I’ve ravaged the internet reading numerous articles about the Three Word Method. The writers each list their three words. It has helped me get clear on my three words.

Like I wrote in the last blog entry I wouldn’t want to buy a $3,000 Louis Vuitton Speedy. It’s not sustainable for the average person to plunk cash or a credit card down on a designer bag.

While cheap clothes are often sewn in sweatshops there’s no guarantee that higher-priced items are made under favorable working conditions either.

After donating 20 bags to thrift stores in the last 5 years I’ve changed my mind about how to shop. Even if I came into a truckload of money I wouldn’t want to spend $200 on a shirt.

In fact I want to start a movement focused on Sustaining Ability. This kind of Sustain-ability has nothing to do with being eco-conscious.

We might clean up the earth down the road. Yet who would want to live on God’s newly green earth if everyone still swilled hatorade and was drunk on fury.

I think of sustainability on a personal not planet level now. By revamping our approach to living our lives and interacting with others we can ameliorate our wellbeing.

This in turn will impact how we treat the earth. Case in point: I no longer need to spring clean after donating everything to charity.

Once we are free of the things “stuffed” everywhere in our homes (often a graveyard for unused objects) we often clear the mental clutter as a result of the physical freedom.

When I got rid of the mounds I also lost pounds (I have no scientific proof that there’s a connection).

Today I’m more interested in what we can do to thrive as human beings on our earth as the planet is now. I would like to be part of a movement to create opportunities for people to recover.

Some of us are in recovery from consumerism!

Others have a mental health or physical or different issue. Whatever a person is in recovery from I think promoting recovery should be the goal first of all before anything else.

I know it was not sustainable for me to buy whatever caught my eye in the store and only remained unworn in my drawers years later.

We have true freedom when we’re not attached to the stuff that weighs us down. I venture to say that there’s a spring in our step and more joy in our hearts when our time is not wasted with the upkeep of material goods.

Lastly I’ll say that there’s only so much we can do to green the earth. We shouldn’t feel ashamed of ourselves for having bought what we bought all these years.

Liking ourselves counts more than whether we have items in our closet that we don’t like. Letting go of the clutter might just improve our mood.

This is the real impact of letting go of what no longer serves us:

We sustain our ability to feel good in a society where Instagram feeds and product marketers and others make us feel bed.