I've had this idea for awhile, and it's not exactly a project of the physical variety. It isn't something one can just create with their hands and be done. It is a life long decision. It is a way of life, a way of looking at the world.
The idea, this magical idea, is -
Being kind because it is right.
In most religions, it is taught to fear being anything but kind. If you are not kind, the devil gets your soul for all of eternity. You will live a life of eternal discomfort in the after-world, or maybe you'll come back as some unpleasant, unfortunate creature.
In most religions, you are threatened into being kind or making kind decisions.
In my mind, this seems strange. After all, are you really a kind person if you are only doing kind acts out of fear or greed?
The whole idea of being kind just to get "good karma" in a way seems to render it pointless as you are doing your kind acts with selfish intentions. By being kind for the simple reason that it is right removes the need to threaten your children, your friends, your family or your neighbours with silly things such as the devil.
See also:
Gods wrath.
Eternal Damnation.
Being sent back to earth as a loathed bug.
It is scaremongering and doesn't encourage good feelings.
Now being kind isn't always easy, I certainly still have difficulty with it.
Sometimes it is as if some people aren't even people, thus don't deserve kindness.
See also:
Your cruel boss.
Your nasty co-worker.
Your soulless in-law.
The unpleasant stranger that acted unkindly towards you.
The person in your life you know who continues to do mean things to you.
But reminding yourself (Verbally - out loud or in your mind) that they are human as well, does help.
Remind yourself that the unpleasant things they do are just reactions to things happening in their life.
The whole "Every action has a reaction" kind of comes in here. The good old butterfly effect, working at it's best. Every person in the worlds actions are reactions.
To you, it might seem like they are out to get you, when in reality they are just venting their anger and frustration. When you understand this, it is a lot easier to deal with them.
Instead of taking on their anger and becoming angry yourself (bound to then share your fresh new anger with someone, spreading it like an H1N1 virus), acknowledge their anger and put it aside. DO NOT TAKE IT ON. This is not your battle, it is not your problem. Step back, be kind with your words and once the person has moved on, move on too.
You can stop the cycle, this virus, this chain of anger. Just remember, everyone is human, reacting to actions that were reactions to actions.
I'm still learning and practising as well. This is a life long journey. I might not be able to reach the top of my destination over night, but I can at least take small steps towards it.
Be kind with your words, be kind with your hands and be kind with your minds.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Amongst The Cold Snap: Blossoming Signs of Spring
Not only are the beautifully amazing and daring bulbs, bushes and trees in my front yard flowering, but I also got a delivery in the mail. A delivery that arrived in a Greenpac envelop made from recycled paper, which was 100% recyclable. Inside this green envelope was threads made from organic, fair-trade cotton. Beautiful, soft, organic cotton T-shirts and an organic cotton hoodie. My little shopping spree at the Kowtow website while they had their winter end-of-season sale, has finally arrived. And I only had to wait a few days. Something that satisfied the impatient side of me.
(Just to point out the sign was separate, a friend of mine at Epic Engraving (Auckland) made it for me since I'm sick of religious doomsday-preachers knocking on my door and upsetting my dogs)
I can't really express my gratitude and adoration for the Kowtow brand. The work that they do is amazing. Their designs are beautiful and the fabric is so lovely to the touch.
I am greatly looking forward to seeing their new season designs and I will undoubtedly blog about it when I do.
The T-shirts are gorgeous, and I particularly like the "Eat& Work& Sleep& Consume" Tee.
The hoodie is unfortunately a tad bit tight under the arms and I now wish I'd ordered a 14 but oh well, you learn these things. It is unfortunately the downside of buying online.
Organic/fair-trade clothing and recycled/second hand clothing is how I want to shop this summer, and probably for the rest of my life.
I love spring and it's little deliveries and changes. I'm looking forward to change, to sunshine and to cheerful fashion like summer dresses in soft pastel tones and floral scarves.
As the days get longer, even if they are colder right now during our current cold snap here in New Zealand, I can feel it giving new inspiration and energy to my mind. I have so many new projects that I want to dive right into. I want to renovate the house me and my partner live in. I want to go visit Global Fabrics and check out their organic cotton fabric range. I want to find some beautiful summer dress designs so that I can make some of my own organic clothing for summer. I want to learn to make crochet lace so that I can incorporate some into these dresses somehow, since I adore crochet lace. I even want to give Cloth toilet paper a go... Because I am becoming that much of a hippy.
I am starting a course at the local Unitec, to learn how to study so that I can move onto a foundation course in Psychology next year and move on from my retail job.
(Sigh) Spring is on its way and I feel like my soul is waking up again after hibernating for the grey, dark months of winter. I can't wait for summer and sunshine.
Sunday, 7 August 2011
You affect your world
Sometimes our hands can seem small and useless. Our opinions and beliefs seem frivolous. Our attempts at bettering ourselves, pointless when so many continue living in careless ways.
It is so easy to believe that we are small and insignificant, that we cannot control the masses - And it's true, to a degree, we can't control others.
What we can control however, is ourselves. We can choose whether we create great things with out hands, voices, minds and harbour kind beliefs, or we can let ourselves slouch into the lazy existence of consumerism and carelessness.
In our lives, we have the power to greatly effect the people around us, by our behaviour, our emotions and our words.
Humans are observant creatures. Even if we don't always know it, we are always observing. Forever reading body language, tones of voice, eye movement, all the small lines and creases on our companions faces, trying to read them, understand them, find out if we can trust them.
And how we react or behave towards others can shift them onto a course that is unpleasant or positive.
And it isn't just the big things that can do this, either.
In example:
I work in retail and I deal with dozens of people ever day. Every time I face a new customer I have a lot of options. I can either be kind and compassionate, helpful and service their needs, or I could be rude, careless, without any desire to help them in any way.
I try to remind myself of this every day I'm at work, particularly when I am feeling depressed.
In my mind, I'm not meaning to be rude, I'm just busy fighting my melancholy self. To them however, I am dismissive. I am rude. I am unhelpful. I anger them, offend them, hurt their feelings. This is their time, not mine. I'm ruining their shopping, their escapism, their break from reality.
Their anger with me reduces down to a thick raging sludge by the time they confront anyone about it.
Whether it be to a friend or one of my managers, the sludge will surely spill. "That girl was so damn rude, she didn't even smile or say hello! God, all I wanted was another size in these bloody shoes! If she hates her damn job so much, she should quit."
And on it continues to reduce, until she convinces herself that I was pure evil and was out to ruin her day from the get go.
And here I was, thinking I had no control over the world around me.
If I am compassionate, on the other hand... They leave happy, contented, smiling. They speak of good things. A problem has been removed and I was the one their to solve it for them.
They are grateful. Satisfied.
This happens every minute you are existing around other beings. You are behaving, and they are reading.
If I am happy and positive, being a helpful little servant to the masses buying clothing and shoes, and one dare come up in a bad mood and rave at me, spilling past reduced anger all over me, I will be talking away to myself in my mind of her rudeness for hours. I may even mention to a co-worker or two of her horribleness. Sure to let my anger reduce to sludge, which then spills over onto others.
Sludge. It is contagious. One spills it, one picks it up, one carries it with them until they spill it onto another, who picks it up and continues the viscous cycle.
How do we stop this toxic sludge? This anger? This disgust? This foul process in our minds?
Compassion.
If we face every one, every day, with compassion and understanding, with reason and patiences, we can reduce the production of this terrible, hatred filled, anger ridden sludge.
We can produce happiness in others. We can produce positivity.
Be the sweet, compassionate, caring person you always wanted in your own life. Be the person others need. Be strong. Be kind. Be gentle with your hands, be gentle with your words and be gentle with your mind.
Everyone around you is listening, everyone is watching, everyone is reading.
Break the cruel cycle of the unhappy sludge and send out positivity.
Believe. Believe that by doing this, you can change somebodies day. By being positive and kind, you may even distract someone from their unhappy sludge long enough for them to get to a better place.
You have a lot of power. See it, use it, change your universe.
- This is as much a message to you, as it is to myself.
It is so easy to believe that we are small and insignificant, that we cannot control the masses - And it's true, to a degree, we can't control others.
What we can control however, is ourselves. We can choose whether we create great things with out hands, voices, minds and harbour kind beliefs, or we can let ourselves slouch into the lazy existence of consumerism and carelessness.
In our lives, we have the power to greatly effect the people around us, by our behaviour, our emotions and our words.
Humans are observant creatures. Even if we don't always know it, we are always observing. Forever reading body language, tones of voice, eye movement, all the small lines and creases on our companions faces, trying to read them, understand them, find out if we can trust them.
And how we react or behave towards others can shift them onto a course that is unpleasant or positive.
And it isn't just the big things that can do this, either.
In example:
I work in retail and I deal with dozens of people ever day. Every time I face a new customer I have a lot of options. I can either be kind and compassionate, helpful and service their needs, or I could be rude, careless, without any desire to help them in any way.
I try to remind myself of this every day I'm at work, particularly when I am feeling depressed.
In my mind, I'm not meaning to be rude, I'm just busy fighting my melancholy self. To them however, I am dismissive. I am rude. I am unhelpful. I anger them, offend them, hurt their feelings. This is their time, not mine. I'm ruining their shopping, their escapism, their break from reality.
Their anger with me reduces down to a thick raging sludge by the time they confront anyone about it.
Whether it be to a friend or one of my managers, the sludge will surely spill. "That girl was so damn rude, she didn't even smile or say hello! God, all I wanted was another size in these bloody shoes! If she hates her damn job so much, she should quit."
And on it continues to reduce, until she convinces herself that I was pure evil and was out to ruin her day from the get go.
And here I was, thinking I had no control over the world around me.
If I am compassionate, on the other hand... They leave happy, contented, smiling. They speak of good things. A problem has been removed and I was the one their to solve it for them.
They are grateful. Satisfied.
This happens every minute you are existing around other beings. You are behaving, and they are reading.
If I am happy and positive, being a helpful little servant to the masses buying clothing and shoes, and one dare come up in a bad mood and rave at me, spilling past reduced anger all over me, I will be talking away to myself in my mind of her rudeness for hours. I may even mention to a co-worker or two of her horribleness. Sure to let my anger reduce to sludge, which then spills over onto others.
Sludge. It is contagious. One spills it, one picks it up, one carries it with them until they spill it onto another, who picks it up and continues the viscous cycle.
How do we stop this toxic sludge? This anger? This disgust? This foul process in our minds?
Compassion.
If we face every one, every day, with compassion and understanding, with reason and patiences, we can reduce the production of this terrible, hatred filled, anger ridden sludge.
We can produce happiness in others. We can produce positivity.
Be the sweet, compassionate, caring person you always wanted in your own life. Be the person others need. Be strong. Be kind. Be gentle with your hands, be gentle with your words and be gentle with your mind.
Everyone around you is listening, everyone is watching, everyone is reading.
Break the cruel cycle of the unhappy sludge and send out positivity.
Believe. Believe that by doing this, you can change somebodies day. By being positive and kind, you may even distract someone from their unhappy sludge long enough for them to get to a better place.
You have a lot of power. See it, use it, change your universe.
- This is as much a message to you, as it is to myself.
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Just a little image...
(Sorry, I'm not even sure where I found it... but it made me feel good and I wanted to shear the idea, image, feeling, etc)
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Lacking Inspiration and Cheer
Lately I have been feeling very uninspired.
I am uninspired in my job, uninspired in my life, uninspired in my relationships. I want to be creative but my mind is dragging.
I'm uninspired with food, with exercise, with myself.
Maybe it's because I am sick with the cold, maybe it's because I'm nutritionally low in something, maybe it's because everything really is just as boring as it appears.
But things are slowly changing now, maybe because it is coming to spring? Maybe because I just decided to make a change? Maybe just because it was going to happen anyway.
But either-ither, things are changing.
As we head towards spring, the days are slowly getting longer. Yesterday morning on my way to work, I even saw some amazingly eager daffodils, although perhaps that's just a sign of a warmer winter.
See Also: Global warming.
See Also: Extinction.
See Also: End of the world as we know it.
Soon my weeping cherry tree, a reminder of a love I lost in 2010, will be budding. Not long and it will be flowering, filling it's small corner in the vegetable patch with it's beautiful hanging, soft baby pink blossoms.
At work, the new season launch for our Summer Collection (I work in retail in the fashion world) is beginning soon and all the new bright, colourful clothes are spilling out onto the floor.
Meaning exciting and fun work to be had, for the next two weeks.
We will be changing the store around, arranging the clothes as the company requires. We will be dressing mannequins and making their headless bodies beautiful.
I finally convinced myself to sign up to a Starter Course at the local unitec, so that I can learn all the things I never learnt in my home-schooled life. Like how to study and write essays.
I can write creatively, but not with much structure.
I won't know if I get to do it until after the interview in two weeks, but I'm trying to remain positive about it.
I have been in a slump and I am trying to stand up tall again. I am reading, when I haven't been for awhile.
I am making food that is delicious and healthy. I am trying to be kind and patient with my mind as I try to climb out of this hole in my head.
I am trying to look at the beautiful things in life. Focusing on the things I love instead of the things I hate.
So... As inspired by Traci French on her blog Blissfulb , here are some things I love.
So, just a baby list today... But maybe next week I'll go for a little trip, maybe see if my workmate wants to come along, and get in touch with some things I love. Like architecture, art, history, nature, flowers, pastries and coffee, and I will take my camera and snap some things I love!
So what is todays little message. Todays little message, which is hanging in my mind, is do the things you love. Spend time with the things you love in life and you will be a happier and more contented person.
If you feel there is not enough positivity in your life, create some!
Example: Take some baking to work, or some flowers. Complement others. Smile. Make jokes. Dance when people are looking too serious. Nothing makes people smile more than a friend doing them a silly little dance.
Smile everybody! Be kind to the people you love and love yourself so that you may be kind to yourself.
I am uninspired in my job, uninspired in my life, uninspired in my relationships. I want to be creative but my mind is dragging.
I'm uninspired with food, with exercise, with myself.
Maybe it's because I am sick with the cold, maybe it's because I'm nutritionally low in something, maybe it's because everything really is just as boring as it appears.
But things are slowly changing now, maybe because it is coming to spring? Maybe because I just decided to make a change? Maybe just because it was going to happen anyway.
But either-ither, things are changing.
As we head towards spring, the days are slowly getting longer. Yesterday morning on my way to work, I even saw some amazingly eager daffodils, although perhaps that's just a sign of a warmer winter.
See Also: Global warming.
See Also: Extinction.
See Also: End of the world as we know it.
Soon my weeping cherry tree, a reminder of a love I lost in 2010, will be budding. Not long and it will be flowering, filling it's small corner in the vegetable patch with it's beautiful hanging, soft baby pink blossoms.
At work, the new season launch for our Summer Collection (I work in retail in the fashion world) is beginning soon and all the new bright, colourful clothes are spilling out onto the floor.
Meaning exciting and fun work to be had, for the next two weeks.
We will be changing the store around, arranging the clothes as the company requires. We will be dressing mannequins and making their headless bodies beautiful.
I finally convinced myself to sign up to a Starter Course at the local unitec, so that I can learn all the things I never learnt in my home-schooled life. Like how to study and write essays.
I can write creatively, but not with much structure.
I won't know if I get to do it until after the interview in two weeks, but I'm trying to remain positive about it.
I have been in a slump and I am trying to stand up tall again. I am reading, when I haven't been for awhile.
I am making food that is delicious and healthy. I am trying to be kind and patient with my mind as I try to climb out of this hole in my head.
I am trying to look at the beautiful things in life. Focusing on the things I love instead of the things I hate.
So... As inspired by Traci French on her blog Blissfulb , here are some things I love.
I love this tree, that blossomed beautifully, in the yard of one of my many homes.
I love this Shop, and all that it stands for.
I love this Sweater, which is Fairtrade and Organic, even though it is for boys.
So, just a baby list today... But maybe next week I'll go for a little trip, maybe see if my workmate wants to come along, and get in touch with some things I love. Like architecture, art, history, nature, flowers, pastries and coffee, and I will take my camera and snap some things I love!
So what is todays little message. Todays little message, which is hanging in my mind, is do the things you love. Spend time with the things you love in life and you will be a happier and more contented person.
If you feel there is not enough positivity in your life, create some!
Example: Take some baking to work, or some flowers. Complement others. Smile. Make jokes. Dance when people are looking too serious. Nothing makes people smile more than a friend doing them a silly little dance.
Smile everybody! Be kind to the people you love and love yourself so that you may be kind to yourself.
Thursday, 7 July 2011
How buying Organic changes my opinion of food
My little food journey is slowly teaching me a lot. Small little things that I haven't really looked at before are now standing in front of me telling me "Hey, I'm here and I am a problem."
When I used to look at a product, I tried to find a balance between what was cheapest and what I knew to taste better. The nutrition of a product has always been in my mind, I guess mostly because I grew up with a mother who was very organic-food focused, even owning an organic foods store at one point, making me wonder why it needed so many additives or numbers.
Why should a biscuit or bread really need Emulsifiers anyway? Why does it need soy flour? Why does it need all these numbers? I can make bread at home with flour, yeast, salt, sugar/honey and water. I can make biscuits with flour, butter, eggs, sugar, baking powder and maybe some vanilla extract.
Why would I want to eat all these additives when I could make something myself that would be far more pure?
But even though I knew it wasn't right to eat all these chemicals, I rarely said no to them when I wanted the junk they hid in. I am still a huge chocolate fan. I still love Coca-cola. I love salt and vinegar potato chips, and chose to ignore all the numbers on the back of the packet, to let me continue eating them.
It wasn't until I did my New Zealand Grown fortnight that I really had a break from all those numbers, additives, preservatives and unnecessary soy additions.
It made me really think about the foods I was putting into my body. The voices of all those who have told me the troubles of additives and chemicals used not only now in the forming of foods, but also in the growing of foods, are now loud in my mind, standing right in front of me, telling me. "Claire, Stop eating this crap."
Last week I did my first shop where nearly all of my vegetables/fruit were organic. I believe the only thing I got that wasn't was onions... And somehow, because I didn't buy any junk food, I still spent just as much as I used to spend at the supermarket.
I am now shopping with more awareness of what I will actually eat throughout the week instead of what I feel like eating when I'm right there in the supermarket, which in turn is saving me money and meaning I am throwing less food away.
I used to always have a full fridge of produce, which would slowly decay and only half of it would really get eaten. I was a wasteful shopper. It is shameful the amount of food I used to throw into my compost bin every fortnight when I would clean out the fridge of rotten food for the next load fresh from the supermarket.
Bread was a big problem as well. We always had at least half a loaf of mouldy bread to be thrown out every fortnight. So, In order to try and clean up our eating act, I have started baking our own bread.
I brought a 5kg bag of NZ Grown organic white flour from the organic Wholefoods store in Grey Lynn, for just under $30. It sounds like a lot of money, and my SO was a little horrified. But when you think about how much bread costs in the supermarket, it actually works out to be more cost effective.
Well, for us anyway. We would typically buy "High end" bread I suppose. Vogels or the like.
I did a rough calculation of how much flour is needed in a loaf of bread and how many loaves you should then get out of a 5kg bag and it was about 8-10.
Even if I can just get 8 loaves out of a $30 bag of flour, that's still only $3.75 for a loaf of organic, additive free bread. All I am seeing is pro's with this. Are there really any cons?
The time factor might seem annoying to some, but I personally really enjoy baking so it's no problem for me.
Buying organic also makes me respect food more and stops me from mindless eating. Instead of buying a cheap 500g block of chocolate and eating half of it within hours of purchasing, I can successfully have a 250g block of organic fairtrade chocolate sit in my cupboard for a full fortnight, only eating (and savouring, enjoying, relishing) the occasional square every few days when I feel like something sweet.
I used to have a very unhealthy relationship with food. I was forever either eating far too much (and of all the wrong things), or not enough. I saw it as a battle. I saw it as something difficult.
When I buy organic, I'm seeing it in a totally different light. By eating organic, I'm eating more whole-foods and instead of seeing food as a product to binge or restrict, I am seeing it as nourishing.
Organic food does just that, it nourishes and fuels the body without poisoning it with artificial products made by the food industry just so that their food could stay on shelves for longer.
Ever think that maybe if not even mould will touch it, that we shouldn't either? Something to think about.
Love your bodies, is all I can really say. Respect your bodies. Only put good things into it, and you'll get more good things out of it. (And no, not just nicer poop, I mean energy levels, better moods, etc.)
And by respecting your bodies by only putting in Organic foods, you're being kinder to the planet by reducing the amount of chemicals we pour onto it every year!
It's a win win my lovely readers!
So give cutting out chemicals in your daily life a go!
When I used to look at a product, I tried to find a balance between what was cheapest and what I knew to taste better. The nutrition of a product has always been in my mind, I guess mostly because I grew up with a mother who was very organic-food focused, even owning an organic foods store at one point, making me wonder why it needed so many additives or numbers.
Why should a biscuit or bread really need Emulsifiers anyway? Why does it need soy flour? Why does it need all these numbers? I can make bread at home with flour, yeast, salt, sugar/honey and water. I can make biscuits with flour, butter, eggs, sugar, baking powder and maybe some vanilla extract.
Why would I want to eat all these additives when I could make something myself that would be far more pure?
But even though I knew it wasn't right to eat all these chemicals, I rarely said no to them when I wanted the junk they hid in. I am still a huge chocolate fan. I still love Coca-cola. I love salt and vinegar potato chips, and chose to ignore all the numbers on the back of the packet, to let me continue eating them.
It wasn't until I did my New Zealand Grown fortnight that I really had a break from all those numbers, additives, preservatives and unnecessary soy additions.
It made me really think about the foods I was putting into my body. The voices of all those who have told me the troubles of additives and chemicals used not only now in the forming of foods, but also in the growing of foods, are now loud in my mind, standing right in front of me, telling me. "Claire, Stop eating this crap."
Last week I did my first shop where nearly all of my vegetables/fruit were organic. I believe the only thing I got that wasn't was onions... And somehow, because I didn't buy any junk food, I still spent just as much as I used to spend at the supermarket.
I am now shopping with more awareness of what I will actually eat throughout the week instead of what I feel like eating when I'm right there in the supermarket, which in turn is saving me money and meaning I am throwing less food away.
I used to always have a full fridge of produce, which would slowly decay and only half of it would really get eaten. I was a wasteful shopper. It is shameful the amount of food I used to throw into my compost bin every fortnight when I would clean out the fridge of rotten food for the next load fresh from the supermarket.
Bread was a big problem as well. We always had at least half a loaf of mouldy bread to be thrown out every fortnight. So, In order to try and clean up our eating act, I have started baking our own bread.
I brought a 5kg bag of NZ Grown organic white flour from the organic Wholefoods store in Grey Lynn, for just under $30. It sounds like a lot of money, and my SO was a little horrified. But when you think about how much bread costs in the supermarket, it actually works out to be more cost effective.
Well, for us anyway. We would typically buy "High end" bread I suppose. Vogels or the like.
I did a rough calculation of how much flour is needed in a loaf of bread and how many loaves you should then get out of a 5kg bag and it was about 8-10.
Even if I can just get 8 loaves out of a $30 bag of flour, that's still only $3.75 for a loaf of organic, additive free bread. All I am seeing is pro's with this. Are there really any cons?
The time factor might seem annoying to some, but I personally really enjoy baking so it's no problem for me.
Buying organic also makes me respect food more and stops me from mindless eating. Instead of buying a cheap 500g block of chocolate and eating half of it within hours of purchasing, I can successfully have a 250g block of organic fairtrade chocolate sit in my cupboard for a full fortnight, only eating (and savouring, enjoying, relishing) the occasional square every few days when I feel like something sweet.
I used to have a very unhealthy relationship with food. I was forever either eating far too much (and of all the wrong things), or not enough. I saw it as a battle. I saw it as something difficult.
When I buy organic, I'm seeing it in a totally different light. By eating organic, I'm eating more whole-foods and instead of seeing food as a product to binge or restrict, I am seeing it as nourishing.
Organic food does just that, it nourishes and fuels the body without poisoning it with artificial products made by the food industry just so that their food could stay on shelves for longer.
Ever think that maybe if not even mould will touch it, that we shouldn't either? Something to think about.
Love your bodies, is all I can really say. Respect your bodies. Only put good things into it, and you'll get more good things out of it. (And no, not just nicer poop, I mean energy levels, better moods, etc.)
And by respecting your bodies by only putting in Organic foods, you're being kinder to the planet by reducing the amount of chemicals we pour onto it every year!
It's a win win my lovely readers!
So give cutting out chemicals in your daily life a go!
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity."
– Amelia Earhart
– Amelia Earhart
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