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Nature's impact on our mental health and wellbeing

Spending time in nature, and bringing the outdoors into your everyday routine can have a positive impact on your mental and physical health and with World Mental Health Day taking place on October 10th, we thought we would provide you with insight, into how you can bring the outdoors into your daily life to help benefit your mental health and wellbeing.

Let’s firstly kick off with the wider impacts and benefits nature can bring to your mental health, it can:

• Improve your mood
• Reduce feelings of stress or anger
• Help you take time out and feel more relaxed
• Improve your sleep
• Improve your confidence and self-esteem

However, what can you do in nature to achieve these benefits?

Go for a walk

While this may feel like an obvious way to get out into nature, it’s the perfect place to start. Even those of you with a busy schedule, consider how you can make small life changes, such as walking as part of your daily commute, to get your daily nature fix. Walking as an activity alone helps reduce stress, so anything little or large will have a great impact.

Start growing

If going for a daily stroll isn’t your thing, you can still get into nature, by the act of gardening. There’s growing evidence that gardening can be of massive benefit to our mental health. The act of nurturing something, allows you to set aside your daily life and focus on another, providing you with some time to relax and destress from the day.

Go on a bike ride

While usually seen as a means of transport, going for a bike ride can help you unwind as you focus on the open roads. It helps promote means of calm and wellbeing, and with rhythmic breathing and leg movements, it has been said to provide meditative purposes.

Hiking with friends

If you are looking for more of a physical challenge from walking, hiking is your next best thing. While it may need a little more planning, the impact on your health it has is amazing. Not only helping your physical strength but allowing you to unwind in nature for a longer period of time.

Go camping

For those of you who want to dig deep into nature, camping is a great activity to help you connect with the outdoors. It helps you disconnect from your life, as you usually have to compromise on your tech advances as many places have little to no service, making you switch off and appreciate what is around you.

Compassion In Fashion - Why Vegan Clothing?

Veganism is not just about making ethical food choices. Veganism should permeate all aspect of your life - the way you eat, the way you drink, the way you live, the way you travel and also, the way you wear clothes. All the aspects of your life should be done in a manner that doesn't hurt or harm any living creature on this planet.

Going vegan is not just a diet choice. It is a lifestyle choice where you consciously choose to live with a conscience and take the moral high ground that abstains you from harming any living being. Eating vegan food is only the first step of veganism. Wearing clothes that contain animal products should be avoided as well.

What Is Vegan Clothing?

Vegan clothes are embodiment of this simple idea that no animals should be treated cruelly and made to suffer for human vanity. Vegan clothes are any clothes that are made without using any animal product. By 'animal products', we mean any material that is obtained by keeping and breeding animals in captivity, in harsh and pathetic conditions where animals are subjected to inhumane treatment and cruelty. When going vegan, you should avoid buying or wearing anything that was made from such 'animal products'.

Leather and fur are obvious culprits when you think of non-vegan clothing but there are other materials too that should be avoided. Here are list of clothing materials (or clothes that use these materials) to avoid when opting for vegan clothing -

• leather
• wool
• fur
• feathers
• silk
• horn
• bone
• shell
• cashmere
• angora
• shahtoosh
• snakeskin
• shearling
• suede (microsuede is animal free, though)
• pashmina
• mohair

Never use any clothing made out of materials listed above.

Fur, Wool & Leather - Cruelty In Animal Based Clothing

Fur is perhaps the most taboo and controversial of all animal based clothing. This is mainly because of animal rights activists and the fact that for many-many years they have been campaigning and protesting against the use of fur and therefore putting it in public eyes. In many ways, this seems to be very effective as even non-vegans now choose to not wear it. However, there is an alarming number of fur wearers. So how can industry this honorific and recognized as so cruel be so profitable and operational in these times?

Firstly we need to only consider where fur comes from. It is skin of an animal that has been ripped off his body leaving the abject remains of his organs, bones and muscles left out on display. If we need to question the horror of fur industry then we only need to imagine the brutality of having our own skin pulled off our bones.

A coyote is one of the animals that is most commonly used for fur. It so happens that it is also a species of the dog family. This means that we frequently see people walking their dog in public while also wearing a dead dog around their neck. Now it is one thing to claim to be an animal lover while also eating animal; but this is whole new level of ignorance when you claim to be a dog lover and are wearing a dead dog around your body.

Fur is taken from many different animals in many different situations but in no situation is acquiring fur necessary. In Canada and Greenland, thousands of seals are clubbed and bludgeoned or shot to death before being skinned, often while still conscious. Many of the seals are babies who are murdered for fur, even before they had the opportunity to learn to swim. The true horror of fur farms can never truly be imagined and no level of empathy can even come close to help us realize the hell and suffering these poor animals go through.

85% fur comes from fur factories. In these factories, profits are always put before animal welfare. Dogs, cats, foxes, minks, chinchillas, rabbits and even hamster are most commonly used for fur farming. The animals are packed into tiny cages with little to no room to breathe. Inevitably the animals become insane, biting each other and exhibiting cannibal behavior. They often hurt themselves, self-mutilating in unimaginably horrible ways.

Incredibly there are no humane slaughter laws in place protecting animals in these fur farms. This means they are butchered in gruesome ways since the solitary objective of the farmers is to protect the fur. Animals are killed without any regard for pain and suffering. Common form of death involves using the poisonous fumes from engine exhaust to render the animal unconscious. In view of the temperamental ineffectiveness of this method, the animals often remain conscious or become conscious while they are being skinned alive.

Fur is also incredibly damaging to the environment. It requires 20 times more energy to produce a real fur coat than it does to produce a fake fur coat. Furthermore, due to the chemicals used on the fur to stop them from rotting, the items are not biodegradable and in fact these chemicals lead to a very dangerous water contamination.

The dead skin of animals is called leather. It usually comes from cows, goats, kangaroos, pigs, cats and dogs. Leather items are often not labelled so it makes it extremely difficult to identify where the leather came from. There are also several skins that are considered exotic and are high in demand. Leather made of crocodiles, alligators and snakes are considered high-fashion and exotic. It is a shame really that these beautiful creatures are murdered and their skins are made into shoes, belts and handbags; all in the name of fashion.

Using leather is wrong on so many levels. Not only are animals murdered to satisfy the demand for leather products but leather is also the worst material when it comes to environment. Peta.org did a full cover on how the meat industry affects Earth's environment negatively where they explain how the toxins used in the leather tanning process pollute Earth and its environment on a large scale.

Winter clothing is almost synonymous with wool, cashmere, angora and shearling nowadays. What are these? Wool is the hair of a lamb or sheep. Angora is wool of a rabbit. Cashmere is the hair of Cashmere goat. Shearling is the skin of a lamb with the fleece still attached to it.

A general perception regarding wool is that sheep grow enough wool and they don't get hurt when humans shear them. This is far from truth. Wool industry is full of cases of animal abuse. Males of the species are castrated without any pain relief. Sheep's ears are hole-punched and their tails are chopped off without giving them any kind of pain relief.

Let's Put An End To This Cruelty

We idolize people like Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna who unashamedly wear fur coats and leather items. They wear them as a sign of privilege and wealth and they wear them as if they demand respect from us. But we have to show them that we can't respect their fashion choices and we certainly shouldn't respect their choice to fund and promote such a barbaric industry. If we ever want to end this cruel industry, not only do we have to stop wearing fur, wool and leather ourselves; but we have to send a clear message to the celebrities that wear them that their choices are immoral and unethical.

Do you own fur or leather? There are charities and sanctuaries that take it as donation and use it as bedding for animals they have. Use this as an opportunity to get rid of yourself of the guilt and bloodshed that goes into your fashion and make a positive change to an animal's life that desperately needs it. Animal-based clothing industry is shameful and disgusting and it is up to us make sure the industry ends now.

You Advertise What You Wear. Choose Wisely!

If you are wearing Nike t-shirt then you are advertising Nike and if you are wearing animal fur, you are advertising that fur is okay to wear. Your fashion reflects who you are what you stand for. It is thus important that you just don't stop wearing fur, wool and leather but wear clothes that represent your views.

We are One Choice Apparel, a clothing company that caters to the individuals who strive to make conscious and informed decisions for a sustainable future and a better now. We use organic and sustainable materials to create stylish clothes (t-shirts, hoodies, sweaters, etc.) that you can be proud to wear. All our clothes are vegan and no animals are harmed for producing our clothing. Browse our collection of vegan tees, hoodies and sweaters and pick a design that reflects the inner you.

Why Not Vegan?

All through this post we have talked about why we should opt for vegan clothing and contribute to prevention of animal cruelty. However, I think the more pertinent question to ask yourself is - 'Why Not Vegan Clothing'?

Think of it this way - when vegan clothes can offer you function as well as style, while reducing animal cruelty, is there really any good reason to continue mistreating and murdering animals in the name of fashion? Think! Act!