Our home is our sanctuary for mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. It is often our refuge in this increasingly stressful world. To ensure that my ethical and cruelty-free values extend to my home, I'm on my journey to make my home more sustainable, starting with my bedroom. Why the bedroom first? Bedroom is the place where we calm our minds, heal the body, and get ready for whatever obstacles life throws at us.  Considering we all have been spending all our time inside our house, especially our bedroom, it's an ideal time to consider giving our bedroom a green makeover.  If you're ready to take your ethics into the bedroom, here's a checklist of items you need to take care of. Switch to Sustainable Bedding {of course!} When it comes to the bedroom, I always make sure that the sheets I use are certified organic and nontoxic. Here's why...... On average, we sleep for 6-9 hours on our bed {uninterrupted} - that's almost a third of our lives in bed. It...

Every woman should get a pair of organic cotton pads (with wings!) so they are not ingesting toxins in their bodies when their hormones are giving them enough grief as it is. Its 2020, and we are still uncomfortable talking about periods. The good thing is that while periods are still a taboo for many, we also have ongoing open and frank discussions on menstrual cycles making periods a little less agonizing.  An average woman uses over 10,000 pads in her lifetime. Like most women, until a few years back I was also happy with my regular feminine hygiene brand - well-advertised on TV and easily available at any supermarket or pharmacy. In fact, I even collaborated with the brand when they launched a new product which was softer, thinner and smelled nice. As part of the collaboration, when I posted about it on my Instagram, someone pointed it out that regular pads are damaging our health and that of the planet. When I looked more into it, I realised how bad for the env...

Dear friends Hope you are doing well. Between the chaos, uncertainty and fears during this lockdown, we’ve been given time to reset ourselves, start fresh and create a new normal. What seems like a curse now, might result in a blessing. This much needed break gives us time to ponder about what really holds value (happiness and ethics vs money and greed, for example) and a reminder of our place in this world (as part of nature, not above it). In the hustle before #corona, we were lost, we had forgotten the purpose of life and we were chasing happiness in wrong places and destroying the world in the process. Consumerism, greed, animal cruelty, deforestation, polluting land, air and water. We can't blame the virus for the situation we are in. It is "each one of us" who is responsible for this pandemic. But nature is calling us, giving us a chance (perhaps the last one) to get it right. Let us all take this time seriously and not waste it completely on Netflix, ho...

Living a life that's fulfilling, doesn't compromise on your style, comfort or the ethics, and that doesn't come with harm to others - that's true luxury. Lifestyle with a conscience is possible and its beautiful. It's not just our responsibility (if we want to leave this planet livable for the future generations), but it's also rewarding. With the rise in the mindful living movement, there is no dearth of sustainable options in every aspect of our lifestyle - from food and fashion to travel and transport. Let's first talk {Sustainable} Fashion..... When it comes to your wardrobe, whether you like minimalism or a touch of glamour, you can choose to live sustainably without compromising on your style. The same goes for every other lifestyle choice. Gone are those days when sustainable fashion meant hippie, boxy and boring clothes. The new age sustainable fashion brands are transforming the fashion industry with their well-crafted, humanely made a...

Wearing Rhumaa Jacket, Nudie Vegan Jeans, Stella McCartney Shoes The resurgence of conscious living is making us consider our everyday choices. From food to fashion, there’s a dire need for us to switch to a more sustainable lifestyle to save the planet and for our health.     For those seeking to transform the concept of a green lifestyle from aspirational to achievable, there couldn’t have been better times. There are several companies committed to better practices making the life of ethical consumers less complicated than it was a few years ago. As an ethical consumer, our buying decisions are based not just on the quality and usefulness of products, but also on the ethical policies of the companies who sell them. Until a few years back, getting hold of a company’s ethical policy and information about their working practices was very challenging. Fortunately, things are much transparent now. With the help of organizations that are pushing the case of sustainabi...

We're a matcha made in heaven. When I want a quick boost of energy and stay wide awake, I have my matcha latte (prefer it iced) and never with plastic straws (you can find my perfect matcha latte recipe here ). Did you notice the bamboo straw in the picture above? I'm so glad I could finally get my hands on the reusable bamboo straws. My pledge at Faeth Sustainable & Positive Change event in March was to ditch plastic straws and I am 80% there. Why no straws? I've seen heartbreaking videos of rescuers taking out plastic straws from the nose of sea turtles and read about being stuck inside penguins and others animals, killing them. Plus, the straws can't be recycled so they end up in landfill breaking down and releasing toxins. Too put things into perspective, let me share some statistics and facts {I am after all a former economics and finance student and wealth manager - I understand it better with numbers}. Plastic takes over 200 years to decompose - but...

No other technology has impacted us as much as mobile phones and while they are one of the best inventions of our lifetime, they are also having a huge impact on the planet. Apple sold its one billionth phone in July last year and there are over 5 billion mobile phone users in the world and as per digital analysts, the number of total mobile devices in the world has long surpassed the number of people on this planet (a well over 7.2 billion) ( Source ). Most of us use a phone cover to protect our mobile devices - creating not just the e-waste from the device itself but tonnes of plastic and silicone used for the cover. Imagine the havoc it might end up creating on the planet considering all this ends up in the landfill While you cannot stop using the mobile phones or change the composition of your devices, you can definitely ditch the cover altogether or atleast get rid of the plastic covers and switch to a more sustainable option. For all eco-conscious pe...