Project GreenLiving!

Hi all,

   At times, I wonder if I'm doing justice to my blog name and purpose when I talk about recycling and reuse. So, I'm tempted to give an explanation without anyone having asked for it. This blog rests on two goals of mine - 

1. good health through largely natural means, home remedies and lifestyle changes

2. greener, eco-friendly living that contributes to the health of our earth and our environment and indirectly to us.

The first goal is a narrow one focusing on home. The second one is a larger one which encompasses the whole world and how I can contribute to the world.

   Having said that, I'll move on to the next idea I have in mind. The last few months have been really chaotic with the birth of my second child AM and I've kind of wavered from my goals and compromised for the sake of convenience at times. Yes, I used about 5 or 6 packs of diapers for AM and contributed to the landfill. After chiding ourselves over this lack of eco-consciousness, my hubby dear HD and I decided to go for cloth diapers. A few days back I came across a facebook group Re-use Sandhai (Here's my post on it). One lead to the other and I joined another group zerowastehome of the same Preethi Sukumaran and that set things rolling. With a renewed interest, I've decided to work on not only zero waste in my home but also zero toxins in my home. Having said that, it is not going to be easy because I live in an apartment. That will be the fun part of it. And I shall log all the changes that I'm make/decide to make/fail to implement  & the compromises that I make in the process. Let me call it "Project GreenLiving". Any updates or decision on Project GreenLiving will be posted here.

As a first step, I kept aside the remaining diapers and nappy pads of AM and put on the cloth diaper which we bought a few days back. I shall do a post on cloth diapers soon. I took out the cloth nappies. I decided to use the cloth nappies when AM is awake and the cloth diapers when he sleeps so that wetting it does not wake him up. 

Next in line is to set up a composting system for my plants so that  the organic waste can go into it.

Happy Green Living!

Meditation - the Eknath Eswaran way!

Hi all readers,
    We all know that meditation is good for us. We have all tried it at some point or the other. Some of us have had tremendous success and continue to meditate everyday; some of us had success, but do not find the time to meditate or dropped it along the way in the hustle bustle of daily life; some of us could not keep our eyes closed even for a few minutes. But, the fact remains that meditation is good for our health.
  
   If you're one of those people who would like to meditate, but find it difficult to do so, try the Eknath Eswaran way of meditating. Dear H bought his book on meditation couple of years back. You can see excerpts on passage meditation from his book and learn to meditate or choose to buy his book Meditation: Commonsense Directions for an Uncommon Life. A simple eight-point program guiding us to alter our way of life. The eight point program is as below.

1. Passage meditation
2. Repetition of a mantram
3. Slowing down
4. One-pointed attention
5. Training the senses
6. Putting others first
7. Spiritual fellowship
8. Spiritual reading

   Written in a very simple and lucid style, it is such a pleasure to read. Some books on meditation could be too heavy and leave us drained, but this is not so. I just love the third and fourth chapters. I keep going back to this book when I'm troubled. Do try it and let me know if it has made your spiritual learning better.

Happy meditating!

Reuse recycle ...or freecycle at Re-use Sandhai

Dear readers,

   After a hiatus due to the birth of my second child, I'm getting back to blogging. What best to write about than the recent facebook groups that I joined? After seeing a writeup in the newspaper, I looked up the facebook groups Re-use Sandhai. It is a great initiative and currently works largely in Chennai. A group dedicated to re-using, re-cycling and up-cycling goods to help spread awareness and encourage Sustainable Consumption.
   If you have some goods, say furniture/books/anything that is of not much use for you, but could be used by others, post them. Posting is simple. Put up photographs, write about the features, expected price, pick-up point etc... That's it. Love this group. Good job Preethi Sukumaran!

  Similar groups exist in other cities too. Do check them out! It is a wonderful way to promote recycling and reuse.

Happy recycling...