Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle In Your Life

Happy Earth Day!

Today as we celebrate and appreciate the garden that we live on, whether that garden is green, icy, mountainous, wet or arid. Founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, Earth Day was to infuse that energy of the late sixties anti-war protest gatherings with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution and force environmental protection onto the national political agenda.With bi-partisan support and that from farmers and city-dwellers rich and poor, liberal and conservative, and business leaders and union reps standing side-by-side for the life and prosperity of the planet, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. And in 1990, it went global.

The common dictum coming out of this movement was the three R's:  reduce, reuse, recycle. It is a principle that not only has saved and continues to save our planet, but is a formula for saving and/or creating a prosperous life. Whether your are burgeoning the garden in your yard, community, the planet, or your heart and mind; the three r's bloomin' work (pun intended)!

In Eddie Watkins, Jr.'s song, THE GARDEN, he sings:

There is a garden where dreams come true

A beautiful garden where God's grace blooms.

there is a garden where everything grows,

A beautiful garden where love is sown.

And in this place of life and love,

You can have anything that your dreaming of.

There is a garden where dreams come true,

A beautiful garden,

That garden is you.

You are the garden to preserve. You are the garden to tend. You are the garden to  You are the one to aerate, warm, feed, nourish, stimulate, fertilize, and cultivate the eco-system.  It is your zone. It happens in your yard - the Mind. And the power to do so in innate and organic. You are the one to set up and sustain the ecology of You. You create that ecology through the symbiosis of mind, heart, and gut (intuition). It may take vigilance, daily intentional mental work,    but you can do it. You were born to do it. Dig in!

Reduce......the attention you pay to the news, the gossip, how yucky you life might have been growing up, years ago, or yesterday (try: Radical Forgiveness). By giving attention to those things, instances, and the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs they sow, you give them power to effect and affect your life from now, forward. Easier written than done? Start now. Listen for those destructive words, terms, and phrases you've learned over the years and void them. Literally speak the words, "void" or "null", or "stop, no longer belongs in my life" or something akin to those, right after you say the negative junk. Reduce their power and you will soon reduce their consistency in your belief system - b.s. The other b.s. is what negative, destructive,  denigrating words and phrase are.

Reuse.....those words and phrases that you know propel you. Surround yourself with them. Listen to the music and people that inspire you. See the art and films that motivate, relax in the environment (a park, a lake, the mountains, etc.) that energizes you. Don't know what those would be, then look for them. Seek them out...then keep them and reuse them....over and over. Open your mind and heart to Mozart, Debussy, Degas, Martin Luther King, Tony Robbins, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Tesla, "Dead Poet's Society", "Forrest Gump", "It's a Wonderful Life", Joel Osteen, Bob Marley, Sting, opera, jazz, rock (the list goes on....) - you must find them and incorporate them into your heart, mind, soul, elbow, etc.; in your life, whether at work or play - daily. 

Recycle.....that which has been useful to others. Find a mentor, go to workshops, take a class, learn a form of meditation, ask your friends, read (Deepak Chopra, Rumi, Tony Robbins, Ernest Holmes, Thomas Troward, James Allen, Marianne Williamson, the Buddha, the Tao, Wayne Dyer, etc. - this is a very small list), use affirmation cards, join a choir, or find a religious or spiritual organization that teaches and experiences life with love and to the fullest (don't be afraid to go once, get a vibe, feel the energy, and maybe never return until you find a place that resonates with you - love, forgiveness, and your connection to the Divine or whatever you call It).

Like the other three R's (reading, [w]riting, and [a]rithmetic), they are essential for the growth, development, evolution, and prosperity of your life. Plant the seed of optimal thoughts and beliefs by nourishing and feeding your garden with the 'miracle-gro' of life. It's all around you. It may not seem as loud as the news, the gossip, and all the environment of negativity swirling around, but it is there more often than you think. Grab on and turn the volume of the positive, the exemplary, and the optimal to eleven.  

You have the Power. You are the Power. That garden is YOU!

Blessings.....Jay