Lifestyle – Everyday Ahimsa

Earth Honoring Practices for the Whole Family

Encouraging a love for our planet and honoring nature can be simple to incorporate into our daily lives with a little patience and creativity. Here are just a few ways to develop this practice, with varied levels for each member of the family.

Connect With the Natural World: When we connect with nature, we make a relatively abstract concept feel more relevant. This sets the foundation for preservation and conservation of our most precious resources.
- Babies– take walks together (in a stroller, carrier, or toddling around). Allow them to experience with all their senses in a rich way. Feel the breezes, smell the smells, touch all the varied textures, and watch the branches sway. Try to get out in each season and in all types of weather.
- Small Children– In addition to taking walks outdoors, allow for free time to explore. Let them play in mud, water, sand, and snow without any agenda or timeframe. Provide opportunities to wander at their own pace, collecting items of interest along the way. Look out the window each day and talk about how your naturescape is changing. Make a bird feeder in winter, plant some seeds and watch them grow in spring. Don’t forget to stomp in the mud!
- Children and Teens– In addition to free exploration, introduce some outdoor activities. Biking, scootering, hiking, geocaching, kite flying and camping are just a few to start with.
- Everyone Else– Find time everyday to get outside. Feel the air on your face and take a few deep breaths. If it’s available to you, walk barefoot (the practice of grounding), explore an unknown area, plant a small garden or some flowers.
Eat your Veggies (fruits and beans too)– Research the connection between a plant-based diet and how it can drastically improve our planet. The facts are clear that switching to a diet free of animal products reduces greenhouse gas emissions, a major contributor to climate change, prevents deforestation, and improves overall health (think of all that medical waste). It also frees up land typically used for animals and converts it to land for plants, which acre for acre produces more food – thus feeding many more people. Even if you aren’t fully ready to make the switch, you can make small important changes that make a difference. Make fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes regular staples in your household recipes for all family members. Some great websites for recipes include The Minimalist Baker, Monkey and Me Kitchen, and Forks Over Knives (which has a fabulous meal planner and beginner’s guide as well). If you prefer something a little simpler, try a meal subscription like Purple Carrot. They have delicious, easy recipes that will get you excited about eating plants and you can become familiar with new ingredients and ways to season your food!
- Children– Kids are naturally attracted to all the beautiful colors in the fruit rainbow! Keep large bowls of fruit out on the counter for healthy snacking. Invite them to choose fruits and veggies from the grocery store, pick out a recipe and get started cooking together. Provide a space where they can observe you enjoying healthy, fresh food. Look up ways that phytonutrients and antioxidants from eating specific foods benefit health and share with your kids. They love absorbing new information. Keep a light heart and have fun!
Reduce Waste- there are many ways to reduce the amount of “stuff” we are consuming and accumulating. I have a post about zero waste strategies you can visit here. Below are some additional ways to build this practice into family life.
- Babies– resist the urge to buy all the things. There is an astounding amount of gently used baby gear out there on Facebook Marketplace, Buy Nothing Groups, and Consignment sales. Websites such as Kidizen and Poshmark are excellent places to find specific clothing items by brand at reduced prices.
- Children– create a “less is more” mindset in your home. Limit (or eliminate) cheaply made plastic toys and opt for higher quality items that will last several developmental stages. Simpler toys such as building blocks, play dough and art supplies, stuffed animals and puppets, tracks and vehicles, and a play-house set allow for hours of rich creative play that spans many age ranges and developmental levels. Again, resist the urge to purchase trendy and specific “character” based toys. Alternatives to those items include “character”stickers, coloring books and traditional books. Your kids won’t feel like they are missing out if you normalize these practices for them from the start. Use your local library, they are a wonderful resource. Encourage your children to pick and choose whatever books they like. This teaches them the joy of literature, the spirit of sharing, and also helps them fulfill that need of gathering a collection.
- Everyone Else- There are so many practices to reduce waste. A few places to begin: reduce consumption of consumables and single use plastic (especially bottled water), cook at home and reduce food waste, and buy second hand when possible. Focus on one area at a time. There are so many options for reusable containers made of glass, silicone, and stainless steel. Find one that will work for your family’s rhythm. Invest in a set of reusable water bottles for the family. Learn a new skill- batch cook, sprout at home, make broth from food scraps, and cook with those leftovers in the back of the fridge. Find a second hand store you like and search there before buying new. Consider purchasing used fleece (which is a plastic based fabrics) whenever possible. Patagonia has an excellent gently used clothing site called Worn Wear which we love to support. And avoid fast fashion completely if possible. Textile waste is a huge problem, particularly in third world countries which are bombarded with our clothing waste. Last on the list, find and support your local farmers market and buy local as much as possible!

I hope you have found something on this list than will enrich your life and grow even more love for our precious Earth.

Peace to All, Life to All, Love to All- Sat Nam.

Building Heart Connections with Your Child

I want to focus some time and attention on love. We all know the famous sayings- yes, it’s a “many splendid thing”, it can “conquer all”, and it “makes the world go round”. It’s also absolutely critical for the mental health of our children. Feeling a sense of love and connection literally changes the wiring of their brains. It changes the chemistry of their blood. It affects the microbiome in their gut.

Our children are exposed to an increasing number of outer influences; social media, various personalities and opinions, screen time, flashing lights, shiny things and loud sounds- all vying for their attention, overwhelming their sensory systems, and separating them from their inner sense of peace and calm. It is in this fast paced age that it becomes even more imperative to build heart connections with our children. To help them find their center and that light that resides in each of us.

Creating a home-life where our children feel safe, loved and connected is the foundation for everything they will experience in life. It is formative in how they will view all relationships going forward. So, it’s absolutely worthy of our time and attention.

Let’s dive into some ways we can build heart connections with our children, at any age and stage of their lives:

Greet the Day with a Blessing. Welcome your child into the new day with warm, loving words that feel right for your family. Take this sacred time to pause before jumping into the day and let them know you see them and love them. For example, hearing your parents say “Good Morning Sweet One” feels warm and kind to the soul. It is a special way to wake and begin the day in a positive way.
Create “Touchstones” of Love throughout the Day. Develop rituals that are built on connection. This can be quiet time doing a read aloud with some tea and fluffy blankets on the couch. Lighting a candle and practicing some simple yoga poses. Sipping hot chocolate and chatting while looking out the window at nature. Making a simple snack together and connecting over enjoying it together. Whatever it is, create the space and hold it for you and your child every single day.
Adventure Together. Planning adventures with your child reinforces their sense of wonder and natural desire for curiosity and exploration. It provides them with much needed time to flex their mental (and sometimes physical) muscles necessary to expand their sense of self. It teaches endurance, self-confidence, and perseverance, helping them to learn that they can do challenging and new things. And doing these things together with you builds connection and strengthens their relationship. There is nothing like the feeling of facing a challenge together and coming out the other side stronger. Create adventures that fit your lifestyle and then branch out to ones that feel slightly uncomfortable. Push the limits. Magic happens in that space! Adventures can range from visiting a new part of town, hiking or exploring nature trails, planning road trips together, visiting a museum or seeing a play. Whatever it is, embrace it with a full open heart and see where it takes you.
Embrace The Great Outdoors. Being outside, surrounded by natural beauty is a portal to peace. Time away from artificial lighting, buzzing devices and other distractions helps children settle into their natural rhythm. For young children, this can look like a bike ride, free play in the dirt or snow, or collecting rocks to throw into a stream. For older children, a simple walk side by side through your neighborhood or a park creates space to connect. Just walking in silence can be healing for their overworked neurological systems.
End the Day with a Blessing. Create a night time ritual rooted in gratitude and reflection. Spend a couple of minutes before bed reflecting on your child’s thoughts and feelings of the day. Offer them quiet and loving words to drift off to sleep by. Be sure to tell them how much they are loved and surrounded by love. They need to here it. They need to feel it. They need it every single day.

May you find these suggestions a starting point to build and strengthen heart connections with your child and continue to make them your own for your family. Blessings to you on your journey together.

Peace to All. Life to All. Love to All.

Sat Nam

Parenting With Grace During the Holidays

The holidays can be very evocative for some of us. It can bring up cozy warm feelings as we reminisce about family gatherings and happy memories and also bring up anxious feelings or worry about finances, upcoming events and an overall busier season. Whatever it brings up in you, it’s all ok. It’s also ok for the holiday season to bring up all kinds of feeling in our children. So as we embark on another hustling bustling season of events, let’s take a deeper look at how we can manage it with grace and self-love.

Connect to the True Meaning. Being mindful about the “why” behind the season can help us get back to the roots of what these holiday traditions are all about. It can help us deepen our spiritual connection to the season, become closer as a family, and reduce some of the noise and distraction of the consumerism that we are faced with in many of our cultures. Take some time to be curious and ponder some questions. What would you like the holidays to be about for your family? If the answer is gratitude, how can you make that a daily practice? How can it be modeled? If it’s kindness and compassion, what would that look like? Tuning in with ourselves and refining our focus can go a long way in helping us to teach our children the life lessons we hope will make them loving and caring adults.

Consider focusing on a few centering family traditions– There are plenty of events going on between Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah/ Solstice. Try to scale back to a few foundational traditions that you would like to focus on for your family. These will help everyone feel more grounded and bring your family closer together. They can be very specific to your tradition or more general. For example, in our home we visit a local Farm Sanctuary around Thanksgiving for their annual celebration of the turkeys. We also have a book tradition around Christmas where we unwrap a different Winter/Christmas themed book from our collection every day for the first 12 days of December. We enjoy lots of cozy reading time with these books all month long. We also love music in our home, so we incorporate impromptu holiday dance party and jam sessions all season long. Find the peace in knowing you are creating lasting joy filled memories that your child will treasure as they get older.

Be Gentle with Expectations– Keep in mind that the holiday hype, while intending to be fun and jolly, can be very overwhelming for many of our kiddos. Before an event, help them prepare by using a calendar, having lots of conversation of what an event may look like and if appropriate, view YouTube videos of an event so they can see or understand what to expect, listen and validate any feelings they have about the upcoming experience, and allow for extra time in your schedule so nobody feels rushed. During the event, check in with your child to see how they are managing and allow for flexibility if they need some space or time away to regulate their body. Bring along a favorite comfort item or fun activity, set aside a quiet space away from the action, and connect with them often either physically or emotionally. After the event, make sure to take extra time with your child to listen to their experience, answer any questions they may have and reflect on how it felt for you both. Holding space before and after gatherings and events to process and decompress in a relaxed way will help everyone feel less stressed and more connected.

Don’t forget Self-Care It’s so easy to put our needs aside when we are busy. With all the planning and preparing, how do we take care of ourselves too? Start small. Just five minutes can make a huge difference and create space to reset. Choose something you can do regularly and just get started. Drink more water, go to bed earlier, read for enjoyment, do standing stretches between tasks, close your eyes and focus on your breath, feel the sun on your face, look up at the sky, breathe deeply. If you have more time, one of the most healing things you can do is connect with nature every day. Bring the kiddos along too! Playing and being in the fresh air and sun can do wonders, especially during the darker winter days. It’s soothing and grounding for the whole family!

Release Judgment. This is truly a lifelong practice for everyone in the family. Whether we are coming down hard on ourselves as parents for not doing enough, giving enough or providing enough, or judging other for the way they react to this time of year- we all could use a little more grace. Keep in mind that each of us are doing the best we can in any given situation. Love on yourself a little more. Be patient. Scale back. Spend less. We don’t need to participate in every holiday event. We don’t need to have Instagram worthy tables, gift wrapping and families. We are beautifully imperfect and infinitely special just as we are. So are our children. Allow the mess, embrace home made decorations that focus on the process instead of the product, involve your kids in menu planning and simple cooking tasks. Invite them to prepare the house for the holidays to develop a greater sense of responsibility and care for their environment. Most of all, remember to keep age-appropriate expectations for them. A 5 year old cannot sit for as long as a 10 year old- and a 3 year old may not tolerate sitting at all. Sometimes children have very different ideas about something you meticulously planned. Listen to them and see where you can adjust and adapt things for them to feel accepted and seen. Just meet them where they are. Wherever they are is OK. Wherever you are is OK too.

Blessings to you and yours for a joy and love filled holiday season.

Peace to all, life to all, love to all. Sat Nam.

How to Keep the Family Healthy This Fall

The days are shorter, the nights cooler and we are all starting to settle into our new Fall rituals and rhythms. Along with that may come some more time indoors, slowing down and eating heavier foods. We might notice more sniffles around us and the kids are coming home with colds/flus are some other viral expression. Here’s a quick list of simple things that we can incorporate into our lives to help our families stay healthy as we head into this slower time.

Bring in more fresh fruit and veggies. We tend to be drawn into warmer and richer foods as the days get cooler. It’s definitely much harder for me to drink smoothies on a cold morning or be excited about a salad after a brisk walk outdoors. We are not striving for perfection here, but awareness. Find what’s seasonal in your area and load up. If you are able to get in raw food, do it. If cooked food feels better for your body, go that route. Listen deeply and do what you can. Apples and pears and squashes are abundant this time of year around the NY area where I live. So I start there. Get as much in as you can every day- every bit helps.
Utilize warming and immune boosting spices in your recipes. Garlic, ginger, cayenne, cinnamon and clove are all beautifully healing. They can boost flavor and warm up a dish on a cool day. They are antiviral, antibacterial and anti parasitic. Consider how you can bring them into more meals to give your immune system some extra loving support.
Stay hydrated with living water and fresh juices. Hydration is important all year long and the colder weather is no exception. Our sinuses and airways dry out from indoor heat making it the perfect home for viruses to linger. Keep that juicer out and juice up some hydrating combos such as apple, cucumber, celery. Plain cucumber juice is a favorite of ours to get some great hydration in fast. No juicer? No problem. Lemon water, aloe water and cucumber water are all excellent ways to boost your daily water into something extraordinarily hydrating. Add a little bit into your glass and enjoy! A favorite drink in our home is maple lemon water. It’s a little sweet, a little sour and gets all the healing properties of glucose in as well.
Pass the salt…. inhaler that is. Salt inhalers are a great way to kill viruses in our sinuses. They are easy to travel with so we can use them often. Use it after spending any amount of time in a public space, public transport or large gathering for optimal health. I really like keeping this salt inhaler in my bag all the time.
Silver spray. Sovereign silver can be ingested or used topically for immune support. Everyone in our household uses both of these as a preventative and also to treat the first signs of illness. Use the nose spray in combination with the throat spray to shorten the length of your cold.
Let’s do shots. Mix up a round of ginger, garlic, and turmeric shots. Freeze them in some Souper cubes and you will have an amazing natural tool at your fingertips for whenever you start to feel run down. Check out the recipe here
Zinc Shock Therapy and Vitamin C Shock Therapy. Medical medium shared these powerful therapies to give our immune system the best chance at knocking out a bug. Both are easy enough to even give to children. Here is the recipe for zinc shock therapy and for vitamin C shock therapy.
Get Outside. Fresh air, sunshine and movement can do wonders. Even if all you do is stand on your porch for 10 minutes, you will be giving your body a tremendous gift. Our homes are meant to shelter our bodies but our bodies are not built to remain indoors all the time.
Move your lymph. Our lymphatic system is responsible for moving waste, such as bacteria, viruses and toxins, out of our bodies. Yoga, dry brushing, lymphatic drainage massage and rebounding are all gentle ways to keep that lymph flowing.

Healing My Chronic Illness with Medical Medium Information

I’ve been waiting to write this post for a while. When I was at the peak of my symptoms, I promised myself that I would share my journey when I was on the other side of things. But healing is not linear, there are ups and downs, hills and valleys and while I’m mostly pain-free, there are definitely days when I have a flare and my symptoms return for a brief while. The difference is that I now have learned what I can do to heal my body and trust my intuition each and every time I go through it. Most people in real life aren’t even aware that I’ve been impacted by chronic illness, it’s one of those things I’ve felt like doesn’t really come up casually unless I’m really struggling to move and it’s super obvious. So, I’m excited to finally share my story.

It all began when I was recovering from a viral exposure in the Summer of 2021 and I found myself with a host of new and chronic symptoms. I had severe pain, stiffness and inflammation in my toes and foot and mysterious rashes all over my body. The stiffness and swelling began moving to other joints such as my ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, and jaw. The pain would stay in one spot for up to a few weeks, subside and then take up residence in another joint. There was a day when I couldn’t open my jaw, another when I couldn’t lift my left arm, and lots of days when I couldn’t bear any weight on my ankle or knee and had to remain on the couch. Finally in January the pain and symptoms peaked and I needed a cane for assistance to walk even short distances from the couch to the kitchen. All the while caring for a 3 year old full time making it even more imperative that I find a way to heal. It was hard. There were lots of times when I would well up with tears of despair as my 3 year old would ask me again and again to play with him when I couldn’t lift my body off the couch. I remember crying when he needed help with his socks, and I couldn’t find a way to bend down to help him. Then there was the brain fog, headaches, word retrieval issues and fatigue. I vowed to heal, for both myself and for my family. I knew I would do whatever it took to get some semblance of a normal life back- one that involved me playing cars on the floor and running around outside with my little guy. I knew I would someday hike again, I just didn’t yet know how I would get there.

I presented with symptoms consistent with what traditional doctors would call Psoriatic Arthritis-characterized as an incurable autoimmune disease. It is believed that auto immune diseases occur when the body attacks itself and there is not much one can do to recover. However, as a long time follower of Medical Medium information I’ve come to learn that the body can heal with the right support, lifestyle changes and time. I began reaching out to multiple practitioners, researching every bit of information I could find, and joining healing groups that could guide me along this path in community. According to MM information, auto immune diseases are caused by viruses and viral debris that we all carry in our bodies- our viral load. I have learned that my initial viral exposure triggered this underlying viral load, which for me was caused by both Epstein Barr and Shingles viruses. This is where I began focusing my healing.

My treatment protocol consisted of a few key things; elimating any foods that would feed the virus, adding in foods that would support my liver to help me clear viral debris, taking supportive herbs and vitamins to boost my immune system, calm my adrenals, and alleviate pain. It took a while, but gradually the healing began. The pain subsided, inflammation calmed and stopped spreading, and I could walk unassisted just in time to enjoy the coming of Spring. Then finally, after being in significant pain for 7 months, I was pain free by the end of March!

Here are some of the key things that helped me turn the corner:

Elimination Diet. I already don’t consume gluten, dairy, meat, corn, soy, or canola oil, but I also eliminated vinegar, citric acid, natural flavor, nutritional yeast, and refined sugar. I stopped all grains for a long time and gradually worked them back in little by little.
Raw until 4. One of the best healing tips for me has been eating raw food all day and steamed food at dinner.
No radical fat. I eliminated all fats-including healthy fats to allow my body to focus on cleansing.
Celery Juice. An all around crucial part to healing. Taken first thing in the morning after lemon water on an empty stomach to flush and heal the gut. I started with 16 ounces and worked up to 40 ounces when I could.
Heavy Metal Detox Smoothie. This was super important because of the psoriatic component to my symptoms. Dermatoxins release and react to the metals which caused the rashes. Clearing the metals helped clear up the rashes. Recipe is here
Supplements. In consultation with my practitioners, I added in additional supplements to my existing protocol at much higher dosages. These vitamins and herbal tinctures consisted of antivirals, adrenal support and pain management. (B12, Zinc, Ashwagandha, Cat’s Claw, Eyebright, Goldenseal, Mullein, Licorice Root, Lemon Balm, Nettle, Olive Leaf, Vitamin C, Lysine, Curcumin, 5MTHF, Magnesium Glycinate, Chaga, Glutathione, NAC, MSM, and Silica)
Slowing Down. One of the best things i could do for myself was to slow down and let my adrenals rest. I cleared the calendar, focused on simple living and just laid low for a while.

I’d like to say that life returned to “normal”, but there is now a new normal. I continue to eliminate the trouble maker foods from my diet, drink my CJ and HMDS every morning and take high dosages of herbs and supplements. Our meals are very intentionally created and I spend an enormous amount of time in the kitchen- which is not only the center of our home but is literally my pharmacy as well. But I can move! I can build train tracks on the floor and give airplane rides and run with my son as he peddles full speed down the block. I can go for walks and attend community festivals. I can bike to the farmers market and walk around the grocery store.

I will never take any of this for granted again.

Chronic illness has taught me to shift, to adapt and to listen. It has taught me to be humble, intuitive and to trust my body. It has taught me to make the most of the days when my energy feels good and I can move freely and easily- and to be patient on those days when I am in a flare and just don’t have the same physical capacity. It has taught me to appreciate every day.

It has been a long road, but my body is healing. We are all on our own healing journeys, and it is my sincere hope that this experience can help someone else with their journey too.

Peace to All. Life to All. Love to All. Sat Nam.

Sustainable Living Swaps for Everyone

Just in time for Earth day! We are continuing our conversation about sustainable living practices, the Zero Waste lifestyle, and living as a spiritual being in a very practical and accessible way. I’m here to say that Zero Waste/Sustainable living is available to each of us to a certain degree and encourage you to feel into what changes you are comfortable exploring.

At this point, I think most people are already doing some of the more mainstream “first tier” swaps (reusable water bottles/straws/coffee cups/shopping bags etc). But I want to encourage you to give some of these others swaps a try. You might just find a new favorite.

After all, in order for there to be real impact, we all need to be doing “something” and that “something” is very individualized. For some, it may be to eliminate air travel or live in a car optional community. For others, it may be to only purchase items from companies that are Fair Trade certified or Certified B corporations. The point is, only YOU can decide- but we all need to start taking some steps toward a more sustainable lifestyle. But don’t stop there, keep moving until you find your edge. You may be more comfortable with more change than you are giving yourself credit for.

So, here we go- my Top Zero Waste/Sustainable Living Swaps with specific brand recommendations that I can personally stand by:

Green up your Toothbrushing Routine! This is one of the first swaps I did because it was so simple and there was barely any adjustment period . We all switched out to bamboo toothbrushes and Bite Bits for our toothpaste and floss. They have a subscription available that comes with zero waste refills and now even have Bite Bits for children ages 3 and up. I love that we are no longer tossing small bits of plastic in the trash, and to be honest, the little glass bottles on the bathroom vanity just make me smile.
Modernize your Period experience! This is a great experiment- take all the trash from your next period and put it aside in a bag. If you are using disposable products, the amount of trash each month is probably more than you imagined. Time to rethink your routine with some great re-usable options.
- Menstrual Cup– it may take some getting used to, but users absolutely love the freedom that wearing a cup can bring. There are lots of options to choose from and many places to purchase them. Some may even be sold in your local pharmacy.
- Organic/Zero Waste Products– My absolute fave here is Tampon Tribe. Their products are all organic, zero plastic, women owned, compostable and socially responsible. You can subscribe for a customized package each month that comes with refill packs for their really cute burlap bags.
- Period Underwear– Again so many options to choose from here. The feeling may take a little bit of getting used to, but so worth it. Period underwear are super easy to use and come in lots of styles and price points. My favorite are the ones from The Period Company. They contain no PFOAS at all, are socially responsible, extremely absorbent and at a very attractive price point.
Skip the Plastic Jugs of Detergent! There are many companies offering excellent sustainable options to those huge jugs of laundry detergent. Drops laundry pods are a popular choice here. Made in the USA, free of all the bad stuff, compostable packaging and carbon neutral shipping make this a great choice. Another popular one is Meliora. They disclose every ingredient used, are MADE SAFE certified, a Certified B Corp, Made in the USA, and package free. I am in LOVE with every Meliora product I’ve used so far. They smell great (only using essential oils) and clean extremely effectively.
Welcome Bar Soap back into your life! Remember those bars, you know, back before everything came in a little plastic bottle? From bar soap for hands, face, dishes to shampoo and conditioner bars, there are bars for everything. My shampoo and conditioner bar of choice is NueBar. They are made of high quality ingredients, no artificial fragrances, contain no soap, SLS, SLES, or SCS, carbon neutral and plastic free packaging. They even have a smart lettering system on the bars so you don’t get them mixed up in the shower. They are also Curly girl method approved. I also love their facial bars, especially the one for mature skin. For dish soap, you can’t go wrong with Meliora here again. Their products are really superior and well crafted.
Try out some DIY Personal Care Products! Plastic free and zero waste versions of your fave products are super easy to find. Here are my go-to recipes for products I use every single day.
- Flax seed hair gel. This was the first DIY I ever tried and was so floored by how great it worked and how amazing my hair felt afterward, it’s now the only product I use in my hair. Flax seeds are full of Omega-3 fatty acids and are nutrient rich. You can freeze this gel in portions in an ice cube tray so you always have a stash made and it literally costs pennies per ounce. Here’s my go to recipe for flax hair gel.
- Body Butter. I love this all natural and simple body butter made of only 3 ingredients: shea butter, cocoa butter and coconut oil. Our whole family uses it- including our toddler. I even use it on my face. It feels great and soaks right in. The best part is that there are no mystery ingredients to worry about and its so easy to make.
- Moisturizing Skin Serum. This lovely skin serum is made of organic, cold- pressed plant oils and is a relatively new addition to my routine. I put this on and allow it to soak in and follow up with the body butter recipe above. Using it makes me feel like I’m in a spa. Here’s the recipe.
How about some DIY Cleaning products? There are tons of recipes out there. We’ve been using this one for our dishwashing detergent and have not been disappointed- one more plastic bottle down! And as soon as my bottled toilet bowl cleaner is finished, I’ll be replacing it with this.
Let’s Talk Toileting! Speaking of toilets, we swapped our TP for one made of recycled content and all compostable packaging. I’m loving Who Gives A Crap for their commitment to a worthwhile cause and humanitarian effort. They are a Certified B Corp and have carbon neutral shipping. I am super pleased with their products and bonus, they have cheery wrapping that is quite pretty (and can be repurposed!) A next step for us is purchasing a bidet. While we are not quite there yet (our toddler would have a literal blast with it) we do have this one on our radar.
Ditch the plastic and go for glass, glass, and more glass! Start buying things in glass packaging whenever possible. You like mustard? Buy the one in glass. Salad dressing? Find the one in glass. Start a jar stash and literally use them for everything. You can freeze in them, store dry goods in them, use them for leftovers, organize your office supplies, drink out of them, put flowers in them, make DIY gifts in them. The list goes on!

So there it is for now, I hope some of these swaps spark interest and hopefully excitement for starting something new and fresh this Spring. It’s a perfect time for renewing our commitment to this planet and to ourselves.

You’ve all seen the bumper sticker, “There is no Planet B” after all.

Sat Nam

Zero Waste Living as Spiritual Practice

As the climate crisis looms heavily in our awareness, more and more people are becoming curious about living a zero waste lifestyle. This movement has been getting a lot more attention and understandably so. Zero Waste is defined by the Zero Waste International Alliance as, “Conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health”. That’s something I think we can all get behind- but what about the term “zero waste”? The name itself is often misleading and misunderstood as the intention to be truly zero waste is a nearly impossible feat to achieve. Here, I am offering the suggestion to approach a zero waste lifestyle with a side of self compassion and a whole lot of patience. I would like to banish those images of people holding up a mason jar containing a year’s worth of their trash. Instead let’s consider how simple changes in our daily lives can help lower our environmental impact, bring us closer into alignment with our spirit and relationship to nature, and even teach us a few things about humility along the way.

One of the first thing I noticed when researching all things zero waste was the array of aesthetically pleasing items composed of natural materials: wood, cork, organic cotton, and glass. It was beautiful. I was nearly tempted to dump every plastic item in my home and replace it with something sustainable. I didn’t want to use one more plastic item. Then I paused-wouldn’t that be the opposite of what this movement is all about? So I started slowly and wanted to share my exploration here.

If you’re considering a zero waste lifestyle, here’s a great place to begin

Take a fridge inventory. Do you have a lot of takeout containers? Food rotting and forgotten in the back? An excess of packaged and processed items? A foundational part of being zero waste is reducing our food waste. Consider how you could cook at home more often. Research plant based meals which are inherently produced with a smaller carbon footprint than animal products. Go simple and make extra portions for the freezer. Look at creative ways to make meals with leftovers and recipes with “scraps”. All of these efforts will not only bring you closer to your zero waste goals, but also to an overall healthier and thriftier lifestyle.
Consider prepping your own DIY cleaners. Find simple recipes for homemade cleaners and have the ingredients at the ready for when you run out of your conventional cleaner. Start with one item at a time and find a recipe that works best for your lifestyle. You can re-use the plastic spray bottles from your old cleaners or store the new concoctions in jars. Once you find a good DIY replacement, move on to another cleaning product.
Use the personal care products you have completely before buying a “zero waste” replacement. You can still use your toothpaste, shaving cream, shampoo etc. Just have a new replacement at the ready for when they are finished. I’m reminded of the saying, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” here.
Peek in your recycling bin. Are there items you can take out to be repurposed or reused? Can someone else use it? ( think about your local “Buy Nothing” group). Are you seeing a lot of the same type of packaging? Where can you cut back on plastic? Just start becoming aware…and creative.
Observe your daily habits. What disposables could you replace with reusables? This is very personal and specific. If you never use straws, it wouldn’t make sense to purchase a stainless steel straw. That said, if you buy coffee everyday, buying a reusable coffee mug is a practical and easy swap. Start with what works for you and your comfort level.
Begin building your stash of reusables. Everyday items make easy swaps. A great example of this is repurposing old T shirts, cotton burp cloths, and flannel to replace paper towels for cleaning. It is also much cheaper and less wasteful than purchasing a new item, such as un-paper towels, even if it is zero waste. Re-use containers, jars, plastic packaging rather than buying reusable ziploc bags or a matching set of mason jars.
Re-think new items coming into your home. Is it necessary? Could you find a diy alternative? Is it made sustainably? Is it fair trade? Will it last a long time? Is it in alignment with your philosophy?

Taking time for reflection, focusing on a clear intention and being thoughtful about taking steps is all part of this process. It is a way to deepen our connection to ourselves, build community, engage in a larger world issue and enact real change. Keep striving for self improvement and for a better world-we will get there.

And remember, small steps are still steps.

Sat Nam.