Balancing Success and Well-Being:
The Urgent Call for Regenerative
Living in a Fast-Paced World

We live in a world today that is fast-paced, and overly stressful, and most of us are juggling way too many things at one time, taking little to no time for ourselves. This can add to our success levels, and allow us to achieve our goals, and maybe even our dreams, but at what cost? I am all for being successful and following every dream you have set for yourself, as long as you are taking the necessary “me” time, not losing focus of your health and well-being, and protecting your physical, emotional, and mental health.

The simplest things yield monumental differences on our healthy journey, yet they are the things we tend to take for granted or lose focus completely. Things like getting a good night’s sleep consistently to let your body go into repair mode to fix the many abuses we do to ourselves every day. Eating quality food, ensuring our digestive systems are healthy so they can do their jobs, working on our attitudes, staying active, getting regular checkups, and taking quality nutritional supplements to fill the nutritional gaps created by stress, poor diet, and unhealthy lifestyle choices.

Over the last 3 decades, we have learned so much about living a healthy life. However, even though we have all of this knowledge, we still tend to de-prioritize ourselves, cut corners, and put ourselves so far back on the back burner that we get lost until something bad happens. This sudden wake-up call for many people can be life-changing, and for some, it’s the only thing there is to make them change and suddenly have self-focus. Sadly, we allow ourselves to get so lost in keeping our life in the day-to-day grind, that we stop making a life for ourselves. Our connection to the planet, our future, and our diets are our biggest downfalls that lead us to the unhealthy lives many people are living.

Today although we all know better, food has stopped being a source of body and mind sustenance, and it has transitioned to something to center our social life around. Long gone are the days of replenishing our bodies to keep us strong and healthy to a state of quick, easy, great-tasting unhealthy foods that do little to nothing for our health and well-being.

Many of us were born at a time when food was food, versus today when food may look like food, but it is very far away from what we once knew to be good and healthy. Junk food, fast food, processed foods, and quick and easy great great-tasting foodstuffs make up the new food pyramid. We know better, but we choose to crawl into our comfort zones, knowing it’s unhealthy and bad for us, but it makes us feel better mentally. It’s those comfort zones we all know and rely on so much that get in the way of change. I will admit that the comfort zones are comfortable, and they are very familiar, but I will also admit that they are rarely healthy. Because food has become such a pastime, and food delivery services are now available, and in some places up to 24 hours a day, we can now satisfy every food craving, every whim whenever we want, healthy, or not so healthy! Plus, when you add a stressful life into the picture, a bad day, a breakup, or a bad mood can start an avalanche of emotional food support. But let’s face it when you are stressed, a salad is not going to cut the mustard.

When I think about when I was younger, food was looked at from a completely different perspective. Looking back, I remember that for the longest time, we were taught that organic was the way to go, Of course, only if it fit your budget. We were taught that organic was shown to be a better-quality food choice and a more nutritious quality food. It was a food choice that had no GMOs, pesticides, or chemicals, and a promise that harmful sprays were not used. It has been said, and it is certainly true, that if we go back in time far enough, everything grown was organic. This only changed because chemicals came into existence with big promises for the farmers. The farmers were promised that these chemicals would bring bigger yields with no plant infections, better bug and pest controls, and healthier crops. The farmers ate it up. Put in their shoes, I might have bought into it, too! The pesticide and chemical salespeople must have been very convincing, because this has become the standard for a very long time, even with the knowledge of the short- and long-term side effects on the quality of the crops and the health of the soil.

So, enter regenerative farming. Where organic at one time was the way to go, the soil on those farms has become overworked and over-tilled, and with crop rotation not always being practiced, many of those organic farms’ grounds, although not using pesticides, have become heavily nutrient-depleted. Regenerative aims not only to take care of the quality of the crops, but its intentions are also aimed at protecting the soils for today, and for the future. No-till methods are practiced, and ground cover crops are planted to help support the health of the topsoil, keeping it healthy and in place. Using natural nutrients to support both plants and soil is the goal. Did you know that due to soil erosion, we have around 60 years left of healthy topsoil on the planet; some say only 30 years? We are dealing with an ecosystem collapse, due to insect populations declining by 57% since 1989. Our bird populations are also in peril, declining by 1/3 over the last ten years. Most of these declining statistics are due to pesticides and environmental toxins and chemicals.

Although the idea of protecting our soil, our farms, and our food-growing methods makes great talking points for politicians who do nothing but talk about it, and news programs that themselves give us a lot of talking points, nothing is being done. We are going to have to start the course of change, if we are to leave a healthier planet for the future, and a healthier soil and planet for today.

We need to start demanding organic and regenerative agricultural methods be put in place and push back against the Washington gum flapping that continues election after election. Something needs to be done. I have made a career change, and I am now working with a groundbreaking herbal supplement company utilizing Regenerative agricultural methods.

As the population of the planet continues to increase, and the demands of the food supply to feed the increased population escalates, we need to learn more, and then act on utilizing Regenerative agricultural growing methods.

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of CHOICES Magazine