Celebrating Responsibly and Healthfully

Our plant-based nutritionist and facilitator Kommal Shah shares how she is mindful of the planet in her Diwali celebrations

A perceptive eye would observe how celebrating Diwali has over time become a very wasteful affair, replete with redundant shopping and wastage all around, that only hurts our planet.

Mother Earth needs our help more than ever and hence going eco-friendly has become a very important aspect of our lives now, including our 11-year-old daughter Svaraa’s. We celebrate all our festivals with greater ecological awareness, especially the most popular festival of our country Diwali – a festival that celebrates the triumph of good over evil.

Every year, we donate clothes, vessels, toys and stationery that are not used in the last two years to someone in need or to an NGO which can channelise them to the needy. We say no to electric lights and instead light clay diyas and soy wax candles. Colouring the clay diyas is fun too. We use natural organic colours made from rice powder, turmeric, coffee powder and kumkum instead of chemical colours. As we discard these powders after use, the insects can consume them. We don’t burst firecrackers as animals are terrified of them and the pollution of the sound, air and land is not worth the short-lived fun. Our home décor is simple and elegant with DIY paper lanterns and colourful dupattas. Making best-out-of-waste decors with kids is a great holiday activity too.

We gift our friends and relatives organic fruits and healthy plant-based sweets. If we need to buy something different for them, we give thoughtful gifts that they can use. We pack these gifts in brown paper or newspaper instead of plastic.

Every celebration leads to some waste, so we ensure to dispose of it responsibly by separating the biodegradable from the non-biodegradable.

Wishing all a fun-filled conscious Diwali this year.

Healthy Diwali Recipes

Light up your festivities with health. We have compiled a few healthy and delicious recipes for you and your loved ones this Diwali. To download the free eBook, click here

Food For The Mind

FACEBOOK SUPPORT GROUP

If you love Facebook, then join us to be supported on your plant based journey. We are offering two possibilitie

1. SHARAN India is SHARAN’s main Facebook page which you can like and follow for getting useful daily updates and news from the plant based health world. You will also get news about the latest SHARAN events, see testimonials, and more.

2. SHARAN’s Vegan Support Group is an open support group to know more about vegan/plant-based lifestyle. Here you can ask questions and share inspiring stories, tips, recipes, etc.

All our doctors and presenters will be here to answer your questions and give you tips. If you have attended our events join this group to be a part of our family.

Please like the main SHARAN page and join the group(s) applicable to you.

Life Has You Caught Up?

Let’s face it, most of us are guilty of seeking fleeting pleasures rather than inner happiness and lasting fulfilment. We are caught up in the routine of daily life, looking for instant gratification. Too many of us are clueless about what we want and are too scared or unwilling to step out of our comfort zones to find out. We don’t want to be different from others yet we want something different from what we have. No surprise then that our problems visit us time and again with alarming similarities. There is a solution to this – we can overcome this stagnant state of mind with just a little effort and a little thought.

1. Before you eat anything, be mindful Is it good for you? Will the pleasure be worth the effects on your health? When we are hungry, our body seeks nutrition. Nutritionally deficient food products are deliberately made addictive to make you buy more.

2. Before you say anything, be mindful Is it true? Are you absolutely sure it’s true? And even if it is, will it benefit anyone if you say it? Some things are just not worth saying!

3. Before you do anything, be mindful Are you doing it because you believe you should do it? Are you doing so to please others or because of other people’s expectations? Do you really believe that it should be done?

4. Before doing puja or a religious practice, be mindful Is this practice really meaningful to you? Will it be harmful to anybody else or any other creature on the planet? Is it of value to the earth, our only home? Are you doing it because it has been done for centuries by our ancestors? Are you living exactly the way they lived? If some things can change, why not others?

5. Before making life-changing plans, be mindful Why are you getting married? Is it because everyone else is or is it because you really desire to live with your partner for the rest of your life? Are you lonely? Is it something else? Make sure the reason is worthy of the action. Your desire to have children – is it because everyone else is expecting you to? Or you have this urge to prove your fertility? Is it a biological need to have a child? What will the child’s future be in this rapidly-changing world? Irreversible actions need a lot of forethought.

6. Before choosing a vocation, be mindful Most people spend more than half their waking life at work. If you are doing something that you don’t believe in, it will ultimately make you unhappy. If you refuse to accept anything except what you believe in, you will very often get it. You may sacrifice money, fame, or even respect in the eyes of others, but you will know that you have made the right choice.

7. Before buying something new, be mindful Almost everything that you buy, except edibles, will clutter your home or environment and remain on this planet for a very long time. We are destroying nature and our planet with garbage. Cluttered cupboards also clutter the mind. Our needs are so few yet our desires are so many. If you have things you don’t need, give them away so that somebody else does not have to buy them, so that yet someone else can produce less of them. Your reward? Travel lightly through life!

8. Before believing something, be mindful Re-examine all the possibilities. A lie repeated often enough takes the form of truth in our minds. We are living in this paradigm because we have bought so many lies. We believe dairy is healthy or that medicines are a necessity because we have been told this over and over again. Stop to question all your beliefs.

9. Before taking a holiday, be mindful Is this holiday going to be beneficial for you? We all need change, and travel is fun and promotes learning and relaxation. But we often take holidays for the wrong reasons – boredom, fantasy or to be noticed. Don’t lose the chance to learn something new and do something valuable in your free time! And if you can learn to enjoy every minute of your life, then your whole life, even your work can be like a holiday!