Author: Teodora Pasca

Stretching regularly has several benefits. It is a great and healthy habit to have. If you’re interested in the benefits of stretching regularly and how to make stretching a habit, this article is just for you!

What Does Stretching Regularly Do?

• Increases Your Flexibility

Stretching regularly will make you more flexible. There are many benefits to increasing your flexibility. It can help you perform daily activities and exercise better. As you get older, stretching can delay muscle stiffness, which can reduce your mobility.

• Improves Your Posture

Poor posture can be caused by a lot of things. Tense and tight muscles are some possible reasons. Stretching helps loosen, as well as strengthen your muscles, which can help align your posture. It is good to regularly stretch your shoulders, chest, and lower back. With time, your posture will improve, and you will not feel the need to slouch.

• Helps with Back Pain

If you often stay in the same position throughout the day, you may feel pain in your back. Stretching can help you relieve existing back pain. It can also prevent future back pain by strengthening your back muscles, which reduces the risk of you straining your muscles. Stretching daily increases blood flow to your muscles. This can help shorten your recovery time, as well as help relieve any sore muscles.

• Relieves Stress

Stretching is a good way to cope with stress. Emotional stress can cause your muscles to tighten. Like meditation, deep breathing while stretching is a great way to help calm you down. Some areas that stress can affect are your neck, upper back, and shoulders. Stretching these areas can leave you feeling less stressed.

How to Make Stretching a Habit

• Start Small

When you begin to make stretching a habit, it is important to start small. You could do each stretch for as little as 30 seconds. This will help you avoid injuring yourself. As your body gets used to the stretching, you could gradually increase your goal.

• Explore Different Stretches

There are many different stretches you could do. Depending on your goal or any pain you may be wanting to relieve, some stretches could work for you while others might not.  If you need guidance, you could find stretching routine videos online that could guide you throughout each stretch.

• Stretch Every Day for 30 Days

It is easier to create a habit if you do it every day. Try to stretch for 30 days. You could begin with stretching for three minutes per day. Each day, you could add a minute to your routine. This will help make stretching a habit.

• Set a Time to Stretch

Stretching at the same time every day can help you feel motivated. This will help you stay consistent. You could wake up earlier to complete your stretching routine or stretch right before going to bed.

• Give Yourself Breaks

Developing new habits may be difficult. You may not always remember to stretch. If you forget, don’t feel guilty about it. Just pick up where you left off. Stretching can also make you sore. If you are feeling sore, it is best to take a break to avoid injuring yourself.

 

Resources

Baghadia, Nisha. “7 amazing benefits of stretching regularly.” I Am Expat. https://www.iamexpat.nl/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/7-amazing-benefits-stretching-regularly.

Healthline. “Stretching: 9 Benefits, Plus Safety Tips and How to Start.” https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-stretching#types.

Mayo Clinic. “Stretching: Focus on flexibility.” https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/stretching/art-20047931.

McCoy, Jenny. “11 Benefits of Stretching That Will Make Anyone Want to Move Their Body.” Self. https://www.self.com/story/benefits-of-stretching.

Pantheon. “How to make stretching a habit.” https://pnthn.com/knowledge/how-to-make-stretching-a-habit.

Have you ever wondered how much waste the world produces each year? Well, you’d be surprised. The statistics are downright staggering.

According to Earth.org, globally, there are 300 million tons of plastic waste each year, with eight million tons entering the ocean each year.

Now this isn’t something that’s easily resolved overnight. It will take years, and what we can do on our part is reuse and repurpose, instead of simply recycling.

This isn’t to say recycling is bad per se. After all, you’re collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown in the garbage and making something new out of them. For example, you can make your own paper out of used ones, such as notebooks, binder pages, bills, and even receipts. You can even add your own personal touch by using dried flowers, leaves, or seeds.

However, recycling has its drawbacks, making reusing and repurposing the better options. For one, recycling costs money. To make something new out of old often requires you to purchase new materials, which means you accrue costs in the process. Secondly, recycling uses energy, which can cause pollution. When you make your own paper out of old paper, for example, you’ll need a blender or a food processor. And these things use energy, which we can allot for something else.

Below are three amazing reasons why repurposing and reusing are better than recycling.

1. You value quality over quantity.

Mass-produced clothing is now more popular than ever around the globe. Before, one can easily tell if your outfit is from a mass-produced brand, but over the years, the designs and overall look have been somewhat elevated. What’s more, most of these stores have launched their own high-end line. They have higher quality wear that is more expensive than their regular line but is still budget-friendly.

However, convincing yourself that these purchases won’t burn a hole in your wallet encourages you to buy more than what you actually need. Since they’re so affordable, you can buy as many as you can and you can easily discard them once you wear them out. On the other hand, try thinking long-term along the lines of repurposing and reducing. This will lead you to choose quality over quantity. For this option, you only discard of the clothes if you no longer fit in them but others may still have good use for them.

2. You borrow items instead of buying them.

These days, it’s easy to find items that we use at home for baking, cooking, or renovating at the corner dollar store. When we no longer have use for them, we don’t wrestle with the thought of whether we should throw them away or not because we didn’t pay a lot for them anyway. We just throw them away.

However, if you think along the lines of reducing, then you’d think twice about buying items that you rarely have a use for. Instead, you’re motivated to borrow from family, friends, and neighbours. Doing so will make you feel less guilty of wasting items that you don’t use often.

3. You bring out your creative side.

If you start thinking about repurposing items, you get an opportunity to hone in your creative skills, and it can be a fun project for you and your family. In the end, you might be surprised by your potential to be creative! Even if you’re inspired by repurposing ideas from others, it’s still up to you to make it your own. For example, if you have an old ladder at home that most likely will cause an injury if used, then instead of throwing it into the recycling bin, turn it into a bookshelf with the help of your family and go crazy on how to design it.

With the amount of waste growing each day, it’s important we truly look into reducing and repurposing instead of just recycling. You’ve read the three reasons above so we hope you’re convinced.

 

Sources

D., Lina. “30 Creative Ways to Repurpose & Reuse Old Stuff.” Bored Panda. https://www.boredpanda.com/creative-reuse-upcycling-repurposing-ideas/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic.

Environmental Protection Agency. “Recycling Basics.” https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics.

Lai, Olivia. “8 Shocking Plastic Pollution Statistics to Know About.” Earth.org. https://earth.org/plastic-pollution-statistics/.

Sukalich, Kathryn. “Simple Steps To Recycle Your Own Paper.” Earth911. https://earth911.com/home-garden/recycle-your-own-paper/.

Gardening indoors or in your yard at home can be a solo activity – but if you love taking care of plants, meeting new people, and improving the environment, then maybe you should start a community garden.

What is a Community Garden?

Community gardens are public spaces set aside for gardening projects, which are accessible to the public and involve multiple people working together to grow flowers, vegetables, or other plants.  These gardens help beautify neighbourhoods and parks, and provide the opportunity for local plant lovers to meet other gardeners and learn from each other.

These gardens can be large or small, and are often located in parks, school grounds, building rooftops, and along walking trails.  Many cities and towns have one or more community garden spaces. If you are interested in joining a community garden, ask around your local area to see if there is one already operating nearby.

If there isn’t a community garden near you, consider starting one yourself!

Starting a Community Garden

A community garden is a cooperative project, which is true for setting one up in the first place as well as caring for the garden afterwards.  There are several steps to setting up a community garden in your neighbourhood or at your school, and you will need help from an adult.

1. Find Other People to Join You

The point of community gardening is to garden with other people, so ask around! Check with your family, friends, school, and neighbourhood to find other people who are interested in joining your community garden group.  Depending on the bylaws in your town or the rules at your school, you may need a minimum number of members before you can start the process of setting up a garden.

2. Pick Your Location

Work with your school or neighbourhood representatives to find a suitable space to install your garden.  Have an adult help you visit locations, talk to the people at your school or neighbourhood, and contact your local government about any permissions or permits needed to gain access to the space and install soil plots or raised boxes.

3. Design a Plan for Your Garden

Part of any application process with a neighbourhood or school will involve sharing a plan for your garden for review and approval.  You will need to include information about the size and arrangement of your garden, what plants will be grown, what the space is like for sunlight and water availability, who the group members are and what tasks each person will take care of, and more.  Your local municipal or school representatives will be able to provide you with a full list of the information your plan needs to include.

4. Get to Gardening!

Once you have a garden location, a group of gardeners, and approval from your neighbourhood or school, then it’s time to get started!  Work with your group members to dig garden beds, put down soil, plant seeds, and start caring for your soon-to-be plants.  Depending on what you’re growing, whether flowers or vegetables, you will start to see sprouts within a few weeks and after a month or two, you will have a beautiful, thriving garden.  If you start with baby plants instead of seeds, you will have a gorgeous garden even faster.

A Few Important Points

There are a few important things to keep in mind when planning, starting, and maintaining your community garden.

Gardening takes time, and can be a lot of work – but the effort is definitely worth the reward.  This is also another benefit of a community garden, where the work can be split up among multiple people working together to get things done.  This also means that everyone gets to have some input into the garden, whether it’s to pick the tasks they want to do or to help decide what plants to grow.

There can also be monetary costs involved, though there are lots of ways for community gardens to support themselves without the members paying for everything.  Community gardens don’t usually have to pay for the garden space itself, but often need money to purchase materials.  Your garden group can run a fundraiser to raise money, or ask the neighbourhood for donations of items such as gardening tools, soil, and seeds.  Many cities and towns also have grants available to help support public projects.

Whether you end up with a large and busy garden or a small and quiet one, you will have a space to enjoy gardening, meet fellow plant lovers, and contribute to the natural beauty of your neighbourhood!

 

Sources:

City of Toronto. “Community Gardens.” https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/parks-gardens-beaches/gardens-and-horticulture/urban-agriculture/community-gardens/

Nourish Project. “8 Things to Know about Community Gardens.” https://nourishproject.ca/8-things-know-about-community-gardens

Plant a Seed Foundation Canada. “School Gardening & Community Garden.” https://seewhatgrows.org/our-causes/community-gardens-seed-preservation/

Wikipedia. “Community gardens.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_gardening