Near the beginning of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (or at least Douglas Adams’ account of this wholly remarkable book), Arthur Dent finds himself quite offended. While other entries in the encyclopaedia go into astounding detail, the one for his home planet of Earth reads only: mostly harmless. Amended, Ford hastens to explain, from the previous entry of ‘harmless’.

My love of Hitchhikers’ Guide has followed me through, at this point, most of my life and — unsurprisingly — was the inspiration for the name of this blog. I decided to write about how to build a lifestyle that was ‘mostly harmless’ to the earth, all about balancing ambitions of high sustainability with practicality and mental health self-care, and throwing in some reviews of children’s books with nature friendly messages along the way. You will find this content mostly under lifestyle (and reviews).

A lot of ‘sustainable lifestyles’ out there are pretty rigid; going plastic free, going vegan, going off the grid. These lifestyles are all great for the planet – but are they sustainable for you?

I care a lot about sustainability, but it’s hard to live by ideals like going plastic free or vegan no matter how much the idea appeals — especially as someone with a touch of mental health seasoning. Either I’m too rigid, and end up giving up, or I give up before I start, which makes me feel bad and stop trying at all — which results in living carelessly, and less harmlessly than I would if I built myself a nice middle ground.

It would be amazing if we were all the sort of people that could pick a cause and go hell for vegan leather pursuing those ideals. I have a particular friend in mind writing this who does just that, and who I admire hugely. But the truth is a lot of us aren’t like that, and even some people who are can’t act on it for many reasons.

But there’s very little point in feeling guilty about doing nothing, when we could at least do something. I believe the best way to work towards a better world is for everyone build a lifestyle that’s sustainable for them first. Staying mentally and physically healthy and building your own personal brand of sustainability that works for your life makes it easy to consistently make good decisions for the world around you. Although it means being less eco-friendly than a committed vegan or tiny-house dweller, it means leading a mostly harmless lifestyle, which is better for the world than a careless one.

Hopefully, my discoveries and pitfalls along the way help, or at least entertain, someone else.