An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide: Philip’s list of Daily Dos and Don’ts include

Philip’s list of Daily Dos and Don’ts include:

• Don’t eat meat, eggs, or drink milk.
  
• Eat as much raw food as possible.
  
• Don’t wear clothes made of animals - not even shoes, belts or watchbands.
  
• Don’t consume any product that is made by exploited labor.
  
• Everything in your wardrobe of clothes that haven’t been used in the previous year, give it away (but only if it is in good condition.)
  
• Eliminate plastic from your life as far as possible...bags, boxes and credit cards - and some people.
  
• Avoid negative people like the plague. Anyone who is not adding quality is subtracting quality.
  
• Turn off every unused electrical appliance at the source.
  
• Shorten your showers and washing loads.
  
• Walk, or ride a bike, or use public transport - drive only if absolutely necessary.
  
• Cut down on the amount of rubbish you send to landfill each week. I have cut down from 150 pounds a week to only 4 pounds - that is one briefcase of rubbish a week.
  
• Drink water at room temperature - 2 litres a day - in sips.
  
• Meditate at least one hour a day or at least read for two hours a day
  
• Walk briskly at least one hour a day.
  
• Take your pets for a long walk every day - and talk to them while you do it. And let them stop and sniff as often as they like. A walk is not a race.
  
• Write at least one letter to the media or a politician every week. It doesn’t have to be brickbat - a bouquet is fine too.
  
• Grow your own vegetable garden or buy organic vegetables.
  
• Pick up any rubbish you see in the park. It is the right thing to do - and do it in a visible way. It embarrasses the hell of everyone else who soon stop littering.
  
• Buy a few flat bottom clay trays and leave them under the bushes and trees in the park. Each evening (or morning) when you take your dogs to the park, also take two 2 liter bottles of water and fill up the trays. During the drought ten years ago my local park was baked dry and almost dead. Within 3 months of watering the
• little trays, the whole place became an ecosystem.
  
• Today the park resonates with birdsong, and is full of little animals and insects. It is full of parrots, honey-eaters and even possums.
  
• Dig in your garden - even if it’s a balcony pot garden. Get your hands in the soil. Compost the beds. Plant native flowering shrubs. Buy a birdbath, a bird book and binoculars. Go top your local park or a public place and plant a tree. Plant at least 4 fruit trees for the fruit bats, monkeys and birds.
  
• Keep the seed of the fruit you eat and put them in pots
  
• Volunteer your services at any struggling NGO of your choice.
  
• Play with a dog/cat etc at least once a day. And if possible let them occasionally eat from your hand. Ideal for rewards when they are being good.
  
• Listen to music.
  
• Give away money every week—regardless of the amount or the recipient. Try to calculate how much of your income you can give away without drastically affecting your health or happiness. (Not ‘lifestyle’—because this means different things to different people—and is mostly rubbish.)
  
• Ask at least one shopkeeper, flight attendant, or restaurant manager/waiter every day if they stock vegan products (particularly if you know they don’t).
  
• Wear a badge, cap, shirt, or pin which says ‘Proud to be Vegetarian’ or ‘ I don’t eat dead bodies’ or similar.
  
• De-clutter your house every month. Give away everything you don’t need.
  
• To increase your happiness, do not aim to increase your possessions. Simply decrease your desires.”

For more on Phil, please visit www.kindnesstrust.com.