West Virginia University Extension Service

WLG 208

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ustainable Living
Doug Hovatter Extension Agent, Berkeley County

Are we born with the ability for sustainable living? As we develop and age, what happens to our attitudes about living? What are the secrets to enjoying and sustaining life? This program topic will assist the participant to: identify what sustains us in living, assess behavior toward positive living, learn positive ways of living, and learn effective communication for living.

Personality Skills of Sustainable Living

The following are some typical skills common to individuals who have learned what sustains them in living. A short description is provided. You may want to have examples and allow the members to discuss their definition of each personality skill of sustained living. You may want to expand the list of personality skills. The important thing in this exercise is for all members to determine for themselves what behaviors they see as positive skills in sustainable living. Caring and Thoughtfulness have a broad meaning but denote certain characteristics that most people will agree on. Being caring and thoughtful means to be kind and compassionate through acts of kindness and service to others. It also means having a servants attitude in actions and responses toward others; looking for opportunities to serve rather than be served; expressing gratitude easily and often to others with thank you and please as part of ones daily vocabulary; forgiving others and not holding a grudge; and helping people in need without thought of reward or recognition. Use these skills to become a caring/thoughtful person:
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Introduction
Do you know what sustains you in your life? If you look at people who appear to enjoy life, you will notice they have learned what sustains them in living. They have learned to celebrate the day. Most people have much to celebrate throughout life, but become unfocused on what sustains them in living. Lets explore how this happens and how you can learn more about sustainable living. Activity: Provide paper and pencil for each person. Ask members to list five of their lifes most outstanding memories. Then, ask them to describe what makes each memory outstanding. Third, ask them to list one very positive memory and what they believe makes that memory so special. You may want to take a few minutes to list these memories and why they are outstanding. The greatest sustainers of living occur each day within our minds.

Be kind to others through your actions and communication. Look for opportunities to serve others. Express gratitude freely and often to others and let them know how much you appreciate them.

Learn to use thank you and please as part of your speech. Send thank-you notes and tell others about another persons acts of kindness toward you. Forgive others and yourself daily. Help others in need. By doing this you will fulfill a greater need in yourself. Activity: Ask members what caring/thoughtfulness means to them.

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Play by the rules. Take turns and share resources. Be open-minded; learn to be a good listener. Dont take advantage of others. Dont blame others carelessly.

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Respect and Honor How we give and treat others with respect and honor is learnedwe are not born with this ability. Respect and honor begin with self. What sustains us throughout life is learning to respect and honor our strengths and weaknesses. As we develop self-respect and honor, we learn to respect and honor others. Develop these personality skills for sustainable living:
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Affection and Love can be defined in many ways. Individual needs for affection and love are different, but all individuals need some form of affection and expression of love, such as a kiss, hug, handshake, or pat on the back. Affection and love are emotions that can be very powerful in sustainable living. It is very important individuals understand these human behaviors and the need in all of us for some form of affection and expression of love. You can:
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Give a pat on the back. Give a warm handshake. Touch the persons hand or arm. Touch is a very powerful form of affection.

Respect and honor the Golden Rule in treatment of others. Respect and honor all people and their differences. Respect and honor your family and friends. Respect and honor your country and flag. Respect and honor your spirituality and the spirituality of others. Respect and honor the feelings of others. Respect and honor other peoples time. Respect and honor natural resources. Activity: Ask members how they show respect.

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* Remind members some people are sensitive to being touched. Respect others personal space and dont cause a problem for yourself. Safe areas of touch are usually the hand, lower part of arm, or shoulder. Affection and expressions of love also can be communicated through tone of voice, smile, and selection of words.

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Fairness and Justice are very important aspects of sustainable living. Everyone has his/her own measuring stick to determine how fairness and justice are measured and what is fair and just. As you develop your skills in sustainable living, remember these strategies of being fair and just:

Joy and Happiness normally come from within a person. They are expressed through many ways, such as smiles, body stance, posture, walking, tone, and quality of voice. We all know some people who are joyful, and they are a joy to be around. Their personality is like a beautiful sunrise after a stormy night, which reminds us that joy comes in the morning. Here is another secret for sustainable living. Individuals need happiness and joy in their lives. Because they want joy and happiness, they are attracted to positive behaviors of joyful and happy people. Announce your Joy and Happiness!

Learn to be joyful and happy by doing the following:

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10. Identify your strengths and areas for growth. 11. Continue to develop your body, mind, and spirit.

Smile. Keep a list of happy thoughts. Learn what makes you happy. Learn to say whats good for you today instead of saying whats wrong. Be positive and have faith in yourself and others. Always see the day as partly sunny, not partly cloudy. When you wake each morning, say this will be a joyful day and believe it. When you go to bed at night, remember the happiness of the day. Learn that joy and happiness come from within. No one makes us happy or joyful; we do it ourselves. Activity: Have members tell of some joy or happiness in their life.

Guidelines for Sustainable Living

1. Confirm for yourself what has sustained you thus far in your life. 2. Be honest with yourself and others. 3. Confirm what you care about and love. 4. Identify what makes you happy and brings joy. 5. Develop goals and work to meet them. 6. Be appreciative of others and let them know through random acts of caring and love. 7. Remember the good in people and forget the bad. Give honor and respect first. 8. Remember you cant change people or events, and theres no going back. 9. Dont dwell on past mistakes or live life saying, I should have, I could have, I would have... 10. Develop your body, mind, and spirit every day.

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Strategies for Sustainable Living

1. Understand the needs of people for sustainable livingfaith, hope, and love. 2. Surround yourself with positive thoughts and ideas. 3. Learn what makes you happy in life and what you have faith in. 4. Learn to smile. 5. Learn to treat all people equally. 6. Find something positive in everyone and every situation. 7. Develop personal goals. 8. Develop your personal mission statement. 9. Develop a Happy Bag/Box where you keep reminders or memory stimulatorspicture albums, cards, notes, letters, messages, pressed flowers, songs, poems, etc.

11. Confirm that fairness and justice for all are a part of your sustained living. 12. Work to increase your faith, hope, and love as a foundation of sustainable living. Remember....Live each day as if its your last; it may well be. What will be said of us when our living is complete? Creating the memory that will be left of us is an opportunity we each have today. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is a maybe. But we each have todaya day to realize what sustains us in our living. Our faith in self, others, and our spirituality; our hope in self, others, and our spirituality; and our love of self, others, and our spirituality.

References
McCroskey-Richmond, Interpersonal Communication, Burgess Publishing, Morgantown, W.Va., 1992 1998: 1M

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Programs and activities offered by the West Virginia University Extension Service are available to all persons without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or national origin. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Director, Cooperative Extension Service, West Virginia University.
ES98-018