What’s your Quiet Activism Style?

Recently I read an article about quiet activism (do check out Karen Walrond's blog Chookooloonks for all kinds of awesome). The kind, where you zero down on a cause that you are passionate about, and take small and steady steps to create a positive change. 

Your way of quiet activism could be through sharing a series of paintings centered around the message that you want to nudge into the world. Or, a blog post every Monday. Or short snippets woven around that message. Maybe, you’d like to volunteer with an organization that works in that area. The ways you can work on your quiet activism are numerous and varied. But the crux of the idea is to do what you can, when you can.

You don’t have to hit the streets with a placard (by all means do that is that’s what floats your boat) or think of a really Big plan to spread your message. Instead, start small, but continue doing some little thing to bring about a positive change. Start with one person and slowly reach out to more.

What quiet activism has meant for me: This idea of quiet activism really resonated with me. Reviving the lost sari love has been one of my ‘quiet activism’ projects – when we welcome saris into our lives, we also help weavers carry on the handloom tradition. I’ve been doing this through my Sari Style blog posts (now compiled into an ebook called ‘Everyday Sari Style’ that you can get by subscribing to this blog) and by wearing the sari in quirky ways to all kinds of places.

But for some time now, I’ve had the itch to do more. To help reduce the toxic load on this Earth and on our bodies – the issue is humongous and so, every tiny bit helps (or so I hope).

I began this journey by walking the talk, by very slowly eliminating the various chemicals that clutter our lives, and making, growing or sourcing gentle alternatives (we’ve been making our own body care products & growing organic veggies for a while now). I went on to compost (I wasn’t very comfortable with it initially), reduce my usage of plastic bags, ban pesticides and weed killers in our garden, and be more conscious of the lifestyle choices we make.

I’ve also been studying women’s wellness (I’m training at the Well-Grounded Institute as a Wellness Educator + am already a Health Coach & Yoga Teacher), so I can find interesting and informed ways to help/facilitate/teach girls and ladies to care for themselves and the Earth.

After four years of learning and practicing, my quiet activism has now morphed into Gorgeous Girls Go Green, a green wellness venture that will arm you with information and a few products to live well and go green. And I remind myself to follow every mandate of quiet activism: start slow, take small steps, do something (even minuscule) to spread your message. At the moment, for me that’s about sharing regular green living and self-care posts with the wonderful women at my Facebook community: Lush Green Wellness. And eventually, it’ll also be about writing articles on the subject + interviewing and promoting green entrepreneurs via our soon-to-be launched digital magazine and teaching workshops.

Quiet activism through art: Debasmita Dasgupta, an online pal and brilliant illustrator, is another ‘quiet activist’ (you can read her interview on the blog here). Her cause is about how fathers can empower their daughters, how they can be the wind beneath their wings. She created a phenomenal global project called My Father Illustrations, illustrating real-life father-daughter motivational stories from people across the globe. She’s also the core team member of Art Positive, an organization that “creates illustration-based projects to inspire people and challenge stereotypes”.

photo credit: Debasmita Dasgupta

Art Positive is hosting an art event for women artists who #DrawForACause, to celebrate International Women’s Day in March 2018. To participate, you have to create a piece of original art themed around a cause you are passionate about, put it up on your blog/website/online portfolio/page and submit the link through their submission form.

I was thrilled when Debasmita invited me to submit one of my illustrations as part of this project. And I’m just as happy to invite You to take part in this online celebration of making the world a better place. Here’s the link to the art event: http://artspositive.org/drawforacause.

So go on, find a cause that you’d like to work on, find your quiet activism style, do something to create positive change and also, draw out your cause and submit it to Art Positive! And hey, don’t forget to have fun while you’re doing all of it. 


#drawforacause #everydaysaristyle #gorgeousgirlsgogreen #changemaker #internationalwomensday