In this time of heightened consciousness towards everything in our lives, more and more of us are aware of our personal carbon footprint –the waste we create and the energy we consume simply by being alive.

My question is — are we actually doing anything about the impact our daily habits have on the world?

The truth is even relaxing impacts the environment. So what are some simple things we can do to lessen our footprint, while taking care of our body and spirit?

1 - In Need of Some Alone Time?

The perfect escape begins with a bath. Only don’t fill it to the rim, instead indulge in natural bubbles to fill the tub.

So go ahead, sink deep into warm waters, and emerge refreshed, relaxed, and silky smooth, without sulfates, parabens or preservatives. Check out this resource:  www.deepsteep.com

2 - In Need of Extra R.E.M?

Sleep deprivation is a major issue facing western society. Nothing gets you into bed sooner than a space dedicated to relaxation. Take out the TV and leave your phone in the kitchen, grab a good book and dim the lights, and jump into bed with your favorite organic pajamas.

The Chantal Gown  is made from a lightweight, breathable, silky soft cotton/soy fabric blend, available at www.gaiam.com. Don’t forget to check out their organic cotton sheets as well.

3 -Lost That Loving Feeling?

Maybe you’re in need of a deep tissue massage.  Nothing reconnects you to someone you love like touch.

Start by visiting www.goodcleanlove.com. Their oils are nature’s aphrodisiacs.

4 - Indulge in Chocolate

Is there anything like biting into a piece of rich dark chocolate? Um, not really. Just make sure it’s fair trade and made with love. Two of my favorites are:

Missionary Chocolates: (shown at left) These handmade truffles by Melissa M. Berry in Portland, Oregon are Vegan, dairy-free and simply divine.

TheoChocolate.com – The only organic, free trade, bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the United States.

Photo credits: Bizfind.org, Flickr, Domino, GoodCleanLove, Missionary Chocolates

Why not?

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.  –Margaret Mead

There is something about gratitude (for me) that conjures up images of fairy dust and sweet kisses. I’ve been practicing it lately a lot and it always puts me in a good mood, even when I’m feeling frustrated or having really bad PMS.

Here’s how it works:

Upon waking up I think about what I’m grateful for and it always includes my loving friends and my boyfriend who I absolutely adore. In the middle of the day, I’ll think of something or someone I love and as that happens my shoulders relax and a big smile spreads across my face.

One of my dear friends recently moved to the east coast and I was so sad. I miss her terribly. But really, whenever I think about her, I feel grateful that she is in my life and I know how lucky I am.

Gratitude is powerful, healing and simple. And guess what? It makes me happy.

The holidays are a notoriously stressful time of year – the shopping and decorating, the cooking and baking, the socializing and entertaining.

It’s a lot, but every year I look forward to it and I try to do it all.

Feeling overwhelmed?

Like most people, I have my moments of feeling overwhelmed.  And like many others, I have twinges of guilt over once again being seduced into the commercialism of what is meant to be a spirit- filled season of birth and new beginnings.

This year, however, the limitations of my body have forced me to rethink the way I approach the holidays.

As much as I want to “do it all,” and as much as I’ve been able to in the past, my almost 6-months pregnant body simply won’t allow it.  She says, “Yeah right, hon, you may think you are going to do a marathon cookie-baking session, spend long Sunday afternoons looking for the perfect gift for mom and grandma Sanders, or write a Christmas card to every person you ever met, but you just wait and see!”

I tried, anyway, but quickly discovered that my body wasn’t kidding. It wanted rest.  After thirty minutes fluttering around the kitchen, I needed a break.  After an hour of maneuvering through crowds at Macy’s, I needed a break.  After twenty minutes of searching for addresses, stamps and just the right words, I needed a break.

And so last weekend I surrendered my lofty vision of doing it all perfectly and settled for something else - meaning.

The meaning of the holiday season

I began asking myself, what is the meaning of these holiday traditions?  Why do I decorate a tree, light candles, write cards, give gifts, and cook special meals?  What is the true intention behind these activities?
And then I asked myself, how can I embrace the true meaning of these traditions without sacrificing my physical body (which is doing important work of its own, after all!)?  What would it look like if I let go of my ego-based superwoman and allowed myself to surrender, accept help, and do less?

Want to know what I’m discovering?

I’m discovering that with the help of family and friends, and minus a few dozen cookies, it may be my most spirit-filled holiday to date, and that sounds just perfect to me!

Here’s to doing less and connecting to your true meaning of the season!

You may have noticed; I’m a big fan of Brazilian author Paulo Coelho and I subscribe to his newsletter.

In his latest issue, Paulo reflects on our culture’s obsession with dieting in a funny, interesting, thought provoking kind of way.

With the holidays just around the corner, I thought it would be a fun Sunday read. Here goes:

Dieting Already?

One of Brazil’s great philosophers, Tim Maia, once said: “I decided to go on a strict diet. I cut out alcohol, all fats and sugar. In two weeks I lost 14 days”.

For 28 years I have been living with a marvelous woman who now and again loses her temper and her usual good humor because she feels that she has put on a couple of kilos. I wonder if maybe we are exaggerating a little. One thing is obesity, another is trying to stop the time and normal evolution of our organism.

The worst of it all is that at each and every moment there appears a new way to lose weight: eating calories, then not eating calories, compulsively consuming fats, then avoiding fats at any price. We step inside a pharmacy and are visually assaulted by all sorts of miraculous products that promise to do away with our desire to eat, with our fat tissue, with our belly, and so on.

We have survived all these millennia because we could eat. And nowadays this seems to have turned into a curse. Why is that? What makes us try at the age of 40 to keep the same body we had when we were young? Will it ever be at all possible to stop this dimension of time?

Of course not. And so why do we need to be slim?

We don’t. We buy books, go to the gym, devote a great deal of our concentration trying to stop time, when we ought to be celebrating the miracle of living in this world. Instead of wondering how to live better, we are obsessed with how much we weigh.

Let’s forget all that; you can read all the books you want, do all the exercise you want, suffer all the punishment you decide to inflict on yourself, and you will have only two choices – you either stop living, or else you will get fat.

It is obvious that you have to eat moderately, but above all you have to take pleasure in eating. Jesus Christ said that: “evil is not what goes into man’s mouth, but rather what comes out of it”.

The other day I was in a Lebanese restaurant with an Irish friend, and we were talking about salads. With all due respect to vegetarians and the fundamentalists of food, for me, salad is just something to decorate a dish. We cannot live without it, but on the other hand we cannot consider it as the center of our gastronomic attention. Every day the newspapers publish stories of young people looking for fame on the catwalk who end up dying because of this obsession with weight.

Remember that for thousands of years we fought to avoid being hungry. Who invented this story that we have to spend our whole life being slim?

Let me give you the answer: the vampires of the soul, who think that it is possible to stop the wheel of time. It is not possible. Use the energy and the effort of a diet to feed yourself with the bread of the spirit, and go on enjoying (moderately, let me repeat) the pleasures of good eating. Last year I wrote a series of columns on the capital sins, and greed was one of them. But what exactly is greed? An obsession.

The same goes for diets. And this is where the two extremes meet and become harmful to our health. While millions of people the world over are hungry, we see people provoking this other obsession because at some moment or other somebody decides that being slim is the only option for regaining youth and beauty.

Instead of artificially burning those calories, we should try to turn them into the energy we need to fight for our dreams; no-one has ever stayed slim for long just by following a diet.

For more on Paulo Coelho visit the webiste: www.paulocoelho.com.