Baby Steps Towards Sustainable Living

2019 marked the ban of single-use plastics followed by waste segregation at source as a Government initiative in many states. In our gated community in Chennai, we decided to create a task force for the same. The task force was responsible for strategizing the various methods of execution of this Government directive at the community level and individual residents’ level. While waste segregation is one aspect of waste management, the fundamental aspect of it is understanding of the 3 R’s – Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

With sustainability practices gaining the needed attention in recent times to combat the climate change threat, awareness around waste management has increased as well. There are many surveys and articles on the Internet that highlight the volumes of waste that are generated worldwide and the damage that it contributes to the planet Earth. While Government can strategize and launch various initiatives to deal with this menace, it is paramount that we as individuals do our part in implementing them, starting from our own homes. 

How do you Reduce?

Let me share with you what I did (with my spouse’s support) as a lifestyle choice in my home. Any time there is a buying decision being considered, including the weekly grocery list and vegetables for home, the one pivoting point for the buying decision is always #NeedvsWant. This is what drives every buying decision in our home, even the children are now able to use this for their wish list! I wouldn’t categorise us at minimalistic standards, but our moderate buying has been quite effective for at least a few years now, even before the Covid19-induced lockdown initiated this process for many. For us, the lockdown only meant adjusting to the store timings rather than feeling constricted. Here are a few tips on how we achieved this:

• We always have a shopping list and rarely do we deviate from the list. 
• Shopping is never a stress buster. Even if this is true for some, I would urge that, purchase decisions while shopping, should not be under duress (FOMO – Fear of missing out), but a conscious and evaluated decision based on need vs want. Window shopping or moving items an online Wishlist (instead of the shopping cart) can be alternatives, if you are a compulsive shopper, though I would recommend that you work on addressing the root cause of what is stressing you in the first place to remove stress from life rather than going on a shopping spree
• Status symbols were never a motivator for our buying decisions. 
• Indulgent shopping is also something we never subscribed to.

What do we Reuse?

The benefit of reusing can be seen in reduction as well and contributes automatically to cost savings as well. 

• We have had multiple relocations and where we could, we reused our old functional furniture and fixtures with no replacements. 
• We also use the plastic bottles from the kitchen as a makeshift pot for seeds/plants, DIY pencil/pen stands. 
• Old worn clothes get upcycled as wash clothes for cleaning the kitchen counter, tables, fans, appliances, and mirrors. This has helped in reducing the purchase of paper kitchen towels and tissues.
• I make stripes from them that are used as make-shift ropes when needed. It has been a while since I stopped buying ropes and zip-tie to hold things in place. 

How can we Recycle?

As a practice, we have different bins inside our home, and everyone knows what kind of waste goes into which bins. There is one bin just for plastics and one for papers. These are then given to the wastepaper person in exchange for money. Money so earned goes into the kitty of want. When we can save enough to satisfy a specific reasonable want that all of us agree upon, this money is used.  

We also have a wet waste bin that only collects kitchen waste that can be converted into organic compost. 

What do I achieve by doing all this?

The personal satisfaction that I am doing my share to reduce the waste generation and thereby impacting the waste management process positively and contributing to keeping the environment a little less polluted. I also bring ‘cost saving’ due to the reduction and recycling that I have implemented as a practice in my home. With simple reusing methods, I further reduce the generation of waste from my home, thereby doing my bit towards the green revolution. 

Added to all this, we also have a home garden and the water that is removed from our fish tank is used to water the plants thereby recycling water as well. The plants also get natural manure from this water as it is rich with fish excreta. Growing kitchen vegetables as part of our home garden, we also benefit from ‘garden to fork’ produce and enjoy a fresh, tasty meal without the fear of pesticides and chemicals, occasionally.  

I am hoping that as you finish reading this, you have been able to take some practical pointers on what you can implement in your life to develop sustainable practices that will not only benefit the environment but will immensely be satisfying for you personally as well for being a positive contributor to personal and financial well-being as well as the environment.

This post is part of Blogchatter's #CauseAChatter - Environmental Talks

Why Solocation can rejuvenate homemakers?

I have been thinking of going on a vacation by myself (solocation) for a while, but it never materialised until recently. The COVID 19 Pandemic lockdown became a catalyst to this thought and the subsequent Work-from-Home (WFH) and School-from-Home scenarios that reduced my rejuvenating “Me-time” drastically (to be read as NIL). 

My definition of me-time isn’t just reading books, creating or doing stuff that I love doing, but really absolute silence, where I can listen to and feel my own breathing, pick & look at my thoughts without judgment, be aware of everything inside and around me, what they now call being aware, mindful or meditation (No, I do not close my eyes for this, I just stay in the moment and relish it). I love staying still and doing nothing. Over the years, doing this as a regular practice has helped me cope with all the amplified chaos, that my status as trailing spouse (with international relocations) has brought for me on a golden platter (this is a topic for some other time).

There is an interesting scene from a recent Tamil movie - ‘Mookuthi Amman’ which I watched on OTT - where the brother asks his family members what their wishes were and the elder sister (who dons the homemaker responsibilities) very humbly requests ‘I need one day vacation from the kitchen’, was something I was able to correlate with, instantly. I am sure many homemakers would have had this thought in their minds sometime or the other in their lifetime! 

I would blame my socially conditioned thought process for not considering solocations early on in my life. If you are wondering what this means, here I list a few:

• I always feared that the family would suffer if I left my home for a while. 
• I thought I must not take off on my own for my personal pleasure, despite being an advocate of self-care myself for many of the people whom I have impacted in my professional avatar as a wellness and parenting coach.
• Worry about so many ‘what-ifs’ plaguing my mind.
• Being a homemaker was my choice, hence the challenges are mine to deal with.
• I am not the only one facing such circumstances. Why am I acting as though it is just me?

I hope you now get the drift. Considering the pandemic situation, I did not want to travel too far from my home either. So, my #solocation plan was to check-in to a hotel with good amnesties, a 10 min drive from my home. 

I packed my backpack on a Friday morning, finished my lunch with my family, took a cab, and checked in to the hotel at 3 p.m. My Hubby man had booked a room with King size bed and oh boy, was I thankful!

Stepping into the room, the concierge told me that a surprise awaited me. I thought it was my husband’s doing with some surprise, but what I saw was really a heart-warming gesture from the hotel staff. On the writing desk lay a beautiful card, with an amazing message welcoming me for a great and safe solocation. They congratulated me for stepping out of my comfort zone by choosing to travel solo and comforted me with the assurance of safety during the duration of my stay. This hotel – Novotel OMR - won me over that instant (though I already was a great fan of their hospitality, having experienced them in other countries).

That gesture was a big step towards easing the doubts that were rearing their ugly head on my decision to go solo. The rest of my stay during the weekend was pure bliss. The benefits I enjoyed during my stay:

Completely Rested: Sleep early and wake up early and refreshed the entire day – my comfort schedule which I had forgotten since motherhood; changed to, sleep late wake up early, and stay exhausted. Oh… The King-sized luxury bed was quite the comfort and I slept like my husband. (I recently read a quote on my friend’s FB wall – I do not want to sleep like my baby, I wish to sleep like my husband. I am sure you get the drift.)

Stomach full without having to cook: Eat filling meals without having to think about what to cook and then actually cooking them! Being weekend, the breakfast buffet at Novotel was filled with choices including South Indian and North Indian choices. I had my fill all three mornings – Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Oh! And there was Galette (My French colleagues will relate to this dish) too. I felt so stuffed that I skipped lunch. I can still feel the refreshing taste of the breakfast on my taste buds. Their to-order coffee was perfect. Novotel OMR weekend breakfast menu is one of the best.

Experiencing Hospitality: Amazing staff at the restaurant. Always serving with a smile and every happy to oblige any service I requested. Welcoming me every morning with a cheery ‘Good morning’. Enquiring me about my stay and how I was liking the food. I felt like royalty! 

Productive Work Meetings: Yes, I got some office work done too. I was able to get a lot of my writing assignments completed, did some brainstorming for one of the volunteering initiatives, and was also able to catch-up with my old friends over undisturbed phone calls. All this without distractions or disturbances at my home or the doorbell going off every now and then.

Reading: I did get to read a lot on the digital platform. I had also packed a book ‘Teaching through the Heart’ by Meera Ravi which I have been wanting to read for a while now. I missed my reading-for-hours-without-disturbance mode. These two days I was able to do that as well. 

Silence: I had all the silent me-time I could ask for. Doing all the above, I still got this silence, and it helped me in calming myself and come back home with a fresh perspective and a smiling persona that my entire family noticed the change!

On my return on Monday, I had an extended surprise waiting for me at home. 

Lunch was prepared by my Hubby and ready for me to eat. I did not have to come home and immediately resume duties. I had time till dinner for me to take over.

Last but definitely not the least reason to make solocation a normalised event in every household. I got to hear these words from my spouse’s mouth, ‘Now I know how you make things look easy. Two days when I had to hold fort, there were a lot of things I realised were not as easy as I thought they were’.  For example, seems our son rated his morning health drink prepared by his Dad as ‘okay, but needs improvement’. That made him realise how many zillion times I had prepared the same thing, to meet the needs of every individual at home. ‘Though I only did a fraction of things in comparison to what you do daily, I was exhausted by nightfall, both days. I knew being a homemaker was not easy, but I really got a glimpse of how extremely exhausting and difficult it is and for years you never let any of us feel this side of it. You deserve these breaks more often.’

And I have a champion in my son. He said, ‘Amma needs her rest and downtime. She is overworked and less rested. We will all do our chores and pitch in more regularly.’ I do not have to remind them about their home chores (at least not that frequently). The family is more sensitive to my needs, fluctuating moods, and exhaustion. They are now conscious of my office work and hence are more participative in household tasks more. We have family lunches and dinners more frequently where conversations (all kinds) are helping build healthy connection rituals resulting in a secure attachment. These small changes in our family helped the homemaker in me feel valued and that it is now well acknowledged and appreciated by everyone in the family.

My son and spouse are the organisers, sensitive, and emotional characters while I and my daughter are the logical decisive quick thinking and emotionally stronger individuals in the home. She loves pointing out in every possible situation that our family would probably win the award for the ‘maximum stereotypes broken’ category if there was one anyway and feels so much pride and contentment when she states this. 

What more can I ask for? Along with a relaxed and rejuvenated me, I also have a spouse who appreciates what I do much more than before. I think solocations occasionally are beneficial in more than one aspect. I see more of such solocations in my future! I would urge all homemakers (in fact each one in any capacity) also to go ahead and try it out, at least once, if not for anything else, but their personal wellbeing, as part of a self-care practice. 

If you have already had these in your past, would love to hear of your personal experiences as well and understand what other benefits that this can offer (for self and the family as a whole).

This post is part of #CauseAChatter #MentalHealthTalks with Blogchatter.