Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about how much food the western world wastes. According to a recent report appropriately titled “Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill,” just released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, about 40% of food in USA goes uneaten, yet 1 in 6 Americans go hungry. What’s wrong with this picture? Don’t even get me started on how many people in Asia and Africa starve to death!
Very Inspiring Blogger Award
In July 2012 I Recalibrated my blog to extend the focus of this blog from just “Sustainable Investing & Living” to one that allows me to inspire positive transformation. And while I try to inspire my readers, I have been tremendously inspired by fellow bloggers. And just a few days ago I was delighted to be nominated for a “Very Inspiring Blogger Award” by Schalk Cloete, the author of “One in a Billion” blog. Thank you Schalk!
Be Kind to Yourself
Source: Emily McDowell Illustration
“We all have our shortcomings and no one is perfect”. Heard that one before? Sure, you have. Most of us deal with it by beating ourselves up for not being able to fix these “shortcomings”. If a friend was being harsh on his/herself, we would instantly ask them to snap out of it. We would remind them how special they are and how lucky you are to have them in your life. But we struggle with showing the same kindness to ourselves.
Develop Patience to Overcome Anger
My mindful Monday resolution for last week was “to use every opportunity to get angry as an opportunity to develop patience”.
Let’s just say that “patience” is a virtue that I’ve struggled all my life to develop in any significance. As a result negative emotions such as frustration, irritation, and anger comes easily to me – it doesn’t take much to drive me crazy. And it’s astonishing how every time I regret the consequences of my anger and yet I never learn to take control of it. This past week, I’ve made a conscious effort to take control of the negative emotions and turn them around to a “silver lining” – that of developing patience toward the circumstances that irk me.
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Mindful Living: Inner Strength
If you’ve embarked on a journey of “mindfulness” like me and are looking for some inspiration to practice being in the present, you have to read this post on Inner Strength by Kate, the author of the Walnuts n Pears blog ~ one of my favourite blogs on living well and meaningfully.
She does a beautiful job of highlighting what it really means to be mindful and “in the present” and how important it is to check in with yourself to see how you’re doing.
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7 Steps to Simplify Cooking For Busy Lives
I love to cook! But there are days when I just can’t bring myself to cook after a long day of work. I’m also not a big fan of cooking a whole bunch of stuff over the weekend, freezing it and eating it over the week. My parents will attest that I will do anything to escape eating leftovers from the previous night :P. So I have no choice but to come up with simple ways to cook meals in under 45 mins with as few ingredients as possible.
I used to complicate my cooking by spending hours pre-planning a weekly menu over the weekend, making elaborate dinners that took hours, following complicated recipes. I realize that most believe “planning ahead” is a key factor in ensuring stress-free cooking. However, I respectfully disagree – you plan ahead for an important meeting, a wedding, an event, an exam, all of which are known to add stress.
6 Ways You Can Practice Thankfulness
I figured one week just wasn’t enough to practice thankfulness, albeit, even a lifetime isn’t enough. And since I got a little sidetracked last Monday (therefore, the better-late-than-never Mindful Monday post on a Thursday) I figured I should practice it for another week and share my thoughts in today’s Mindful Monday post.
I contemplated how I’ve practiced thankfulness and gratitude these past two weeks and here is a short list of “how-to’s” to help you practice it every day: Read the rest of this entry
Bhavna Hinduja on Being Simple, Sustainable & Mindful 