What is the link between personal health and environmental sustainability? How do we link up our personal care with care for the larger world? Could the impetus for personal care have an effect on our perspective on the wider world? Within LOHAS, could we see this personal care, not as selfishness, but as the first step in reaching something larger than ourselves? Is personal care the first step in environmental consciousness? 

Only when we approach our selves with care and compassion, can we direct that care and compassion to the larger world. This is the essence of the LOHAS philosophy. How do we go about personal care with the right attitude, that it is not purely selfish? By perceiving our personal care as something intrinsically connected the wider world, our personal care is no longer a selfish concern, but instead the beginnings of environmental consciousness. When caring for ourselves personally, we see how this person is not something separate, but nature itself and so the compassion we direct to ourselves is directed to nature itself.

When we meditate, when we do yoga, which we give or receive massage, we are engaging with our natural surroundings, getting out of our heads and into bodies, which channel our attention to the natural world. When we follow the breath, the obsessions of the mind and naturally disconnected culture begin to fall away. Through the breath, we see how the mind is connected to the body, how our self is connected to a larger society and how the fate of our culture is closely tied the fate of nature.

As we observe the the care and compassion we expend on ourselves, we can see that same care and compassion leaving the permeable boundaries of the self and entering the larger world. Since everything is connected, the decision we make about whether to enhance our personal health has implications for the wider world.

What does mind/body wellness have to do with environmental concern? What is the glue that holds the broad Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability umbrella together? What do the practices of yoga and meditation have to do with environmental awareness? Systems thinking shows the folly of disembodied mind, disconnected individuals and deracinated culture, while providing glue that cements together the disparate LOHAS threads. 

First off, what is, systems thinking? Systems thinking goes beyond linear thinking and a mechanical view of the world that does not recognize connecting linkages. Linear thinking reflects a simple cause/effect relationship, for example measuring the independent variable’s effect upon the dependent variable. A system is an ecology of relationships all interacting with unpredictable results. Systems thinking describes emergence; which means the collective properties of the whole are not found in the parts. There is no discrete cause and effect between two isolated variables. Everything is connected within the ecological system. Whole systems are driven by the logic that when you remove particular parts, the system falls apart and you lose explanatory power.

Recognition of three systems; the mind/body system, the self/society system and the culture/nature system shows how systems thinking forms the foundation of the Lohas philosophy. It reinforces the importance of yoga and meditation for harmonizing body and mind, the importance of social relationships in forming our individual identity and the importance of nature in the formation of culture.

Beyond the fact that nature is a prerequisite for our survival, humanity has spiritual needs to connect with the environment on a deeper level. Throughout history and throughout the world, we see the human urge to connect to something greater than themselves is universal. Rather than projecting our religious impulse skyward, now, we see the need to project that impulse to the world around us. Our connection to nature is not just a biological fact; it is a spiritual principal that colors the world with meaning. Life has meaning because we are connected to the world around us. The meaning lies in that connection and with the environmental peril we face, the meaning requires political engagement along with spiritual and social engagement because facing the environmental crisis will require policy change, policy choices and collective action on unprecedented levels. Facing this environmental crisis could provide an engine for spiritual renewal. Sustainability could become the new religion, a religion rooted in scientific fact and a religion formed in response to environmental challenges.

Three systems, body-mind system, the self-society system and the culture-nature system move our consciousness outward from our mind, to our self, to our community and finally to the natural system. This forward movement in consciousness will hopefully spur on evolutionary adaptation that will increase human nature’s capacity to deal with the growing environmental crisis. The LOHAS market is a tool for moving this evolutionary adaptation forward.