Veronica Shukla

Random Musings

Category: Inside Outcome

  • Why You Shouldn’t Start a Charity and What you Should Do Instead

    Why You Shouldn’t Start a Charity and What you Should Do Instead

    Nonprofits are inherently inefficient. No matter what, a traditional charitable organization that depends on donations to survive will take double the work, if not more, to accomplish its mission. It’s in the bones of the concept. There are better ways to do it. So You Want to Start a Nonprofit Do you want to start…

  • Let Go of the Grudge: How to Forgive and Why

    Let Go of the Grudge: How to Forgive and Why

    You’re walking barefoot in the forest, soaking up the energy from the earth (no really, you should totally do that) when suddenly you feel a sharp pain in the sole of your foot. You find a moss-covered boulder to sit on and examine your foot where you find a brand new splinter. It hurts like…

  • Why Dreams are Like Bubbles and How to Prevent Them from Popping

    Why Dreams are Like Bubbles and How to Prevent Them from Popping

    My dog, Sita, loves to pop bubbles. She’s like the dog who’s always bringing you a ball to play fetch, except she’s standing by the bubble gun, whining. She’s quite good at it. Often she’ll stand on her hind legs like a bear and pop all the high bubbles she can reach. But sometimes her…

  • 4 Examples of the Power of the Breath

    4 Examples of the Power of the Breath

    We all know how important breathing is. It’s so important, it’s an involuntary action of our bodies, carried out without having to think about it. Our body just does it, because if we stopped breathing long enough, we’d die. Since our body does it involuntarily, we often just forget about it, but the breath is…

  • How to Save Money on Hair Care Products

    What if I told you you don’t have to wash your hair? By the end of this article, you’ll believe me. You know, sometimes when you think about things, like really think about them, they start to make no sense. Well, about a year or two ago, I started really thinking about the current norm for hair…

  • Full-Time Parents Accomplishing Goals: A Solution

    Full-Time Parents Accomplishing Goals: A Solution

    EDIT: This group is now in operation. Please visit the Parents Accomplishing Goals (PAG) Cooperative website to learn more. I am in the process of creating a group that will allow full-time parents to accomplish other goals. These goals could be things like professional work, volunteering, studying, and starting a business. I am a full time mother. I…

  • The “Weeds” in My Yard – A Response to Questions

    A great benefit of transforming my suburban-type yard from an unsustainable lawn to a sustainable ecosystem is setting an example. I can use the process of  transformation to inform neighbors, who undoubtedly have many opinions and questions. I’ve been getting a few general questions since I started the process, but yesterday I got some of the…

  • Why Are Humans Here?

    I’m one of those people who tends to think everything happens for a reason. I’m also one of those people that thinks that what we like to call “Mother Nature” has got it all figured out. After billions of years of evolution from a probably lifeless planet to a complex web of life that humans…

  • Making Sustainability Cool

    Making Sustainability Cool

    I tend go back and forth between wanting to fit in and wanting to not fit in. At first, it may sound odd that someone would want to be a misfit, but hear me out. You see, humans have always wanted to find a common bond with one another. We’re social creatures; it’s natural. But at some…

  • A School Food Forest

    A School Food Forest

    I have a crazy idea. It would be a ton of work and require a ton of collaboration and generosity from others. It would be a lifetime commitment and beyond. It would also provide extensive benefits to thousands of local children and even help to save the planet. There is a piece of land next…

  • The Uncouth Truth: Poop and Peace

    The Uncouth Truth: Poop and Peace

    Growing up, I never thought twice about the sustainability of our bathroom habits. Why should I have? Everyone else did the same thing. I mean, we all do it this way because the best way has evolved out of hundreds of years of trial and error, right? Not necessarily. In fact, our modern bathroom practices could…

  • Skills We Really Need

    Not too long ago, my son’s school sent us a survey. One question asked how well we feel the school is preparing the children for the future. This is a difficult question. At first glance, we see the future as a more technologically advanced version of today with not much changing besides lots and lots…

  • Sustainable Eating

    If you want to make a huge difference in your environmental impact, a good place to start is being responsible for what goes in your mouth. I don’t have all the scary facts, and I don’t intend to include much of them here, but I do encourage you to research more. Here I will simply…

  • Dealing with Feelings of Despondency Regarding Human Degradation of the Earth

    Lately I’ve been feeling something that would be best described as urgent helplessness with regard to the state of the Earth and the rampant apathy surrounding it. I want to spend every possible second I can learning and arming myself to be able to spread the word and do everything I can to help remedy…

  • What should you do with your old smartphone? Save the rain forests of course!

    What should you do with your old smartphone? Save the rain forests of course!

    About a year ago, we decided that my then current smartphone was no longer worth using as a phone. Frankly, I was afraid that if I needed to dial 911, I wouldn’t be able to. So I got a new phone for my birthday, and hubby decided that he would use the old Android to…

  • My New Obsession, Permaculture

    I’m sure no one is keeping track, but my blogs have become quite sporadic of late. The lack of writing is certainly not without reason, though. I’ve been studying. And planning. In this post, I talked about how I want to change the world. I don’t want to change the world, just to switch things…

  • Choose to Enjoy It

    I am extremely lucky to be vacationing in the Black Hills this week, but perhaps even luckier to have found a gem of wisdom while here. Yesterday morning, my husband and I were outside the hotel with Forrest. Something about having a baby seems to open up conversation with about everyone. This time it was…

  • Use Your Dreams to Stay Sober

    I’ve all but started a completely new life since then, and some things are easier left unsaid. You know, it’s easy to make a good impression when certain pieces of your past are left out. But we all have our demons, and I’m happy to share mine if it means I might be able to…