Pria Acharya

Pria Acharya is a mindful vegan mama, storyteller, and soul-rooted creator. Born in India, rising in the U.S., she blends ancient wisdom with modern clarity. Through film, books, and quiet rebellion, she helps others root deep, rise strong, and live aligned with compassion.

Simplicity is Simple!

 How to find balance, Simplicity  Comments Off on Simplicity is Simple!
Oct 092009
 



CA - Simplicity
Simplicity is often taken for granted. It includes making daily choices that support having just enough on our plates and not too much. Ensuring this can include saying “no” to requests that make our plates overflow and at the same time saying “yes” to ourselves.

When was the last time you spent hours lost in a good book or lying back and listening to your favorite music rather than just having it on in the background while driving from A to B?

Choosing simplicity for our lives can range from daily choices affecting how much we are doing to thinking further about our lifestyles over-all. This can include thinking further about our careers, our current job, whether to add another job, how we spend money, and on what. It may mean some soul-searching about what materialistic items we want versus what we need.

Over-all, there seems to be a correlation between simplicity and stress. The more simple we can make our lives, the less stress we feel…

How We All Create Change

 Causes  Comments Off on How We All Create Change
Oct 082009
 
Young Ladies in Rajasthan, India

Young Ladies in Rajasthan, India

Often times, it can be so discouraging to watch the news. Watching world news, we see that we’re in our 8th year of war in Afghanistan. There is much going on just there, particularly for women and children, that leaves us feeling helpless. News of local crimes leaves us feeling even more helpless. What can I do about a crime against a local child that occurred yesterday? As a parent, hearing of such news is even more heart-wrenching. After the international flight that went down a few months a go, I thought for several nights about the child that perished and how his or her Mom must have felt right before, knowing what would happen.

It is encouraging to focus on the solutions and the people and organizations that focus on solutions. Supporting women who are survivors of war through Women for Women International is something that we all can do.  For $27 a month, we can help women build their lives and enrich the communities around them.  This eventually ripples back to our lives.  Another fascinating concept that anyone can use to make a difference is through microfinance.  An organization to provide a microfinance loan through is World Vision.   This process allows us to make a loan of even $25 to someone in an impoverished place to become an entrepreneur.  This is not a charity as the recipient pays back the loan with a success rate of about 98%.  The recipient is empowered and we feel less helpless to create change.

As my daughter turns 8 months today, I want to be able to tell her that I’m doing my part in her experiencing a better world. I want to role-model for my pre-teen son about caring for a world larger than our suburbs.

Adventures in Eating and Teething

 Children, Motherhood, Parenting  Comments Off on Adventures in Eating and Teething
Oct 012009
 
Maya exploring finger foods at 7 months

Maya exploring finger foods at 7 months

My seven-month-old baby girl, Maya, has been going through an adventurous time lately.  It began with new-found discoveries in the exciting world of food and eating when she got a handle of the pincer grasp, where she could use two fingers to grasp food and bring it to her mouth (with increasing success).  It has been cute to watch small pieces of “o” shaped cereal be lifted up to her mouth, only to watch it fall to her lap.  At the end of a meal, she has to be dangled in the air to let all the food in her lap and elsewhere fall off.  I’ve felt so proud when the cereal or similar-shaped snack has made it to her mouth and even to her tummy.

Another not-so-amusing adventure has been with teething.  She has what seem to be two teeth emerging on the bottom of her mouth.  We have tried various remedies lately with differing success.  Last night, she woke up around 10pm and became inconsolable.  Besides giving her medicine, I held her, sang to her, nursed her (another adventure with new teeth!), changed her, gave her formula, and finally danced to jazz with her.  This seemed to soothe her somewhat and she babbled in bed with me, before becoming inconsolable again.  All this occurred after reading in the “What to expect” book about letting a baby this age “cry it out” for about 20 minutes so she knows how to put herself back to sleep and does not always expect all the things I did with her…***sigh***So it was with much sadness that I took her back to her crib, told her I loved her, turned on her mobile & aquarium, and walked back to my room, where I lowered the monitor and tried to relax listening to jazz and eventually used earplugs for a little while, watching the monitor as the light went up and down showing her crying.  I controlled myself from getting up and sure enough, after 20 minutes, the light was still, indicating she was asleep.  I crept into her room, and with much trepidation, managed to cover her more with a blanket without waking her up.  It was midnight by then, and I then began the task of trying to transition to sleep for myself.

Jumping Off the Deep End

 Goals, Self-Employment, Success  Comments Off on Jumping Off the Deep End
Sep 252009
 

SF Bay BridgeAfter about 20 years of being interested in importing and getting side-tracked with working a “real” job to pay the bills, I am finally ready to take the plunge, in a significant first step by placing an importing order.  I took an importing class recently and am lucky to have my teacher as my consultant to help me iron out the details, hold my hand, and make the dive not too scary.

I wanted to start cautiously, by wading in the “shallow” waters and place a small order to “test the waters.”  That approach turns out to be not very cost-effective as the freight ends up being higher than the order.  Therefore, the recommendation has been to triple the order and hence I found myself standing at the cliff, trying to decide whether I was ready to jump or not.  Then I thought about how I’m 41, and if not now, then when???

I want to be a daring role model for my daughter and demonstrate that sometimes you have to take some chances to try to reach your dreams.  I want to show her that even though you may not reach the star you aimed for, you are still closer to that star than before you tried.  As many of us have experienced, sometimes you land not where you had planned, but ends up being just fine!  With that in mind, I am going ahead and jumping!

Fitness is a Daily Choice

 How to find balance, Self-Care  Comments Off on Fitness is a Daily Choice
Sep 242009
 

Colin Strolling on a Beach in CA

Colin Strolling on a Beach in CA

Fitness is a daily choice at every level – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.  For long-term fitness, balance and moderation is required.  It is not about any specific, trendy diet.  For our bodies, it is about choosing most of the time what we know fuels us best.  Exercising moderation means we can treat ourselves here and there and know that we will make up for it the next day.  We use discipline to make that happen!  We don’t beat ourselves when things don’t go as we planned.  We kindly pick up from where we are and start from there.

I’ve often used a reward system to get through tasks that didn’t feel very fun.  In college when studying something not very interesting, I would allow myself a treat or break every 15 minutes or so.  I often found that I could go longer without noticing.  Sometimes it was about “tricking” myself to just get going.  The same process can be applied for exercise or chores.  It also helps to make the task as pleasant as possible, such as listening to music we enjoy when exercising or cleaning.

In our diet at home, we try to exercise moderation.  If we have dessert one day, we might not the next day or choose something healthier, like fruit.  We also try to replace some items with healthier choices, especially when it is barely noticeable.  There are lots of new vegan items that are coming out all the time that I’m trying that concept with.  It’s an adventure!  For instance, I found that “Tofutti” is a fine alternative to regular cream cheese!  I don’t notice much of a difference in taste and feel better having it knowing that it doesn’t have the fat and cholesterol of the regular stuff.

Help People With Disabilities Through shopgoodwill.com

 Causes, Education  Comments Off on Help People With Disabilities Through shopgoodwill.com
Sep 162009
 

shopgoodwillrcsConvertAnother member of Time’s 50 best websites 0f 2009 is shopgoodwill.com.  The site is an alternative auction site to ebay.  It is cheaper and non-profit, with some of the profits going to educational programs for people with disabilities.  The site’s hot categories include art, clothing, toys, books and electronics.

Created and operated by Goodwill of Orange County in Santa Ana, CA, the site is the first internet auction site that has been created, owned and operated by a nonprofit.   Participation includes Goodwills from across the country with inventories of their donated goods encompassing estate items, collectibles, antiques and new or nearly new items.

Sales revenues fund the organization’s training, education and “job placement programs for people with disabilities and other barriers.”  The organization’s presence includes 5 continents.  In 2005, Goodwill helped over 846,000 people.

Parenting Entails Regularly Letting Go

 Children, Motherhood, Parenting  Comments Off on Parenting Entails Regularly Letting Go
Sep 092009
 

My 11 year-old pre-teen son is on his way to go on a 3-day outdoor education program for middle school.  It will be his first time being away without a parent.  It is reassuring to know he will be surrounded by classmates and teachers he knows.  As he started middle school just a few weeks ago, I could see a transformation starting with him, one that included the excitement and wonder about the world around him and embracing the process of growing.

Colin at sailing camp 8.09

Colin at sailing camp 8.09

I recall my own junior high school trip when we went to Charleston.  It was my first time going away without my parents and I felt very liberated.  I have vivid images of Charleston and how beautiful I thought it was.  This was before Hurricane Hugo.

Colin has stated at times that he wanted to stay a child (like Peter Pan) or at least prolong his childhood.  I must have not made being an adult look too appealing!  I admit at times my tough love would have made him seem to be an adult-in-training.   I’ve had a clear idea of the well-mannered gentleman I want him to be at 30 and have worked backwards to fill in all the pieces to try to have that end result.  I felt it was working when his kindergarten teacher told me he was the most well-mannered (and reasoning-oriented) student she had.

Of course there is much that Colin has and continues to teach me.  A big lesson has been that of letting go, which seems to be required daily as our kids continually change, grow and need us less.  I vividly recall sitting in a movie theatre with him when he was about 3, watching Nemo.  I cried when the boy fish got separated from his parent and kept swimming away.  The situation was probably not helped by the fact that a divorce was going on and there had been actual moments like that.

It is an irony that the better we do as parents, the less our children will need us.  We have to pat ourselves on the back when they independently and confidently embrace the world without us.

Slowing Down

 Children, How to find balance, Parenting, Simplicity  Comments Off on Slowing Down
Sep 042009
 
Maya touching grass for the first time, with Colin looking on (I remember him doing the same at her age)

Maya touching grass for the first time, with Colin looking on (I remember him doing the same at her age)

If there is one concept that motherhood encourages, it is to slow down.  Often, I find myself caught in a whirlwind of multi-tasking, as most women do.  Then everything comes to a halt as I nurse or tend to Maya in other ways.  She doesn’t care about the tasks I’m trying to get done; the small goals I want to cross off my list.  As our kids grow, we are often pulled into their world, to view things from their perspective.  They are amazed by so much and can easily find so much to laugh it.  We end up laughing with them, out of amazement.

Maya laughs easily – when her tummy is nuzzled, when we play silly games, and when her big brother says or does anything.  Her laughter is the greatest sound in the world.  In those moments, the “Things to do list” fades in the background and all concerns disappear.  It’s a feeling to treasure and remember later when we are back in our frenzied whirlwind.

In the Western culture, multi-tasking has been looked upon as part of a positive skill-set.  Women, in particular, have gravitated toward trying to squeeze in as many tasks as possible, just because they can.  Men know to not even bother, as their brains don’t seem to allow it as much. 😉  The success we feel in occasionally getting more done encourages us to multi-task even more.  However, we all know that at times, the productivity is not increased, and sometimes even leads to danger (if we are driving, for instance).

What living in a frenzied way and multi-tasking does normally do is deprive us of moments that we can remember and treasure when it is our turn to “clock out.”  Maybe it means that I didn’t take the moment to look out my window and notice something fascinating that my tiger kitty is doing (which he always does).  Or worse, maybe I didn’t see my baby reach a milestone, such as sitting up on her own without supporting herself, which she is reaching now.

Like everyone says, these early days with a child go by very quick.   I was amazed to see some “recent videos” of Maya and noticed that she was less than 1/2 her current age (about 3 months and now she is almost 7).  In totality, she has of course not been on the planet for very long, so everything about her seems recent; but she was so different and much smaller!

Raj ("King" in Hindi, our tiger cat), drinking from our bird bath - fascinating!

Our kids’ rapid growth is amazing.  It certainly reminds us of our mortality and that life is about constant change.   It’s important to slow down when we can to experience it all.

Raj (“King” in Hindi, our tiger cat), drinking from our bird bath – fascinating!

Adult On-set of Allergies

 Alternative Medicine, Self-Care  Comments Off on Adult On-set of Allergies
Sep 012009
 





I’ve never had allergies and thought I was immune, particularly since I started my life in India and particularly a village where I was exposed to everything it seemed. Then for the first time this past Spring and now late summer, I’ve been struggling with allergies.

I’m learning that adult allergies are on the rise.  Since I am still nursing my infant, I’m not inclined to take the regular allergy medications as they apparently negatively impact milk supply.  I recently heard about a product called a Neti Pot, which seems to be effective according Web MD without impacting lactation.  After some lack of coordination, I think I’ve got the hang of it and am trying to use it regularly.  There are different types and can be purchased in stores or on-line.  I purchased mine from the local drugstore for about $15.  The concept behind the product lies in the idea of nasal irrigation, which originated within ayurveda, an ancient Indian system of healing.

The sad information I am learning is that my new adult allergies will most likely stay with me the rest of my life.

Converting Clutter to Goodwill

 Causes  Comments Off on Converting Clutter to Goodwill
Aug 312009
 

Outside of the traditional places to donate unwanted items, the following organizations may not be well-known:

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