titled Gardening Therapy, and hear how I have been busy getting therapy in my own special way.

How Would You Rate Your Greenness?

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Self reflection is something we should all do often.  Otherwise, how would we be able to fully understand how far we have travelled on our sustainable living journey.
However, our sustainable living journey needs to have a reference, a spectrum or scale if you like, so that we can all gauge where we are on the journey.

This spectrum shown above is a good tool to help one understand where they personally are.

Personally, back in September 2006, I was firmly in the red area.  I was shocked into action from the red end of the spectrum through to the light green within the span of a few months, then finally over a longer time period to the dark green end.

Although I have experienced a real paradigm shift in behaviours, beliefs and personal reality, sometimes I loose that optimism which comes with green, and go to a much darker place.  Those who follow this blog regularly would have observed this in my writing from time to time.  It happens to us all I think, but then I snap out of it with some self reflection or meditation.

I believe that it isn’t until we measure something objectively, that we can truly improve upon our performance.

Anyway, that is where I think I am on the scale, where do you think you are?  You don’t have to share if you don’t want to, but it would be great if people self reflect a little, and draw a line in the sand so to speak.  While you are at it, have a think about behaviours you could be doing better or start to move towards the greener end of the scale.

Join in, the waters fine.  The more the merrier, I say.  What would be really interesting would be if we did this again in six months time.  Who is up for the challenge?

Cognitive Dissonance Redeux

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Cognitive Dissonance
Ever felt that things were not quite right?  Have you held a strong belief but known deep down that something was wrong when you learnt that this belief was unfounded but struggle to let go of the original belief?  This feeling is called Cognitive Dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance Defined

“Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The “ideas” or “cognitions” in question may include attitudes and beliefs, the awareness of one’s behaviour, and facts. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours, or by justifying or rationalising their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours.”

Confused

Back in September 2009, I first wrote a post about this subject and I was confused.  It around this time in my journey that I felt a little burnt out from all the environmental and sustainable living activities I had been undertaking and were still continuing to volunteer for.  I had been doing all of this work in the community, with little outcome to visibly show for it and was beginning to feel that I was the only person, besides a few friends that I knew, that actually cared about any of the big issues that were facing us.  
I was totally wrong of course, because when I attended the yearly Walk Against Warming in my city three months later, over 40,000 like-minded people joined in to show support.  My spirits were also buoyed by the overwhelming and global uproar that the Copenhagen COP15 conference caused, even though the outcome was not the best for the planet.
Looking back, this term aptly described my state of mind about other people’s actions that I saw everyday when I was at a low, and how I felt just before my own green epiphany.

Two Beliefs in Conflict

So the two contradictory ideas that I held simultaneously in my head, which caused me an uncomfortable feeling were;
 
A.  That we are on the cusp of a global emergency, with a changing climate, resource depletion, overpopulation, and the end of cheap oil, and obversely, 

B.  Everywhere I look around me, everyone was going on about their business as if there was nothing wrong and everything is smelling like roses.  Even the global recession was said to be over which so many pundits spruiked.  I didn’t believe for a second and history shows that I was correct in this belief.

Cognitive Dissonance

Was it just me with this battle going on in my brain?  I believed one thing, and saw another that contradicted it.  Some days I felt like my head was going to explode, because everything I believed to be true about these issues constantly manifested themselves in events I could see around me and read about everyday.

Since then, a lot of time has passed, so I don’t think this way much any more, well not as often as I did.  I have come to realise that cognitive dissonance is the first stage of awareness about an issue, and although it is very confusing for a while, you suddenly realise that these massive issues are not all full of doom and gloom, but are filled with hope and opportunity.

Acceptance

I now except that everyone are at different stages of understanding, and that those of us who have a better understanding of these issues better can assist others in seeing the bigger picture. Some won’t accept what you are telling them, but the majority will take it as food for thought and research further.

Thinking of the worst case scenario only paralyses people (and yourself) with fear, and you fail to act.  By describing a message of hope and a better life without loss of lifestyle, it is an easier way to engage others and keep them interested in the simple changes you have made yourself.  It took me a while to figure this out, but hey, I have always been one to learn from my mistakes (eventually).

Influencing Others

I have found that when I talk about my lifestyle at work in a positive way, I get far more interest than if I had started telling people about the big issues that face us.

It is in this manner that I have influenced the most people without them even realising it.  They are motivated and happy as they change to a simpler way of living.  Gardening always seems to be the easiest subject to talk about, and then I supplement the conversation with how I prepared the harvest, what I cooked, and how I preserved the surplus.  
 
It brings a smile to my face when my work colleagues tell me how their veggie patch is thriving and growing, and then they ask for more tips to save money and simple changes they can make.  It is great fun to share experiences other than just those at work, and bringing in home-made cheese to sample always helps stir up interest!

 

Actions Help, and Seek Like Minds

So, take hope if you are feeling cognitive dissonance right now, because it will pass as you learn more.  I suggest that you don’t ignore it, but act upon it.

Seek out others who can help you understand the issues in a realistic way, and can explain to you why simple living has so many other benefits other than saving you money.  
Cognitive Dissonance
The simple fact that this blog is visited by thousands of people each day gives me the biggest boost of hope.  I sleep well in the knowledge that it is providing a valuable service to the global community.  Simple, positive actions break down cognitive dissonance quickly and when you know that you are heading in the right direction, this feeling disappears and fades away. 

Have you ever had environmental cognitive dissonance, and how did you react to the opposing thoughts or ideas?  I would love to hear your experiences via a comment.