How to live the Good Life
Learning about sustainability & wellbeing from Ecuador’s cloud forest communities
Climate change and social inequalities are having profound impacts on the wellbeing of both planet and people. More than ever before we are searching for solutions to these global issues. This is having an impact on our ability to live the Good Life.
But, what does the Good Life mean? For many in modern society it means living better with accumulating wealth. The Good Life has become synonymous with economic progress and a quality of life that illustrates that we have reached a certain social benchmark.
The Indigenous Kichwa people in the Ecuadorian Andes, however, have their own conception of the Good Life – a philosophy and practice known as Buen Vivir, or Sumak Kawsay in Kichwa. Buen Vivir aims for a life of collective social and environmental wellbeing. It is gaining ground in the era of climate change as an alternative way of approaching social and environmental wellbeing because it values the wellbeing of both humans and nature equally.
Although Buen Vivir originates in Indigenous cosmology, it has evolved in recent years to include ideas from non-Indigenous communities, as well as politics and academia. This evolution means that the foundation for a Good Life is rooted in Indigenous ideas of respect for each other and the natural environment, but it also embraces others’ knowledge to get there. For that reason, it is also applicable outside of Latin America, and it can be a useful tool for tackling social and ecological injustices in a post-COVID world. So, what can we learn about sustainability and wellbeing from Ecuador’s cloud forest communities? Here is what I found.
Living Well for the Good Life
Despite greater attention globally to this notion of Buen Vivir, there has been a lack of coherency around what it actually involves. I travelled to the Cotacachi County in Ecuador to conduct doctoral fieldwork to figure out exactly what it means to communities there, and identifying some practical ways forward.
The way Buen Vivir is put into practice is called Vivir Bien (translated as ‘Living Well’) and it is about the changes in attitudes and behaviours we can make daily to achieve the Good Life. They are two sides of the same coin. In other words, Buen Vivir is the ultimate destination, the utopia, and Vivir Bien is the journey – it is the path that we all can take.
Buen Vivir is framed by three pillars: social, spiritual, and material, similar to Sustainable Development’s three-pillar approach for social, environmental and economic sustainability. While both concepts aim for social and environmental sustainability, the similarities end here. Buen Vivir is a more holistic approach to sustainability and wellbeing than Sustainable Development, which typically places human wellbeing above the wellbeing of the environment.
Connection is the key word. Rather than referring to religion, the spiritual pillar is a reminder of the transcendent nature of humans’ connection to the natural environment. We are not only connected to nature; we are part of it. This reciprocal cycle means that it not only affects us as individuals, but also our communities and families.
Wellbeing is therefore anchored in both collective welfare and a healthy environment to sustain quality of life. Yet, modern society lives as if divorced from it and we are starting to live the consequences through climate change related natural events. So, Buen Vivir is about coming back to this idea of reciprocity.
Buen Vivir goes beyond the old notions of wellbeing that constantly strive for economic progress and wealth for individual gain. It is about abandoning old ideas of self-interested happiness based on linear ‘progress’, towards a life with more intention, connection and community solidarity.
Cemented within the philosophy is the idea that there is more to life than, work, money and individual happiness. This focus on economic growth above all else is a critical dilemma because as Wendy Harcourt said, “Growth is not making us happier. It is creating dysfunctional and unequal societies, and if it continues as is it will make large parts of the planet unfit for human habitation.”
The forced lifestyle changes from the COVID-19 crisis have made societies everywhere question these old ideas of economic growth, happiness, subjective wellbeing, and the impacts old growth mindsets have had on the planet. There is therefore no better time to shift the way we all understand and approach wellbeing and sustainability. Transforming mindsets to live consciously, with more attention on the impacts our daily choices and behaviors have on everything around us can only lead to better social and environmental wellbeing, for everyone, not just for an elite few. Let’s explores some ways you can apply Buen Vivir in your life.
Strengthening community
Community is the foundation of Buen Vivir. By thinking and acting within your community, you have the potential to see greater positive outcomes both socially and environmentally. One question that can be helpful to ask yourself is: what can I do to better connect with others around me? That includes, family, neighbors, friends and the greater community. Involvement in community activities, local sports, supporting local businesses helps to foster the kind of solidarity that enhances your sense of wellbeing.
Participating in local government through consultations, meetings, and other decision-making processes can help cement the feeling of responsibility for the social and environmental wellbeing of the community. This works to strengthen the web of connections we have with those around us.
At the community level, we also often see positive environmental change because it is at that level that you can directly see the impacts of your actions – both positive and negative. Community clean-ups and community gardens are fantastic examples in that respect. By mindfully creating an identity with your community, it can result in treading more lightly and indeed, creating more opportunities for positive environmental contributions.
Transcending individual wellbeing
Environmental wellbeing is captured under the ‘spiritual’ pillar, which refers to transcendence rather than religion. According to Gorelik and Shackleford, this implies a “psychological state of selflessness”, as opposed to the individual and egoïstic nature of Western values. According to Susan Clayton in ‘The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology’, transcendent “values are more likely to have pro-environmental beliefs and norms and to act pro-environmentally while the opposite is true for those who strongly endorse self-enhancement values.”
The shift towards valuing nature in the same way as human beings is not an easy one. Modern society is conditioned to expect that nature is a commodity to be exploited for human wellbeing. The first step in shifting this way of thinking is to ask yourself, “what is my place here and what impact do I create on my surrounding daily?” It involves mindfully considering the impacts your everyday actions have on the environment and adjusting them accordingly.
Living with greater intention about what you eat, to what you buy and other daily behaviours such as transport, energy usage and so forth can help minimalize these impacts and increase environmental wellbeing. It is not about immediate sustainable perfection, but it is about mindfully reducing your impacts on the environment as much as possible. In the words of Arthur Ashe, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” And go from there. Remember, it is a journey.
Material wellbeing
Materiality in Buen Vivir aims for living well, not better with more and more as in the Western capitalist approach to economic growth. It also involves working towards greater self-sufficiency, both personally and locally. The holistic and communal vision for economic activity under Buen Vivir means embracing ideas like the Social and Solidarity Economy, which entails scaling down economic life to things like supporting local and small business, cooperatives and associations, and buying local produce.
This works to ensure decent work with adequate leisure time (think work-life-balance) for the collective. Many people are starting to work shorter working weeks, prioritising spending time with family and friends. If this is not available to you, you can aim for more mindful and personal interactions with those around you once you clock off.
Consumerism has a massive ecological impact. Conscious consumerism can help shift the way in which the markets work, which has social and environmental flow-on effects. Buying local produce not only helps build local economies but also offsets the environmental impacts of imported produce.
Buying fair or ethical trade for things you cannot find locally is a way to help those most disadvantaged, mainly in the Global South. Do your research when shopping. Fair trade is an excellent alternative, but ethical trade operated under fair trade principles can help provide economic opportunities to smaller producers who cannot afford Fair Trade certification.
The Good Life every day
The time is ripe to change our way of thinking about how we live, what we consume, our role in nature and what we can learn from other ways of viewing the world like Buen Vivir. Far from being outdated or archaic, traditional and Indigenous peoples’ connection to the natural environment on a daily basis and an awareness of our impacts of our daily actions is a pioneering way to address the world’s social and environmental injustices.
Taking a Buen Vivir approach to sustainability and wellbeing might involve, for example: thinking consciously about your role in the natural environment and your community; participating in public decision-making about your community; actively engaging with your community; scaling back consumption; sharing knowledge with others; promoting local culture and fostering a sense of solidarity; regularly getting in touch in nature; and being mindful of the impacts of your daily actions.
The most important aspect of Buen Vivir is that it is not about reaching a place of social and environmental utopia, the journey along the way is what leads us to the wellbeing of society and the environment that sustains it.
Dr Natasha Chassagne is a sustainability and wellbeing researcher and writer. Her upcoming book ‘Buen Vivir as an Alternative to Sustainable Development: Lessons from Ecuador’ recently published by Routledge.