5 Simple Ways to Reduce Waste (and why this matters if you run your own business)

There are spaces and places where environmentalism, mental health, and business intersect. They are fascinating.

Just as intriguing is the way we separate things out - in our very Western way - and seemingly forget the intrinsic links, how things work together in cycles and wholes. Bodies and minds. Businesses and personal lives. Inner and outer.

It's Wednesday. I'm home from my part-time job (as a secondary school educator), and it's my turn to cook. My husband and I share the load of household tasks, partly because we both lead big, full lives and also because we both enjoy home-cooked, wholefood meals. 

As I'm stirring the bolognese sauce, I'm musing about all the ways that I've embedded values-aligned habits into our home life. 

Keeping less stuff in the bins that the garden out the back could do with, is one part of it but here are a whole heap of other things I just do without thinking now that don't cost me more time or money. And they're all good for me, and also good for my business. 

Being a somatic therapist means that a lot of my branding, and my practices are based around a holistic approach to life in general. I would feel just weird if I wasn't living in alignment with my own values, whilst guiding others to live in alignment with theirs. 

So here's my list of time and money friendly waste-savers and then after that I'll talk more about how this really matters if you're in a service business and working for yourself. 

1. FREEZING PERISHABLES

By keeping the tomato paste in the freezer, or the grated cheese, in their standard jar or packet, I reduce the amount I throw away.They would perish or go mouldy before I'd need the full package in the fridge. This way, there's no need to fiddle with making up portions in ice cube trays (sped up, TikTok style, like it's easy) or spend time prepping or washing up; that's just where they live full-time. 

2. COMPOSTING

Perhaps the biggest reduction in the amount of waste occurred for us when we started composting. It's not at all difficult to create a compost heap, and you don't need very much space at all. You don't even need a bin. Look it up, there are a million ways to do it, and it can be very easy to get in to the habit. 

3. BUYING FOOD THAT IS UNPACKAGED

The next biggest lever we pulled was we started buying from Box Divvy.  This isn't the only service of its kind either. The difference is that we get our fresh produce, exactly as we have selected, in the amounts we have chosen, but unpackaged. Cooking from scratch wherever possible helps us throw away less packaging also. You can also just products both online and in supermarkets that are in more easily reused or recycle packaging, or buy food in bulk with no packaging at all. 

4. DRINK TAP WATER

Sure, not possible everywhere but we really do not need bottled water nearly as much as we act like we do in cities or towns with excellent and clean water supplies. 

5. SAVE YOUR SCRAPS

Brilliant broth can be made from any vegetable or meat scraps that you freeze until you are ready to make it. Celery leaves and hearts, yes. Carrot peels, excellent. Herb stalks, mmmm. Onion and garlic ends, no worries. The list goes on. Chuck them all together and boil them up and voila, one more thing you don't need to buy plus a whole heap less stuff rotting, taking up space, and creating methane gas in landfills. 

Why does this matter if you're a therapist, coach or healer? Because if you are any of those, then YOU ARE your business. Whether you feel like you are living in alignment with your values matters. 

It affects how you show up. 
It matters to your integrity. 
It can help your confidence.
It even affects your health. 

It takes a heap of energy to remain out of alignment with your beliefs, or hide your inauthenticities.

Knowing this informs all of my personal and business choices. Because they're all coming from me, and I am one whole person. And because this idea that we are separate from our bodies, or that our businesses are separate from our personal choices, or even that we all exist separately is simply put outdated.

Our bodies and minds are only separate in how we think about them. In truth they work in concert, synchronously, at all times. 

The degree to which we become disconnected from those parts of ourselves is the degree to which we have had to survive in a modern world that is not conducive to whole people, eating whole foods, and being truly integrated in body, mind and spirit. 

This isn't a complaint. It's not even something that has been entirely intentional in my opinion. It has been a perfect storm of ideas and historical events that has led us to this point.  

It's not just me saying this, it's quantum physics too. Even the quark, the smallest particle that we can identify scientifically, responds to the intentions of the experiementer each time it is studied. 

All of that to say. How we live, and the choices we make, matter. 

That is why I have discovered all sorts of ways to live in alignment with my nature-loving values without it costing more of my money or taking up more of my time.

I'd love to hear from you, how do you feel out of alignment? What simple change could you make at home, or in your business to feel clearer?