Walking into your bedroom should make your heart rate slow down. It should be the place where you sigh deeply and your whole body relaxes. The bedroom is your nest. A singular space that both regenerates you on a cellular level and a place that provides the environment and impetus for physical intimacy.
As the place where we love deeply, procreate and regenerate ourselves, the bedroom is the sanctuary for our sanity. So make it a place that’s not only all of these things, but also somewhere you can feel healthy and alive.
There are an abundance of resources on greening your home, so if you are already in that groove then I apologize for preaching to the choir. But if you are just beginning to apply the benefits of sustainability to your living space, there is no more satisfying place to start than your bedroom. Your bed is the place that you spend almost as many hours as any other place in your life. If you are up for a new one, look for all those cool natural materials that don’t give off-gas—like wool, organic cotton or natural latex. It’s pricey, but you’re worth it. Also, if you are going to spring for any luxury in life, make it cotton sheets—organic preferably, but truly the difference over time of beloved cotton sheets compared with the poly-cotton versions are dream worlds apart. (Check out the options at www.ecobedroom.com).
Without beating a dead drum it is worth repeating what most of us already know: We are one of the most exhausted cultures of all time; so much for all the leisure time that our new information age/economy was going to provide. Celebrate the gift of rest and how incredible it feels to wake up refreshed. The world really does look different through fresh eyes, although admittedly this is a practice that I wish I was better at.
For many of us, it is challenging to feed our need for intimacy and physical contact with the same energy that we bring to the selection and preparation of our food shopping and cooking habits. Giving your time to composting and recycling is no different than finding the space to air out your feelings. Making commitments to simplify your life and reducing your impact on the environment requires the same amount of mental energy as constructing the space and time for deep and meaningful interactions in your days.
The healing affects of intimacy and connection extend deeply into the physical act of lovemaking. Hundreds of major medical studies have shown that an active sex life leads to a longer life, better heart health, a healthier immune response, reduction in chronic pain symptoms, lower rates of depression and even protection against some cancers. Men who have regular sex (only twice per week) have half as many heart attacks as men who only have sex once per month. In fact, a regular garden variety sex life has been shown to extend life by as much as ten years. People who enjoy a meaningful sex life are less anxious, fearful and inhibited. Greening your love and your bedroom has the power to extend out to the world in ways that we can barely imagine. It’s a worthy practice that can only make life more sustainable.
Wendy Strgar
Wendy Strgar, founder and CEO of Good Clean Love, is a loveologist who writes and lectures on Making Love Sustainable, a green philosophy of relationships which teaches the importance of valuing the renewable resources of love, intimacy and family. In her new book, “Love that Works: A Guide to Enduring Intimacy,” she tackles the challenging issues of sustaining relationships and healthy intimacy with an authentic and disarming style and simple yet innovative advice. It has been called “the essential guide for relationships.” The book is available on ebook. Wendy has been married for over 30 years to her husband, a psychiatrist, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and has four children.
