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Enhancing Resilience in Youth pp 105–114Cite as

Mindfulness as a Path Towards Sustainable Lifestyle Change, Resilience, and Well-Being: Community, Social, and Environmental Factors

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Abstract

Recent developments in psychological theory and research offer arguments that help to promote a transition towards sustainable lifestyles. Based on these insights, we outline how the concept of mindfulness could be a key psychological mechanism to understand this process and provide arguments supporting this assumption. To illustrate this line of reasoning, we introduce the dual-process accounts of human decision making, as this theory provides support for a conceptual model linking mindfulness to more sustainable lifestyles, increased well-being, and resilience in daily life settings. Specifically, we argue that the mindfulness-based model of pro-environmental behavior and sustainable lifestyle presented in this article could be particularly well suited to contemporary adolescents and younger generations in general, as they might represent the ideal target of large-scale environmental awareness raising and education programs in today’s digital society. In our theoretical proposal, mindfulness could thus be key to promoting adolescents’ shift towards more sustainable, less consumption-based, and more nature-connected lifestyles that are also less carbon-intensive. Both the community and the physical settings could offer positive support in this transition.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

    Giuseppe Carrus & Angelo Panno

Authors
  1. Giuseppe Carrus
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  2. Angelo Panno
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Carrus .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Applied Psychology, ZHAW Zürich University of Applied Sciences, Zürich, Switzerland

    Christoph Steinebach

  2. Institute of Psychological Studies, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

    Álvaro I. Langer

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Carrus, G., Panno, A. (2019). Mindfulness as a Path Towards Sustainable Lifestyle Change, Resilience, and Well-Being: Community, Social, and Environmental Factors. In: Steinebach, C., Langer, Á. (eds) Enhancing Resilience in Youth. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25513-8_7

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