Off the Mat
My teacher slyly told us, that as long as we practice yoga, it’s teachings “get in there”. I wasn’t entirely sure what she meant. Did she mean the guilt, that I don’t do more volunteer work, or that I’m often judgmental and snippy and I should know better. I figured all of the above.
But I think she meant a lot more than just the slow re-adjustment in attitude that happened so gradually for me, it was a shock. One day, I couldn’t deny it, I was morphing into the dreaded “granola girl”, the smelly hippie. I would soon be “one of those oddities” people like my friends wrinkle their noses at. We’ve all seen them, vegans who somehow always find a convenient guitar in a park and/or campsite and sing about mother earth. But here I am, trying to eat less red meat, looking at labels, whining to my husband about organic food, and that we *really* need to go miles out of our way, to spend more money and get less food at WholeFoods. I am a truly blessed that he relented (under the condition we never buy anything NOT on sale).
More telling, I was secretly thrilled that according to the EPA’s House Hold Emissions Calculator our household emitted ~7,100 CO2 vs. the 41,000 national average for a household of 2. And I’ve started thinking about how I can reduce that even further. I started by just reducing my waste. My aunt was a fiendish recycler and instilled those good habits in me, and my apartment building makes it unusually easy to recycle. Then I swapped out the plastic water bottles for the Sigg (Gaim in my case) water bottles — not really as an effort to go green, it just seemed like it was the yogic thing to do, and there was some guilt in my piles of personal plastic.
Slowly, I went further, swapping out house – hold chemicals for green alternatives. Now, I make not only my own cleaning products — I’ve become that girl who gives her friends and family her home made – toxic fee household cleaner, in the hopes they’ll breathe better. And I didn’t stop at cleaners, I push my home made exfoliators, which I swear will help wean them off of my former home-away-from home, Sephora. My eyes widen slightly as I scour for more ways to DIY. I even (briefly) consider the cheese box in WholeFoods, wondering if perhaps one day I can get rid of my fridge. How did this happen?!And are these MY thoughts?!
The worst part is I’m not all that proud of it. I’m a secret hippie, too ashamed to admit to my friends that I’ve gone granola. ME, Sephora’s best customer. ME who some of my friends still use as an example for the name-brand-taxi-riding-only-girl. And rather than proclaim my new found awareness I behave like I’ve been diagnosed with terminal kooties. I taken the cowardly way to come out, meetup.com. Where I will try and find some new friends who I can share green things with, but more importantly who (hopefully) won’t judge me, as harshly as I judged them.
