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choice Magazine
choice Magazine
Episode #23 ~ Rediscovering the Outdoors with guest, Reshma Aziz Khan
In this interview, we talk with Reshma Aziz Khan about her article "Rediscovering the Outdoors - Strengthening the connections to the earth for coaches and clients."
Join us as we discuss how the ability to go back into green spaces - to take a simple walk outdoors- is something we can no longer take for granted. Our time in nature is becoming a stronger source of inspiration, and perhaps the lack of access over the past couple of years has made us appreciate the wild and green spaces that surround us.
Reshma Aziz Khan is Kenyan and grew up in Nairobi, the Green City in the Sun. She set up K’enso Consulting in 2020 to support social impact leaders in their conscious leadership, through her leadership coaching, team effectiveness and Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Dialogue facilitation work.
Watch the full interview by clicking here.
Find the full article here: https://bit.ly/BtP_Khan
To learn more about Reshma please visit her website https://www.kenso.consulting/
For a FREE gift from K'enso Consulting, please click here.
Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/
In this episode, I talk with Reshma about her article published in our June 2022 issue.
Hi, this is Garry Schleifer. And this is another episode of beyond the page brought to you by choice. The premier magazine and ultimate resource for professional coaches choice is more than a magazine. It's a community of people who use and share coaching tools, tips, and techniques to add value to their businesses and impact their clients. It's an institution of learning built over the course of, believe it or not 20 years, we've been in publication dedicated to improving the lives of coaches and their clients. In today's episode, I'm speaking with leadership coach Reshma Aziz Khan, author of the choice magazine final say article in the June issue, rediscovering the outdoors, strengthening the connections to the earth for coaches and clients. I read it, reread it again today and I'm all excited. Reshma Aziz Khan is K enyan and joins us today from where she grew up in Nairobi, the green city in the sun. You're gonna have to tell me what that is. I didn't know what was called that. Reshma did her undergraduate degree in Calgary, Canada and over the past 15 years has worked in development and humanitarian aid and communications leadership strategy and culture, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. She also led global leadership and strategy workshops for senior leaders, both in person and virtually, which I'm sure was a challenge over the last few years, Reshma set up Kenzo consulting in 2020 to support social impact leaders in their conscious leadership, through her leadership coaching team effectiveness and diversity equity, inclusion and belonging, dialogue, facilitation work. Reshma lives her low waste life, I love that, in Nairobi with her husband and three dogs. She makes all her own body products and grows much of her own food in her commitment to doing better for the earth. Welcome Reshma, thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me, Garry.
Speaker 1:We were chatting before we got on the call and I'm just, it was so refreshing to have your article and I'm, it's weird. I'm getting, I'm getting goosebumps saying this. It was so refreshing to have something that was out of COVID that was so felt so fresh and different and grounding in a way. Um, what had you write this article?
Speaker 2:Well, actually it is out of COVID, but COVID was the inspiration for talking about connections to nature more. So you know, of course, 2020, I was still in my development role in my job before I quit and set up my own consulting firm and I realized that, and I think many people in the world, you know, face similar, having to be on your laptop on a zoom from like 7:00 AM to 1:00 AM the next morning and not having breaks has an effect and the toll of that on one's mental condition. I can talk for myself. I was completely burnt out. And in the middle of all these calls, working with the humanitarian organization that you know is already crisis enough is already quite stressfull outside of times, like the pandemic. I just could not deal with. I felt tired, fatigued. I felt like everything was crumbling around me. And one day I walked out into this little space where we grow our own food. I just stood there for five minutes and stared at whatever was growing. And I went back a completely different person. Like I that's, when I realized, gosh, this nature just five minutes of being in nature is doing so much for my mental health. And then of course I left my job, set up. My consulting firm started coaching a fair bit coaching, mostly people in the social impact space and nonprofit space. And I was starting to hear the same stories from people that I wish I could even go out for a walk because all of a sudden people like recognize the value of, you know, when I think about Nairobi forests or trails, or just a green space an open park, the inability to even go out to walk in a space like that because of government restrictions or the inability to even see green was directly affecting people's mental ability and mental health. And I started to see these patterns in people who were very, very senior leaders, secretary, you know, secretary generals of organizations down to consultants and something got me thinking, gosh, are we exploring enough what nature means for us? And I've grown up in a family that was very connected to the earth, very connected to nature. I grew up in Nairobi. So, you know, you are wondering about the green city in the sun. Yeah. Nairob is known to be very green. It's changing now with infrastructure and condos, but Nairobi's typically been a very green city. And so I've grown up around a lot of greenery and, and recognizing that the lack of that was affecting not only me, but people around me and just five minutes in that space could completely change your day.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You know, I, it's interesting you say that because, during COVID my saving graces were the fact that we were had a small balcony and I was growing some stuff in there. We made homemade pesto and, you know, there was lots of, I'm sure a lot of people listening did this too, b ut there was lots of cooking and baking a nd, you know lots of pounds got added back there. And you know, t he, it was, it was so crazy to not be able to go for a walk that as soon as we were allowed to, I was out on the trails and we have some close to the building that I live in. And it was funny. I always say me and my best friend, Michelle Obama were going for a walk e very d ay, c uz I would have her Audible a nd
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:Right? Yeah. Have her book on Audible and so it was fun. I would just say, oh, me and Michelle were going for a walk. And and then it was Obama cuz then I started listening to his book. Yes. But, but you know what, and although it was the same trail every day, there was just something, I don't know, I wanna say refreshing grounding. Like, is there some sort of scientific name for this connection with nature? I don't even know. We didn't talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. And I, you know, I'm no scientist by any means, but I will say I started in that year starting to read up on, you know, what, what does nature and greenery do for us? And I came across this fantastic book called,"The Nature Fix"and The Nature Fix talks about different countries and how different countries really use nature to heal people and to make us feel better. So of course, we'll hear about forest bathing in Japan and South Korea, for example. Or the fact that they have a, I think it's Japan or South Korea, one of them that actually has a ministry of forest bathing now in recognition of what being in nature actually does for us physically and mentally. For sure, I think a lot also, you know, when you look at a lot of mystical texts and religions talking about the healing, like the healing of the color green. So even those who work at crystal therapy mentioned, you know, green is a very healing color. And in many faith traditions, in many scientific traditions, greenery is actually quite just our eyes perceiving that color can be quite calming to the nerves. So there is a lot of research behind how nature, you know, really takes care of us. And just being out in that space really reduces our blood pressure, reduces our crazy heartbeats. So this book The Nature Fix, I started reading in 2020, and gosh, I was thinking, you know, there, there has to be more to this. There is something here. So I've written a couple of other articles and mentioned that because that was brilliant. And this particular woman who wrote it, talked about how she moved from a very demanding city where planes were flying over her house every day, moving to a forest and what happened to her health, the health of her family, and just how generally changed everything. And apart from that, like what we see in nature, the lessons we learned from nature is, well, like now it's, it's a very regular thing for me to go and daydream while staring at whatever is growing, whether it's the basil, which is not doing so well right now, or whether it's currently it's goose berries and just thinking, oh my gosh, like this is really cool. And sometimes, you know, all of a sudden in aha moment just comes in that very reflective space.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh man. Well, and you spoke about though the challenges like you and I, we both have a bit of green space, but how can you connect with nature regularly if you don't have that right beside you? Like how, you know, how do we handle that? Yes. How do other people handle that?
Speaker 2:And that's such a, you know, it's such a great question because a lot of people are worth coaching were saying, look, either we have a very little balcony or we can't go outside or we're in countries where green space is not necessarily something that many of us have access to. So really thinking about also it is a privilege when we talk about privilege, it's a privilege to even own a green space in your backyard or have access to it. But simple things like, like you mentioned, you know, growing all sorts of herbs on, you know, on your patio, you can do that in a house without a balcony. There are some plants you can grow that are really great for the indoors. Some Aloe plants, some palms that are really great for the indoors, great to have in an office space. I actually have a Palm behind me that sadly didn't survive because I didn't realize it should never be out in the sun. This is actually an indoor Palm
Speaker 1:Palm. Oh,
Speaker 2:The one day I left it out in the sun thinking sun, cause sun's good for it. It reviving itself now. So I keep looking at it, but really just, and these are not very expensive investments, but having a little plant at your desk or, you know, having plants in, around your house, in your kitchen, on your dining table just being surrounded by that green can make such a difference as well. And you can actually, there's some things that are hardier that you can actually grow in your house. So I've heard of even as crazy as people growing like lemon trees in the house, as long as they have a window that you get sunlight. So, you know, in a pot that's grafted.
Speaker 1:So, okay. Weird question. But would fake plants do the same thing or is there some essence of nature?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, I think there's some essence of nature. I think there's a, so again, the five senses and beyond the five senses. The ability to, to smell, you know, a plant, the ability to see it move in the wind and to the ability to see it grow. So one of the biggest things for me that really helped me calm down every day consistently was looking at particular plants and how they were growing and developing and just that miracle on its own was so calming. So I do think that having a living, living plant is much more, much more beneficial,
Speaker 1:Right? Yeah. That makes so much sense because you're right. It's the differences it's like look, there's a tomato and oh, the tomatoes turning red, you know, little cherry tomato and things like that. Or the, oh, gotta cut the basil and make some more pesto cuz it's growing outta control, you know?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You're right. You're right. Although I'm looking at behind me. So that picture gives me a real connection to earth and water. It's called Hotel California
Speaker 2:And oh, I love it. I was wondering, I've been staring at it the whole time
Speaker 1:And it's, it's so inviting, it takes me to that place and, and it just makes me want to go to real nature more. But in the meantime, I've kind of got a little bit of this to look behind me, but no. I wanna ask too. So you mentioned this in your article and it was a suggestion about having coaching sessions in nature and you'd specifically said, you know, go to a forest or something like that. So how do you do that? Do you just, do you tell your client, like what's the, what's the setup for that? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, and it could be a couple of things. So I actually have a good friend. Who's a coach as well. And her entire coaching model is built in the outdoors. Oh wow. And she actually physically does forest walks. So Nairobi, unfortunately many cities in Africa, we don't really have like walking paths a nd as many open parks as you would in Canada, for example. But over the years because of government intervention and really citizen activism, we have a couple of amazing parts of really old forest trail that have been preserved that you can walk in and take your dogs. And so this friend of mine, she actually, she of course, most important is to ask the client, i f you know, permission, i s, are they comfortable with this? What's the accessibility like for them thinking about making sure that they're most comfortable in this and it's not
Speaker 1:Out, oh, you're both comfort. Was it live or I see here, I'm thinking virtual.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, so it could be boths, I'll tell you about her. So she actually does it live now that you know, we've opened up again. Right. And she actually like takes people on a walk. So they actually do a one up to 90 minute walk in the forest as they, as they have this coaching conversation and people find that really helpful. Oh, and it's incredible. She's ended up becoming really famous for this way of coaching. You know, now that the world is opening up again in the same forest space meeting in the forest space at a cafe that's fairly quiet also really works because you're surrounded by all of this nature, the trees, the animals, the sounds, but then virtually what I tend to do is when the weather is better, we have a lovely slice of forest in our backyard. I actually will go and take my laptop and make sure that I'm my background is trees. It's just trees. You might see a monkey or two jumping around once in a while attempting to attack me or my laptop or you might find one of my dogs in, but it's amazing how that people coming in from particularly stressful environments and stressful days just come down all of a and say, there's something about the green, like, just like the picture behind you. There's something so common for me even looking at it that I can almost feel like I'm walking out that wooden door. Right. There's something about the greenery behind that says, oh gosh, I'm there with you. It creates that space and sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh, that's fabulous. Yeah. I gotta try that because we have a really lovely, in the new building, I just moved to couple a week ago. There's a lovely garden area with fairly mature trees for a suburb and a little pathway and places to sit. And the only problem is I went to do a, oh, that reminds me, I did use nature. So I, when I left our old building across the street, I went around the building and I said, thank you for allowing us to live there and entertain and enjoy our lives. And then I walked over across the street to the new one and you can't walk around the building, but you can walk through and you can walk with this fairly well extensive for a city block or urban block. And I walked around and said, you know, thank you for inviting me. We looked forward to all this. And yeah, it was all great. Except for one thing, the noise of the tennis players.
Speaker 2:Oh
Speaker 1:Yeah. Part out there. You
Speaker 2:See, that's a challenge particularly,
Speaker 1:And you know, you have monkeys. I have, I have tennis players.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. I mean, unfortunately Nairobi now next to our house is a big, there's a big condo complex coming up. So sometimes it's harder because of course today I could hear all the grinding cementing and construction noise and, but that's the thing. Nature is becoming a very limited resource, isn't it? And I think that when we talk about climate change, when we talk about what we can do as citizens, that's when I grew up in Nairobi green city in the sun, compared to what I see now, we see the changes as well. I mean, this is the time of year when it's colder, but the climate's all out of whack. There's certain trees you don't see anymore stuff doesn't grow as well as used to certain months. So it's just trying to adapt to all of that. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1:Well, you brought up a really good point about climate change and notice our energy, the conversation, cuz we're all very concerned about it, but what can I do as a coach? What can I do more for climate action, climate change?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's actually, I, when I first joined coaching you know, became a certified coach and joined a bunch of networks, someone shared a very helpful link with me and there's actually a, there's two collectives out of which I'm a member of one, The Climate Coaching Alliance. Yeah. And it's great. But also I think as a coach, without trying to, of course, you know, as a coach, you're never gonna tell your client what to do, but as a coach, you can choose depending, you know, really depending on what you value and how much you value nature, you can choose to work. Like I'm, I'm a little bit more intentional and deliberate with who I work with. And you know, where there is a very clearly non-social impact climate impact. But also really, you know, sometimes in some conversations of course, course with permission of the client, really taking them to that space of thinking about the bigger ecosystem we are part of the system effects on our nature effects around us. What happens to our nature affects who we are as human beings as well. So when you're in a desert space or when you're in a space surrounded by cut trees, for example, we might not realize it, but it is affecting us and how we show up and how connected we feel or not connected. We feel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I feel it greatly, don't even talk to me about taking trees down unnecessarily. Like, can architects not build the trees into the plant, right. Especially mature big trees. Right. It's not that difficult to do now. Fortunately we are a very green, like I think in your area you have to plant and water in order for anything to stay. Yeah. Whereas things grow by themselves here. So you actually have to cut down certain trees. Right. So different, I mean even looking at that, how different things are, but to be, you know, is there a commitment by cuz it's the green city in the sun? Yeah. Do they, does your government take that seriously? And do they have a plan for that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Absolutely. So that's the one thing I think there is a lot of, there's a lot of government support and a lot of civil society action around green climate initiatives, you know, it does help that the United nations environment program headquarters for the world is here. So there's, there's some great lobbying and advocacy. And of course, Kenya generally on conservation efforts is quite strong. It is quite strong. But I think the challenge is that as particularly as we think about the world, we think about the way we've all evolved. This technology has opened up the world for many of us in Africa. What we see in the media is this idea of the, the American dream. For example, the idea that now I can afford everything and because I can afford it, I want that life that I see on the media, I want to consume, consume, consume. And so what is happening here even before I left my coaching work, what I was working with through the nonprofits I was working with, we were hearing that a lot of young people are moving from the remote villages and the remote rural areas that are really the farming baskets for the country to come to the city and find jobs. So they could have that city life. But it means that there's no labor force to keep the country green anymore, to keep the plants growing, to keep the trees growing. And this idea, the trees are important or the nature is important. Is it, it's no longer the biggest priority for it, for this newer generation. It's more like, look, I want that life. I want life. I see on TV, I want a better life. And my better life includes having more stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Unfortunately, I'm, I'm working against being a considered cause we label ourselves in North America. I don't know what it's like in Africa as consumers, but we used to be labeled as citizens. And how do we, how do we make that transition back to being citizens, citizens of the planet, you know, citizens of our country, of our culture, of our community. Right? So unfortunately these things happen and they've happened in other countries as well. I know I grew up on a farm and that was the last place I wanted to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Oh no, for sure.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't
Speaker 1:Case the, I understand it. It was just like a hated farm work.
Speaker 2:Little, I mean, it is a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yeah. It's a lot of work. Like I, I often think God, man, those people were strong, like to be able to, to do all of that, till land, come and make food. Like it's a lot of work yeah.
Speaker 1:It is a lot of work. So, and there are people like it, like our nephew, he loves the land and he'd love nothing more than own a farm. Unfortunately it's so expensive now it's out of his reach to have a farm. So he is seeing if there's another way to do it. Right. But you couldn't get him in a city if you paid him. Really, so it's good. There's still some of the younger generation. So, you were telling me earlier that you have your own little plot of land, you grow your own food.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we don't own our house. So that's the one thing real estate in Nairobi is very high because it is such a, such a hub for Africa. It's become a very expensive city to live in. It's very hard to afford property here. So we rent our house, but we're very lucky to have in our backyard, literally, the remains of a beautiful old forest. And so we've also got a lovely little patch near our driveway. That's small enough. So I work with a very good friend of mine who was one of the co-founders of the Permaculture Research Institute of Kenya. Wow. And basically Permaculture doesn't use chemicals. It just uses plants and other companions to support each other. So it's a very organic way of farming, the whole cyclical approach to taking care of the earth and getting your food. So that's what we use. So for example, basil is great to grow next to tomatoes cuz they, they support them really well. Or marigold flowers are really good for like next to basil in the rain season here and trying to
Speaker 1:Keep the, the bugs away. Right. Things like that.
Speaker 2:It does, it does. Or like having the chili pepper plants between the lettuces. And so, oh it didn't, we do have a little pot of land. Yeah. It's brilliant. And then so part of this also is you can make a spray with chili peppers. I think papaya leaves because papaya grows so well here and mix that up. It's a little soap like organic soap and water and spray that on your plants and the bugs will never show up again. So that's what we tried to build this organic space where we could grow much of our own food because we have this space for the land. Right. And it's interesting because I'm learning a lot about seasons as well. And I'm also seeing what climate change has done. So when we expect certain plants to come up certain times of the, they haven't, but it's great because we grow, I think we don't, we don't buy any herbs anymore to cook with.
Speaker 1:Oh wow.
Speaker 2:You grow them all. And we grow a lot of really cool chili peppers. So we make a whole bunch of chili pickles and this is Nairobi. It's a very urban city. So to be able to do this in the middle of the city and literally in this satellite business district suburb, people are often shocked. I've been featured here in a newspaper. Oh, where wow. Where, you know, the journalist was like, this is shocking that you could, you can actually do this in the middle of the city.
Speaker 1:Maybe you have another career in you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, well who knows, who knows but it's great. It's honestly, and it's so great because you also see how the ecosystem's working. You see a lot of, from when we moved in here five years ago, you can see a lot of species of bees coming back. Wow. And the birds and all sorts of really great creatures, you know, coming back to the space, it's almost rewilding itself just because we started to plant and, and you know, rewild the space that was here.
Speaker 1:Wow. That's great. Good for you. Yeah. Keep it up. You're inspiring me very much in this book i n t he
Speaker 2:Please do honestly. Yeah. No, grow every grow, whatever you can. It's it's such a, when you finally get that harvest, it's such a joy.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know having those, even just those little tomatoes on your plate saying, right?
Speaker 2:Yes,
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And little secret, if you want your tomatoes to turn red, put them in the dark.
Speaker 2:Oh, I did not know that
Speaker 1:We had the cherry tomatoes and they were still partially green. We put'em in, in the, in the dish cupboard covered it up. Yes. So there was no light and opened it up and they were, I know my mom used to put them on the
Speaker 2:Room
Speaker 1:To turn red.
Speaker 2:Wow. Who knew,
Speaker 1:Who knew? Right. Well, I do one little
Speaker 2:That's I'm gonna, I'm gonna use, we're grow some cherry tomatoes right now. So I'm gonna try that for
Speaker 1:Sure. Yeah. Take one and just put it away and see, one more thing. And then I wanna know more about, because I'm not successful doing this is you lead a plastic free lifestyle. How do you do that?
Speaker 2:It's hard work. It's hard work. And there are times when people show up with plastic and it's, it's hard work because Kenya doesn't have a, we don't have a government mandated recycling program.
Speaker 1:Oh wow. Okay.
Speaker 2:We don't, I mean, you do have private companies that do recycling, so there are people who can pick your stuff and they can actually take it elsewhere where it's turned into something else. But Kenya has been trying to be really strict. So a couple of years ago they like all plastic bags were banned. So the stuff that you were getting in, like a, you know, in a supermarket, grocery store, you cannot travel into the country with any of those. They're not allowed anywhere has a very heavy fine for them. Wow. So everyone uses either cloth bags or really heavy duty sort of fabricy bags. So those are all, they were banned about five years ago.
Speaker 1:Good for you, which was,
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's a great, it was such a great start. People grumbled and complained, but ultimately it also brought a lot of local industry back. Women were able to start making bags again, to sell.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's actually had a great, it's had a great impact. And now they're talking about banning single use, like plastics. So all the soda pop bottles. We'll see how that goes. That's a harder one because there's so many international players in that. Yeah. But I, you know, it's, it's funny. I remember growing up and going to the ocean and we think, gosh, this is Africa. Whatever's happening in Asia and the rest of the world doesn't affect us. And I remember growing up and going to pristine crystal clear water beaches. This is the Indian ocean. It's, you know, always, you can see your feet in it and thousands of shells. And you started to see less of that and you started to see plastic in weird places. And a couple of years ago, we went up to this completely remote island. It's called Lamo Island and it's a very old historic island. There are no cars on the island. You walk everywhere and you go to the tip of one of the sides of the island. And that's where the open ocean meets the little Cove just in little bay. And you literally, we got on this ocean where there's no one who lives there, literally both go there for the day and they leave. And what I thought were really colorful shelves. I, so I walk onto the shores on the side of the open ocean and I see the tiniest pieces of plastic that have come from thousands of miles away. Wow. You know, and that's, that's when I stepped back and I said,
Speaker 1:That's tough.
Speaker 2:In my mind, we didn't do this. Like, you know, this whole idea of, we didn't do this, not this part of Africa, this is the most remote part of the ocean ever. Like no one lives here, but this is, if this is happening here, what, what is, what is the rest of the world looking like? So, yeah, it's been about five years. I slowly started to wean off plastics, um, at home. And so we started to make, I started to make my own body products with tray butter and coconut oil, because those are so readily available here. Yeah. I started to make my own sometimes disastrous recipes for tooth p owder u ntil luckily t hank God. I mean, some of them w ere really bad, but t he there's a woman here who started up a company. So she actually makes these great tooth tabs, like you would get in shops i n, i n Canada, like Lush. And so these are great because they have all the stuff you need. That's good for your teeth and initially I was like, oh, this is a lot of work, but now I absolutely love it. So we have a million glass jars everywhere that we moved from getting fresh milk delivery rather than buying milk in plastic bottles. Right. And it's funny because when I was studying in Canada was the first time in my life that I saw that milk can stay fresh for four weeks in the fridge. I think that just threw me off. That doesn't happen here. It's starting to happen now, which also tells me there's whatever is in your milk. I'm not sure you really want that. Yeah. So we, you know, just started that way and now it's literally like everything comes in glass. Oh, completely. And it becomes, it literally becomes part of your nature to not have plastic when you're buying vegetables, when you're buying fruit, what you can recycle. And also now I have, it's very strange adverse reaction to seeing certain, like even cleaners, plastic, cleaning stuff. It, I have a bit of a body shock. Wow. And it's been interesting, but it's also been hard. So as much as possible, my home is plastic free, but there's some places you go that you really like can't avoid it. I mean, when we go to hotels, we do travel a lot. I take my water bottle, even on travels and flights now, like I take it everywhere. But, um, it's in, in my view, it's my little thing
Speaker 1:I'm laughing the whole time because my water bottle is plastic.
Speaker 2:Well, well, but that's the thing, it's fine. Like I have well, Nalgene p lastic, b ut so there's some things that are much harder t o,
Speaker 1:To repeat. No, but I have a metal one, so I should be using that one. And, you know yeah. You know, and you know, you brought up a really good point about the vegetables I bought these netting bags. They're really light and they're they're I have them in the car. I just stopped using them. So I am inspired by you to dig those they're in the car already. Just, yeah. Just take them in the big bag, in the big grocery shopping bag. Cuz I don't, I, I reuse all of those. I've already. I love it. And I'm, I'm a reduced reuse, recycle kind of guy. So when we moved, I took things to, uh, well, you would know you've been to Canada, Value Village.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I take the value.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Just cycle it up
Speaker 1:Restore, which is for Habitat for Humanity. So I get to reuse there, you know, so nothing that, to my knowledge goes to a dump from me. So I'm just hoping
Speaker 2:That the people I give it to that's, that's
Speaker 1:Amazing. Know how to, if it's not usable or sellable that they know how to recycle it properly and things like that. And you know, Canada, you've been to Canada. So, you know, we have a, we're pretty big on recycling. We could do a lot better. Look at Sweden. They're asking other countries for their recycle because their systems are, they're doing what? 90, 95% recycling.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yeah. I mean it's but isn't it brilliant. And I hope that many of us can get there. I mean, yeah. So now things are starting here. I think the government's going to soon launch policies around, you have to separate your trash, but it's also brilliant because now ever since we've gone essentially plastic free two days a week, the dump truck comes and picks all your garbage up. But most of the time we actually have nothing to throw out. So the once in a while we do, we could be thinking, forget for like, I think last because like, oh my God, Sam, I was telling my husband, we have a couple of broken glass pieces in there. And we forgot for four weeks that there was stuff in there.
Speaker 1:That's see. Now there's a success story. Good for you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, and so even like composting and it's the whole cycle that changes who you are as a person.
Speaker 1:That's my thing is the condo buildings here in Canada, don't have recycling green, green recycling facility.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:And all the food. Right. So I'm like, you it's like, well, I is the least amount if I go to the garbage shoot once a week. That's tons. Okay. And but recycling I'm down and we've got bins down on the first floor. Yes. I am down there like every other day. I've got bins everywhere. I think I drive everybody here crazy with my recycling
Speaker 2:Stuff. I love it. I love it. Love it. Love it. That's the way to be.
Speaker 1:That's the way to be. That's
Speaker 2:The way to be. And then you don't. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sir. You were saying,
Speaker 2:Well, I was just gonna say really quickly that, you know, then when you start to think through this way of living, I'm also a workshop facilitator. You start to take that to your work. Right? So as a coach, as a facilitator, I'm, it's very bad because I think some people do not like me as a facilitator because I insist that the hotel must have either glass, water bottles, or must have dispensers for everyone to bring their own bottles to get water. We're not gonna give you plastics or in one workshop, we've turned all these. I mean, the amount of money conferences spend on banners, just those little like high, high banners banners. Yeah. We got, when I was working at my old organization, we turned them all into gift bags for the conference, like all the old
Speaker 1:Ones.
Speaker 2:Oh cool. And now people use them as laptop bags and gift bags. You get into this mentality of reduce, reuse, recycle, what can I do?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's brilliant. I like that one. Well, that's pretty good. I love it. This has been absolutely amazing. I've learned more than I expected and renewed my, climate impact conversation, like with the bags and more plants on the balcony and things like that. So thank you so much. First of all, for writing and also for being here on our podcast. It's brilliant. You're just, ah, you're inspiring.
:Thank you so much, Garry.
Speaker 1:Well, we have one more question, two actually. Yes. Number one is please go ahead. So you gave a lot of great tips in the article. Which one would you like the most for people to take on?
Speaker 2:Wow. There's so many, I think the most important to start with yourself, create whatever that green inspiration is for you. Yeah. And then use that to build even honestly, even as a coach, spend some time in that green space, before you go into sessions, after you finish a session. Ground, if you've gone through, you know, a session with someone that might have affected you. So I would say start with that little, whatever it is, the one green thing, the one plant, the one living thing you're gonna have from nature, whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1:Well, I have four calls lined up this afternoon. It's lunchtime here, dinnertime there. I am going to go downstairs and walk around in the backyard again in our nature spot. I love it. Then come back up. So you've inspired me to do that. So thank you so much again for joining us. What's the best way for people to reach you by the way.
Speaker 2:So the easiest is I'm on LinkedIn is Reshma Aziz Kha. I also have my website, Kenzo Consulting it's K E N S O not Z. I'm not a fashion brand, b ut Kenzo.consulting. O h r ight. And you can, and you can email me a t Reshma@Kenzo.consulting as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much. So that's it folks for this episode of Beyond the Page for more episode, subscribe to your favorite podcast app. We're on Spotify, apple. Oh, just check us out. We're there. And don't forget to sign up for your free digital issue of choice magazine by going to choice-online.com and clicking the sign up now button. I'm Garry Schleifer. Enjoy your journey to mastery.