Make time for those closest to you. Be kind. Forgive. Give thanks. Let’s add one more…smile often. There you have it. The secret to the fountain of youth. Do you have one you’d like to share?
From our friends at Living Green Magazine
Experts say that the most successful New Year’s resolutions are those where an action is practiced regularly to achieve an important goal. What could be a more important resolution than to make your life (even) greener and reduce your impact on the environment.
Here are six simple actions you can take for a greener 2012.
Educate yourself about the environmental concerns important to you. Pick one environmental topic you want to know more about (climate change, renewable energy, organic food, etc.), and make a commitment to educate yourself about that topic. Start reading books on the subject that you find at your local library, or go to your local bookseller for books. Search for nonprofit organizations and green news sites that provide information on your topic.
Use your knowledge to get involved. Contact your elected officials when an environmental issue will affect you or your community. Join the local chapter of a nonprofit organization that works on your area of concern and help them be successful.
Eat healthy, with less meat and sugar, and more fruits and vegetables. I’m not just talking about the usual January resolutions to lose weight. I’m talking about developing new healthy habits and eating more vegetarian. Have you tried meatless days, using beans and rice for your protein? How can you add more fruits and veggies to your meals?
Reducing your meat consumption has a positive effect on the environment, and for the animals too. Livestock production accounts for nearly 20 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and about 25 percent of all global water used in agriculture. Websites such as Meatless Monday and Eating Well offer numerous vegetarian recipes that are healthy for you and the environment. (To see some of our recent vegetarian articles and recipes, visit LG’s Food & Health Section.)
Go on a low-carbon diet and cut your energy use. We each have to take personal responsibility for the energy we use each day—and the estimated 20 tons per year of carbon dioxide we generate daily. Replacing your light bulbs is a start. Rethink the use of your car(s), make public transportation more of a daily feature in your life, and walk whenever possible. Insulate and caulk your home to cut heating and cooling bills, and turn out the lights around your home and business.
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OK, we know that American women buy 85% of the products on the planet, and we know we’re the keepers of the home and hearth, so why in the world are we buying so many products laden with toxic chemicals? Why are we voluntarily bringing them into our homes? This is a big disconnect for me. So I asked my guest, Margaret McAllister, an advertising creative director with a specialty in marketing green to women, this question.
“The most important thing we, as marketers, can do is to educate women about what they’re buying, why they’re buying it, and to relate those products to her specific life,” she said in this podcast. “If you really want to bring the message home to women, show them something that she specifically cares about. And there’s probably nothing more precious to her than her children.” I would agree. This self-professed cultural anthropologist shares with me more down-to-earth insights like this in this interview. If this topic intrigues you as much as it does me, listen in and, most importantly, join in the conversation. Love to get your take on this.
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According to a new meta-analysis (integration of a large number of studies on the same subject), leadership continues to be viewed as culturally masculine and therefore women suffer from two primary forms of prejudice.
Alice Eagly, study co-author and professor of psychology at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, the US, the journal Psychological Bulletin says, “Cultural stereotypes can make it seem that women do not have what it takes for important leadership roles, thereby adding to the barriers that women encounter in attaining roles that yield substantial power and authority.”
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The tables were turned in this show. Mrs Green interviews Women Of Green founder, Carolyn Parrs about how Women Of Green was born and the collective power of women to change the world. No small topic. Listen to this lively interview on Mrs Green’s World Radio.
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“We have come to the stage where the real work of humanity begins,” says scholar, philosopher and visionary, Jean Houston. “We’re in the great ‘either/or’ of history. Either we really blow it the next 20, 30, 40 years, and stay on the same path of same ol’ same ol’, or we consciously decide to rise to the challenges, the greatest challenge in human history. Other people thought they were ‘it’. They’re wrong. This is the most critical time in history.” This is how my interview with Jean begins. Boy, am I in for a ride, I think to myself. “And critical to the turning are women,” she punctuates. I’m speechless.
There are no words to describe the power, intelligence and heart of this cultural icon. When you are in her presence, every cell in you becomes alive. It’s like they begin vibrating at a different frequency. Jean seems to know what you need to know and speaks to it, without you even saying a word. So, make yourself a nice cup of tea, turn off the cell phone, and listen to the words of this wise woman giving us a glimpse of where we’re headed next.
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When I was little, I lived on a hill. One of the great joys of summer was rolling down our fresh-cut lawn until I was dizzy. And each summer like clockwork I would break out in a rash all over my body. Little red bumps would emerge on my arms and legs. Back then, no one knew about chemical reactions from lawn care products. But that was exactly what was happening. Thankfully, we’re way more aware of the pesticide load on our kids, but still we spread that white powdery blanket over our lawns to keep them “nice and green and dandelion-free”. I wish there were more films like A Chemical Reaction to wake us up to the toxins seeping into children. Watch this trailer and see how a whole town dared to stand up to the big chemical companies, and changed the world for the better.
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Birute Regine, EdD is the author of “Iron Butterflies: Women Transforming Themselves and the World.” She previously co-authored the critically acclaimed “The Soul at Work: Embracing Complexity Science for Business Success” with her husband, noted science writer Roger Lewin. She earned her doctorate in human development at Harvard and has spent 25 years as a psychologist in private practice and now works as an executive / life coach, facilitator, speaker and author.
I was having dinner with a friend, a very successful consultant, whom I hadn’t seen for quite a while. As we munched on a Caesar salad, I talked about my research on successful women. “I asked myself, what did these women, from many walks of life, share in common?” I told my friend. “What I discovered really surprised me. And because it surprised me, I knew I could trust this finding. A secret to these women’s success, I realized, had to do with how they dealt with vulnerability, their own and others’. They were able to transform vulnerabilities into strengths.” My friend leaned back in his chair and said, “You better not use that word with leaders. No leader wants to talk about vulnerability! They won’t go there.”
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Ever visit a landfill? It ain’t pretty. Most of the debris of humanity ends up there. Bottles. Tires. Plastic. Old newspapers that you were suppose to recycle. Well, this month you have a chance to redeem yourself. July is “Waste Less” month and Women Of Green is participating in the GOOD Challenge. A month-long effort to lighten your load (and Mother Earth’s) in any way you can. Here are some ideas to get you started.
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For me, hands down, the biggest “going green” motivator was having a baby. From the moment I found out that I was pregnant, I watched what I put in my mouth like a hawk. Not to say that I didn’t cheat now and then – sneaking a really greasy French fry when no one was looking, but basically I knew whatever I put in my body, I put in my baby.
At that time, “going green” wasn’t the rage it is today, so I didn’t have all the resources parents have at their fingertips now. That’s good news for parents. I think the challenge today is how NOT to get overwhelmed by it all. Here to help parents with that is Manda Aufochs Gillespie otherwise known as The Green Mama. She is the creator of TheGreenMama.com in Vancouver, Canada. A resource to inspire greener living for mamas and papas. She has put together the ten most effective green parenting habits for 2011. Listen up and see where you stand.
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