Everyday life practices that can help improve the world.

[Niatero]

NOTE: I’m posting this intentionally in a non debate forum.

I’d like this thread to be for people to post ideas and stories about what people can do and practice in their everyday lives, that can help improve the world for all people everywhere. For example it can be:
- Ways of training children
- Meditation practices
- Community service
- Personal spiritual growth
- Learning from other people
- Practicing friendly and helpful behavior in online discussions

 

[Niatero]

One of my ideas is trying to learn to be a safe, easy, fun and helpful person to talk to for all kinds of people in all kinds of circumstances.

(later) I’m remembering now one time when my family moved to a new neighborhood and a neighbor invited me to help them deliver food from a food bank. We became good friends that way.

 

[chinu]

What people can do and practice in their everyday lives, that can help improve the world for all people everywhere.

.

 

[Valjean]

Forgo children.
Give up meat.

 

[Vinayaka]

Smile ... don't be afraid to show your zest for life.
Use people's names whenever possible when addressing them. (Cashiers, nurses, etc.) Let them know you're aware of somebody else, other than yourself.

 

[Niatero]

Forgo children.
Give up meat.

I wasn’t sure what reaction to put on that. The first one made me laugh, but I wasn’t sure if it was intended that way.

My son is passionate about the second one.

 

[Niatero]

Smile ... don't be afraid to show your zest for life.
Use people's names whenever possible when addressing them. (Cashiers, nurses, etc.) Let them know you're aware of somebody else, other than yourself.

Smile … yes, I like that one very much. Also friendly attention that is not just buttering them up to get something out of them.

 

[Secret Chief]

The first one made me laugh, but I wasn’t sure if it was intended that way.

I would guess both are seriously meant.

 

[Niatero]

I would guess both are seriously meant.

My first thought when I saw it was that it would be less people to do harm to others, but now I see it could be to reduce overpopulation.

 

[icehorse]

Help educate women and girls around the world.
Stop tilling the soil: it hurts the soil and is less productive in the long run.
Question authority, they've probably been corrupted by oligarchs.
Question magical thinking, you can't fool reality.

 

[Valjean]

My first thought when I saw it was that it would be less people to do harm to others, but now I see it could be to reduce overpopulation.

Correct on both counts.
No matter how much one individual recycles, turns off lights, or bicycles rather than drives, adding an entire lifetime's resource consumption, resource competition, carbon footprint, &c. to one's tally will exceed all of it.

Being helpful, friendly, &c is all well and good, and will have beneficial local effects, but subtracting an entire person's -- one child's -- lifetime carbon footprint, deforestation and pollution footprint, extinction footprint, aquifer and topsoil depletion, biodiversity and habitat depletion, social services and housing depletion, and so on, will help the entire human and biotic population. It will benefit everything, everywhere -- including one's personal financial prosperity and opportunities.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Treat every person as good or better than one would treat themselves.
Recycle.
Take responsibility for one's own actions.

 

[Niatero]

My cup runneth over. If I were a cat I would be purring and clawing somebody's leg.

 

[Valjean]

My son is passionate about the second one.

For environmental reasons, health reasons, or ethical reasons?

 

[Niatero]

For environmental reasons, health reasons, or ethical reasons?

All, but he became even more passionate about it after learning more about the carbon footprint. (I think it was the carbon footprint)

 

[Revoltingest]

NOTE: I’m posting this intentionally in a non debate forum.

I’d like this thread to be for people to post ideas and stories about what people can do and practice in their everyday lives, that can help improve the world for all people everywhere. For example it can be:
- Ways of training children
- Meditation practices
- Community service
- Personal spiritual growth
- Learning from other people
- Practicing friendly and helpful behavior in online discussions

I dispense guidance and financial aid.

 

[JustGeorge]

Love.

No, I don't mean be ooey-gooey and go around spewing toxic positivity. Just give a **** about the world around you, the creatures in it, and the terrain itself.

Try to understand that person that's saying things you don't like. Are they hurting? Scared? Can you help them?

Don't tear **** up. Plants and animals need places to exist. They have the needs, just like you do. If you must remove something or altar the land somehow, consider what you're doing and try to maintain harmony and balance.

If you have too much, share with someone who doesn't have enough.

Be mindful of workers as you go through your day. If there was a time you didn't like being at work, they probably don't, either. Don't give them a hard time. Realize that lots of these 'little people' make your life easy. Treat them with dignity, respect, and caring.

Work to eliminate suffering. Not just of people like yourself, but people unlike you, animals, plants, and minerals. There are some things we can't do much about, but there are many things we can.

May all beings be free of danger.
May all beings be free of mental suffering.
May all beings be free of physical suffering.
May all beings be at peace.
Om!

 

[Vinayaka]

Smile … yes, I like that one very much. Also friendly attention that is not just buttering them up to get something out of them.

It's interesting, the lasting effects. I shop at the same store at around the same hour and day, once a week. I swear about 6 or 7 people smile at me, before I smile at them. Some people uplift, while others bring you down. The idea is to become one of the first types.

 

[Niatero]

It's interesting, the lasting effects. I shop at the same store at around the same hour and day, once a week. I swear about 6 or 7 people smile at me, before I smile at them. Some people uplift, while others bring you down. The idea is to become one of the first types.

I've had experiences like that with shopkeepers too.

 

[Vinayaka]

Take time for yourself. You're useless to others if you're constantly burned out. Then it's difficult to be uplifting. In my faith it's called sadhana, and my Guru summed it up nicely:
"Sadhana allows us to live in the refined and cultured soul nature, rather than in the outer, instinctive, or intellectual spheres."