I made a few important decisions recently and have taken some action to follow through. I am no longer prepared to accept the levels of negativity that have been creeping into my life and that I have been allowing to disturb my mind. I'm simplifying my life, focusing on developing wisdom, compassion, kindness, happiness and balance.
I'm turning into a bit of a hippie. A tree-hugging, sandal wearing, yoga-going, recycling, crystal-wearing, aura-cleansing-spray misting, happiness-journalling, eco-yoga-mat-toting, meditating, chanting, ujayyi breathing, Feng Shui studying, Dharma reading, soy melt loving, candle and dried sage burning, Nepalese wool wearing, semi-vegetarian, Tibetan Buddhist hippie with a penchant for de-cluttering my home, mind, body and soul.
Here's how.
What I want:
I'm not going to obsess over every minor detail in life anymore, I refuse to have excess clutter and stuff around me (either physically or mentally), I need some peace, calm, focus and more gratitude in my life.
I need to learn and grow and appreciate and smile and laugh and sing and dance and love and give and do more yoga. I need to drink more green tea, consume less sugar, get more sleep, nourish my body, be more mindful, cultivate an awareness of my environment and surroundings, read more books, learn more things, play more and have more FUN!
I'll focus on a new thing every few days so that I don't overwhelm myself with change, but here are the updates so far.
Step 1: Be more mindful of the environment
Since returning from Malaysia, I'm recycling pretty much everything now. I saw so many plastic bottles and flotsam in the waters of the Langkawi Archipelago islands that it broke my heart. The last bastion of recycling now for me is soft plastics, which apparently the local supermarket has a recycling bin for. I must go check out what can go in it, as although it will be a pain in the posterior to lug stuff down there, it's better than it ending up in landfill or on the beach.
I'm down to about one physical trash bag a week now, which means I can put my bin out fortnightly if I choose to. If I had a garden, I'd love a compost bin, but green things and I are not good friends and there's no space for a garden here. Maybe some window boxes...hmmm...there's an idea! A few houseplants won't go astray either, so I guess I'm off to Bunnings soon.
I was lucky to acquire a Manduka super light travel mat before I went to Malaysia so I could take it with me, which I did. It didn't get nearly enough airtime while I was away, thanks in part to my choice of tiny little hotel rooms with no free space. It's fantastic for being really, really light. It's also fantastic for being super eco-friendly. "Manduka’s eKO Series yoga mats are produced sustainably from harvested tree rubber. Unlike other rubber yoga mats, no toxic foaming agents are used in their manufacture and no toxic chemicals are used to soften the rubber. eKO Mats are 100% biodegradable and leave behind no toxic residue. Manduka have also chosen to use a natural cotton and recycled silk reinforcing centre instead of a synthetic polyester."
I'm showering at work five days a week after exercising in the morning before I start work. That's cutting down on my energy and water consumption at home. From 1st October the only item that needs to stay on 24/7 at home is the fridge (goodbye Foxtel box, see previous post). I've been switching stuff off routinely for over a year, a habit born out of necessity from last year when I was made redundant and went to a 30 hour casual contract job and then wasn't working after my shoulder surgery. No point paying to run stuff when you're not home to use it.
I'm thinking of doing a challenge involving using only three hours of electricity per day (mobile phone charger excluded, but that only runs overnight anyway). I can use 2hrs 45mins at night, then save 15 mins for the morning to make my coffee and green tea!
On yoga nights sticking to three hours of electricity will be relatively easy, as I leave for work at 8.45am and don't get home until 9pm. This means that I can ration out my 21 hours of electricity per week and maybe, just maybe, survive on three hours per day on weekends too! My laptop has a great battery, as does my iPad and my modem. I have books and movies on my iPad, real books in the house and it's almost daylight savings, so this may well force me to get outdoors, get reading, get writing and get creative. Love it.
I'll do some more research and figure out what else I can do to be more eco-friendly. There must be a way to up the eco stakes at work too. I just need to think of it!
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