Suggested practices for after your trip

Now that you have returned home from Guatemala, you may be looking for ways in which you can prolong or expand the feelings you experienced while giving back on your voluntourism trip. Previous volunteers have shared the following ideas below of changes they made in their lives after returning home from their trip.

  • Recycle
    • Over 75% of waste is recyclable, but we only recycle approximately 30% of it.
  • Re-use
    • Coffee cans, shoe boxes, margarine containers, and other types of containers people throw away can be used to store things or can become fun arts and crafts projects. Use your imagination!
  • Reduce how much you are consuming
    • Instead of buying something you’re not going to use very often, see if you can borrow it from someone you know
    • Save energy by turning off lights that you are not using.
  • Use re-usable shopping bags at the grocery store
    • The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas and chemicals and the production is toxic to the air.
  • Use a re-usable water bottle in place of single use water bottles
    • Last year, the average American used 167 disposable water bottles, but only recycled 38
    • The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power 190,000 homes
  • Bring your own coffee mug to use in place of the single serve paper/styrofoam cups
    • Some coffee shops, such as Starbucks and Williams even offer discounts to customers who bring their own cups
  • Reduce your use of single serving products
    • as well as wreaking havoc on the environment, single serving products cost far more than purchasing a product in bulk
  • Drink less soda
  • Drink more water
  • Say hello to people you pass on the street
    • You never know how a simple smile or “Hello” may change someone’s day or mood
  • Be more grateful for what you have
    • Keep a “gratitude journal” documenting all the things you are grateful for in your life
    • Set an alarm on your phone for each day when you wake reminding you to be grateful for all that you have
  • Don’t take things for granted
    • Try to imagine what life would be like without some of the most basic things we often take for granted: electricity, water, food, heat and a home to live in, a car to drive or a bus to take to work, a job to pay the bills. When we make the time to reflect on how much we actually DO have instead of thinking about what we do not have, we are less likely to take things for granted
  • Volunteer in your community
    • Spend time at a women’s shelter, the food bank, or at a senior’s center, walk dogs at the local Humane Society, etc.
  • Follow your heart
    • “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” ~Rumi
  • Live your passion
  • Learn Spanish
  • Smile more
    • Smiling activates the central nervous system and boosts your immune system. It lowers your blood pressure, regulates your heartbeat, and enhances respiration.
  • Laugh more
    • Some of the many benefits of laughing are: it boosts immunity, lowers stress hormones, decreases pain, relaxes your muscles, eases anxiety and fear, relieves stress, improves mood, enhances teamwork, strengthens relationships
  • Hug more
    • Hugs are much like meditation and laughter. They teach us to let go and be present in the moment, they encourage us to flow with the energy of life. The energy exchange between the people hugging is an investment in the relationship and it encourages empathy and understanding
  • Plant a garden and grow your own food
    • The benefits are endless! To name a few: better tasting, less costly, saves fuel- both yours in getting to the grocery store and the transport needed to get the produce to the grocery store, more nutritious, FUN !!
  • Assist someone if they are struggling with communicating, offer to use phone to translate

 

Do you have any other ideas to add to this list? If so, please them to email adam@hugitforward.org