Intentional, Slow Living Through Mindful Consumption: Why It Matters
With a new year comes a fresh chance to reset and move forward with intention and connection. As an ever-expanding holistic skincare + wellness company, it’s vital for us to set specific, intentional goals. This year’s goal:
To fully embrace mindful consumption – connecting the dots in every area of our lives + business.
We hope you’ll join us.
In a world of techy gadgets, shortcuts, and overindulgence, it’s easy to lose sight of the most important facets of life. When we take the time to pause and consider our life’s cadence, we often find it’s not as peace-filled and mindful as we intend.
But it’s never too late (for anyone) to embrace a new way of being – of thriving in this one beautiful life we’ve been given. Ready to live life more connected, grounded, and intentional?
Here are the biggest ways we plan to practice mindful consumption this year. And we'd love for you to take part in it too.
Paying Attention to Our Plates
It’s essential to start with what we put in our bodies – literally. Eating can become a mindless activity. Day in and day out, it’s easy to fall into bad habits like:
→ Choosing less nourishing foods
→ Distracted eating while watching your favorite reality show
→ Becoming disconnected from where your food actually comes from
There’s a better way to approach fueling your body – through mindful consumption. Here are a few ways to start.
Choosing Nourishing Foods First
Placing an emphasis on nourishing foods helps you purchase less “junk.” When grocery shopping, shop around the outside isles first – starting with produce. This is where you’ll find the freshest food, free from processed ingredients and preservatives.
As we fill our carts (or reusable tote) with healthy foods, we’re less likely to pick up that bag of chips – or soft-baked cookies. Whether it’s because you run out of room in your cart or simply because you feel inspired by the thought of a warm home-cooked meal, you’re choosing fresh, whole foods. ;)
If you do decide to indulge in a sweet treat, challenge yourself to choose a nourishing food first. Take it a step further and ask yourself if you’re still craving that sweet treat. Sometimes our bodies crave salt, not sweet but we confuse the two. Sweets aren’t inherently bad, but you should focus on balancing your intake. You can also take a walk for at least 10 minutes after eating to help regulate your blood sugar.
Want to take your healthy choices a step further? Try eating seasonally.
Eating Seasonally
Seasonal eating is a wonderful way to practice mindful consumption.
Eating “seasonally” means we’re only eating fresh foods naturally grown + produced during the current season. Not only is seasonal eating more environmentally friendly, but it also ensures you get the most nutrient-dense food possible. Foods grown in the correct climate conditions thrive – and provide better flavor, freshness, and nutritional value.
Eating seasonally creates far less food waste because your food is fresh – and lasts longer. ;) Food waste is one of the biggest environmental problems we currently face. Up to 30-40% of our food supply is wasted in the US.1
The best way to practice seasonal eating is buying your food directly from a farm you can trust. Try a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription or a farm pickup.
*Tip: Our founder Bethany’s Family’s Farm Primal Pastures offers a local farm pickup + ships nationwide. ;)
→ We love seasonal food subscriptions because you get to try unique foods you might not pick at the grocery store, AND you save money. (Plus, most CSA farms follow organic farming practices, even if they aren’t certified).
Our bodies are designed to be in touch with the rhythms and seasons of the earth. Eating is another avenue to embrace this connection so you can nourish your body with more intentionality. To us, seasonal eating is a core component of mindful consumption.
It can become a sacred daily experience when you have deeper appreciation + awareness.
Viewing Eating as a Sacred Experience
It’s far too easy to view eating as something you have to squeeze into your day. We’ve all been there – cramming food in before a meeting or as you try to wrangle your toddler.
But what if we flipped the script? Eating can be an enriching and exciting experience – and a moment of calm in your day. Eating mindfully is an excellent way to infuse gratitude into a seemingly mundane habit.
We can make eating sacred by:
→ Focusing on sensations as you eat, including the textures, flavors, and thoughts you experience.
→ Considering where the food came from, how long it took to grow, and how it was prepared.
→ Contemplating how your body feels as it accepts the food and the sensations you experience throughout your body.
→ Taking it a step further and practicing deep breathing before and after a meal to support mindful consumption.
With hurried lifestyles, it’s easy to forget that food is our fuel + life source. Let’s move forward with all the appreciation and gratitude for these wholesome (and delicious!) foods our earth provides.
Up next, a topic near and dear to us: the products we use.
Mindful Consumption With Personal Care Products
Our generation is exposed to more “options” than ever before. Whether on social media or the endless isles of your favorite beauty store, we have so many choices when it comes to the products we use.
But if you’ve been around Primally Pure long, you know we are passionate about the products that go on or around your skin. Products are yet another way to choose mindful consumption every day.
Here are a few key aspects to consider for mindful consumption of products.
Choosing Clean, Non-toxic Skincare to Support Your Skin
We always strive to provide accessible, clear education for our community on choosing the right products – free from toxins + harmful synthetic ingredients. Because you deserve a healthy body inside and out.
Products are vital for your skin health. So, being aware of greenwashing and understanding how to read labels goes a long way and will protect you from unnecessary toxic exposures.
But beyond avoiding toxins, here are our top tips for mindfully choosing skin care:
- Whole-nutrient ingredients are essential to deeply nourish + repair your skin. Many of today’s “naturally derived” ingredients are hardly natural. Choose products with pure, whole ingredients that have not been altered.
- Animal-based ingredients are a powerful tool for your skin. Because they contain a biological makeup that closely mimics ours, animal-based ingredients provide bioavailable nutrients that plants simply can’t provide.
- Try a seasonal rotation of your skincare products. Your skin state can change throughout different seasons. Listen to your body, understand what it needs, and shift to support your skin with the tides of seasons.
When it comes to skincare, go against the grain. Your skin deserves better. Plus, mindful consumption in this way supports your whole body – from hormone and gut health to skin health.
Prioritizing Sustainable/Recyclable Products
By being mindful of our health in choosing quality, non-toxic products, we also want to slow down and reconnect with our impact. Every purchase we make impacts the earth we call home.
Living in harmony with our resources creates a full-circle effect, benefiting us and creating longevity – in nature and us.
Sustainability and supporting regenerative agriculture are really important to us as a business. That’s why we’re also working on growing + processing our own herbs in a regenerative fashion – on our very own plot of land. It’s another way we can create products that help to restore the soil and environment.
→ We can't wait to host interactive + educational events in gathering spaces at our regenerative farm. Our plans for the future include even more hands-on, up-close, and personal involvement in our community. (We can’t wait!)
In addition, we’re continuing our partnership with Pact for an easy, hassle-free recycling program. We want to make the disposal of beauty/health containers easy for you + supportive of mindful consumption. (And, of course, you can also take a creative route and repurpose your containers instead.) Let’s keep our planet green together.
You can also be friendly to the environment by minimizing your consumption altogether.
Simplicity – Less Is More
We believe in the power of simplicity to cultivate mindful consumption. As you simplify, you often find over time, less is more. (Yes, even with skincare!) Sometimes, mindful consumption means finding versatile, multipurpose products.
In general, having too many options and too much “stuff” can be distracting from the innate goodness in your life. It depletes you of memorable, sacred experiences and can make even meaningful things feel mundane. So, let’s infuse more intention into the products we spend our time and money on.
When it comes to what we put on our skin, mindful consumption is a cornerstone for full body health and resiliency. As we shift our focus to the products we consume, we start to uncover the bigger picture of health + the bodies we call home.
Yet beyond our physical bodies, it’s essential to pause and consider one of our most valuable resources: our time.
How You Spend Your Days
It can’t be understated: how you spend your days is how you spend your life. Each day is the sum of what our lives look like. And we have the opportunity to make it a rich, fulfilling experience.
Sure, every day can’t be a walk in the park, but you can have a say in what your life looks like by considering how your time is spent. Mindful consumption is key. We’re constantly “consuming” with our time, but what you spend your time consuming is up to you.
Here are three main categories to consider when it comes to how you spend your days.
1. The Media You Consume
→ Are you consuming depressing news or uplifting meditations when you awake each morning? If you don’t already, we’d encourage you to consider starting your day with prayer, meditation, or journaling. Set the tone for a beautiful, peace-filled day that doesn’t stem from social media posts making you feel less-than.
This can look like grabbing your favorite cozy beverage in the morning and spending five minutes journaling your favorite affirmations and goals for the day. Or looking into the mirror for a couple of minutes before brushing your teeth and reminding yourself how you're special and needed in this world.
→ Throughout the day, what kind of media are you consuming on your phone? Comparison is the thief of joy. What you see on social media forms your reality, your everyday thoughts, worries, and preoccupations. What you consume even affects your physical appearance, as we’ve seen in a heartbreaking epidemic of perception drift.
It may be time to purge socials + lighten your mental load with more mindful social media consumption.
2. Who You Surround Yourself With
We consume in relationships, too. The people you spend your time with give off energy. Good or bad, it affects you. The five people you spend the most time with are forming you into the person you’re becoming. Is that a good thing?
Family can be a tricky subject with how you spend your time (especially around the holidays), but learning to set healthy boundaries can help you grow and forge new, healthier relationships.
And don’t forget your work environment. How you spend your days at work matters! We’re constantly taking in (aka consuming) information about our coworkers, the vibe of the office, and the work we do. We spend far too much time at work to be stuck in jobs that feel life-sucking instead of life-giving.
With a quiet check-in, you can take the time to decide how you move forward. Our advice: Embrace more relationships that bring positive, encouraging, and inspiring energy.
3. Where You Spend Your Time
Wherever we spend the majority of our time, we’re consuming (literally and figuratively). So, if you’re spending time stuck inside an office or house with toxic fumes + respiratory irritants, and “fragrance” galore, it’s time to make some changes. That’s why we’re big advocates of spending less time inside and more time in nature.
Nature has the power to cultivate mindfulness. We’re forced to slow down when we step foot outside. We can break away from the noise and clutter, spending more time in the sun – and less time behind screens + blue light. We can feel the sun warming our skin, hear the birds chirp, smell our neighbor’s foods in the air – a time to truly slow down and feel grateful.
What do you find yourself doing in your spare time? We must carve out intentional space for renewing ourselves at a soul level. And no, we aren’t talking about generic “self-care” – we like to think of this practice as self-health, with a true focus on prioritizing health. Whether mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual, make more time for stillness and see how it fosters mindful consumption habits.
Mindful Consumption: Your First Step for Discovering a Deeply Fulfilling Life
Living life by default (aka mindlessly making decisions) is easy to do without intention. But don’t beat yourself up if you find yourself nodding in agreement. Taking ownership of what you consume is a massive step towards intentionality, growth, and a deeply fulfilling life.
So, take the time to nourish your body, mind, and soul with what you consume.
Respect the earth and its resources.
Live life a little slower, with room for mindful consumption.
We can guarantee it’ll be an investment you won’t regret.
Mindful consumption is a choice, but it quickly becomes a way of life once you start to see the benefits and connect the dots.
We’re right alongside you, growing + learning.
Here’s to new beginnings and greater potential,
XO
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