Today a good friend of mine totally made my day. She Facebooked me to say that she loved my blog (a shock to me, cuz I didn't actually think anyone read it) and that she wants to be doing all of the things that I'm doing, like practicing a spiritual path, growing food, incorporating food consciousness into my diet, etc. This is a huge compliment to me for two reasons: one, I've always wanted to be the type of person to do all those things and she gave me kind of a wake-up call that I really
am becoming that person, and two, this is a girl that *I* happen to think is living the dream. She's totally committed to her salsa dancing and travels all over the place just to
dance (um, hello fun?), and she's volunteering (after an exhausting, lengthy training process) to answer the calls of domestically and sexually abused women. There are going to be times where a woman, on the edge of her sanity, talks to this friend of mine, and gets the courage to go on to the next step. That, to me, is just fucking outstanding.
So, this post is dedicated to her, and to those of you who feel like you just don't 'have the time,' or 'know how' to incorporate these things into your life.
Spirituality
Not everyone's favorite topic: there's too much unknown, and if you're like me (a recovering Catholic), it's pretty hard to break free of what you've been taught and take this journey all by your onesies. Here are some tips that helped me to become a more spiritual person.
1. Forget everything you've been taught. Have a heart-to-heart with yourself about what you believe and what you feel is right. If you're drawn to the teachings of Buddha, start reading up on Buddhism. If you're called by Native American spirituality, start reading up on that. Forget what you've been taught about guilt, or what everyone else has to say about it. Spirituality is a singular path that is different for everyone.
2. Put up an altar. It doesn't have to be anything fancy; it can be a rock on a table. The point of an altar is to make it YOUR personal space, untouched by others in your life, where you can sit and feel closer to the big Mystery. It can be on the end of a bookshelf or you can thrift store a little table to put in the corner. Put things on it that make you feel "spiritual"; for me, those things are usually natural, like feathers, stones, crystals, etc. Maybe it's a photo of the coast, or a handkerchief your grandma gave you before she died. It doesn't matter what's on it; what matters is that you can sit in front of it and "meditate". Sometimes having a candle to light helps you to focus your attention.
3. Use the altar. Spend 10 minutes of your day sitting in front of it, doing one or all of these things:
1 - Be grateful. If you're not comfortable saying "Thank you" to anyOne in particular, that's okay. Focus on the things for which you are grateful: shelter, safety, unconditional love, food, clean water. The raise you just got. Your dog's cute way of snuggling up to you. Just BE grateful.
2 - "Meditate." I use quotations because meditating is different for everyone. Some people have luck with guided meditation CDs (they're GREAT for beginners!). Some people sit with a journal and write or doodle. I like to listen to the sounds of a thunderstorm and empty all the junk out of my head. The point is to clear yourself out for 10 minutes, because when you've emptied out some of your crap, you are then able to RECEIVE. Which, really, is the point of meditation. Maybe you just receive peace and quiet for 10 minutes. Maybe you receive the answer to a question you've been asking yourself. Maybe you receive the lyrics to a song you couldn't recall yesterday. Maybe you receive the realization that you forgot to pay your phone bill. It doesn't matter, because the more you do it, the better you'll get, and the more you'll receive.
3 - Reflect on the things you have on your altar. How do they make you feel? Why are they there? What do they do for your sense of understanding all the great mysteries out there? If you're a journaling type, write this stuff down.
4. Volunteer. A lot of people say, "I don't have the time." That's a lie. If you have time to watch an episode or two of Lost, then you have time to volunteer. Pick something you're passionate about. If you believe in equal rights, volunteer for an equal rights group. If you want to mentor a child, become a Big Brother or Big Sister. Walk dogs at the local shelter. How is this spiritual? Because when you give of yourself to help other living things, you are causing positive waves in the ocean of consciousness. It doesn't matter if you only positively affect one person; making the decision to sacrifice your personal time to help other people is telling the universe that you have enough love and time to pass around.
5. Make a treasure map. It's EASY. Put a photo of yourself that you like in the middle of a piece of cardboard, paper, foamcore, etc. Then draw a circle halfway between your photo and the edge of said cardboard. The inside of the circle is your physical reality, the outside of the circle is your spiritual life. Start placing things that you want to see happen in your life inside these circles. Cut up magazines, print things off the internet, type or handwrite them, and glue them in their respective places. If you want to start a garden, use photos of abundant harvests and green plants. If you want to be more spiritual, write the word "answers" in your spirit circle. Use symbols that make you think of being a more spiritual person (prayer flags, the lotus flower, a white buffalo, etc). When you're satisfied, hang it up somewhere that you will look at it every day - then be sure to look at it every day.
The Law of Attraction says that the more we think about something and talk about something, the more likely that thing will happen. Looking at a treasure map every day puts the images in your head of the things you want to happen. My last treasure map had a photo of me and my girlfriend over the state of Oregon, with images of harvests, beads, and Native American symbols. I now live with her in Oregon, bead for a hobby, grow our own food, and study with a Native American elder. If you have trouble believing in something as amorphous as the Law of Attraction, then just forget it. Look at your treasure map as a fun collage project but do it anyway. (If you want more tips on this just shoot me a comment, I'd be happy to help.)
The point is that there are small things you can do every day to become more spiritual; it doesn't mean you have to go find a church or dedicate your life to religious inquiry. Make the decision to be more spiritual, and it will come. Intend to be more spiritual, and it will happen. Giving of yourself will help to open your heart, and once you start making the effort to live your life from a place of love, spiritual awareness will come naturally.
Plants
1. Plants are the easiest way to incorporate living things into your space. All they need is some sunlight and a little water. It takes more effort to read your mail than to care for a house plant. Do a little research: if you think you have a black thumb, get yourself something hard to kill like a spider plant (no spiders involved). Plants that aren't terribly picky about sunlight and water are the easiest to start with. Succulents and cactus are some of my favorites because they come in about 8 million shapes and I only have to water them on the weekends. Having plants in every room not only can freshen the air you're breathing, but it will bring you happiness and good juju. I have over 20 houseplants, including bamboo, a ficus, a rubber tree plant, a dozen different succulents and cactus, and some big gangly purple thing that's going to soon take over the living room. As crazy as it sounds, they're kind of like friends to me; I care for them, and they give me a little indoor forest to live in. You can get easy-to-care for plants from Home Depot (in fact, every time I go there I come back with a new plant). Another fun thing about plants like spider plants and succulents, too, is that they're really easy to divide/propagate and give away to loved ones as gifts.
2. Now, you're going to have to bear with me on this next part because food consciousness is a very near and dear issue to my heart. If you want to experiment with growing food, that also is pretty easy. All you have to do is pick a couple of plants you want to grow and provide the right conditions for them. You can grow spinach and lettuce in your window sill. Use compost and sandy soil and water them every other day. (They may not be particularly exciting items, but I *love* the feeling of grabbing a fresh leaf of lettuce for my sandwich, as opposed to that bag full of rotting spinach in the fridge that I can never use in time.) Tomatoes can be grown on a porch. Use compost and water often. Live in an apartment? Try growing container vegetables on landings or steps. Ask your renter if you can plant a small community garden somewhere on the property. This builds community and gives you nearly-free food.
3. If you can't grow your own food, find your local farmers. They'll be at the farmers' market in the summer, but I can almost guarantee you they'll still have things for sale during the winter. My local farmer sells eggs, potatoes, and onions all winter long. Okay, so it's only eggs and root crops, but it's fresh, organic, and I get to support a small farmer instead of the grocery store (who has had their eggs in storage for a month before YOU get to them. No, really.). Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs are great ways to support a farmer all summer long too. They are a lot of money up front, but when you think about how much food you get, it's a great deal. You're also ensuring that the farmer can keep doing what he's doing next year. Another awesome thing to do is volunteer for your local farmers. Call them up and ask if they need volunteer help (usually in spring and summer) with tilling, harvesting, planting, etc. Because farmers are not rich and they have a shit ton of work to do, many of them are keen on having volunteers. So you can actually farm without having a farm. Besides that, most farmers will give you vegetables as "payment," or the like. My local farmer feeds us a huge lunch (that his wife makes with their harvested foods) AND lets us take home veggies. So for a few hours of volunteering you get a free meal and free food to take home. Sweet deal!
4. If you're still at a loss, make a conscious commitment to choose one item that you will only buy organic or local. I'm saying this because when I was making only $10 an hour (before taxes, that is), I did some research on milk production. What I found horrified me. Cows are crammed into lots, given antibiotics to keep them from getting sick (notice how I didn't say "to keep them healthy"), given hormones to keep them producing milk, and are sometimes fed crap they can hardly digest. Many times their calves are taken away from them too early, causing both the parent and the calf distress. I realized that was an awful lot of negativity going into my body every time I drank milk, so I made the decision to only buy organic milk. It's expensive and you have to do some research to pick a brand that you support, but it was one small thing I could do to support farmers that refused to pump their cows with hormones and antibiotics unnecessarily. Eggs are equally as bad: chickens are often kept in cages so small they can't turn around, subjected to entirely too much artificial light to keep them producing year-round, and have their beaks cut off to keep from attacking the bird in the cage next door. So I only buy my local farmer's eggs and if I can't do that, I make damn sure to buy organic ones because the laws for organic labeling require more humane treatment of the animal. (Legislation isn't perfect yet, but it's a step in the right direction.)
The point is, you don't have to revolutionize your entire diet to make an impact. Choose one or two things and commit to spending the extra money on them. Remember that it's extra money you're spending towards your own health. For a good year or two, I had to stick with just the organic milk. Then I moved on to the eggs. From there I started learning about how easy it is to eat healthy. What you'll soon find is that it gets easier to incorporate the healthy, organic stuff into your grocery list because it feels right to do so. Also, giving up things you don't really need makes room in your budget. (Giving up Cheez-Its was not easy for me...but I persevered.) An awesome book I recommend is "The Healing Kitchen," by Ellen Michaud. That book was a great beginner guide to learning about what foods help your body in what ways.
5. Eating seasonally is helpful too. In the winter, focus your diet on potatoes, beans, squashes, onions, nuts, dried fruits, beans, and the like. These are vegetables that are easier to grow in the colder months (or easy to store for a long time) and so are more readily available than that tomato flown in from Chile. Lower the amount of meat you eat; meat is expensive and you shouldn't be eating a ton of it anyway. We're omnivores and we benefit from a good mix of all types of food. In the summer, switch it up to tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and seasonal fruit. Don't make a habit of buying blueberries in December from Mexico. Buy them in June from a local farm when they are so outrageously delicious that you'll never want to eat them any other way. Buy extra and freeze them for the winter months so you have fruit available to you in the winter. The same goes for other veggies. Make fruit vinegars with extra leftovers and drink it throughout the winter. I LOVE doing this! Eating seasonally is a challenge but it's a fun one to take on with a partner: winter involves a lot of stews, chowders, and soups and it takes a little more creativity to keep it interesting. But when summer comes, and you get the first taste of a ripe tomato... there is really nothing like it. You get a glimpse of what our ancestors felt like when they survived the winter and got their hot little hands on those first fresh foods of the spring.
6. Another fun way to get involved with your food is to make things that you would normally buy. It takes a lot less time than you think and the recipes are easy. Three things that I love to make myself are pasta sauce, hummus, and apple sauce. These three things, if you haven't noticed, are really expensive and are usually full of preservatives and other synthetic crapola. You can make a gallon of any of these things for like $5, freeze your leftovers or give them away, and voila! You are less reliant on manufacturers. Pasta sauce can be used on pasta (duh), pizzas, chicken, etc. Hummus can be a dip or go on your sandwiches. Apple sauce can be used as a substitute for oil in a lot of baking recipes, eaten as a dessert, and, my personal favorite, packaged up in Ball jars with a pretty ribbon and given away to friends and family. I'll include some recipes in my next post.
Positive vs. Negative
This sounds like a no-brainer, but as it turns out, the average Joe has an awful lot of negativity in his life. I made the conscious choice to start taking negativity out of my life and my life has changed drastically for the better.
1. Tell Negative Nancy to hit the road. We all have friends who suck the life out of us with their complaints and wahs and woe-is-mes. Now if you're a normal human being, you can't just say "Ok, I'm done with your crap, beat it." That's okay. What you have to do is start reclaiming yourself. When Nancy calls to whine about how hard her life is, instead of indulging her, change the subject. If you're not particularly attached to Nancy, phase her out of your life. This is NOT easy, and it will NOT make Nancy happy, but chances are that Nancy clings to you because you listen to her BS - not because she thinks you're a particularly outstanding individual. It's one of the hardest things to do, but phasing out negative people makes a huge difference in the quality of your life.
2. Stop watching the damn news. It's full of fear-mongering and negativity. Besides, is it really benefitting you to know that a man in Southern California raped and killed his wife? No, it isn't. So stop subjecting yourself to it, because it is subconsciously affecting you in a negative way.
3. If you can't stop watching the news, don't watch it while you eat. I don't have any scientific evidence to back this up, but I really believe that doing something negative while you eat somehow makes your food negatively affect your body. Okay, now that I wrote that all out it sounds crazy, but trust me on this. Don't watch the news, don't have a bitch fest with your mom, don't argue with your partner while you're eating. I like watching Everybody Loves Raymond while I eat because I laugh the whole time. In fact, make the choice to watch more funny movies, or whatever you need to laugh more.
4. Buy into all that hippie crap. Spreading love and filling your personal space with love is going to make you a happier, healthier person. Give a homeless guy five bucks, and choose not to care what he does with it. Let someone pull out in front of you when traffic is bad. Give a stranger a compliment. Tell your brain to stop complaining about traffic, that bitchy woman in line, what your mother said about your new shoes, the fact that your boyfriend STILL can't seem to do the dishes on his own. So many people can do this yet choose not to. The thing is, you can spread positivity in your own life with terribly little effort, and, by the Law of Attraction (or karma, if you're more comfortable with that), you will get it back. Besides getting it back, it will just make you feel damn good. Negativity will eat your soul and you'll never get it back if you don't make conscious decisions to live a positive life.
Okay, so that's a lot to throw at you, but I want to make the point that living a better lifestyle starts with very small changes. Sometimes they have to be spaced out as your time budget and financial budget permit, but this magical thing happens when you're not paying attention; one small change turns into two small changes, which turns into four small changes, and before you know it, you're living a totally different life than you were a year ago. Plus, once you try one or two of these things, you'll see that some of the others fall into place naturally. They're all connected. You'll be living a life that's dedicated to health and happiness. And, really, who could ask for more than that?
