This weekend saw the start of National Downshifting Week to inspire everyone to slow down, lead a simpler life, be kinder to the environment and unleash your inner tortoise!
There's a great free ebook on Downshifting - Slow Down & Green Up available from the Holistic Local site, which contains a top ten of simple suggestions.
Here are some of mine:
1. Analyse your time and finance budget. Both subjects close to my heart and both things that we always think we don't have enough of.
2. Donate a bag of clothes, toys etc. to charity, recycling or freecycle. How much 'stuff' do you have that you never use.
3. Eliminate 3 non-essential purchases. Check your statements - what's there that you no longer use (e.g. subscriptions), what don't you really need.
4. Start a compost heap. Recycle all your kitchen and garden waste and create something wonderful out of rubbish. Grow something in your garden or in a pot that you can eat. Tomatoes are easy.
5. Replace your light bulbs with low energy equivalents and not only help the environment but reduce your energy bills.
6. Switch off your TV, Hi-Fi, computer. Don't leave them on standby - you're still using electricity. It's a waste both environmentally and financially.
7. Reduce your rubbish this week. Avoid buying anything with unnecessary packaging and recycle everything you can - glass, paper, tin, plastic, cardboard. If you don't already, sign-up with your green box/recycling scheme if your local council runs one.
You can find out more about Downshifting Week here .
So this week - see what you can do to slow down and green up your life.
Time management solutions for busy people - organise your business, your life and have fun.
Increase Your Activity
How many of you started this year with huge enthusiasm, to get fit, lose weight and join a gym?
How many of you have achieved your target after four months - lost weight, got fit and are STILL going to the gym regularly?! Mmmm. What happened? I bet you got bored or lost your motivation.
I was talking to a client yesterday about getting fit and healthy. Exercise without a sense of purpose quickly creates boredom - especially for them. However, creating additional activity in every day by changing the way you do things, seems more purposeful and enables you to increase your daily activity without the need to join a gym, pounding the treadmill and pumping weights. Something which rapidly turns people off exercising regularly, to say nothing of wasting the monthly membership fee.
Today, for the first time - I cycled to my local supermarket. It's not the one I usually use but it took me all of three minutes and probably would have taken at least double that if I'd driven, because it's probably twice as far going along the road. OK, I could only buy as much as I could fit in my rucksack but it saved a short distance car journey, gave me a a few minutes of exercise and carrying 8-9kg (18-19lbs) of shopping back home made it that much harder work. It gave me a sense of what it would be like to be that much overweight! Phew - imagine carrying THAT much extra weight around ALL the time!
I'd already cycled down the road earlier this week for a business meeting and cycled to the doctors. I walk to the post box - five minutes down the road or walk or cycle to the post office. I regularly walk up to the local shop - ten minutes through the park.
How could you change your daily routine to increase your overall activity?
How many of you have achieved your target after four months - lost weight, got fit and are STILL going to the gym regularly?! Mmmm. What happened? I bet you got bored or lost your motivation.
I was talking to a client yesterday about getting fit and healthy. Exercise without a sense of purpose quickly creates boredom - especially for them. However, creating additional activity in every day by changing the way you do things, seems more purposeful and enables you to increase your daily activity without the need to join a gym, pounding the treadmill and pumping weights. Something which rapidly turns people off exercising regularly, to say nothing of wasting the monthly membership fee.
Today, for the first time - I cycled to my local supermarket. It's not the one I usually use but it took me all of three minutes and probably would have taken at least double that if I'd driven, because it's probably twice as far going along the road. OK, I could only buy as much as I could fit in my rucksack but it saved a short distance car journey, gave me a a few minutes of exercise and carrying 8-9kg (18-19lbs) of shopping back home made it that much harder work. It gave me a sense of what it would be like to be that much overweight! Phew - imagine carrying THAT much extra weight around ALL the time!
I'd already cycled down the road earlier this week for a business meeting and cycled to the doctors. I walk to the post box - five minutes down the road or walk or cycle to the post office. I regularly walk up to the local shop - ten minutes through the park.
How could you change your daily routine to increase your overall activity?
Where's The Traffic
I've just returned from a meeting out of town and the roads on the way back were practically deserted. OK, not entirely but everyone has gone away for the weekend to there was a lot less traffic around.
According to the radio they're all sitting on either the M6, M4, M25 or some other motorway going away for the Easter weekend. So much for getting away to relax and unwind when they then spend six hours sitting in traffic going nowhere, getting, frustrated and fractious and that's just the parents. How do you keep a child entertained over a long distance journey or when you're stuck in traffic for hours on end?
I make a point of not going anywhere over a holiday weekend unless I can get away earlier in the week to avoid the traffic jams as everyone rushes to get away after work.
www.commuter-assist.com
According to the radio they're all sitting on either the M6, M4, M25 or some other motorway going away for the Easter weekend. So much for getting away to relax and unwind when they then spend six hours sitting in traffic going nowhere, getting, frustrated and fractious and that's just the parents. How do you keep a child entertained over a long distance journey or when you're stuck in traffic for hours on end?
I make a point of not going anywhere over a holiday weekend unless I can get away earlier in the week to avoid the traffic jams as everyone rushes to get away after work.
www.commuter-assist.com
First swallow
Hey, I've just seen my first swallow! Just a glimpse as it flew over the top of the houses so I guess it's one of the early ones. Living here on the coast you see quite a lot of bird migrations in Spring and Autumn which I guess probably pass most people by as they go about their daily grind.
I sat on the seafront about a month ago and watched flocks of geese (I think they were Brent) flying up along the coast. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, quite cold but another sign of the changing season as the winter birds fly off to be replaced over the next few weeks by the summer migrants. There's been a blackbird signing it's head off for the last few days in the garden, at all times of day - from early morning until late in the evening as it gets dark.
A bit of a nature note today but I think nature has a lot to teach us if we just take the time to look and learn.
I sat on the seafront about a month ago and watched flocks of geese (I think they were Brent) flying up along the coast. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, quite cold but another sign of the changing season as the winter birds fly off to be replaced over the next few weeks by the summer migrants. There's been a blackbird signing it's head off for the last few days in the garden, at all times of day - from early morning until late in the evening as it gets dark.
A bit of a nature note today but I think nature has a lot to teach us if we just take the time to look and learn.
What's In Your Rubbish?
Today is rubbish day and today I actually have nothing to put out for collection. Even when I do it's only ever a bag's worth and that's a 'carrier' bags worth not a full black rubbish bin bag's worth.
OK, I'm not a family of four, so I probably create a lot less rubbish anyway but I follow the Reduce Reuse Recycle philosphy.
OK, I'm not a family of four, so I probably create a lot less rubbish anyway but I follow the Reduce Reuse Recycle philosphy.
- Reduce - the packaging you buy in the first place. Buy produce loose. Don't buy processed food which relies on packaging. Buy packaging that CAN be recycled. Build a compost heap.
- Reuse - carrier bags, cartons, jars, paper.
- Recycle - glass, paper, plastic, cardboard, clothes etc. Recycle unwanted goods to charities, car-boots etc. Sign up with the Mailing Preference Service (in the UK) to reduce junk mail.
I don't eat a lot of pre-packaged food, that reduces the waste. I have kerbside collection so that deals with all my glass, paper, plastic and tin cans. There's a cardboard recycling point just down the road and I have two large compost bins in which I place all the kitchen vegetable waste from my regular juicing. Even the pulp from that gets recycled into soup - at least at this time of year.
Think about what you buy and think about what you throw away. It's just shear wastefulness in most cases.
Take some action and reduce your own waste. You'll improve your wallet too!
First day of Spring?
April the first. It must definitely be the first day of spring now. It certainly seems that way. A wonderfully sunny day with the birds singing their heads off and definitely in mating mood. The blackbirds have been having a tussle in the garden. Buds are breaking out all over and after all, it is now April so it should be springtime. The cycle of life starting all over again. I've dug out my packs of seeds and should be able to start planting them outside soon.
I spent a pleasant couple of hours sitting out in the sunshine with the paper. Something you'll have greater opportunity to do as the days get longer and the weather heads towards summer. Sunshine is good for the soul and helps to boost the mood, as I've mentioned here previously. So, make the most of it when you can.
Now that the evenings are getting lighter - there's a good opportunity to get out for a walk, run or cycle in the evening after work. Use it as time to relax and unwind after a hard days at work.
I spent a pleasant couple of hours sitting out in the sunshine with the paper. Something you'll have greater opportunity to do as the days get longer and the weather heads towards summer. Sunshine is good for the soul and helps to boost the mood, as I've mentioned here previously. So, make the most of it when you can.
Now that the evenings are getting lighter - there's a good opportunity to get out for a walk, run or cycle in the evening after work. Use it as time to relax and unwind after a hard days at work.
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