The Cherishing Revolution

Photo by Ashkan Sadeghi on Unsplash 

Dissatisfaction has driven the human race for thousands of years. It makes sense, doesn’t it; early human life was awful.

Dissatisfaction has become an ingrained way of looking at the world, a filter for faultfinding, other-bashing, and generally feeling lousy and like a victim. And while we have been developing this habit, life has been improving, and we humans have created so much goodness to support our lives. Our inner lives and social lives have not caught up with reality. It is time.

You may have bumped into this in your life:

• the person who finds fault with their children even when their children are doing good work.
• the guest who makes a point of “noticing” what is “wrong” with others: how they dress etc.
• someone who only sees what is missing: a street light that is not working etc., not all the streetlights that are working.

This is not just about glass half-empty, half-full thinking. People who operate this way treat their ideals as a requirement for others which results in emotional and other forms of abuse. These ways of thinking also are a form of denial about the realities in life. We must stop expecting that limitless demands and expectations are possible and something we have a right to demand from others.

In my own life, I have noticed how often people in my family and others constantly complain when they have so much. How they look for problems and faults in others, often as a way of one-upping them to make them feel like there is something wrong with them when there is not, how they are creating harm when they are not. It is tragic when we treat the good in others with such contempt and spend so much time trying to make others feel bad to control them.

Most people I have met feel underappreciated and undervalued. And you know what? They are right.

Time For Cherishing

Instead of putting down people, nature, and life in general, we need to learn to cherish ourselves, each other, nature, and life. Start with wholesome self-care.

Cherishing is not just an event like a birthday or holiday. Cherishing can be a way of life, an intention, or a purpose in all our actions that honor our time on this planet. When we make this shift, we feel better because we start to take care of ourselves more and allow in our lives more of that which is cherishing. We bring the attitude of cherishing to our work, and everyone benefits.

Cherishing Is The Antithesis Of Consuming

We need a post-consumption approach to life that increases well-being while restoring the health of the planet and all beings on it.

The consumer mindset uses and discards. The cherishing mindset makes the quality of life a higher priority than acquiring stuff. Creating quality of life means quality matters. That, in turn, means we own less but higher quality goods, and we eat higher quality food which means fewer health problems. It means we shrink our consumption while increasing our well-being and everyone else’s as well. We give the earth a break to heal from overconsumption.

Whenever we need to make a change, which we do right now in order to restore the health of people and the planet, it is wise to upgrade our quality of life while doing so. We will be able to feel better ourselves while giving the earth a break. When we do, we will be reinventing success so that we are not continually being drained and destroying our beautiful earthly home. We can then take time to do more than complete our to-do lists. We can take the time to really cherish our lives, each other, and the planet. The world would be a more joyful place, one that does not require an escape, one that makes us glad to be alive. Ready for it?