Today is Earth Day, so in the spirit of taking an integrated approach to well-being, I’d like to ask you to pause a moment and consider what you’re doing to take care of the Earth and to take care of yourself. And I invite your comments on this thought I’ve been pondering: that the way you take care of Mother Earth can be an analogy for how you take care of yourself.
The good news is that the way I see it, in both the case of taking care of the Earth and taking care of yourself, you need only remember the three R’s: REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE.
REDUCE
When it comes to natural resources, the lesson is simple (and it even rhymes!): reduce your use. Be mindful of these two questions when you’re about to buy something or use something up:
Do I really need this?
Do I need as much of this as I’m about to use?
And if you
need it, be conscious about your consumption. Some examples include seeking products with less packaging; using refillable water bottles instead of “disposable” plastic ones; and how about something less obvious...like using less shampoo! Think about that: in North America alone, there are approximately 350 million people. If every person used just a quarter-size or dime-size amount every time they shampooed, instead of a Toonie<1>-size, think of what that would save in terms of the resources used to make the product and the packaging; the energy to run the factories, and the number of empty bottles in the landfill. Those 350 million daily squirts add up to huge total volumes; so remember that every little bit you save really does count! What about REDUCING when it comes to taking care of yourself? Many of us live at a go-go-go pace, sometimes literally running from one commitment to the next. But what happens to a candle that’s burned at both ends for too long? It quickly burns out. Reduce...by
. You might improve your well-being a notch or two by simply being more realistic in your expectations of how much you can accomplish in a given day,
how much time you’ll need to allow to actually savour what you’re doing.
When it comes to natural resources, reusing translates simply to “don’t be wasteful”. If you can,
before throwing it out (or better yet, recycling it!). Easy as that. For some great ideas on ways you can reuse common household items, see this web page. REUSING in terms of taking care of yourself means
paying attention to what works for you. This applies to everything from time management strategies to relationship skills to relaxation techniques. Rather than reinventing the wheel every day, reuse the strategies, skills and techniques that you know to be tried, tested and true.
: Pertaining to Mother Earth, recycling simply means processing raw materials after one function has served its use, and
it into something altered, to be used in a new form. Plastic bottles can be recycled into fleece jackets, and did you know that recycling aluminum creates 97% less water pollution than producing new metal from ore
<2>
? When it comes to RECYCLING for
well-being, remember that just like the planet itself,
are continually evolving. If something is no longer working for you
– whether that’s a relationship, your career, our even your outlook on life – think about how you can RECYCLE IT. Melt it down to find its core, useful, remaining good elements, and transform it into something new and better. This Earth Day, make a conscious effort about how you tend to your own well-being and to the well-being of the planet, by remembering to
REDUCE
,
REUSE
, AND
RECYCLE
. So to take care of the planet and take care of yourself.....
<1>link provided for my non-Canadian readers who may not know that the “Toonie” is our $2 coin :-)