Habits are harmless and could either go left or right. Quite literally, some people might prefer to stir their coffee in leftward direction, while others stir it rightward. This is a habit, and doesn’t matter one bit. It’s just something you are used to, and you wouldn’t feel any worse from not doing it that way (unless you are obsessive compulsive, but that is another story).

However, the effects of changing our breakfast routine, changing our diet, or not drinking coffee anymore, are far greater. Suddenly we find ourselves craving for the way things used to be, and maybe even getting a little cranky, finding it hard to focus our minds on things that ‘are more important.’ Behaviors that have these consequences when not acted out, I have found, are not habits, but addictions. Addictions are (also) defined by exactly that; having withdrawal symptoms.

So we should not fool ourselves by speaking in terms of habit when actually we are talking about an addiction. We should not say that we are ‘just used to’ something, when actually we mean that we are ‘just’ addicted to something.

When I came to realize this, and looked at my own life, I also realized to what degree I am actually being directed by my addictions. My addictions have me totally under their control. I might tell myself that I would really like to have a coffee right now, that I would really enjoy it, but the truth is that I am craving it, and could definitely not just go a whole day without. But the same things go for our food. We crave sweet or savory, we crave specific dishes, and we definitely notice the influence on our mood when we don’t give in to these cravings.

So this weekend I decided that I don’t want to be ruled by my cravings anymore. By my addictions. Not just because of the addictions themselves, but also because we often use the addicted state (which we refer to with phrases like ‘I cannot do without’ or ‘this is too hard’) as an excuse to not increase the sustainability of our behavior.

So, during the month of October I challenge myself to not drink coffee anymore, and to only eat raw vegetables, fruits, and nuts. On the one hand just to see whether I am capable, on the other hand to work more towards a sustainable lifestyle and see how hard it actually is to maintain.

The raw fruits and vegetables might be an obvious one, but did you realize the negative effects of the production of coffee on the environment? Read more about that here.

Well then, wish me luck for this month of psychological battling. I will keep you up to date on the developments at the front lines.

As a blog was planned to be started at some point this year anyway, the release of the new new website also seemed to be a good time to get started with that. We will from now on regularly be updating you on what is happening both at and outside the UM regarding sustainability.

With the INKOM going on this week, you can find us at the Maastricht Market this Friday as well. We hope to be welcoming many fresh faces to our admirable team of volunteers, and have set up a registration page for volunteering applications.

Last but not least, note that the Green Academy is coming up all you Student Association Board Members! Check out the page on our website for more information on that, and also expect that page to be updated soon with more info.

For now on behalf of the whole GO team I wish you all a nice time at the INKOM and hopefully a few more sunny last days before the start of another inspiring academic year.

All the best,

Ricardo Leclaire
Student Coordinator