Nowadays, many people talk and write about environmental awareness, about environmental threats, but not so many people, by their own example, encourage and nurture environmental culture. Serhiy Yablonskiy – Chairman of NGO «Lifestyle – Health», an eco-activist who proves by his own example that true value is a harmony of unity of man and nature

«The Zhytomyr region is my ancestral nest. My homeland is the village of Zabriddia, Chernyakhiv district. When I get there, I just dissolve in this city»

«The love of nature begins with the little things we see in our family. A man grows a certain period of his life not consciously, according to the principle «the monkey sees – the monkey does». For example, when I was little, we often went out with our family to relax in nature. We didn’t even have the thought of leaving the garbage behind. We perceived self-cleaning and caring nature as a normal process. What we see in family is then duplicated in everyday life. Garbage collection should be as common as cleaning your teeth in the morning. It should be natural. I want each family to have certain rules for a healthy lifestyle. For this, I try to reach people through my actions»

«The idea to start to share knowledge and experience about the healthy lifestyle and longevity came when I learned that the average life expectancy of men in Ukraine is 65 years. This was a real shock to me, because the territory of Ukraine belongs to the area of longevity. It is here that people have to live for a long time, but in fact – the situation is not very comforting. If the contamination process continues to develop at such a rate, then I think that in 20-30 years it will be necessary yo go out in some protective costume with a gas mask»

«Sometime after 30 years, a grain of consciousness begins to sprout in a person. It is this grain that opens the world to us on the other side. Spiritual growth is a certain «trick»: a person begins the spiritual search. It turns out that the development of spirituality is in the interest of society itself, for the country to develop and be prosperous. It will increase the life expectancy and, accordingly, the level of happiness of the person»

«Initially, I conducted training for my business team, friends and acquaintances. Conducted preventive lectures on preventive medicine, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle. I began to get acquainted with doctors who deal with health prevention. One day I came to an institution and I was asked «Who are you?» And then the idea came up to create a public organization»

«We carried out an action to clean the banks of the Kamianka River. With the students of ZhGU named after I. Franko, we have done a lot of valuable work. Collected two garbage trucks. The students have been very helpful, and it is great that we have a conscious population in the country that is involved in such projects. As they say: «It’s not a shame to clean the dirt – it’s a shame to live in the dirt»

«Lifestyle – Health» NGO is not chasing cheap popularity, we choose the optimal goals for our activity. We want to do real things, not just light up on television. Although television is a great opportunity to reach people’s minds»

«I remember, only having moved to live in Ukraine, I asked myself the question: where in Zhytomyr are there places for bathing? Look at Google maps – found Sokolovskiy career. When I first came there, I realized that this place is beautiful. There seems to be some kind of energy source that restores man, fills himself. And the water is transparent there! It is a wonderful place, a wildlife that cannot be ignored. However, when I saw that there was so much garbage, I realized: there is something to be done. We have started a campaign to clean up the environment from garbage. With some time people started joining our actions and helping us. Some have become our good friends. For example, with Vitaliy Pavlyuk, the head of NGO «Drevlyany», together we put together a part of the coastline of the quarry and carried out activities to clean up the city. He is now our good friend»

«There is a category of people I admire – values are more important to them than price. They cannot be bribed, for them moral values are always in the first place. My beloved Nadiya is just that kind of person. Nadiya and I are brought together by common interests and spiritual goals. Together we support each other and participate in various projects. We recently joined the ESO Life Project. The point of these programs is for people to give up some of the habits that are bad for the environment they have learned. There are many bad habits in society today, and we see the result around us on the street»

«I do not have any principled position regarding vegetarianism, but I do not have what it takes to kill because of compassion and love for all living things. I’m sorry to kill what has to live, and meat has many alternatives. Generally, now is the time for functional nutrition. Not rational, but functional, when a person needs to eat according to his lifestyle. With regard to smoking and alcohol. I smoked for about 20 years, almost did not bow to a cigarette, but at some point it was all cut short and I decided to regain my natural state. I realized that I wanted to enjoy life, not cigarettes. Alcohol stopped drinking because I realized it was hindering my spiritual development»

«In my opinion, a person should be active. I like to travel, get out in the mountains with tents for five to six days, enjoy biking. When you exhale, you get some complex buzz: first, you travel. I visited the territory of Zhytomyr and the western part, which borders with it. Secondly, cycling is a kind of sport that you can practice for a lifetime. So I always say, if you have a car and you go out often, try walking or biking sometimes»

«I have a hobby- this is plant care. It began from childhood, when I sprouted everything that can be sprouted and watched with delight as it grows on the windowsill. My mother told me to water the flowerpots at home, and there were so many. At first, I was a «burglar», but my love for plants was restored when I started living in my own apartment. And now I put plants in the home circle wherever possible, even kiwi sprouted and planted. I like to look after plants. Like all living things, they like attention and love»

«I have the TOP-5 principles of life: one must have a great purpose in life; faith in God and that He lives in the heart of every being; value is more important than price; healthy living is the only sensible choice of life; constantly, constantly, constantly need to learn»

«You can’t change something just by picking up trash. Our goal is not just to remove, but to draw public attention to the problem. Garbage will always be until people’s consciousness changes. I am convinced that in order to resolve garbage problems quickly, we must proceed in two directions. First, punish those who litter with fines: $ 100 for a thrown cigarette or jail for $ 1,000. Secondly, we need to talk about positive changes everywhere, demonstrate them, support them – the principle of «whip and gingerbread». In fact, people can easily respond to some positive things, because people always strive for good»