Back to School Resolutions

Back to School Resolutions are the product of the mental reset button we feel each September

Back to School Resolutions Are All About Going Forward

Forget New Years resolutions - Back to School resolutions are the ones I always make. They do not necessarily relate to being a parent either, since my son is almost finished university and doesn't need me buying his clothes or packing his lunches anymore. They are about my own return to school, my own wellness over 40, and my own improvement in achieving wellness goals and maximizing life in a new age zone.

What are back to school resolutions, anyway? They are the product of the mental reset button we have from decades of closing the chapter of summer and embarking on a return to school. They are from our childhood excitement about starting a fresh new grade each September with a fresh new pencil case full of sharpened pencils and a new 3-ring binder with paper, dividers and a box of reinforcements on hand. (hmm, what I really mean here is a new laptop, cell phone, music and clothes...)

Being a Better Everything

I still get excited every September about starting something fresh! But now my resolutions are about passing to the next proverbial grade of life, not about passing from grade 7 to grade 8. I still think that my current resolutions are influenced by a mindset from three or four decades of deciding to be a "better everything" in order to have a good year - the year from September to June, that is.

Here are 7 quick ideas to kick start your own career, financial, environmental, or wellness aspirations:

• Whether you're a new grad or facing a working retirement, pursue the next level of your career by upgrading your skills in a way that's relevant to the marketplace as well as your own personality

• If you really want to get to work feeling grounded and able to take charge of your own productivity, walk at least part of the way to work

• Buy fresh food and cook it

• Whether you have kids yet or not, think about them and their kids of the future - reduce your car usage and if possible get rid of your car and use transit

• Save money painlessly by managing your personal cash flow

• Consider chemical-free skin care products - it's hard to believe that many of us smoked cigarettes at our office computers in the 80s; well, in the future people will look back incredulously at the amount of chemicals we put on our face daily when there were other alternatives out there

• Try something out of character and take up dancing

Chemical-Free Skincare Enhances Wellness

Imagine knowing that everything that you wash with and put onto your body was chemical-free! Recently while searching for affordable soaps, shampoos and skin moisturizers that don't have harmful chemicals in them, I found that they were neither plentiful, affordable, nor easy to get. Some health food stores carry products that are advertised as chemical-free and healthy, but when I looked up their ingredients at the Skin Deep Cosmetic Database, they were rated as harmful in many cases.

Many chemical-free products are advertised online, but most of the ones I found that were rated as safe at Skin Deep were made in limited quantities by small operations in the United States that did not deliver outside of the U.S.A. Since I live in Canada, I decided to search for Canadian-made chemical-free skincare products. And I found Consonant Body Organic Skincare, a manufacturer of 100% natural products that have "no parabens, no sulfates, no petroleum ingredients, and certainly no phthalates." The way I found Consonant was by walking down Yonge Street in Toronto one day and seeing a sign that stuck in my mind for days. It said:

What Goes On Your Body Goes In Your Body

Chemical-free skin care products at Consonant Body Organic Skincare

A few days later, I went into Consonant's store to investigate the prices.  I met Kristina, who did a wonderful job of explaining the features and benefits of their product line, and gave me some samples. I was surprised to find how affordable their skin care products were.

A chemical-free skin care product for eyes

Ultra Firming Organic Eye Cream from Consonant Body Organic Skincare

Eventually I purchased

an Ultra Moisturizing Organic Eye Creme product for $35 CAD.

I thought the price was good, and I have been using it daily for 3 months now.

Compared to Mary Cohr and Yonka products that I recently reviewed and also use daily, this chemical-free skincare product is much more affordable - as well as being organic.