In the first post for Alternate Choice, I wrote the site is about the choices people make and that there are forces, philosophies and beliefs that rule and govern the choices people make. I wanted to hear from others on the subject of choice (and I still do), their underlying philosophies and beliefs as it related to choices. To be more specific, this site is intended to be about ‘Lifestyle Choices’.

All that I wrote in my original post still holds true, but defining our lifestyle choices and the motives behind them is lot more interesting than the simple day to day choices and the consequences thereof.

My name is Eanad and I am the host of this site. My personal dialog about my lifestyle choices can be read in the blog, Philogynist, where it is my intent to write about my chosen lifestyle and the many reasons behind them.

Did you know that the term ‘Lifestyle’ in reference to sociology is less than 100 years old?

The Wikipedia reference 1: Lifestyle is a term to describe the way a person lives, which was originally coined by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929. The current broader sense of the word dates from 1961. As a set of behaviors, and the senses of self and belonging which these behaviors represent, are collectively used to define a given lifestyle. The term is defined more broadly when used in politics, marketing, and publishing.

The Wikipedia reference 2: A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview. Therefore, a lifestyle is a means of forging a sense of self and to create cultural symbols that resonate with personal identity. Not all aspects of a lifestyle are entirely voluntaristic. Surrounding social and technical systems can constrain the lifestyle choices available to the individual and the symbols she/he is able to project to others and the self.

The Wikipedia reference 3: The lines between personal identity and the everyday doings that signal a particular lifestyle become blurred in modern society. For example, "green lifestyle" means holding beliefs and engaging in activities that consume fewer resources and produce less harmful waste (i.e. a smaller carbon footprint), and deriving a sense of self from holding these beliefs and engaging in these activities. Some commentators argue that, in modernity, the cornerstone of lifestyle construction is consumption behavior, which offers the possibility to create and further individualize the self with different products or services that signal different ways of life.

The Wikipedia reference 4: A lifestyle is a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time and place, including social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. The behaviors and practices within lifestyles are a mixture of habits, conventional ways of doing things, and reasoned actions.

Living a lifestyle means fitting into a particular group where a number of individuals subscribe to a same ways of thinking and doing. If a lifestyle is based upon religious upbringing or the adoption of religious ideals, then you live according to the lifestyle of that chosen religion. The same would apply to the social structure we grew up in or acquired later in life, or upon the basis teachings and influences we might succumb to during the course of our lives.

My analytical reasoning on the subject of individual uniqueness says that as unique individuals we should embrace our uniqueness’s. That same reasoning also means embracing our chosen lifestyles.

Like all life choices, a lifestyle can and often does become the focal point of ridicule and criticism. And, when ridicule and criticism enters into the choices of how people want to live their lives, rather than be ridiculed or criticized, they suppress their choices of what makes them happy and brings meaning to their lives.

I personally subscribe to a belief that people should be able to live as they choose, so long as how they live and what they do does not cause another person, being or thing physical, mental or emotional harm, jeopardy or restraint.

The foregoing paragraph could easily become controversial because someone somewhere is likely to take offense at what I have just written. But, they chose to read what I have written and therefore, I and my writing is not the cause of their mental or emotion offense (harm).

In conclusion, Alternate Choices as a forum for individual to blog and write about their ‘Lifestyle Choices’ could become an outlet for the pent-up frustrations of feeling the need to suppress how someone really feels about their lifestyle choice. It could also help those reading about the alternate choices we make in regards to our lifestyles to embrace both their individualities and lifestyles.