Sustainable Lifestyle

A sustainable lifestyle is "a journey towards reestablishing a deeper connection with Creation, with our neighbor, and with God," writes Drew Sutton. This definition is broad enough to embrace many positions on what it means to live a sustainable lifestyle. Drew also calls attention to the spiritual dimension of an ecological-balanced life. My doctoral research focused on ecotherapy as presented by the late Howard Clinebell. Clinebell based ecotherapy on the concept of an ecological circle through a dynamic interchange of three things: 1) becoming more fully, intentionally, and regularly nurtured by nature (inreach), 2) becoming more aware of the larger meanings of one's place in nature and the universe (upreach), and, 3) personal involvement in earth-caring, such as some form of environmental activism (outreach). The ecological circle is another way of speaking about a sustainable life in the process of being built upon healthy relationships with nature, one another and God.