Article 15: Living Simply: What must we do?
by
Meenakshi Umesh
BArch, MSc in Applied Psychology
Puvidham Learning Center, Founder, Teacher, Administrator, Trustee
Action to support the Planet to recover from all the destruction that it has been dealt with for the last 500 years is not something that we can expect big corporations or governments to indulge in.
All development is to make life more comfortable and save time so that we can do more work to produce more irrespective of the impact it has on our only resource – PLANET EARTH.
While doing more we forget to live! We forget that our children need our time more than the things we want to get for them by working hard. We the people in whose name the mass destruction is happening have to change our lifestyle to help the regeneration and redistribution of resources so that all humans live a life of dignity and care for the planet.
First and foremost we need to keep gratitude for Mother Nature in our thoughts every morning. We can start the day with the following prayer and affirmation. Our thoughts decide our actions. So we fill up with these!
| Prayer for sustainable living! The earth is my home. Nature is my mother. Water is my father. Air is my breath. I will protect Nature. I will save water. I am responsible for the health of the earth. I love all living and non-living beings. I respect their right to remain peaceful. I am strong, I am strength. I am healthy, I am health. I am wealthy, I am wealth. I am happy, I am happiness. I am peaceful, I am peace. | Affirmations for self-love! I Love you (our name)_ __ You are the most wonderful human being on this planet. Thank you for always being with me. Thank you for taking care of me. I will always be with you. I will always care for you. I am grateful for this beautiful body I am born in. I am grateful that I have a healthy body. I am grateful that I have so many skills. I am grateful that my body helps me to do everything I want to do. I take good care of my body. |
Follow simple tasks like:
- Being aware and keeping track of how much water we use;
- Use heating and cooling facilities with care;
- Use paper and notebooks and see if we can ensure that each page is used to its fullest potential;
- Using pencils and refillable ink pens instead of ball point use and throw pens;
- Recycling used paper into fresh paper at home;
- Challenging ourselves to abstain from packaged food and snacks;
- Challenging ourselves to abstain from shopping unnecessarily;
- Doing our own cooking, cleaning and washing clothes so that we are self-reliant;
- Make bio enzymes for cleaning our floors and clothes;
- Fold clothes neatly and gravity press them so that there is no need for ironing clothes;
- Segregation of waste into compostable waste and recycling waste;
- Composting, making plant nutrients like effective microorganism (EM) solutions from fruit and vegetable waste;
- Pot gardening on front yard or roof top;
- Make our own soaps and shampoos using tomatoes, papaya peels, aloe vera and other herbs we grow;
- Learning to upcycle old cloth into bags, floor mats, handkerchiefs and even embroider on them!
AND best of all, write our experience down into a story form to inspire others and put them on our blogs or convert them into e-books!
If each of us can inspire at least one other person to become a responsible consumer, the numbers will grow exponentially and the impact will be phenomenal!
Action to Implement
Post your reflections & observations in the comments section below ⬇️
🌱 March 2023: (1) Plant seeds to start a kitchen garden indoor or outdoor. (2) share pictures in the comment section below.
Past Months Action to Implement
🌱 February 2023: Research a local environmental group and attend their upcoming meeting
🌱 January 2023: 🌍 Create your personal practices for the 6 fundamental virtues
🌱 December 2022: ✅Do the following:
- Simplify one closet or one drawer in your home every week. Remove items that have not been used in the last 1 year.
- Dispose of unneeded items in a responsible way.
🌱 November 2022: ✅Make a list of the gifts you usually give during the holidays.
🌱 October 2022: This month, add 1 or 2 regional plants from the Xerces Pollinator Conservation website to your landscape!
🌱 September 2022: This month, review the Green Building list & commit to 1 simple and 1 challenging item to implement in your community/center.
🌱 August 2022: This month, read the Prthvi Seva Guide & commit to at least one practice to make your center/community more sustainable.
🌱 July 2022: This month, take a closer look at your travel impacts:
🔢 Estimate the carbon emissions of your mode of travel, lodging, food, and purchases
🙋🏻♀️ Commit to making one change to reduce your carbon footprint
🌱 June 2022: This month, take a closer look and identify your food waste as:
🍌 food prep scraps
🍽️ plate waste (unfinished food)
🤦🏻♀️spoiled or unwanted foo
🌱 May 2022: Implement the following actions.
- Reduce food Packaging.
- Learn about local and seasonal foods.
- Support a local grower & shop at Farmer’s Markets.
🌱 April 2022: Sahasra Vrksha Sankalpa – As a CommUnity, bring your heart and hands to the ground to plant 1000 trees together. Track and share here.
🌱 March 2022: Contribute to the health of our planet and the health of beings by doing the following:
Each day take inventory of what goes in the trash.
Identify the most common item.
Find an alternative that eliminates this waste.
🌱 February 2022: Implement the following and encourage others to follow:
- Unplug chargers when not in use
- Use the ‘Energy Saver’ mode on phones & laptops
- Use cold water for laundry & line dry
🌱 January 2022: Identify 3 actions you do that help the environment and 3 actions that harm it
