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Detoxify: Getting Back to the Basics

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Detoxify—Today we celebrate about what makes us great as a country. We united as citizens. In a way, it's a time of cleansing, of getting back down to the basics, as we remember the common values we share, the basic reasons we enjoy citizenship in this country. The details, the complexities can sometimes be divisive and difficult. To the extent that we dwell on those difficulties, in our relationships with our fellow countrymen, our friends, even our family, we can be toxic.

Your Season of Service challenge this week, should you choose to accept it, is to detoxify, not just your relationships, if any of them need detoxifying, but also your environment and yourself. Many of the following ideas are taken from the book 365 Outdoor Activities.

10 Bite-Size Tips to Detoxify

  1. Have your younger kids do a Stuffy Wash Playoff to detoxify their stuffed animals because we all know how germy they can get. Provide them with soap, water, and a backyard and give a prize to the quickest or most thorough groomer.
  2. Help your kids understand pollution by doing this experiment: Place a clean jar in the open next time it rains, and collect the rainwater. Then pour it through a clean coffee filter. Examine the filter with your kids to see what the rain washed out of the atmosphere.
  3. Plant a tree in your backyard, since trees detoxify our air.
  4. Retweet an article on deforestation, such as this one.
  5. Recycle more by adding a second recycling bin, if you're consistently over-filling the first. Make the second exclusively for papers or plastics.
  6. Have your kids count the number of billboards you see along the freeway the next time you go for a drive. If it seems like too much, help them write a letter to your Congress-person asking him or her to help clean up the view by allowing fewer billboards.
  7. Make a list of all your current relationships—friends, coworkers, parents, etc.. Identify which ones are toxic or too fraught with drama to maintain at the current time, and resolve to take a step back from them.
  8. Make a list of any negative, toxic, self-esteem-corroding thought patterns you've had. Then, make a column next to that and write more realistic, positive thoughts to replace them with. See The Self-Esteem Workbook for more detailed instructions.
  9. Go to ExcessAccess.com if you have a large item you don't need anymore but which needs to get out of your house. They'll connect you with a nonprofit that wants it, thus keeping your large item out of a landfill and off your hands.
  10. Donate your old carpet to your local animal shelter, to be used for padding in pet cages.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

  • What other ideas do you have for detoxifying?
  • How has detoxifying made a meaningful difference for you this week?
  • How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here's how you can participate:

  • Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week's challenge.
  • Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week's challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
  • Enter to win each week's giveaway. Check out this week's prizes from Creative Connection by clicking here.
  • Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.

 

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