Living With Intent - Part 1: An Introduction

What do these terms mean? Do they accurately describe actions or behaviors that positively impact the environment? Or, are there terms that might be more meaningful. . . ?

Maybe. . .

. . .however, living “with intent”, has less to do with "green" labels and more with the mental frameworks or perspectives that guide our decision-making, and the way we make sense of the world. Regardless of how we spin our actions, they still result in observable, measurable impacts on the environment and that may conflict with the images we hold of ourselves.

Fortunately, there are many tools available to help us shift gears. I’ll be briefly introducing three of my favorites in this five part series, "Living With intent":

• Part 1: An Introduction
• Part 2: Permaculture
• Part 3: Cradle-to-Cradle
• Part 4: Feng Shui
• Part 5: Closing Thoughts

but will continually refer to them in this blog, so don’t worry if it doesn’t all make sense at first!

Individually, any one of these design philosophies would support living a life of intent. However, used in combination, I believe they offer an even richer palette from which to draw, and provide an underlying guidance for fulfilling three basic human needs:

• nourishing and feeding our physical selves
  
• having some things to call our own
  
• infusing the first two with a sense of spirituality and gratitude

So! Are you ready? Then, next week we’ll begin our journey by looking at "permaculture".