If you’re struggling with overwhelm, fears, and worries about the state of the world, discover how gardening can reduce anxiety, calm your nervous system and improve your family’s stability for things to come.
Video Transcript:
Since we’re designing a resilient life, what happens in the news and media becomes significantly less important. If any of the bad things were to come true, we already have that covered.
We have stocked pantries, we’ve got seeds, we have a garden, and we have the experience of growing food and preserving harvests. What if all that is keeping you from living a sustainable life connected with the land is nothing more than your mindset?
And with a simple shift of thought, the beginning of an action, you can begin achieving your goals today.
Hi, I’m Brett James, and this is the Resilient Living podcast, where I teach you exactly how you can intentionally design the life that you want with simple and easy-to-implement strategies on a daily basis. So, stay tuned.
Hey, everyone! Welcome to episode 1 of the new podcast.
Now, today, I want to share something that came up in a monthly Q&A session with some of my students, and that is how creating a more sustainable and self-sufficient life can give you the ability to let go of the constant fear porn in the media, set down the cell phone, get off the social media, and get back to living your best life.
Now, this whole show here is centered around the idea of intentionally designing all aspects of your life, okay?
Applying your time every moment that you have towards getting closer to your goals, no matter what they are, applies to healthy, happy, sustainable living.
So, let’s start this off with a story.
Now, last November, I decided to check out of social media and check out of the news entirely.
Simply put, my nerves were shot and I couldn’t take any more of the bad news, uncertainty, mainstream media lies, and of course, just the overall bad vibes. But as I’m sure you know, given how quickly things in the world – our governments, our economies, and our communities – are changing, it can seem very difficult to do this.
For people who want to live a more prepared life like you and me, it seems we need to be aware of what’s going on so that we can be prepared, right? Well, not exactly.
So here are some questions for you: Are the actions you are taking on a day-to-day, moment-by-moment basis consistent with creating a life and creating a landscape that is as unaffected by the external world events as possible?
Now, a great example of this is with spring coming up soon for those of us here in the northern hemisphere – are you getting your garden started? Because growing food is one of the best places to start creating personal self-reliance.
Now, in this case, since you’re listening to this exact podcast episode, yes, your actions are consistent with that goal at this moment. But what about all the rest of your time?
You see, most people go through life thinking it happens to them – that they’re victims to the world, victims to other people, and victims to their circumstances, etc.
Now instead, I personally believe that there’s a balance of free will and determinism in the world, and depending on a person’s beliefs or circumstances they have created for themselves based on their beliefs, this balance varies.
So, like, I like to believe that maybe 80% of my life is intentionally by my design, by my choices, and by my beliefs, and that the other 20%, approximately, is more or less at this moment beyond my control, or beyond my ability to control those beliefs that give me the unexpected results at this current time. Now, my goal is to be a person that consistently works to move the needle from 80% to 81%, 82%, 85%, and so on.
So imagine, how would you feel if you knew that you had that much control over the circumstances of your life, or maybe even a little more? Wouldn’t that be incredibly empowering?
Well, that is this idea of intentional life design, and what I’ll be talking more about in this podcast series, especially in the context of land-based sustainable living.
Now, real quick, if you’re getting value out of this episode, smash that like button, and hit the subscribe so I can get more videos out to you, helping you create and design the life you desire for yourself and your family.
All right, now back to where I opened this show up with. The reality of my life here is that on a day-to-day, and often moment-by-moment basis, my time and my energy are already spent designing and creating a way of living that is as minimally affected by the events of the world as possible.
Now, I’m not saying here that world events won’t have some impact, but for us here, they’re often, and so far, relatively negligible.
So then, since we’re designing a resilient life, what happens in the news and media becomes significantly less important because if any of the bad things were to come true, such as the current murmurs of food shortages that have been going around, we already have that covered, right?
We have stocked pantries, we’ve got seeds, we have a garden, and we have the experience of growing food and preserving harvests for a long, long time. Now, we have permaculture to help us do so with minimal fossil fuels and without commercial goods.
This is just one example of many. Another would be that we chose to buy a straw bale home. So if the power does go down in the heat of the summer, we’re going to have a cool home to live in even without outside energy. So to put this another way, if you spend your time making steps toward building a more resilient life, you too are on the same path.
I’m not saying to have it all right now, the dream off-grid 40-acre permaculture farm. Today, I’m saying to work towards your goals wherever you are right now. Got it all right?
So next, let’s talk about letting go of the news and the negative social media that’s hampering our lives. And here are some questions I like to ask about what’s going on, about what I see going on in the world:
Question one: Does this affect me at this moment now?
Second: Is there anything to do in the immediate sense about this?
Third: What I’m doing on a daily hedge anyways?
Fourth: Is there anything positive I can do now?
And if you go through these four questions, I think they should help you transition from a place of fear and paralysis to a place of action and empowerment.
Okay, the question then becomes, well, what should I do with my time now? While there are hundreds of things that one can do, such as growing food, I like to think of this in terms of broader categories.
And the categories are these:
First, is just skilling up.
Second, creating food security.
Third, creating power and systems independence – not relying as much on the grid in fossil fuels.
Fourth, creating personal financial security.
And fifth and last, developing a strong local community.
You see, as long as my daily and my moment-by-moment actions are focused on anything that fits into one of these five categories, I know that I’m doing the best
For example, what I know is this: By intentionally working to design a secure life, I have been able to dramatically reduce my personal anxiety and helplessness about the world around me.
Because I’m working to become the one who is in control of my life – my food, my needs, my finances, and energy, and the like – in time, so can you. Now, that, my friends, is peace, and that, my friends, is security in uncertain times.
Right, so to wrap up this first episode, if you’re a person who wants to intentionally design a life that’s in alignment with nature – growing your own food, harvesting resources like the sun and rain – then I would like to invite you to my free web class.
I’m teaching how permaculture is the step-by-step solution to doing exactly that without taking all of your time and of your energy. There’s a link in the description below, and by the way, it’s totally free.
So, I hope to see you there.
