I am pretty much elated to see the question of week talking about sustainability and holistic living which are broad concepts in the global public discuss. It is much more important for us to discuss this in all fora and forum as these concepts are very much woven into the fabric of human existence and continuity of the human race.
Looking at the global happenings, with countries maxing up their nuclear power, the war in ukraine, famine, Covid, insurgency, green house effects, globalization, deforestation etc going about all over the world has made it much more sacrosanct for we to understand sustainability and holisitic living as concepts that promote continuous existence of our race.
To put things in perspective, we must first understand the basics and basis of these two concepts.
SUSTAINABILITY:
Sustainability in the layman term simply means continuity. It is a concept that defines the ability to continue or sustain a certain action or ability or decision over a definite or indefinite period of time but often times a long period of time.
The mcgill document from the University of alberta defined sustainability below:
Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources. Sustainability is not just environmental- ism. Embedded in most definitions of sustainability we also find concerns for social equity and economic development.source
To simply put sustainability is a broad topic with multiple dimensions anchored on three known pillars : Economic, Society, and Environment. This pillars form the basis of the discourse of sustainability as a topic or as a concept.
In line with the question of the week, the most concise definition of sustainability is seen in the mcgill document of University of Alberta which defined it broadly as:
Sustainability is the process of living within the limits of available physical, natural and social resources in ways that allow the living systems in which humans are embedded to thrive in perpetuity.source
The second concept in this week’s question is Holistic living.
Holisitic living as a term largely has to do with individual lifestyles. It is broadly defined as the living or imbibing a lifestyle culture that nourishes your body, mind, soul and spirit. It is a paradigm shift in focus of not just surviving but focusing on living the best possible lifestyle in good health and sound mind. This can be likened to yoga where there is balance of man and nature and a focus on positive energy. It is balancing the yin and yang existent in the concept of life itself.
A holistic lifestyle is a way of living life that lets you look at the big picture – the whole person. I like to think of holistic as being connected to a wholeness.
You don’t try to make your life better by focusing on one thing like eating well, personal growth, spirituality, or creating contributions. You focus on everything because it’s all interconnected.
A holistic lifestyle isn’t one size fits all. It just means that you observe yourself – all of yourself – and create a lifestyle that nourishes you as a whole. It's a way of thinking rather than an exact system. Source.
Now that we have an idea of these two concepts existing individually, let’s marry them together in line with the question of the week.
While sustainability deals with economy society and environment and man’s relationship with this three pillars, holisitic living has to do with the individual entity and how he harmonizes with nature through development of a lifestyle that nourishes his body, mind, soul and spirit.
Putting all the foregoing in my personal perspective, the aspects of sustainability and holisitic living that is important to me is the the foundation of these two concepts which is broadly summarized by the appreciation of LIFE itself as a concept.
The world is currently characterized by actions that does not harmonize with nature and threatens the continuous existence of humans and as such we need to start thinking about sustainability of our race through holisitic living.
In my opinion, holisitic living preceeds sustainability in the sense that if you as an individual does not develop the ability and habit to bond with nature while balancing the energies that comes to life, it would be difficult to translate this to the bigger society and the world at large thus sustainability might be impossible.
Having an understanding of life and cherishing life itself would make the world be at peace. Life as a concept is even much more broader than sustainability and holisitic living but for the sake of clarity, life in this context simple means nature and the living things inhabiting the world.
If we cherish life we would not keep amassing weapons of global destruction with cosmic consequences because it threatens sustainability and the pillars on which it sits.
Taking a retrospective view into the world’s history and wars encountered We’d realize that a large chunk of this acts were totally not necessary and if sustainability was at the forefront of decision making, the wars would have been avoided.
We need to put conscious efforts into living an holisitic life and translating dame into the society thereby strengthening the pillars of sustainability.