Tag Archives: easy peasy greeny

***Gifted sessions***

As business owners, there will always be times where we feel stuck, and finding a safe and effective space where we can talk about how to overcome any challenges we’re facing can be tricky.

When I first started my own business, back in 2016, I underestimated how different the change from being an employee to a business owner would be. Not just the practical side of business but the mindset shifts that would be necessary to build a business I loved and thrived in. I had been an employee since I started working at the age of eighteen and, in order to change that employee mindset that I feared was holding me back from doing brilliant things, I sought the expertise of an executive coach. Those sessions showed me the real power and value business / life coaching could bring to make a positive change for myself and my business.

When I started my eco-blog in January 2020, my intention wasn’t to build a business from it, I wanted a place to write about what I was doing and to share how I was changing my own habits in order to become more sustainable. I didn’t consider myself a blogger/writer and it was only ever meant to be a little side project. I never expected my blog to attract the attention it has but I have to admit, this fuelled the passion I already had to share my journey to sustainability and help others to begin and continue theirs.

Photo by Bich Tran: https://www.pexels.com/photo/let-your-light-shine-drawing-on-notebook-1631487/

Within my working career, I have been a PA/Executive Assistant. I’m comfortable being a ‘behind the scenes’ person, some refer to it as ‘working in the engine room’. As an introvert, it worked really well for me. I like to make sure all the moving parts work the way they are supposed to so the end result is flawless. So, the idea of being a blogger was perfect for me, I get to stay in my comfort zone, and I get to make sure that everything behind the scenes runs as it should.

As my blog grew in popularity and I gained more subscribers , I felt inspired to take it to the next level and start working with brands who share the same values and ethics I have when it comes to sustainable living.

But I was stuck not knowing where to begin.

Yet I realised that in order to do this ‘new thing’ , I needed to put myself out there, and come out of my comfort zone. Argh!

This reminded me of a scene from The Big Bang Theory

Penny: Okay, that’s fine, but let’s try and get you out of your comfort zone.

Sheldon: Why would we want to do that? It’s called the comfort zone for a reason.

Because of my comfort zone, I was stopping myself from taking the necessary next steps in order to move my business forward and achieve professional growth. It was frustrating, my brain was in knots and it was doing nothing for my mental health.

I knew I needed some support. It was the only way I’d be able to move forward without the overwhelm and self-sabotage that I knew would soon be on the horizon! So my search for a coach began…

From my own experience, I knew that I would need to find the right fit. Not just for me, but for the coach too. It works both ways.

A fellow blogger had previously worked with Lauren Jane Coaching, and some others mentioned how great she was.

Lauren first asked me to send her a hand drawn picture of how I felt about my business; pictures, no words. I won’t post the image here because, as someone who got a B in GCSE art, it’s absolutely shocking! What I will say is that I drew different versions of being stuck, hurdles, and going round and round in circles.

During our first session, I quickly picked up on Lauren’s keen ability to ask the right questions, which continued during our further sessions together. Lauren’s website states she is a highly intuitive listener, and she’s not wrong. With Lauren’s help, I could hit the pause button, take a step back, and we drilled down to some key issues which allowed me to get a better handle on what was going through my head.

I was having really bad issues with pitching to brands. Writing the pitch wasn’t the problem; sending it was. There was something stopping me from hitting the ‘send’ button. As business owners, if there’s something we don’t want to do, we will find every excuse under the sun to avoid doing it. The email would sit in my drafts, and I would busy myself with something else. During my call with Lauren, it was like a eureka moment; why don’t I schedule the email so I don’t actually have to hit the ‘send’ button! I remember smiling at myself for a while after our session because I leapt over a huge hurdle! I found something that would work for me, and I knew it would help me to lead to better outcomes.

Photo by Julian Jagtenberg: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-white-long-sleeve-shirt-standing-near-white-and-gray-house-during-daytime-103127/

Lauren asked me to talk about someone who I think really highly about; someone who understands me, my ‘go to’ person, someone who gets what I’m trying to achieve in my business. I spoke about my friend and business buddy, Louise Harman. After telling Lauren about Louise, Lauren said “why can’t you say that about yourself?”. She commented about how my face lit up when I talked about Louise. Which uncovered another issue…I’ve always had a bad habit of not saying nice things about myself; “I can’t do this”, “I’m too thick”, “why can’t I get this”. I made myself believe these things and turned out I had a victim mindset. This was the biggest revelation for me and I was determined to change this status quo. Lauren said I needed to identify when I did this and turn it around; instead of ‘I can’t do this’, change it to ‘yeah I can’.

Recently, I was approaching a milestone number of views on my website. I thought I would hit a certain figure by the end of the month but I didn’t. The old me would have said ‘You’re rubbish at that’. Nope, not the new me. I celebrated the figure because, for me, it was an amazing achievement, and I’m really proud of myself for that. To celebrate, I got myself a chocolate and vanilla cheesecake and had it all to myself while everyone was at work/school. I felt totally sick afterwards but totally worth it! #NoRegrets

Something else that I’ve realised from our sessions is that the person I was when I launched my blog back in 2020, would love to be where I am now.

It’s only been a couple of months since I worked with Lauren and I’m still doing the inner work, and I can say this with absolute certainty, I am in a better place since working with Lauren than I was beforehand.

Those who know me know that I would never recommend a business or a product unless I genuinely believed in it myself. If you’re stuck in your business, and you can’t figure out what the issue is or you’re trying to get to the next level, I highly recommend getting in touch with Lauren. You can follow her on Instagram and she also has a monthly newsletter with some great tips, and words of wisdom.

Coaching is a powerful tool and can help us to uncover our true selves, this certainly has been the case for me.

Self-care, Sustainable Living ideas

How to Overcome Barriers to Sustainable Living

January 30, 2023 Raakhee Stratton 8 Comments

As we are learning more and more about the effects humans are having on climate change, the number of individuals opting to live sustainably is steadily growing. Making conscious changes to your lifestyle is key. However, in a world where we are reliant on the things that are bad for the environment and sustainable alternatives aren’t always readily available, it’s not as easy as it should be. These barriers can be difficult to overcome.

I think back about when I started sustainable living and tried making so many changes in one go. I ended up becoming overwhelmed and I did everything badly – it starts with changing habits. After failing miserably, I starting again but this time I tackled one habit at a time.

Old Habits

This was the biggest barrier for me to overcome. It starts with habits. Have you ever tried to give up something you’ve been doing for a long time? Smoking? Drinking? It’s like that. You will do things automatically because that’s how you’ve done it and that’s how your brain and learnt that habit. The great thing is habits can be broken and new ones learnt.

Apparently, it takes between 20 – 30 days to break a habit and starting with one thing is key (don’t make my mistake!). Start with something small like switching your plastic razor to a safety razor. I’ve written blogs about using safety razors and they’re my favourite place to start. Once you get used to the safety razor, make another change.

Once you decide to want to start doing something different and you worry that you may forget. A handy tip is to write it down somewhere just to remind yourself, before you know it, you won’t need the reminder.

Row of barriers on empty track - overcome barriers — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/row-of-barriers-on-empty-track-3763878/

Cost

I’m not going to pretend this isn’t an issue for many people – it’s a genuine barrier. This is one of the biggest challenges I found to sustainable living and can really take a chunk out of your budget.

My advice is to speak to friends and family and see what they do. Have a look at social media for sustainable living ideas. There are little brands as well as the big brands who can offer great products. Second-hand shops are a great habit to create as these clothing items have already been made and you can find some real gems.

A few more examples are swapping from menstrual pads and tampons to menstrual cup/period pants or swapping to a safety razor. Just these eco swaps can help you save money in the long run.

Availability

This is another barrier that really gets to me and it’s hard to overcome. Not all shops offer a decent range of sustainable products. Some don’t offer any at all, so it’s understandable that people will buy from the options available to them. This is where shops need to do better.

Plastic is low cost and therefore, cheaper and they’re convenient but single-use plastic is the problem. Once you’re done with your roll-on deodorant, you’ll throw the who thing away (or recycle it, if you can) and get another one.

Do what you can – if you regularly get a takeaway coffee, use a reusable cup. keep a plastic bag folded in your bag so you don’t need to buy another one, walk (if you can) rather than taking your car.

It’s OK to be different

If anything, I embrace being different but I appreciate that isn’t the case for everyone else. When you’re with a group of friends, it’s OK to refuse a straw, if you’re at someone’s house and you need to throw something away, it’s OK to ask where the recycling bin is. It takes time to overcome this barrier.

I posted this on my Instagram page a while back and it made me chuckle

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Raakhee | Sustainable Living (@easypeasygreeny)

I wear odd socks because when there’s a hole in one sock, sadly, both pairs tend to be thrown away and I feel that’s a real waste, It’s a great conversation starter too!

Where to start

This was where I fell down at the start. I would highly suggest trying to make one change at a time and start with something small.

What got me started was lemons! I wanted to buy a single lemon but the only option available to me to me was a plastic net bag of about 4/5 lemons, which was way more than I needed. So I starting looking at what fruit and veg I could buy loose.

People are starting to think about sustainable living so some of your friends may have already started – swap ideas!

Something I created so people don’t make the same mistake I did was the 30-Day Eco Swap Challenge – I created this challenge for anyone who wants to adopt sustainable living practices for their home and families without stress, overwhelm or judgement.

Over 30 days, there are 30 different ways to become eco-friendly and live more sustainably. There will be some things you may not have even thought about and one that is a bit of a wildcard!

The path to sustainable living isn’t smooth but it is rewarding and there’s no such thing is a ‘perfect environmentalist’. It’s a myth. Sustainable living looks different for everyone.

Something I always say in my social media is – Start small, Do what you can, build from there!

These are some ideas that work for me but may not work for everyone. Here are my terms & conditions for further reading

Self-care

How to cope with eco-anxiety?

August 15, 2022 Raakhee Stratton 2 Comments

If you worry about climate change and the impact humans are having on the environment to the point where you may not be able to stop thinking about it, there’s probably a chance you suffer from a level of eco-anxiety.

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Eco-anxiety affects people in different ways; some people can be a little anxious whereas others may feel more anxious. There is no right or wrong. Given the environmental challenges we are facing putting our long-term security at risk, it’s no surprise that eco-anxiety is on the rise and I’m glad people are more open to talking about it.

Even as an environmentalist, I have to keep my eco-anxiety in check – I’m not ashamed to say I find it overwhelming at times too. However, I have found some ways that helps me keep my eco-anxiety in check.

My tips to cope with eco-anxiety

1. Actions matter

It’s easy to sometimes feel powerless, there’s only so much an individual can control. Something I always say is ‘start small, do what you can, build from there‘. Our actions do matter and make a difference, regardless of how big or small. Never forget that!

2. Find like-minded individuals

It’s important to find other people who share the same passion for the environment and who want to do better. One thing I realised quite early on is that you can learn so much from each other and sharing this knowledge can only be a good thing. Plus, you will be part of a team that may want to set up litter-picks or a local eco group.

3. Happy Eco News

This is something that I started early on. There is so much negative news about climate change so any positive news is largely ignored. There are good things happening in the world when it comes to the environment which is why I send out a fortnightly newsletter filled with happy eco news. I also sent it on Mondays – start the week on a good note! If you would like to receive happy eco news – sign up here and grab a freebie download too.

4. Don’t argue with deniers

This took me a while to get to grips with but I’m much better at it than I was previously. You will always come across deniers. It’s inevitable. But I’m not referring to people who are aware of climate change and would prefer not to talk about it (out of sight, out of mind), I’m referring to people who will argue with you about how climate change is a hoax and want to argue their ‘reasons’ as to why it’s a hoax or not as bad as it’s being reported. DO NOT ENGAGE. After having a number of heated discussions with climate change deniers, I found that I was left frustrated and exhausted from the encounter and the only person affected from this is me. Nothing you can say will make a difference, so don’t bother.

For the little ones

If you have little ones, I’ve come across this gratitude journal for children. It’s so important for children to notice the good about their day rather than just the bad. My little one has a gratitude journal and now I don’t have to even remind her to fill it in, she enjoys doing it on her own.

Above all, it’s about protecting your mental health and only you can do that. It’s OK to protect your mental health.