Comfort with Your Conscience

Contributed by Ingrid Mattsson, Director of Brand Management for Uponor North America.

I’m at a trade show this week and since we’ve been focused on the word “comfort” this month, I’m tuned into the use of comfort everywhere — on banners, as product names and even as company names.

I have to admit, I’ve also been thinking about comfort on a philosophical level as well. I’ve been thinking of the comfort level of our conscience. What we are willing to accept? To live with? To ignore?

I think we live in interesting, but very stressful times. If one has even a minimum level of empathy and awareness, we’re so far beyond the “normal” worries of paying bills, home and automobile upkeep, and staying ahead of the curve in our careers. I mean, that alone is enough to fill one’s worry cart.

But in our global reality, we are also bombarded with news reports about economies on the threshold of collapse, terrorism, potential nuclear strikes, increasingly destructive weather patterns and so many more mind-boggling and soul-stirring events.

It makes me wonder — is there any more room in our conscience to pay attention and make an active effort to live our lives in the most sustainable manner we possibly can? Can we even ask that of ourselves and of our society? I think we can — and should. We owe it to our environment — the place where our following generations will live, work and (hopefully) thrive.

What if everyone made an effort to be a little less complacent and make some changes? At a minimum, make sure your conscious comfort level is high because you’re paying attention to things like recycling in your home and office; shutting off lights that aren’t in use; making a strong effort to not waste precious water; walking or biking instead of driving when possible; cutting back on eating beef — even if for just one or two days a week. There are so many resources to learn what each of us can do. It’s not that hard to keep your conscience comfortable and content.

And on a really basic level, what if we all smiled more and complained less? Studies have shown that just the act of smiling (even if you’re not happy at the time) can actually improve one’s health by boosting the immune system. Seems to me that would be a gesture that could really help to sustain a level of social comfort that would just feel so great.