ROADS: How You Can Win!
Living in a capitalist industrial society with a dissociation of workplace from residence makes road travel and road availability mandatory. What makes such a travel option unhealthy by nature is its inherent lack of choice.

AIR CIRCULATION SYSTEMS in many cars bring "fresh air" into your car from the exhaust of the vehicle in front of you. Recirculating the air within your own car can be hazardous as your car upholstery emits toxic formaldehyde and plastic source hydrocarbon gases in addition to mould spores developed from dampness introduced as rain or snow on your clothing, and bacteria from perspiration which seeped through your clothing. Air inlets tend to accumulate dust and pollen which are fed on by dust mites and fungi. More spores and pro-allergy sources.

At the least a few positive stress factors are advisable.

1. Listening to relaxing music or books and seminars on tape while enroute.

2. Planning adequate time for the trip so as to avoid the unhealthy anxiety of and unsafety of rushing.

3. Finding alternative routes to your destination.

YOU ARE MUCH MORE ALERT AND PERCEPTIVE when things in your environment are moving and when changes are occurring. Tests have proven this. The above suggestions can break boredom and routine while preparing you for new alternatives which can be implemented when the regular route is blocked by an accident or road construction. One does not have to totally commit oneself to this lifestyle in order to survive. There are alternatives.

ALTERNATIVE #1: Self-Sufficient Farming.
This can be a Spartan, challenging, healthful and balanced lifestyle and has been chosen by urban individuals and families on a continuing basis for the past 40 years.

The key to success in such an endeavour is planning.
Resources are mentioned throughout this site which can contribute to one's awareness of the requirements of this option.

TO BE SUCCESSFUL, you will have the challenge, and satisfaction, of becoming proficient in gardening, food storage, food preparation, basic construction and home repairs, fabric making and clothing design, self-balancing, stressless home planning, crop cultivation and harvesting, cattle feeding, stable cleaning, milking, grain processing and storage, animal care and training, fencing, machine repair, produce bartering, basic medical care for self, family and livestock. To do it well, you need a positive attitude to learning.

LEARNING IS MOST POSITIVE WHEN UNDERTAKEN AS A DISCOVERY.
Every child can tell you that. In our modern highly bureaucratic, authoritarian, paternalistic culture most people have grown up being "told" that they must accept and learn by rote a great list of perceptions, theories and conclusions which older persons have provided. Failure to follow this edict of passive, repetitive, patterning often results in exclusion, ridicule, and sacrifice. Yet learning that is a pleasure is learning that flows from the natural curiosity which we are born with.

RELEVANCY OF INFORMATION is most often the result of personal and group experimentation and feedback. What works when, with suggestions of why --- and always, the thrill of discovery. That gives us a method of learning which is not as "efficient" or fast in the early stages of use, but one's Ego sacrifice to the SuperEgo of stability and security-obsessed authority can quickly diminish available enthusiasm and encourage simple crowd-think-behavior.

ONE MUST BE SELF-DIRECTED to succeed in any degree of self-sufficiency farming. You must want to learn a lot about a variety of fields of study while skill-building to participate in them directly. There will likely be little mentoring available beyond that of one's references and one's neighbors. Some neighbors are more friendly and helpful than others and some neighbors are much better informed than others. The potential benefits are not always present together. Motivation may come from a desire for independence, stability, excitement (challenge), health, and/or freedom.

DON'T GIVE THIS A TRY IF you are unprepared to take risks, make mistakes, plan unrelentingly, be physically involved, and, largely live in a world of your own and God's. If the option attracts you and the melding of outdoors and indoors, intellectual and physical energies pleases you ... then first get Balanced and free of your Energy Blocks. This is an environment in which the block-free person can find bliss and the block-dominated person will find hell.

ALTERNATIVE #2: Telecommuting.
This alternative has been made possible with the popularization of computers, telecommunications, sophisticated software, reduced hardware cost and power requirements, the Internet, and non-agricultural home-based businesses.

Fifteen years ago (1987) few people could believe that this alternative would ever be possible beyond theory. Others had previously become dissatisfied with urban sprawl and city congestion and pollution and sought an alternative in back-to-the-land movements. Many of them had failed. Today, millions of North Americans are foregoing a daily one- or two-hour cocktail of toxic gases on their way to work and again on their way home. There are resources on most magazine stands, in libraries, and on the Internet --- which offer a variety of cautions, suggestions, and examples.

FIRST, assess whether you have the self-control, family dynamics, economic and business skills and stress-busting behaviors to cope with and make a success of this option.

SECONDLY, do you have the ability to be able to both separate and integrate business and family dynamics.

THIRD, flexible standards which recognize the importance of each and of teamwork are essential.

If the above three factors are missing now, and stay missing --- you are likely to fail. All can be developed. The question is do you want such a lifestyle? Are you willing to plan, risk, and sacrifice to make it a reality. Does your family know what such a change could mean ... to their health, to their sense of family, to their friendships and interactions with others, to their requirement for self-sufficiency and team work? Without planning you invite uncertainty, trauma producing-experiences, loss, and disappointment. All can be avoided.

ALTERNATIVE #3: Move Closer to Work.

This has been undertaken by individuals --- with little success for the past 40 years. Zoning regulations in many cities complicate this and make it legally difficult or impossible. Most city planners have organized industries in one region, offices in another region, housing in another region, services and stores in yet another region. A few have encouraged the development of "neighbourhoods" for the past several decades. Neighbourhoods have a mix of life rather than segregating life differences.

A FOCUS ON RESPONSIBILITY has largely been missing in the past zoning and town planning. Everyone assumes that commercial and business areas, in North America --- must be stinky, noisy, dirty, unattractive. This group-think passive reaction to those who seek to succeed by breaking all the rules of a respectful well-ordered society has left us with increasing degradation.

CARING ONLY ABOUT THEIR OWN SURVIVAL at the expense of everyone else, residents have assisted in changing their neighbourhoods into battlegrounds and garbage collections. The phrase: "Everyone else does it, --- so I may as well do it" --- typifies a slide into mediocrity. Assumptions and expectations produce realities. Change the assumptions and expectations --- and the reality can change.

CHANGES could include:

A. Building factories underground and building them "clean";

B. Building residences, parks and gardens on the surface;

C. Providing tax benefits for living within ONE km of work;

D. Locating businesses in interconnected underground plazas;

E. Intensively promote the health, space, environment, commuting, and relationship saving benefits of this alternative.

FIRST, your major benefit will be a reduction in commuting time and expense.

SECONDLY, you will most likely be living in a toxic environment.

THIRDLY, for a health conscious or hypersensitive person to choose this alternative AND make it a healthful success ... they will have to construct an oasis in a desert --- and they can!

If you make this choice --- You will likely be living in some form of apartment or townhouse.

1. You will be able to invite others to visit you, but will seldom visit their toxic residences.

2. Using many of the suggestions on the SOLUTIONS page, you will make your residence a "clean" cocoon. It will be practically sealed off from the smog, water pollution, excessive noise, and chemical uses found everywhere outside your residence.

To a degree, you will be dependent on electrical power ... nothing new to urbanites --- but you can do it. It is all a matter of what you want, what you can afford, and who your partner may be.