When Meredith set out to heal the world, she started by making small changes in her own life.
Meredith's Story
"The gradual change began when I started taking care of myself."
I had a background in marketing when I accepted the position of director of marketing for Earth TV, which is a social community for people interested in high consciousness living. I had recently left the corporate world and lifestyle because I knew I wanted to make a difference. At Earth TV, a world of spirituality and consciousness began to open up to me.
1. Tap into your body.
I began to go through a journey of body work, really exploring myself. I started using my body more and doing yoga or martial arts or riding a bike, and as I started moving more, I started feeling healthier. Taking care of my body was the first place that ecology started making a difference to me.
2. Be conscious of what you're eating.
I gave up sugar and flour and replaced them with more vegetables and protein. I gave up caffeine, and I discovered that without the ampiness of it in my system, I could hold a gaze longer with people. The feelings that I had of insecurity or the butterflies started to dissipate. Food became an experience for me because I was sitting quietly with myself every day for a little bit. By being with my meal when I was eating it, I literally started to look up out of my skin and think, "Oh my, there's this whole environment around me."
3. Pay attention to what's in the products you're buying.
Because of my improved diet, green living started happening in my home. My sensitivity level and sense of smell was rising. In order to feel comfortable in my body, I had to reconsider the products that I used in my home. It was just another layer of choosing to take care of myself and surrounding myself with good things. It started showing up in my laundry detergent, and then it started showing up in my buying patterns.
4. Look for ways to cut back on consumption.
It's not just about buying green labels, but thinking, how many pairs of shoes do I really need? How many times am I really running the washing machine every week? Can I make a gift instead of purchasing one?
While recycling was something I did, reducing the amount of waste I created was even more of a priority. I started participating in women's circles where we'd get together and we'd all exchange clothes, everyone brought what they had and got new clothes. I started being more aware of how much packaging was on the things I was buying. I took note of how much I was driving and how I could make my car trips more efficient.
5. Help you fellow humans.
When I stopped putting so much attention on myself, I started helping other people out. Because I wasn't so self-involved about how much I weigh or what my body is like or what I ate today or what that boy thought or what that man was doing, I was like, "Holy cow. I'm living on this gorgeous, beautiful earth filled with bodies of water that are being polluted and if I want my children to have a life here and my loved ones to be healthy, I better take care of it." In the same way I care what the size of my body is, I care about the planet.
"Every single person's unique take on green living is what makes our lives possible."
In a quest to come up with a concrete definition for green living, I got a whole bunch of different magazines out and I cut out the words and images and pictures of what it meant to me to be living green. When I started doing the research, I came across lots of pictures of surfing and of water and of healthy food, of wonderful groups of people connected together and spending time together. So really, it's not my definition of living green, it's what each individual's understanding is of living green. And everyone has a different piece of the puzzle, because green living is interconnectedness. Every single person's unique take on green living is what makes our lives possible.
"I believe things on our planet are getting better."
If we started doing media reporting on all the amazing things that are happening, and if all you started doing was going to places where there was conscious green living being communicated, you would see that the planet is about ready to go through a monumental shift. This is a very exciting time in our lives, and it's going to be up to each individual person to take a look at their life and see how they can contribute to themselves and the community and to the planet. So really, the question is, what does it all mean to you?
