Practicing Yoga and Social Justice

March has been a challenging month for our household plastic reduction project. It has actually been a little discouraging. The yoga sutras warn that obstacles arise in pursuit of the spiritual path and the key is finding ways to address them when they do. One of them is inertia – which I think is a huge factor in trying to give up plastic. Everything around us encourages, insists on the use of plastic. The easiest course of action is to follow that encouragement and just take it. Another obstacle is backsliding, or failing to maintain what has been gained. Also an important obstacle to notice and avoid when trying to make new habits I’m trying to be vigilant about attacking those obstacles. I know from yoga practice that not being able to do something fully is a stage on the path to doing it fully and that mapping out that path requires taking a full inventory of what is working and not working. So here’s my assessment of March’s   plastic usage...

When I decided to focus on ahimsa , non-violence, for 2018, I knew it would be relevant, because it’s always relevant. That’s why the yoga sutras describe the yamas – of which ahimsa is the first and maybe the most important – as the great, mighty universal vows. They’re always relevant. But I also felt it more urgently now. We live in a world where violence seems increasingly common and nonsensical, but also plays out in a way that reinforces existing structures of power and inequality. It’s why white kids in a wealthy suburban neighborhood can still get gunned down at school – nonsensical. But their struggle to fight back wins them widespread acclaim, unlike the youth of color who fought gun violence in Ferguson and in Florida when Trayvon Martin was killed, and in Baltimore when Freddie Gray was killed and in the Twin Cities when Philando Castille was killed. And in countless other places, including in Sacramento just last week. Black and latinx kids who have...

I'm back from my epic 10 day work & yoga trip. I came home with a raging head cold as well as a lot of beautiful and gratifying lessons learned. I'll write more about the ahimsa practice tomorrow. I was mostly successful, but the failures teach as much as the successes, so I'm going to share them even though I wish I could pretend they hadn't happened.  For now, though, I am continuing to chronicle our household efforts to reduce plastic usage.  The month of February has been all about groceries and it has been an interesting challenge. I know that whatever we’re doing to reduce plastic around groceries is in part an illusion. Buy things in bulk and use paper bags? Sure! Feel good about that! But probably the bulk bins were filled from large plastic bags of those products. So maybe I’m helping reduce by avoiding single-serving plastic, but there’s still plastic involved. I have no idea how far that extends into the food chain. I’m mind...