Switching to Natural Personal Care - My personal journey

I learnt about why I should use natural personal care in a workshop I attended called "Rethinking Development" which was about environment sustainability, It is through this workshop that my passion for environmental sustainability sprouted and I began my journey of exploring natural personal care.
I began using many alternatives but a complete switch did not happen, there were still days I would go back to my regular shampoo or other cosmetics.
The convenience and comfort that I had with my regular products were preventing me from completely switching. In terms of time and convenience using a regular shampoo was much easier than hair wash powder. My mind blocks were stopping me from completely letting go of the toxic products in the bathroom.

The following year, I was part of the facilitating team of the same workshop. I happen to be taking the session "Toxins behind our cosmetics". For this session I did a lot of research, this really moved me. A spark of motivation hit me, and my New year resolution for 2016 was that I will only use natural and safe personal products. I am proud to say that it happened, I went through with my resolution and I never turned back since then.
Making and using natural products for personal use flowed into Dhanak - selling and sharing them with others. Through my journey in Dhanak, My understanding of making and using natural products really widened and deepened.

Personally, for me the easiest switch when it comes to leading a natural and sustainable lifestyle was menstrual hygiene products, I was very smoothly and comfortably able to switch from sanitary napkins to cloth pads.
I feel taking small steps is a good way to transit into a natural lifestyle, especially natural personal care.

I began with an easy switch, replacing my lip balm from vaseline to natural beeswax lip balm.
Then I switched from toothpaste to toothpowder and from soap to bath powder.
I was lucky to live in a place where I had access to good toothpowder and plenty of trees for datun(tree twigs to brush like neem)

and so on went on switching products.

The most difficult switch was shampoo, Hair wash powder requires your time and patience. To have a good and efficient wash one needs to apply the paste and leave for 15-20 minutes before washing off while the shampoo is an instant wash.
I had to change my mindset for this switch, Work an attitude of natural living within and stop telling myself that is time-consuming. Now I look at it as a self-care time and have no difficulty using hair wash powder even when I am travelling!

Initially, when I would travel I did not use natural. I would convince myself, that during travel it's tough to use natural products like oil for moisturizer or hair wash powder so let's carry shampoo and cream.
However, once I got comfortable with natural personal care at home, I was able to challenge myself to do it on travel too.

A big change for me in this journey has also been embracing my natural beauty. Loving my self for who I am. Now bathing, washing my hair and caring for my body has become a self-care ritual and  I developed a loving relationship with my body.

I was never really fond of makeup, though I enjoyed putting nail polish and occasionally makeup. Once I understood how toxic this is for my physical health, emotional health and the planet. I cannot use any commercial cosmetic or personal care product.

Volunteering during Lockdown

APRIL-MAY 2020

Amidst the chaos of Covid-19, Safe and secure in my house during lockdown I felt helpless. I could see the challenges that the country was facing. The frontline workers, the migrant workers, the common man was going through tough times yet I was sitting at my home.

Some friends were volunteering by going out and distributing food in the cities, but I live in a village where that's not required. How can I be of help?  More news I saw, more unsettled I felt with the privilege and comfort I felt during the lockdown.
Personally, for me, Lockdown had been an amazing time. Break from my business gave me an opportunity to do so many other things. I was thoroughly enjoying my lockdown but how can I be happy when so many people are going through bad times.

This gave rise to the opportunity of Online volunteering. Having the ability to speak Hindi, landed me into volunteering with migrant workers who came to the southern states from north India to work. My work was to speak to them over the phone, listen to them, understand their problems and then find ways to support and help them out.

It was a tough job, to listen to their problems and not get emotionally effected and keep my mind straight. To not take on their problems onto me or get drained by the helplessness of the situation.

My phone would be buzzing the whole day with calls.

Access to food, money to pay rent and a way to travel back home to their native villages were the most common issues. Unfortunately, these were the most difficult to solve!

Having a lack of resources on hand and having no understanding of the ground reality added to the difficulty of helping then as a volunteer. The whole experience really pushed me to be resourceful, To go beyond my comfort zone and talk to strangers, To handle emotions and above all be consistent and dedicated to the work no matter what obstacles.

I experienced good and bad, Black and white, Hope and despair. Which gave me a realization that this the reality, nothing is perfect and we all are human.

Lockdown and volunteering taught me handling myself in unpredictability, not letting emotions pull me down and living in the present 

Many times I was able to offer support, find resources to help, but sometimes I wasn't able to.
The times I was able to support and do something about the problem was what gave me strength.
The thanks that I received from the migrant workers was worth all the effort and time I put.

It was also amazing to be part of the group energy, be part of the volunteering group. I t was beautiful to see how if a group of people come together with the intention to create change and contribute it is possible to do it despite the challenges. 

Some stories - One help seeker had a pregnant wife, due at the end of May. With no work, he was running out of resources. I was able to provide him with support through finances, rations and emotional support until his wife gave birth to a baby boy and came back home. A picture of the cute newborn was enough for me to know I could contribute to someone's life.

I also did the whole tango of organising a private bus for a group of migrant workers to travel to their home in the north from south. Pass, permits, money and other dimensions of getting this was a challenging task to do. When they reached home, all the effort was worth it. 

Of course, the whole situation and problems were much larger than me, but these small actions were important to me.

I am left with so much gratitude and admiration of the hard work that the countless people - government officials, NGO's, volunteers and others did. They have done so much, worked countless hours to support people in despair. It is just breathtaking to witness.

I am glad I have been able to contribute and be part of the solution not be part of the problem.