In a monotone voice, tell your friend, “You are so stupid,” and see how your friend feels. Now tell her, “You are so beautiful,” and see how she feels.

Regardless of how talented she is at non-reaction, her body is going to release some different chemicals in response to these two statements. You can try telling this to yourself as well.

Meditation has been gaining popularity as a means to reduce stress and experience a happier life, and provides great evidence of the powerful influence of mind on body. In sone study, an 8-week practice of mindfulness meditation increased activity to the left-sided anterior of the brain, the part that’s stimulated when you’re feeling positive. Subjects were given a flu vaccine at the end, and those who participated in the mindfulness meditation program showed significant increases in antibody titers to the flu vaccine. The results of the study indicate the power of meditation to enhance positivity as well as immune function.

If meditation were restricted simply to the domain of the brain and mind, we would see no differences in immune function.

At my last job, I worked in a lab that studied telomeres – loops of repeating DNA sequences that cap your chromosomes, to help prevent them from falling apart. Telomeres are markers in cellular aging and physical disease. The shorter your telomeres, the shorter your lifespan. As you grow older, your telomeres naturally shorten over time. If you suffer from a chronic or debilitating disease such as cancer or even chronic stress, your telomeres shorten even further.

Stress is very much what we might consider a mind disease. So if there is no mind-body connection, then stress shouldn’t affect your bodily health whatsoever. The fact that chronic stress contributes to shorter telomeres points to a significant link between mind and body. Not only does chronic stress affect your telomeres, it also causes ulcers to form in your stomach, which turn out to be an infection by the bacteria H. pylori.

It is also brings up the question – what if instead of chronic stress, you lived under “chronic joy”? What would be the effects of “chronic joy” on your physical body? Would you be healthier and age less?

What does all of this mean?

In essence, it points to the power of your thoughts. Negative thoughts will affect you and your environment negatively, while positive thoughts will have a positive effect.

The next time you find yourself about to complain, consider the effect it’ll have before you go for it.

If you’re trying to make a change in your life, be nice to yourself. Allow yourself the room to learn and make mistakes. There is no need to beat up on yourself or be mean.

You can truly enjoy the journey from where you are to where you want to go.

Eventually, no one said anything, and I got over myself.

But the process of taking my own reusable containers or refusing plastic containers is much more challenging. I’ve done it on a number of occasions, and have received confused looks every time. I easily drop into a spiral of negativity and then I don’t ever attempt to do it again.

I want so badly to refuse plastic, but it feels incredibly painful to actually express this desire in real life. I accept straw after straw after straw, and just end up feeling silly in the end. Why is it so hard to say that I’m trying to reduce my plastic use and just bring my own straw? Why is it so hard to face the funny looks of confusion?

I haven’t figured it out quite yet, but in the meantime I’m growing my self-confidence. Perhaps strengthening my love and belief in myself will allow me to refuse plastic or lead to even bigger, more transformative projects.

Ways to Love Yourself More:

Write about all the ways in which you love yourself. Do this until you really feel like you love yourself. Do this frequently, every day if you can. If you feel resistance, that’s a sign you’ve got work to do in this area. Return to this practice as often as possible.

Use affirmations. When you find yourself falling through a spiral of negative self-talk, pause for a moment. Stop thinking. Release that negativity and transform it into positive self-talk. Instead of thinking, Everyone’s going to think I’m crazy for doing this, say to yourself, I’m doing something totally radical, and people might be upset at first, but they’ll understand eventually and in the end no one can stop me but myself.

Perfection is an illusion. Remind yourself everyday that perfection is an illusion. You are going to make mistakes, and that is totally normal. You are not going to be perfect because it doesn’t exist.

Growing confidence takes time. Don’t be upset if this process takes a few months. You may encounter a great deal of resistance, and that’s okay. Just keep working at it.

For more about growing self-love, check out this really great ebook by Evelyn Lim, called Self-Love Secrets. It explains the whole context behind the need for a self-love practice, and includes a list of affirmations and workbook to help you love yourself more. This is an affiliate link. Your support helps me continue my work. Thank you!

Have you thought about starting a worm bin compost?

It probably sounds like an awesome idea, except oh so disgusting at the same time. Rotting food is meant to be in the dumpster, in a landfill. But landfill space is growing smaller and smaller… And what does it mean to throw it away?

A coffee cup thrown away finds itself in a landfill. A water bottle thrown away finds itself in the ocean forevermore. I want to throw my fear away, and it is reflected right back at me. There is no place away. Everything is here.

It may be out of sight, out of mind. But it’s still in existence, dwelling at the bottom of my psyche, wreaking havoc on my global neighbors.

So, composting helps stop the spread of landfills, builds a connection to nature in your home, and gives you lovely, deliciously rich fertilizer to make your plants happy. And it’s free once you have your system set up. What could be a better deal?

Even though you may have municipal composting services available to you, it still saves fuel and energy to compost at home. And, you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor immediately! Instant gratification feels good, right?

The Ick Factor

First, worm bins, when properly used, DON’T SMELL BAD. But it’s still worm poop, gooey, sticky, and there’s rotting food in the bin. It’s still gross, and there’s no great solution for this. So reach deep inside you for your big, magnificent love for sustainability and clean soil. Tell yourself that worm poop is totally non-toxic and you’ve got what it takes to handle the bin. You’re going to be smart about it, and not let it get nasty and smelly. And even if it does, you’ll survive, and it’ll become a battle scar you can brag about later. If your neighbors had a worm bin, you’d want one too. So be the first neighbor with an awesome worm bin compost.

Sound good? Okay, so here’s the basics of how you start a worm bin compost:

Preparing the Bin

Worms

The worms you use for composting are called red wriggler worms, technical name Eisenia fetida. These worms love to feed on freshly rotting organic matter. They’re also used as bait for fishing.

Worm Bins

Whether you make your own or buy one, make sure you have:

• Holes at the top to allow worms to breathe
• Holes at the bottom to drain excess water
• Lid to keep light out, and fruit flies

If you have a stackable tray system, the inner trays will have slotted bottoms to allow finished compost to fall through to the bottom, separating it from decomposing food. Put new food in at the top.

Bedding

Worms like shredded newspaper, cardboard, or coconut coir as bedding. Make sure to spray some water on the bedding to give it a little moisture. But not too much!

The moisture content of the entire bin should feel as wet as a moist sponge that does not drip excess water whatsoever.

Feeding

If you’re just starting out, keep your worms on a raw vegetable diet. Eggshells are okay. Once you feel comfortable with the entire process, you can then start experimenting with dairy and meat products.

A Habitat

Your worm bin is in fact a little microcosm on its own. It’s a habitat. That means you’ll see other critters and things living inside that habitat. Don’t worry, they’re mostly harmless!

Things you might see:

• Red Mites – tiny round bugs
• Pill Bugs
• Potworms – tiny white worms
• Fruit Flies
• Springtails – small white insects

All of these are harmless to you and your worms. Fruit flies may be incredibly annoying, so just be sure you don’t overfeed your worms, and avoid animal products too.

Starting Out

To start your worm bin compost, shred up a bunch of newspaper, spray it with a little bit of water and place half of it in the bottom of your bin. If you have a stackable tray system, put it in the first tray, leaving the bottom bin empty.

Then, put your worms on top of the bottom bedding. Take the other half of your shredded newspaper and place it on top of your worms. Worms don’t like light, so you want to keep them covered. Having bedding on top also helps to keep out unwanted bugs like fruit flies and gnats. Make sure it’s only as wet as a moist sponge.

Keep it this way, covered with a lid, for about a week. This allows your worms to adjust to their new home.

Then after a week, feed them a small handful of kitchen scraps. Wait until they’ve eaten all of this food before feeding more. When feeding, remember to always bury your food several inches beneath the top layer of bedding. This prevents fruit fly invasions.

Keep an eye on them frequently, to see how much they’ve eaten. Don’t feed them any more food until everything’s been eaten!

As your worms reproduce and adjust to their new home, they’ll be able to eat more and more food.

Basic Troubleshooting

Most problems are caused by the following sources:

• Too much or too little water
• Too little air flow
• Too much light
• Food isn’t buried deep enough
• Too much food

Fruit fly invasion: Bury your food several inches below the top. Keep the lid on, and make sure there isn’t too much food. To get rid of fruit flies, make sure you aren’t bringing them in via your kitchen scraps. You can try microwaving or boiling your kitchen scraps in water first to kill the larvae and eggs. Then be sure to cool down and drain the kitchen scraps before feeding them to your worms.

Maggots: These are usually a sign of too much fat or animal products, which red wrigglers warm up to rather slowly. If that’s not the case, your best bet is to allow them to grow into soldier flies, and fly off. If you don’t want to do this, you’ll probably have to start your bin over. The good thing is, maggots are pretty good decomposers, and soldier flies don’t harm you or your worms.

Stink: Usually foul odor comes from lack of aeration, encouraging anaerobic decomposition (oxygen-free), which produces alcohols as a byproduct. To get rid of the stink, make sure your bedding isn’t matted down where air can’t flow through. Also make sure it’s not too wet.

Swamp: Too much water? If you’re feeding your worms wet food, add more dry shredded newspaper or cardboard. Also remember to see where the drainage is at the bottom of your bin. Add drain holes if they aren’t they already.

That’s it! You’re on your way to some fine compost!

Ready to start a worm bin compost? What are your thoughts and questions on the topic?

[photo by Preoccupations]

This post was originally published on Green Living Ideas, and has been refined for Upcycled Love.

I’m incredibly excited to share with you my new ebook, Living the Transformation: Reflections on Sustainable Simplicity and Conscious Transformation.

Living the Transformation embraces a holistic approach to conscious transformation. It weaves together my work at Upcycled Love for the first year and half into a complete concept. It’s meant for those who are new to sustainability, who are interested in making conscious, sustainable changes in their lives, but frequently run into trouble, such as the fear-driven Resistance, or the feisty Inner Saboteur. It’s written especially for thoughtful, big vision systems thinkers who hold multiple levels of inquiry.

Living the Transformation includes:

• practical tutorials on living more sustainably
• technical knowledge to empower your choices
• cultural mindsets supporting sustainability
• personal and cultural integration
• motivation to help you cultivate resilience
• nuggets of poetic inspiration sprinkled throughout

While most of the articles can be found online, not all of them come from Upcycled Love, and they have all been refined and edited, exquisitely designed, and pieced together to form a complete, multi-faceted vision. It’s a comprehensive resource at your fingertips, whether you’re online or off. Purchasing this ebook also supports my research and growth as an eco-conscious writer and activist, and the continued operation of this website as a resource for growing changemakers.

The suggested price is $10, but please feel free to give as much or as little as you like.

Minimum donation is $.50

10% of all proceeds will be donated to the Institute for Responsible Technology, to aid the fight against GMO’s

Preview the cover, table of contents, and introduction:

Permaculture is an emerging method of sustainable agriculture, focused on maintaining harmony with the native ecosystem.

Imagine a prairie. It stays as a prairie year after year, though the individual grasses may change throughout the season. What are those grasses, what animals live there, and how does this ecosystem stay stable through the seasons?

In essence, Permaculture studies the local ecosystem, and seeks to integrate its farming practices appropriately.

The methodology of Permaculture is structured like a pyramid:

Ethics forms the foundation of this system, followed by Principles, Design Methodology, Design Strategy, and Technology. Everything at the top of the pyramid must fit in with what’s below: Technology and Design must incorporate a system of Ethics and Ecological Principles.

This system in its concept is idyllic – what’s feasible to accomplish right now may not meet all of the requirements, but the ideal map serves as a guideline for where to go. It was created to be applied beyond just agriculture, to social structures like community, business, and government. Currently, its primary use is in gardening and farming, as the potential for other applications has only been explored on the surface.

The Ethics:

• Earth Care
• People Care
• Share the Surplus

The 12 Principles, based on ecological patterns:

1. Observe & Interact

Nature just is – there is no right or wrong, there is only different. Values and judgments are human concepts that distort what’s really happening. It’s wise to spend a long time observing an ecosystem before starting to build or garden in it. That way, you can build or garden in the most efficient and sustainable way possible.

2. Catch & Store Energy

Energy comes in the form of:
- sunlight
- water
- seeds
- inherent heat (such as in stones)
- wind
- organic matter (in soil & compost)

3. Obtain a Yield
You want to obtain a yield in growing food, but also you want to make viable profit while running your own farm business. And if you want to grow food and make money, you also need to take care of yourself and balance the budget books.

4. Apply Self-Regulation and Respond to Open Feedback Loops

Negative feedback probably means you need to do things a little differently, pointing to unsustainable methods. Excess positive feedback may hurt other systems. Your goal is balance.

5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
Don’t use up non-renewable resources, and always seek to restore resources. Build relationships with animals – they are our allies.

6. Produce No Waste
Everything should be made and used on site.

7. Design from Patterns to Details

The big picture is the most important thing to sort out first. Everything else falls in place after that. An important concept to remember is that every element has many functions, and every function has many elements.

8. Integrate Rather Than Segregate
Every element has strengths and weaknesses. In gardening, you can use this to your advantage by pairing plants with complementary needs, so they help each other grow steadily.

9. Use Small & Slow Solutions

Small and slow builds resilience and diversity, allowing your system to be adaptable.

10. Use & Value Diversity

Diversity forms the foundation of resilience.

11. Use Edges & Value the Marginal
Marginal land is not useless land. Marginal people are not useless people. Different things happen in different conditions, so there’s something useful to be found everywhere.

12. Creatively Use & Respond to Change
Things will always change, that’s guaranteed. What’s more important is how you respond to change – innovate continuously, and don’t give up

Those are the basic principles. If you wanted to apply these ideas to a business, for example, you can use #1 to observe and interact with the market before you build your business. You can use #2 to catch and store connections that come straight towards you so you don’t have to fight to network.

[Image used with permission from Permaculture Principles]

This post was originally published on Green Living Ideas.

Welcome to 2012! I sense an auspicious year for many of us, hopefully all of us. It’s been a wonderful year of learning to live sustainably, soothing my inner saboteur, and wildly growing in all different ways. Last year’s word was Wild Growth, and I think that came out to be very true.

If I had to pick one overarching theme, it would be Blossoming.

Thank you all for coming to read my site. I am so grateful to every click that comes my way, you have all enriched my life and I hope we can continue to blossom together in this special year. I am truly amazed that I have been blogging for over a year now, and still a part of this wonderful community.

Honesty

I’d like to be even more honest with myself, and my communities both online and off. I don’t want to fear rejection, and I don’t want to wear a false persona. To me, there is no duality between my online and offline self. The two are one.

I love green living and sustainability, but I also love fusing genres and engaging in creative alchemy. I love the frontier, where visionaries dance with the wilderness, igniting rays of light through the darkness, fueling collective evolution. I truly know so little, and so I should never cut myself off from different perspectives.

I am an evolving being, and my work will reflect this. My honesty is raw, my experience is real, and not everyone will have the stomach for it. But in the end I hope to gift something meaningful and universal to everyone that comes my way.

I’m going to invoke more Honesty by Inviting Rejection. What if Rejection is your friend? The friend that always reminds you to stay centered, love yourself, and trust yourself.

Focus

Exploring and experimenting come easily to me. Focusing on one thing, to make it the best it can be, is rather difficult. This year calls for deep, sustained focus, in order to realize my dreams of grad school, financial freedom, and a creative digital side business.

Commitment

Commitment is showing up every day to do what I want to do. Maybe I won’t feel so amazing about it all today, and maybe tomorrow I’ll feel nothing. But in the end, it will be totally worthwhile. Big dreams don’t actualize overnight, and they are never all peaches and cream.

Giving

You get what you give.

Giving is expressed through service, charity, or authentic spirit. I want to give more in these areas. I want to uncover the joy and meaning in service. I want to be of true service, to be the medicine. I want to give more of myself, the love and wisdom within. I’ve learned to hold back after years of rejection. I’m ready to stop this and just be me, give freely of myself with no strings attached.

Nurturing

No growth, giving, or focus can happen without proper self-care. I want to deepen my commitment to holistic well-being, and really take care of my body, mind, and spirit with healthy food, happy thoughts, and soul-nourishing pursuits.

Embodied Presence

I want to be fully present, fully attuned to the moment I’m living. I want my ego, my higher self, my integrity and frivolity to all be there, ready to express if the moment is right. I don’t want to be in the presence of wonderful people and have my mind escape to futile daydreams.

Over to You

What does 2012 hold in store for you? What themes or words would you use to set an intention for the year?

Thanks to Lori for breaking the one-word mold and choosing 3, freeing me to choose 6

photo by ViaMoi

We can waste a lot of time criticizing what other people are doing. Maybe you think the idea is completely wrong, or maybe you only disagree with one small part of the process. Whatever the case may be, it’s in your hands to turn your vision into reality. How would you do it? You have the ability to do just as well, and probably even better.

Go for it.

By the way, I’m now offering coaching to help you cultivate conscious sustainability. It’s a heart-centered, multi-faceted approach to live, work, and grow sustainably. Sound like something you might be interested in? Sign up here.

photo by joathina

Nature is everywhere. It is the gnarled old tree uplifting the cement sidewalk. It is the asphalt, the grass, birds, ladybug, mosquitos, wind, and rain. It is the golden ratio. It is you and me. It is the breath we share, the thoughts we send. It is the sky, a panoply of stars and galaxies. It is what lies beyond. It is what lies within. It is our emotional experience, our psyche, our consciousness. It is the Universe.

photo by James Jordan

I thought living with integrity would make me happy. But so far I’m not perfect, and so it seems happiness is not yet mine. There’s always something missing, something to strive for, something new to learn. When will the happiness arrive?

Now I know – it’s right here, right now. My life and I are not perfect, but who’s to judge? I am Nature, and Nature simply is. My consciousness wants to place judgment when there’s none to be found. Happiness is an emotional experience, one that I can call mine right here, right now.

photo by Claudio Gennari

Happy Holidays!

I’m now writing regularly for Green Living Ideas, a lovely multi-author green living blog. From now on most of my green living writing will be featured there, including DIY tutorials. Upcycled Love will be home to a wider variety of topics. I will occasionally include posts written for Green Living Ideas, but for the most part this space will remain more exploratory and experimental.

Check out some of my writing for Green Living Ideas:

• The Handmade and Upcycled Christmas Gift Guide 2012
• The Versalette from {r}evolution apparel
• Every Day is Bank Transfer Day
• Earthship Biotecture: The Ultimate in Natural, Sustainable Building
• Swales: Another Way to Harvest Rainwater
• 6 Easy Ways to Upcycle a T-Shirt
• Eco-Friendly, Compostable Kitty Litter
• The Power of Community Organizing: Pittsburgh’s Ban on Fracking

Photo by lapideo