Eco Yogini

Local Eco-Adventure to Two if by sea

2012-01-28T17:35:00.000-04:00

Despite having a terrible head cold, Andrew and I decided to take an adventure this afternoon. A few ideas were thrown around, but Andrew had never been on the Ferry to Dartmouth nor to Dartmouth's pride and joy, 'Two if by Sea' Café.

Public transit, walking and local businesses? Perfect eco-adventure. So we (ok I) bundled up and off we went.

This is across the street from the new Nova Scotia Power building (in their parking lot). It's a charger for the Nissan Leaf that they're piloting (during the week a car is parked here). Unfortunately, Nova Scotia's energy is for the most part coal generated, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction!

A 'new' (ish) chocolaterie that opened- the service was fabulous and the chocolates are devine!

We arrived early at the Ferry terminal, so we decided to check out the new Two if by sea- Halifax kiosk (right next to Hart & Thistle). The owner, Zane, was there and was kind enough to let me take a picture and gifted us with free small coffee to tide us over until we got to the Dartmouth café!

TIBS always has the best signs.

All bundled up on the ferry! It was a bit windy... but then it's always windy in Halifax.

TIBS original Dartmouth sign 'Roses are red, violets are blue, cookies taste good, so do croissants' lol.

They serve HUGE cookies and croissants. This cookie was the size of my face and about two inches thick.... We couldn't eat it all. TIBS also has extremely interesting croissants of the week like 'Cherry Bomb' with cream cheese and cherries.
Beyond fair trade (and direct trade) organic coffee, they regularly have 'family dinners' where tickets are coveted and hard to come by. For around 50$ a seat you get a surprise local menu of fabulous food in a community environment. The Dartmouth café has fantastic atmosphere and is a must see if you're visiting the city!

The Ferry Dartmouth side. You can see the fake 'hibou's. I'm fairly certain they don't actually scare away sea gulls (as I see them circling around the warf every day). Metro transit may go on strike this week, so my walk-ferry ride to work may go on pause for a little while and it'll be back to driving.

Weirdly, one of my favourite parts of this city is the stonework on buildings and walls.

Now... after all that walking it's time for a nap!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How to Eco-Clean a Large Yoga Mat

2012-01-25T21:49:00.001-04:00

I have a large yoga mat. It's a bit silly, but I love it.

One problem though- it's a pain in the butt to clean.

Now we've chatted before about how you really don't need to pay money for a fancy yoga mat cleaner or "disinfectant wipes". Vinegar and water (and maybe a bit of essential oils for smell) work perfectly well. Don't let anyone dupe you!

My previous strategy for cleaning my yoga mat was to dunk it in the tub, spray some vinegar and water solution (I stopped with the tea tree oil, it really wasn't doing anything except making me break out and swell up) and rinse away. I'd then hang up my mat on the shower curtain rod over night and I was good to go. Environmentally friendly and minimal germs.

Enter the extra wide yoga mat (Francesca). She just doesn't fit in the bathtub well, she's big boned (she'd kick bum at football). She's also extremely heavy. So even though I might be able to awkwardly squish her into place, lifting and switching to the underside results in me puffing like I've climbed 100 stairs.

Then there's the drying issue. Francesca would cause the entire shower curtain rod to collapse.

What I've been doing is spraying LIBERALLY my 50-50 water-vinegar mixture (with a few drops of lavender essential oil for prettier smells), wiping with an old cloth and draping it over our chair to dry overnight (or over the course of about two days).

Atreyu had to supervise to make sure all went according to his master plan.

Sadly, this never makes me feel like I'm really rinsing the germs away. So... I've decided to give the tub a try. As you can see, it truly didn't fit in our tub- it was more like a lining which makes it difficult to clean as well as the end was rolled up and over. After turning on the taps for a few seconds with a plugged drain I was able to use less than a bowl of water to rinse away the vinegar spray leaving behind a scuzzy brownish green hue.

Dragging it out of the tub was a whole other matter. Francesca has now become a mat of lead. I had to towel her off in the bathroom, drag her to the living room and heavy lifting grunts and all draped her over the chair. Hopefully a) the cats don't claw her up and b) she actually dries out in a few days. I definitely will keep this deep cleaning to once every six months with regular spray-wipe downs in between.

If you try this at home on a rubber mat you may notice that after one day of drying your mat is a little slippery. Don't worry, rubber mats take a bit longer to dry out. My mat needs at least two days or more before my practice feels back to it's sticky self.

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Is Silicone Really Safe?

2012-01-25T21:16:00.001-04:00

Yesterday Andrew and I almost poisoned ourselves trying to bake homemade flatbread pizza. Sound dramatic? It was.

I was SO hungry, I kinda demanded that he start helping with dough preparations the minute he walked through the door. Yoga previous to this hadn't chilled me out- nope made me MORE hungry. As I'm kneading the oily flatbread dough I keep thinking: this is gonna make an awesome blog post!

Then we realized we were out of parchment paper- an essential component.

It's ok though, I had bought Andrew a fancy silicone baking mat last Yulemas (as in 13 months ago) and we had never tried it. Perfect opportunity! The box said it was good up to 480F and the pizza was a 450F job. Good to go.

Within two minutes of baking Andrew looks at me: "Do you smell that?" We lean in towards the oven, he opens the door and a cloud of chemical filled smoke wafts up and outward. So bad that we both start coughing immediately and the fire alarm actually goes off. Note that our fire alarm is about 14 feet high and has NEVER gone off (even though we've burned plenty things while cooking).

The smell was so bad that both our eyes watered, I got dizzy and despite a fan and three open windows it took a full day for the chemical scent to disappear.

Ummm.... who said that silicone was food safe?? We ended up opening the oven to let the chemicals dissipate and we made nachos instead. They tasted a bit weird, but we were so hungry we pretended we didn't notice.

So is silicone really safe? Silicone is typically made up of polymers that include silicon (a chemical element found in sand and dust particles), carbon, hydrogen and oxygen it's a synthetic product. Although previous articles have deemed it Food Safe, recent articles are popping up revealing that the actual safety research is scanty at best (Ecoholic Home 2009 p.63, Ask Umbra December 2011). Umbra points out that experts are indicating that the compounds in silicone bioaccumulate and can present health hazards. Health Canada also doesn't recommend baking with silicone above 220 Celcius (428F) or it will start to melt. Ahhh- that explains the 450F issue.

Would you really like to be the living guinea pig for toxins leaching into your food at high heat? Pas moi, especially after smelling that nasty disgusting-ness first hand.

Parchment paper: Unfortunately, many parchment papers are coated with silicone as well. Including If You Care's "environmentally friendly" version. Ugh.

Spray Greasing Agent (like Pam): Anything that has an exploding symbol on the can (and that comes in a can) isn't on my list of top uses. Typically cooking spray has oil and a propellant such as alcohol, nitrous oxide, propane or carbon dioxide (wtf?).

As I've never been a fan of silicone muffin or bread moulds or oven mitts anyway, I don't think we're going to miss silicone in our lives. We generally use butter or olive oil to grease everything (mmm). As for the flatbread pizza, I guess we'll just have to see what happens if we place it directly on the pizza stone or a buttered pan.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga and "Thinspiration": How Natural are "Natural" Weight Loss Supplements

2012-01-22T22:00:00.000-04:00

Despite our uber cynical and critical selves, pressure to fit a certain "body ideal" thrives... especially in the cognitive dissonance that is Western Yoga. We may pay lip service to how yoga is for "every body" and many of us are fighting the good fight, but mainstream perception as well as what gets often (incorrectly if you ask me) tagged as "art" always includes one of the 5th percentile: skinny female form, scantily clad and achieving all the physical that is often touted as "secondary" to the yoga practice.
For 95% of us, this is the physically impossible ideal we're encouraged to strive towards.

This stuff is insidious, unconscious but most certainly present. A billion dollar advertising industry isn't wrong when they assume that the 300+ ads we as a population see a day isn't influencing our spending, how we feel about our bodies and our selves. Disordered eating has been directly linked to advertising and social/cultural body ideal pressures... and 95% of all people who suffer form disordered eating are women. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental health issues (Nedic for more information)

When a yoga instructor has pages after pages of pinterest boards with "thin ideal porn" of thin yoga bodies and degrading negative self comments- something is wrong. Previously to social media like facebook, twitter and pinterest there were such sites called "pro-ana" websites. Where women would post and peruse photos and "motivational" posts of extremely thin women. These websites are unhealthy eating, harmful tips on losing weight and perpetuate the unrealistic body type ideal. A quick search on pinterest of "thinspiration+yoga" reveals some pretty disturbing photos. Taking it a few steps further and you'll see entire pins filled with thin bodies (typically without heads) and non-realistic board statements such as: "Do you think she got this skinny by sitting on her ass and eating crap?..." (actually, healthy eating and great exercise can't change bone structure- part of that is genetics- hence the unrealistic ideal).

Many of these pin boards feature thin yoginis in acrobatic asanas.

We know that diet pills are bad, that dieting is unhealthy (and unsuccessful, resulting in higher weight gain)... but what about when we attach words like "eco, organic, natural" or even "ayurvedic" to a program/product? Of all the greenwashing- this stuff irks me the most.

For example: "natural weight loss herbs" and "slimming supplements". A fantastic article co-written by my husband Andrew here on EcoYogini a few years ago delves more deeply into the sociological fallacies of the supplement industry. What's interesting is the historical significance of how we've been quietly shepherded into accepting that taking supplements in lieu of whole foods (such as calcium instead of drinking milk) has allowed the supplement industry to create acceptance of a pill as a true food healthy alternative.

The true definition of what we're looking for to be "natural" would be something that is the least modified. Powdered and pill supplements are far from this definition.

Self-proclaimed "natural" weight loss supplements are even more sketchy in nature as they often have poor safety trials and extremely loose regulations. For example, in 2009 Health Canada recalled 68 brands of "natural" weight loss supplements because they contained undeclared prescription only ingredients, some of which had serious health side effects. (Adria Vasil, Ecoholic January 5th 2012). Also reported by Ecoholic, some supplements have been found by ConsumerLab.com to have hexavalent chromium (that cancer agent on Erin Brockovich) and a quick stroll through the warning archives reveals an unending stream of recalls and violations.

We shouldn't forget herbs that appear straightforward as well. Such as Hoodia which is now an endangered species in Africa. Environment Canada has had to stop thousands of illegal shipments of diet pills containing Hoodia. It's so important to consider how those third world country herbs were collected and processed, it's not like they magically appeared in pill form someone had to input labour.

Staying healthy is important. If becoming healthy is part of your plan this year, instead of thinking "weight loss" try thinking "health-gain". Honestly, natural supplements aren't healthy, and many aren't actually environmentally friendly (or safe).

If someone encourages you in your yoga practice to take supplements, try a purge or makes your feel like there's an end-point body ideal: they're not practicing yoga.

**NB: as an astute commenter pointed out (Thanks Nicole!)- supplements prescribed by an accredited Naturapathic doctor are a different kettle of fish. At the same time, even then you should try to do what you feel comfortable.
article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Giving up Kraft Dinner+Nominated for WeBlog Award!

2012-01-20T06:54:00.002-04:00

Andrew and I are at our two week "no boxed, no pre-made meals" life change! Go check out our progress and the tasty recipe I'm sharing at my post on the Green Phone Booth!!

I also want to quickly say a big THANK YOU to the lovely reader who nominated me for a Canadian WeBlog Award! Imagine my surprise when Roseanne from It's All Yoga, Baby mentioned on twitter that I had made the shortlist of the top 5 nominees! I'm so honoured to be mentioned next to four other fabulous blogs in the "Best WeBlog About Ecology and Social Justice/Écologie et justice sociale" (one other being from Halifax!).

Check out the other fantastic nominees:
Adventures in Local Food (Ecology Action Centre in Halifax)
Eco Logic
Eco Mama
SEWNatural

Again, Merci!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How to be an Eco-Shaving Yogi(ni): Overshare

2012-01-18T18:23:00.000-04:00

Woman-confession!
Have you ever wished that you were hairless? No seriously, I'm sure that I can't be the only one. Keeping oneself hair-free is not only annoying but can become chemically and energy expensive. That said, I could never go completely "au naturel" and prefer to keep my legs (and armpits) shaved. Especially as a yogini, nothing is more awkward than getting an assist in shoulderstand when you have furry legs. Whereas typically in the wintertime I would wait longer between shaving my legs and armpits, my hair-removal strategies are now dictated by my yoga schedule.

Now, I know many of you enjoy the wonders of waxing and the epilady. I have tried both and have discovered that I am a huge wimp. I barely got through an inch of my leg in a two hour time span with the epilady, and waxing would be painful as well as too expensive. So razors it is.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've always hated shaving my legs in the shower. I usually get goose bumps, or slip and nick a knee... it's just annoying. As well, it takes me on average an extra 10 minutes to shave my legs (what? I'm methodical). Every minute I spend in the shower I use between 15-30 litres of water (Ecoholic 2006). That's 150-300 extra litres of water when for the most part I try to keep the water OFF my legs.

So, for the longest time (ok until last year) I would take a bath to shave my legs. Although an average bathtub holds 80 litres (less than what that extra shower time would use) it still seems pretty wasteful to use 80 litres just to shave my legs.

Finally, about a year ago, I finally changed my shaving habits to be as ecological as I can make them. Wanna know something? I actually prefer this method!

How to be an Eco-Shaving Yogi(ni)

1. Ditch the shaving cream. Shaving cream/gel is filled with synthetic ingredients and nasty chemicals, many derived from petroleum, all mixed in with skin penetration enhancers so your body can absorb them easier.
Instead: Try some locally made, moisturizing soap. Seriously, you'll be shocked that your skin doesn't erupt in a crazy, burning rash like those shaving cream ads would have you believe. I adore BirchBark Soap's Bay Rum scented shaving soap (all her soap is made without synthetic scents or palm oil!).

2. Try recycled plastic razors... however I gave them a go and was very disappointed. Personally I found that they gave a terrible shave. But... if they work for you that would be best! I try to use my blades a few times before replacing them- not so much as to risk infection, but more than once.

3. Use the bathroom sink to shave your legs. Place a towel on the floor. Taking care to use your amazing yogi balancing skills, ground in one foot and balance the other on the counter near the sink. Using soap, lather your leg and shave. Periodically turning on and off the tap to rinse out the hair. (DO NOT leave the tap running!!). Using a handful of water, rinse the soap off and use the towel to dry your leg. Repeat on the other side.

This strategy actually works more quickly, especially if I realize 15min before I have to leave for a yoga class that I need to shave my legs! It also results in the least amount of water used!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The Eco-Sacrifices we made for our Cats

2012-01-15T19:52:00.001-04:00

Emergency trip to the vet.Yep, the majority of my Friday was spent consoling and soothing ourcognitively impaired cat, Atreyu as I discovered from a 3 houremergency visit that he also has crystals.

(Atreyu saying HI!)

Weirdly, we call our cats "pooper" or "kitten" or some variation. Our friends now refer to them as such as well, our Peruvian friend calling them "Poopina and Poopino".

(Asteya in her favourite place, an old box that delivered Andrew's WoW headphones... she LOVES that box. Also, the Medical Food made her gain weight, so she now has a tummy...)

Sigh. Although Atreyu isrecovering well from what appears to be a potentially fatal blockage,both Andrew and I are disappointed. Crystals mean no morenutrient-rich, grain-free environmentally friendly food. We'd pridedourselves in buying Canadian made, grain free foods that would helpkeep him healthy (ahem, fail) and his coat shiny. Due to the presenceof crystals in his urine, formations caused by insufficient wateruptake and can cause sceptis and death within hours, we will have tofeed him grain-filled Medi-Cal Urinary SO for the rest of his life.

When I voiced my concernregarding the presence of grain to the vet, however, she wasn't verysympathetic. "There is no harm in feeding grain to a cat, cornisn't bad". Unless you care about the planet, the monoculturecrops and pesticides taking over our soil and air. Sure grain isn't"bad" for your cat, but it's a filler- minimal nutrients.Like eating white bread. Or MacDonalds.

We also had to cave andpurchase another cat fountain. I was so happy to unplug and give ourprevious plastic monstrosity away. Our cats were drinking enough fromthe twice daily changed water bowls we left them, why have somethinguse up extra electricity? Except they obviously weren't (since theyBOTH have crystals now).

Saturday was spentpurchasing a new, stainless steel and easier to clean, cat fountain.They adore it, but the energy leeching away irks me. At least ourfriend yoga sessions will now be graced with the peaceful sound oftrickling water.

(Atreyu is often confused by things... like water, flames, generally anything at all. Since he doesn't have object permanence, every time he sees it, it's like the first time all over again!)

Our two cats remaineco-friendly in a few ways though....

We still have grain-free food left, so it will be a 80(Medical)-20 mixture until it's gone.
We use chemical-free pine litter
They were both rescued cats (SPCA). An entire section of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us is dedicated to how cats are becoming a huge problem to birds. If you want a kitten, instead of adding one to the billions already present, rescue one and get it fixed.
They're indoor cats.
The fountain at least is stainless steel and not plastic.

Despite their eco-ratingrapidly slipping away with the ridiculous water fountain andexpensive grain-filled stinky food, we love our cats. Even Mr.Atreyu, who as a premature kitten kept in an incubator became ourspecial needs cat (I could write an entire blog post on his"moments", but then I'd REALLY be a cat lady...lol). Plus, my favourite is a purring mass of fur love while I'm in downward dog.

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga as a Health Profession: Some Thoughts

2012-01-12T22:02:00.000-04:00

I'm sure I've mentioned before, but I'm not just a yoga practicing, tree-hugging gal... most of my life is actually centered around something I don't blog about that much: Speech-Language Pathology. Human communication. That is my schtick really. All things about how we communicate fascinates me and if you add multiple languages and you've got me hooked. I love me a fantabulous accent, grammatical differences, allophones of the same phoneme stuff.

(ahem, boring stuff for most!)

Unfortunately, this amazing profession of helping children connect, communicate and achieve love through language has also embedded itself into my every waking thought. I analyze sounds, notice dialectical aberrations (sadly "I seen" just isn't correct, even if I might say it myself sometimes-BAD SLP) and geek out over interesting multiple language interactions. The yoga instructor has an accent? I spend most of the class puzzling together what sort of vowel changes she's doing.

I've simply accepted it as work place hazard.

All this to introduce how the past five years of my life have taught me quite a bit about the helping professions- what can help and what can hinder.

Traditional health professionals can be pretty darn snobby about alternative therapies... but as Yoga increases in popularity and supporting medical research continues to support Yoga as a valuable member in the wholistic interprofessional team, we need to make a decision. Often I read doubt, cynism or complete distrust to embrace a change toward yoga fitting in the rubric of "health profession". I understand where this is coming from. I do.

That said, what disappoints me are those who refuse to see how Yoga could find it's own unique place.

A few of the benefits of a health professional:

Having a national organization (CASLPA) that supports and advocates for SLPs (and Audiologists) helps me have a valid say in how my profession changes and grows.
Requiring certification (5 hour exam) that is the same across the country assures that those SLPs who are also certified meet a certain standard.
This standard then feeds back to the master's programs nationally. The exam reflects what should be taught in master's programs assuring that there are no programs that pump out substandard SLPs, which in turn results decreased percentage of "poor caliber" SLPs to tarnish the profession.
National certification also assures that SLPs maintain continued education of a certain standard. This encourages evidence based knowledge sharing and giving.
Although Nova Scotia is one of the last provinces to do this, our legislative body (crossing fingers will happen soon!) assures that you can't practice in Nova Scotia, call yourself a "Speech-Language Pathologist" without meeting certain standards (i.e. CASLPA certification).
This protects other SLPs, the integrity of our profession as well as the client. If you're seeking out an SLP in the province you can be assured of a certain standard.
Client satisfaction and safety can actually become an issue in Speech Pathology. SLPs work with individuals with swallowing problems (lung infection, choking, quality of life), laryngectomies, head and neck cancer, strokes along with Autism, Down Syndrome, Seizure disorders to name just a few populations. Having a poorly trained SLP could truly impact the client for the rest of their lives.
Interprofessional work is easier- other professionals can expect a certain level of knowledge, skill and credibility. This is essential when working as a team- trust.

I hope you can see the connection between these benefits and the recent issues and concerns being raised with the growing Yoga Instructor Profession. Bemoaning the lack of training, the lack of rigidity, the inconsistencies between training programs while in the same breath railing against any attempt at certification or standardisation seems counterintuitive. I get that change is scary, difficult and challenging with so many disparate paths to becoming an Instructor. I also understand that some may be nervous about losing their ability to teach. Physiotherapy wasn't always a master's degree... what happened to those who didn't have a master's degree? They were "grand-mothered" in.

I most certainly do not have the answers. This is a complex question. As someone who (gasp!) works within the western medicine cube, I just see so much potential for Yoga to influence and shape health professions around the world. I do believe there is space within the confines of what constitutes a health professional for a Yoga Instructor. I also believe that should this work be undertaken BOTH Yoga Instructors and students will benefit greatly from this new path.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

One Big Eco-Change 2012: No More Zoodles

2012-01-08T21:16:00.001-04:00

Choosing a big eco-change was difficult for many reasons.

One is the initial rationale behind my reticence in making New Year's Resolutions: often the "all or nothing", binge-type behaviours end in disaster. We burn ourselves out, pick unrealistic long term expectations and crash into oblivion. (This is also the reason why I am not a fan of bootcamps or 30 days of yoga or cleansing type activities).

Another was that Andrew and I actually already have changed a lot of things about our lifestyles. What is left are mostly things we can't change, like heating (we have no control over in our apartment), selling the car (we need it for my job), buying only organic and local (we don't have the financial means to do this 100%, but we try where we can), getting our electricity from sustainable means (we live in an apartment...).

Over our weekly fancy coffee (Direct Trade Organic at Smiling Goat- best coffee in town!), we made a daunting decision:

We are only going to have one boxed/pre-made/in-a-can supper a week.

You might think- whaaa? Super easy!

Except. I am a fussy eater. Always have been. I have food restrictions due to my IBS on top of that. A lot of "easy" and quick meals include things like tomato (anything), onions, sauces (I generally don't like them)... You see where this is going?

Also, both Andrew and I work/ go to school full time and Andrew gets home pretty late (6:45pm usually). I come from a family who eats supper at 4:30-5pm and I've submitted my childhood habits on Andrew. Since I'm so fussy and uncreative with regards to meals, by the time he gets home, I'm embarrassed to admit that we often have KD, zoodles, or frozen pizza. And we LIKE it.

On top of all that it has taken Andrew 5 years to be ok with eating left overs. Yep, his childhood family habits have resulted in his intense distrust in anything frozen or left in the fridge for a day. His mother throws stuff out when the expiration date is two full days away.

So, this decision was not taken lightly and is a BIG DEAL.

(THE list on our fridge. Thursday is blank because I have my LLLI course I'm teaching that night. Also, you may notice that we have a Pirate themed word magnets...lol)

It's daunting because we've tried meal-planning before. And failed miserably. I'm not exactly sure why (I think work exploded and I became frustrated with the lack of inspiration for meals), but it definitely makes me nervous about the weeks to come.

Ways to stop a FAIL:

More ideas for meals. Although he annoys the crap out of me, we have "Chef at Home", Chef Michael Smith's cookbook... and it ROCKS. Therefore, we're going to purchase his new book (and check his website).
Sundays are now planning/shopping/cooking days.
Andrew and I have had an honest chat about sharing this burden. Including my fears regarding my limitations with food and lack of creativity and his limitations regarding a general sense of laissez-faire. We are both committed this time.
I now know a really awesome and quick recipe for flatbread so we can make a quick flatbread pizza.
I don't really like zoodles, I like to pretend that when I eat it the heat changes the "tomato" sauce to something "un-tomato". So it shouldn't be too hard to give up. (yep, this tomato phobia is all in my head, but it's deeply rooted from my childhood. You should SEE my brother eat ketchup. Barf).

In any case, we have planned our first week and tomorrow after yoga (while Andrew is at his night class) I'm off to pick up what we need for the week. I'm really hopeful this change will result in new habits and a new portion to our life that we'll stop thinking about, like getting rid of paper towel, or walking to work.

Anyone else go through this process and have any tips/suggestions?

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Why I'm "Eco"- Friday at the Green Phone Booth

2012-01-06T06:48:00.001-04:00

Why I do the Eco-Things that I do: Bonjour! post over at the Booth! (My Introductory post!)

Happy Friday!

A Niggling, Wiggling Unfurling to a New Path in 2012

2012-01-03T22:44:00.002-04:00

2012 is the year of being 30. ACK. THIRTY. Trente. Shu dans mes trentaines. I don't feeeel thirty (perhaps it's the fact that I work with preschoolers?).

As I've written, New Year's resolutions are not for me. That said, I definitely have a little niggling, wiggling thing. A bud. A something in the center of my chest. Metaphorically, but it's weirdly manifesting as a physical sensation. This niggling thing feels like it's waiting for a momentous *thing* to happen this year. Some event that will allow it to flourish, open up and stretch out.

Weird, I know.

Therefore, although I'm not going to have "resolutions" per se, I think a few comments on a more Authentic Path (inspired from Simply Authentic hehe- thank you!) would be a lovely exercise.

Firstly, to move forward I need a quick peak back to 2011:

The new snow last January 2011

Word of the year: WORK, work and more work. 2011 was the year of my job. I traveled to Ottawa, Montreal (twice!) and all over the province for work. I gave presentations to countless groups of parents, early childhood educators, teachers, SLP colleagues, principals and began the huge Hanen program LLLI. All in French. I was interviewed three times by the radio, wrote a few articles that got published, implemented bilingual standards of care for the entire province, co-taught the SLP master's pediatric dysphagia class, helped plan a provincial Expo, took evening French language classes... sigh I was busy and am very proud of all that I accomplished that year.

Our trip to PEI six months ago

That said, I feel like everything else has taken a back seat. I didn't write as much music and my yoga practice in the studio disappeared into oblivion. My first year of marriage and really it's work that stands out.

My eco Halloween as the Paper Bag Princess costume

Also, my environmental journey hasn't really made any huge steps.
Some notable changes:
- We successfully made and preserved jam (yum!)
- I now wash my face with honey
- I started sewing more
- We rode our bicycles in the summer (but not nearly enough)
- We went to the farmer's market a lot more
- I started drinking loose tea
- I stopped dying my hair (no more highlights!)
- we tried rooftop gardening and failed miserably
- we started drinking whole milk from local cows
- we got a dishwasher

Wow... not that impressive huh?

Ok. So. I'm thinking, 2012- the year of 30. Needs to be a little more artsy, more guitar-ing, more singing, more writing, more yoga-ing, more ART-ing.

Some ideas to make this happen:
Writing-Guitar-ing-ART-ing: last year this "resolve" dissolved (haha). It's time to do what worked when I was in university; go to a coffee shop and write over yummy coffee. We live in the city and have fabulous coffee shops nearby. It's time to take an evening every week for a little coffee/writing jaunt.
Also, using the once a week that Andrew is in an evening class to practice and create songs instead of reading a book or watching tv would be a good goal.

Yoga: I'd like to actually make an effort to attend karma classes this year. I'm making plans with my friend yoga crew to crash some local studios en masse.

Work: No more taking extra, after work language courses, agreeing to co-teach the master's pediatric dysphagia course, checking emails from home...

Blog: Announcement!! I was so surprised and honoured to be invited to write for the FABULOUS Green Phone Booth!! As of this month, every two Fridays I'll be writing over at the Booth... yay Eco Superheroine!

Environment: on that line of thought, I'd really like to make ONE (only one) other large life change in decreasing my impact on the planet. This is going to take some thought, because if I go too big it just won't work. I'll keep y'all posted on this one :)

NEXT: Tomorrow evening I'll be taking key words from the above Paths and will be ART-ing all over a page. This page will be put up in the kitchen for daily viewing, reminding and smiling.

anyone else for the niggling, wiggling feelings?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Eco Winter Coat for Yulemas!

2012-01-02T22:32:00.000-04:00

I did it Eco-Yogis. The ridiculous, beautiful Eco-Lovely Winter Coat that Captain Planet would be proud to wear is now in my possession. The Hemp Hoodlamb Long Coat.

A wonderful contribution for Yulemas from my mom (who sighed and said, "Well, why buy you stuff that you don't need if I can help you get something that you do need?") allowed me to take the plunge where I'd otherwise have never afforded to. Although the outer portion was reused packaging, sadly the box itself doesn't seem to be made from recycled cardboard and the coat was in a plastic bag (INSIDE the box. Really??).

That said the coat is gorgeous, insanely warm and heavy! Just a quick recap on it's amazing eco-qualities:
55% Hemp, 45% organic cotton outer shell
20% Hemp, 35% recycled PET Satifur lining
Hemp organic cellulose water and wind resistent treated
Fake fur lined outside pockets

(it fits perfectly! That monster-tree in the background is our organic Yulemas tree Bob who is half dressed.... lol)

Making silly faces cuz I'm so excited about the new coat!

Currently in Halifax, the latest "it" coat is the Canada-Goose coat, made from chemically petrochemical derived treated outer shells, goose down feather filled and coyote fur hood lined... ick.

The patented "paper dispenser" pocket. And yes, every inch of the inside is lined with the recycled PET "fur". Warm and cuddly!

There are also about a zillion secret pockets and a little "paper dispenser" that I'm going to put my yogAttitude inspirational words inside (Canada may be a bit more lax in it's culture around weed than the States, but it's just not really my thing... lol).

We had a few zippy days here in Halifax over the holidays so I was able to test it out. It ROCKED.

One small downside: a quick peek at the tag and I quickly saw the whole "designed in Amsterdam, made in China" crap. Le Sigh.

Tomorrow is my day back to work after a luxurious vacation and my walking to the ferry will start again!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

DIY Natural Face Exfoliant for NYE

2011-12-30T11:58:00.002-04:00

New Year's Eve is coming upon us and I don't know about you all (y'all for my American peeps!), but I adore the self-painting and primping that is involved with the night. Beyond that, all that healthy sheen from a great yoga practice can benefit from a good cleaning on a regular basis.

I had given up facial exfoliants after realizing that most scrubs are either: A) made from small plastic nurdles making their way from my drain to fish bellies B) made from "natural" products that have sharp edges that will scratch and tear at my skin or C) made with dirt dissolving chemicals that are sketchy.

Unfortunately, with winter well on it's way, my skin is drying out and needs some exfoliation (my amazing honey cleansing routine just needs that little boost).

A few months ago a local company, Pur Alternatives, was sadly closing shop and having a ridiculous sale. I purchased a few products I wouldn't typically purchase, including a "natural" exfoliant using grains. I was skeptical that a jar filled with dry grains could do the trick. Except... this stuff was AMAZING. Seriously, the BEST EXFOLIANT EVER. And the ingredient list was stuff you can eat!

Recently, I ran out. So off to Planet Organic bulk and herb section to give my own version a try. I tried it this morning and it rocks! I had a funny feeling that the oats were the gently, moisturizing ticket and I was right. My mixture has only four ingredients, all naturally round and gentle on your skin, super easy to put together and will leave your skin soft and smooth!

EcoYogini Lavender Oat Exfoliant

Hardware: mortar and pestle (or something to squish the oats a bit)
large bowl
small glass container (could be a small jam jar)

Software: 1 tbsp of whole lavender buds (organic and ethically sourced is best!)
1/4 cup of rolled oats (not cooked)
3 tbsp of amaranth (easy to find at natural bulk stores)
1/4 cup of quinoa (white)
(Ingredient measurements are approximations, I actually didn't measure any of mine!)

In the mortar and pestle lightly crush the oats. You can leave some larger pieces, and truly this will be to what texture you'd like in your scrub.

In the bowl add all the other dry ingredients. As I didn't actually measure mine, feel free to add or remove to the amount of each you'd like. The lavender really makes it smell delicious, but once you add water that lavender smell disappears into the "oat".

Store in a small glass jar.

To Use:
In the shower (or at the sink), pour out about a teaspoon of grains into your palm. Drip a few drops of water into the scrub and gently massage over your face. Use once or twice a week only. For a fun facial mask add some yogurt and honey!

Now your face is all ready for some yoga-ing, dancing healthy New Year's Eve Shine!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Meditation for Atheists

2011-12-28T17:20:00.000-04:00

What can be said about Yoga in Western Culture, there remains a whole heaping of the foofoo, from full on Anusara spiritual referencing to vague pop psychology one-liners. I happen to like a happy balance between the two, mostly because my own spirituality doesn't feel comfortable with random Hindu references and I'm so done with PopPsych one liners like "By helping yourself, you can better help others".

However, is there a place for the firm, disenchanted atheist in this spectrum?

Recently, Andrew's hardcore Atheist brother was asking about how best to begin meditating, sans any spiritual reference. At all. Including PopPsych foofoo. This is more difficult than you'd initially suspect.

Many of the best meditation books are written by Buddhists. Although many can be very straightforward and low-key on the spiritual pomp page, they are still written from an ultimately spiritual perspective; Buddhism. When we suggested he look into purchasing (or borrowing) one of these books and ignoring all the spiritual references, he made a face. An atheist to the core, spirituality tends to evoke disdain and chips away at the author's credibility in his mind.

But "Meditation is HARD" he says. "And I really want to work on it, any suggestions?"

My first thought? "Start a yoga practice". Last spring a few friends took a free meditation workshop at the local Moksha studio. I expected to learn something new, or be extremely challenged. I don't have a regular meditation practice, therefore I figured this would be HARD. At the end of the workshop I realized that I had been meditating for the past 6-7 years.... during and at the end of every yoga asana practice. I already had the tools that worked well for me, focusing on my breath and some sparten visualization techniques learned through various yoga instructors.

What I did learn was that straight-up, no prep meditation, is MUCH more difficult than at the end of a yoga practice. Why is that?

Although yoga may have many other benefits (both physiological and psychological), as I understand the history, simply put yoga was created to prepare the body physically and the mind to withstand long periods of meditation. Yoga Asana was the entry point to meditation.

After chatting with a few other friends who practice yoga and have a semi-regular meditation practice, we all agreed that it's much easier to ease the mind into meditation after the body has been physically exhausted from a strenuous yoga practice. We're too tired to hold onto any of the anxiety, circular thinking or our "monkey mind" (as much as I dislike that phrase). Further, the actual asana practice teaches you to focus on your breathing and to bring your attention away from the past-future to the now.

Yoga Asana is a shortcut to Meditation.

Now... how to convince a videogaming, Warhammer playing Atheist that actual physical Yoga can be his ticket to Meditation success....and finding the best yoga class fit.

Any suggestions?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

A Slower Path to New Year's Resolutions

2011-12-27T19:33:00.001-04:00

The gap between Yule and New Year's always feels a bit fluid; like we're all holding our breath waiting for something spectacular. It's the time of introspection, the inbetween of announcing new aspirations willynilly and reviewing our lives.

As a rule I've always avoided New Year's resolutions. They're like dieting: they never work nor are they realistic. Falling off the New Year's Resolution Wagon can cause a plummet beyond your previous levels, also like dieting. I am not a fan of dieting (re: self-loathing, self-restriction).

Every year, predictably, I'm tempted. To make sweeping environmental plans like: "I will make soups and freeze them!" or "We will significantly decrease our energy usage!" or even "I will only buy clothing second hand or made from organic cotton". It never works.

My Yoga/Health plans sound vaguely like: "I will practice at a studio more than once a week" or "I will begin meditating every day" or "I will read a whole crapload of yoga books" or "Coffee and Yoga will take on a whole new level this year".

My other life plans sound like: "I will play the guitar more often" or "I will actually write another song every month" or "I will start my voice and piano practice up again"...

Yep- all completely overwhelming and a lesson in guilt tripping. I really wish I had time (and money) for ALL of them!

I do think that this fluid space between now and New Year's is a nice time for some thoughtful redirection towards what could be a mindful adjustment on the path of life.

As many of us are enjoying the lull of inbetween limbo, now is the time for more journal writing, guitar playing, singing, yoga practicing... all with the purpose of accepting who you are right now, where you'd like to direct your sails in the wind and a few possible tools to get you there.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yule Eggnog Shortbread Cookies!

2011-12-21T20:35:00.001-04:00

You know what's better than discovering an awesome Yulemas cookie recipe? Making it even AWESOMER (yes, that is now a word).

If you've discovered that you've forgotten a few peeps on your Yulemas card list, instead why not bake these fantabulous cookies, place them in a small mason jar, a bit of ribbon and you're good to go!

Lisa's Yulemas Shortbread Cookies

(modified from Andrew's mom's shortbread recipe, which was modified from the back of the cornstarch box)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of icing sugar
1/2 cup of cornstarch
1 cup of flour
3/4 cup of butter

glaze: 1 cup of icing sugar
3 tbsp of eggnog

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

In a large bowl whisk together 1/2 cup of cornstarch, 1/2 cup of icing sugar and 1 cup of flour.
In the microwave soften butter (I cut mine in cubes and place in a bowl). OR you could plan in advance and let it warm to room temperature over a few hours.

Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter with the flour, cornstarch and icing sugar.

Once the butter is in tiny bits, abandon the pastry cutter and use your hands to knead and squish. Do this for about 4 minutes minimum.

Taking the dough, flatten it on the counter as much as possible. With a rolling pin, roll it out to about 1cm thickness (be careful! the dough cracks and separates easily).

Using a small cookie cutter (or yeast jar like I did), cut out small circles and place on cookie sheet. I greased mine lightly with butter, but you don't have to.

Bake for 16min (or, right before they turn golden brown on the bottom. As opposed to other cookies, golden brown means overdone for these)

Remove from the oven and place on a drying rack (with a cookie sheet beneath).

Mix up the glaze and using a spoon spread on the top of each cookie.
When you're done the batch immediately go back and start sprinkling the sprinkles (too soon and they'll bleed into the glaze, too late and they roll right off).

Done!

Happy Yule Everyone!!!

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Tripping the lights- Eco Style!

2011-12-17T08:30:00.001-04:00

You know those crazy people you see on tv who have ridiculous amounts of lights (thousands) that are coordinated to music? My little internal dialogue vacillates between: "Wow that is SO NEAT!" to "How wasteful is that? So much energy used".

Well- this family in a small Nova Scotian village, has created a fabulous Yulemas light show and not only are all 28,000 lights LED, but money is raised every year for a local charity.

For the amazing video, click to the Chronicle Herald page!

Although those lights do use extra energy, only 125$ extra on his energy bill a month instead of the hundreds regular lights would cost.

This is a wonderful example of how being a tree-hugger can still be extraordinary, eco and save you money!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

What is your food worth? Eating Lobsters Mindfully

2011-12-16T17:24:00.001-04:00

Although my journey with yoga has been a tumultuous one, what has resonated with me the most has been the (most likely watered down) concept of living mindfully.

Not only does this apply to the steps I take to decrease my impact on our beloved Planet, but it has also spread it's relevant tendrils to touch all aspects of living.

Including eating. This isn't a blog post about veganism or vegetarianism, but about what my food isn't worth.

My food has never been worth slave labour. Often products such as coffee, sugar and chocolate are named when discussing human right violations, terrible working conditions, slave and child labour and polluting cultivation practices. Similar discussions surround farming, with purchasing directly from your farmer assuring that your food has been purchased for a fair price.

This isn't news to most here in Nova Scotia. Despite this province's tendency towards traditionalism and conservative views, the slow food and local movement is making some pretty significant headway. The farmer's markets are booming and 'Buy Local' movements are getting a lot of press, it's great.

(This video is of a local fisherman making the best of a rough situation- hilarious to watch, especially as I've always heard of the crazy things they did while out on the ocean. As you can see, if the rope from the traps pulled him over he's not wearing his floatersuit... most don't. I'm also fairly certain this wouldn't be considered a "rough" day on the water)

Interestingly enough, with the start of District 34's lobstering season (end of November to end of May), which provides 60% of the global lobster industry, the 'fair price' logic hasn't connected. As a fisherman's daughter, I grew up eating lobster. Yes, I know I was lucky, but let me tell you, we were never rich. There is this strange misconception in the Atlantic provinces that lobster fishermen from District 34 are well-off. Perhaps there are a few, but they are far between and definitely not the norm.

Due to the proliferation of lobsters in this area of ocean, it is not easy nor cheap to become a fisherman. Firstly, there's purchasing a boat. Ranging anywhere from 200-500,000$ depending on where you'd like to fish (inside or steaming far outside). Then there's the license, which also costs another couple hundred thousand. You need to hire at least one other person (if not more) to help, minimum 100$ a day. Fuel costs a fortune and don't forget the traps (or 'pots' as their called home). Over 100$ each, with about 200 per boat, often they need replacing during the year.

Beyond this, these fisher-people fish during the harshest season of the year- winter. With winds, snow and sleet, leaving the warf at 3 or 4am to work all day and return after supper, (or stay out for days at a time), it isn't an easy life. Too many have lost their lives in that ocean, with riptides and currents assuring that bodies are never found. Unlike other districts, winter waters mean hypothermia in minutes followed by death. Families and communities never forget this risk.

(A local boat, the Hunter Madison, sinking earlier this week. Thankfully all crewmen were safely rescued. Even though it was a very calm morning, the boat didn't take long to sink....)

This year the season started with a price of 3$ or less a lb. In District 34, most fishermen belong to a co-op at their warf to whom they sell their lobsters. The co-op then sells to buyers, who sell to businesses and ship around the world (including the States).

For most fishermen, there aren't enough lobsters to justify a price of 3$/lb, it costs more to catch the lobsters than they're worth. Unfortunately, most fishermen are too indebted to change careers. With a boat, license, mortgage and house loans their only option is to keep fishing.

I don't know about you, but any lobster I eat, special occasion or no, restaurant or no, will never be worth unfair wages paid to fishermen who risk their lives every day to provide us with a delicious delicacy.

Instead of blindly purchasing your lobster this year, here are a few tips that you can do to help support the fishermen of district 34 (and around the world):

Whenever possible, buy directly from the fisherman and pay a decent price (at least 5$ if not more).
If that's not an option, but you live in Halifax, Pete's Frootique purchases their lobsters for a fair price directly from a fishermen in Cape Sable Island.
Not in Halifax? Before purchasing ask where the lobsters come from. Voice your concern with regards to the pricing and purchasing practices of buyers. Ask to know what price the original buyer (not the grocery store) paid the fishermen for the lobsters.
Group together with friends who also want lobsters and contact fishermen or co-ops in Nova Scotia to see whether a larger order could justify a trip to the city. People often know people coming up to the city this time of year.
If you can afford it, be willing to pay a bit more for fairly priced lobsters. They're a luxury item and as a result worth a few extra dollars to assure you're not contributing to the destruction of an entire community of fishermen and their families.

Living mindfully is so much more than just the obvious. This year my lobster will be fairly priced and worth every penny.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Fantastic Eco-Wrapped Yulemas Presents

2011-12-11T20:50:00.001-04:00

This week has been busy with an engagement of our closest friends (after a sweaty hockey game!), picking up our ridiculously organic and misshapen Yulemas Tree, a work party and finally a day of rest.

And wrapping presents for family.

I adore beautifully wrapped presents and may have a few rigidities around wrapping presents PERFECTLY. That said, the thought of spending money on something that people are going to rip into pieces for it to be at worse, thrown in the landfill, or at best recycled, kills me. As a result, we haven't bought much wrapping paper in years.

Nevertheless, our presents continue to look smashing if I do humbly say so myself.

How? Through the joys of newspaper!

A local Haligonian paper, The Coast, always has the most interesting graphics and front page "art" work, which is especially festive during December. All I needed to do was pick up a free paper two Thursdays in a row, read them as I would anyway, and spend some time searching for a "wrappable" section.

Seriously, this can get really fun, especially since for certain friends I wrapped their presents using the "Savage Love" (warning, explicitly sexual articles post-link!) section of the newspaper (hah!).

Advertisements can look fantastic with beautiful graphics that can at times span an entire page, perfect for wrapping. My brother's gift was wrapped using a "Flight" advertisement that had an entire page of mountain and snow.

Smaller graphics can be cut out for pretty gift tags. A bit of repurposed ribbon or string and you're good to go!

Now, for my brother's "step-son" who's 3 years old, I caved and purchased a small bit of wrapping paper made from recycled paper. I pick my battles :)

Wrapping our Yulemas gifts with artfully selected newspaper can be fun, beautiful and would help save our landfills from tons of plastic-y, non-recycled wrapping paper. Give it a try!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The Winner of the YogAttitude Cards!

2011-12-07T21:19:00.001-04:00

Since I am currently in my pyjamas, I figured it would be best to forego the videotaping of the choice- so pictures it was!

On a scrap piece of paper I wrote out all the names, cut them up and placed them in this beautiful burl that we received as a wedding gift (isn't it gorgeous?).

Swish, swish, swish annnnd......

Voilà!

Carla, you are the lucky winner of the beautiful YogAttitude Cards! I hope they serve you well as inspiration throughout your house while you complete your PhD!!

Thank you to everyone who participated, and please feel free to check out Nadine's space in case you'd like to order them (or send a special someone a link hint lol) for Yulemas!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

What Traveling Has Taught Me: Tim's Doesn't Serve their Coffee in "for here" mugs

2011-12-06T21:29:00.001-04:00

My job means I travel every few months, which has been an adventure over the past two years. Except for that first big move to BC, most of my travelling has been with Andrew over the past six years. So it definitely was an adjustment to pack-up, kiss him 'bye, and drive off for 3,4,5,6 hours at a time, stay in a hotel by myself for a few days and return.

Surprisingly, there are a few things that I've learned about myself in this process:

- Eating by yourself in restaurants must start with a hotel because there are usually a bunch of businessmen there by themselves too- so you're not the only one!

- If I'm hungry enough, though, I will definitely eat ANYWHERE by myself. For example, this week I'm eating at the hotel's fancy schmancy hotel... by myself. Which is a big deal. Last night I read out of my book, tonight I'm typing a blog post. I feel a bit weird, like one of "those", but darnit I'm hungry and don't feel like staring into space.... (that and I finished my book)

- I will take yoga where ever I can get it. 10 min in my hotel room? Sure thing! Some breathing and quiet space between presentations and consultations? Yep!

- I can make herbal tea out of anywhere that can heat water. Including using a coffee pot. I usually dump the tea bits in the toilet, rinse out my tea mug and I'm all ready to go for another cup!

- I am a neat hotel person. I hate leaving a mess for the staff to clean up. It's kinda like when you're a guest at someone's home. You know they're going to wash the sheets after you leave, but you make the bed anyway, to be polite.

- Local yoga studios are like part of a tourist attraction. I feel like I'm collecting them almost. Like each new village, community, town that I visit I need to attend a yoga class. I'm always disappointed when a local studio doesn't have a class that I can attend (timing), or there isn't one. I'll even go so far as to email local instructors to see if they're teaching somewhere (google!). A bit compulsive? Yep!

- I love travelling in Nova Scotia since all the hotels compost and recycle- even in the rooms! I'm also always disappointed when my towels are changed each day, even though there are signs saying that if I hang them a certain way they won't be.

- Tim Hortons will NOT automatically serve you their crappy coffee in a "for here" mug even if you ask for it "for here".

My voyage home begins tomorrow!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

A Lesson of My Own Agisms

2011-12-05T21:24:00.001-04:00

Happy Monday!
Don't worry, my YogAttitude entry-peeps! I'll be writing your names down, cutting out the paper and placing them in a hat to be chosen soon. Right now I find myself 5hrs away from home, the in lovely town of Sydney Cape Breton. I'll be here for three days, presenting on bilingual language development and even a quick interview on the cbc!

I did manage to find time to squeeze in a yoga class this evening at a local studio- Tapestry. A blend of Ashtanga and Tripsichore, it was an interesting mix and I definitely enjoyed my practice while learning a few new things! The instructor, Anju, was supportive without being flowery and provided feedback without being too negative. The right amount of alignment with playfulness.

The best part- was the students themselves. In the small space (just enough for two rows of yoga mats, each against the opposite walls facing each other), the first thing I noticed were the men. It was the first time I've been to a class dominated by men. 8 men to the 5 women. And these were not all "gym" guys, ranging from young to mid-wisdomed, I could easily picture a few of them working at a local construction site or fishing alongside my dad. It was great!

Then, there were the women. I was the only classically stereotyped "yogini" there. Three more wisdomed women (one who called herself a senior) and one girl with fantastic tattoos on her feet and arms. I had a moment of, ahhh perhaps this class isn't going to be strong enough to get rid of my tension. Crazy how we judge based on appearances. I was quickly proven wrong, not only was the class a sweaty flow of breath, but those ladies kicked butt. My favourite was watching the "self proclaimed senior" kick up in headstand as if it were nothing at all. I was watching because there is no way my body can do that. lol.

There were many lessons in this class, braving a new studio as the only and most obviously "noob" in the class of regulars, accepting my own limitations and unconscious stereotypes and letting go of my own expectations.

I'm hoping to get an easy afternoon practice tomorrow between clinical assessment/consultation and parent presentation using my YogAttitude cards!

See y'all on the flip side of the island!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yulemas EcoYogi/ni Gift List

2011-12-01T17:36:00.001-04:00

With my mom on her way up to Halifax for our annual "Yulemas" shopping, and this weekend being the Halifax Crafter's weekend, my mind is filled with how to purchase/make sustainable eco-gifts! (ps- if you haven't been to Halifax Crafters, I *highly* recommend it! Olympia Centre, 11am Sat & Sun- free admission!).

Following are two sections of gifts: "stuff" and "usables" for your favourite Eco-Yogi/ni!

Stuffs:

1. Organic Yoga Mat Bag: No need for sweatshop stitches to carry your mat, this Yoga mat bag is handmade in the USA and made with organic cotton!

2. Recycled Yoga Mat Bag: I also adore this peaceful upcycled fabrics yoga mat bag. Beyond the fact that it's handmade (in Florida!), it also has cute pockets with recycled buttons!

3. Yogi Soap Gift Set: Even their soap can be EcoYogic! Fun, handmade soap with organic ingredients (with organic palm oil, so not so terrible!) and fun descriptions.

4. Bamboo Arm Warmers: Nothing is more fun than eco-friendly arm warmers, especially these extra long bamboo fabric purple ones! Perfect for that adventurous, outdoor asana yogini! (Plus, it's handmade in Canada!)

5. Yogi/Unisex Organic Cotton Shirt: I love this print and the funky tree-chakra dude. A great yoga shirt for the yogi in your life!

6. Ayurvedic Tea: I will admit I was a bit skeptical about this one, but let me tell ya, I am in LOVE with the Kapha Tea from David's Tea. With Licorice, organic ginger, cloves, organic cinnamon and more, it's a smooth tasty treat that rivals the famous Aveda's Tea... Just saying.

7. BeLove Shirts: Although I'd stay away from the Native American referenced shirts (as there's been a bit of contention regarding the recent "feathers" and Native American fashion trends), I do enjoy the Yogi for Life, Lila Cloak (Hemp, Organic Cotton), I Appear (Organic Cotton) and Seva (organic cotton) tops.

8. Eco Rubber Yoga Mat: After some thought, unless the yogi/ni in question is a regular mat destroyer, my eco-mat of choice is the Jade Encore Yoga mat (made with post consumer rubber!). For every mat purchase, Jade Yoga plants a tree!

Usables:
1. A gift pass for your choice of classes to a local studio. This is a fantastic idea that would provide a yogi/ni the opportunity to experience and grow in yoga without adding to the "stuff" in their life. You could do a three, five or even ten class pass and instant yogic gift!

2. A subscription to Yogaglo. I love this idea as it is versatile and encourages the Yogi/ni to invest in home practice. Yogaglo means that your yoga practice can come with you anywhere, it has a ridiculous amount of class choices constantly being uploaded with real teachers and real students! Using Yogaglo also means no carbon in transportation to and from class, heating, lighting and running the space. You could do a two or three month subscription just to get your yogi/ni started!

3. A Yogi Class/Course Gift: Why not sign up your yogi/ni to a fun "yoga" course, like this Introduction to Ayurveda at Bhavana happening this January? Checking out local studios and healthy living organizations (such as a local Shambala Centre) to see whether there are any events like this happening near you.

Coming up- some DIY Yulemas ideas, eco-gift wrapping, cards and more!

Happy December!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

YogAttitude Cards: Review and Giveaway!

2011-11-28T21:38:00.001-04:00

A little while back I received an email from the lovely Nadine Fawell, asking me to review her new Yoga Cards- YogAttitude. As I adore receiving emails and I'm always pretty good at responding, I wrote back just to make sure she knew I wasn't a yoga teacher (and perhaps not as "qualified" as she might like).

Silly me, of course she knew that- she wanted the student perspective!

A few short weeks later I received MAIL (I LOVE mail!) with a little box of yoga treasures to check out. Unfortunately my life also kinda blew up in October and it took a little longer to review than I'd hoped.

I'll be honest, I've never really enjoyed the yoga cards that I've seen floating around. The large, new age-y cards with some meaningful "yogic" inscription that some yoga teachers like to read in class. I was a little nervous about how I would use these cards I'd agreed to review.

Then I opened the box and realized I had found the yoga cards for me!

First of all, this cute little box is fantastic. I am a huge fan of the peacock feather graphic and the actual name of the cards "YogAttitude". The cards are quite narrow, which I was initially concerned about how I would use them, but after a few trials I realized that the narrow, smaller cards are actually better for practice.

Whereas the larger, clunkier cards are unwieldy and not really meant beyond a one card deal, Nadine's smaller cut cards are PERFECT for creating a sequence of yoga asana to keep near your mat as you practice. She's also divided the cards into asana pictures and words to inspire, which allows the yogi truly carve a unique practice to their needs. That and smaller cards means less waste!

The cards come with a well written, not too froufrou workbook... which is pdf!! YES! Extremely environmentally friendly, if I choose to I can print it on recycled paper.

The size of the box and cards along with the pdf file workbook means that these are a wonderful accompaniment to my current traveling reality- I can easily bring yoga inspiration with me all over the province!

Beyond the practicalities of the cards are the actual images. If the usefulness didn't get me, I was instantly a fan when I saw how real Nadine's yoga asana images were. No uber skinny, American Apparel Yogini- but a gorgeous, strong, tattooed (LOVE her peacock tats!) Yogini to be inspired by.

So. How did I use the cards, really? I tried to go through and use them as a sequencer, but that really just didn't fit well with my style of practice. I tried choosing a few inspiration or "goal" asanas and that went marginally better.

The best success, for myself? I use them in a familiar way- almost like Tarot cards.

Yoga Asana Trio Prep w YogAttitude:
Taking the cards I close my eyes and begin to ground my Energy using my breath. I feel the cards and breathe into what is unconsciously influencing my life and choose a card. I breathe into what has been the root, the anchor in my world- and choose a card. Finally, I breathe into what I would like my life, my practice, to reflect- and choose a card.

The result- a trio of asanas meant to support, sustain or strengthen each aspect: the Unconscious, the Anchor and the Wish.

I have truly enjoyed these cards and am very thankful for Nadine in sharing them with me.

In the spirit of Giving, Nadine has sent me not one, but TWO decks (Yay! Thank you Nadine!)... and I would like to share a deck with YOU! Perhaps you'd like it for yourself, or for a special yogi(ni) in your life (a fantastic Yulemas gift!).

GIVEAWAY RULES:

All you have to do is leave a comment saying how you'd use the cards (or how you imagine your giftee would benefit from them) by Saturday, December 4th, 4pm Atlantic Time. An email address, or a way to get in touch would be necessary :)

Good luck!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Irrational Emotional Financial Anxiety (IEFA)

2011-11-26T19:12:00.001-04:00

The Yulemas season is fast approaching (No huge 'Black Friday' in Canada means no official holiday season starting point) and I've been feeling increasingly stressed about the shopping and consumption.

I thought it was linked to the whole 'sustainability, buying more stuff is bad for the environment' mantra that I've been trying to REDUCE over the past years.... but what I've realized is that it's more like a sort of generalized anxiety or malaise.

After some thought, I've realized that the constant barrage of global economic instability, government debt, cuts, job losses and job insecurity in the media has been internalized in my general emotional system. Even though my job is permanent full time (and I'm unionized), I'm surrounded by uncertainty and job anxiety at my work. From the 'Occupy' movement, to the recent plunge in lobster prices which will force my family and friends of fishermen to basically live on unbelievably low wages, we're constantly under the impression on eminent social collapse.

Despite my permanent nature of my job I'm acting as if I could be unemployed (while still having to pay off a ton of debt) at any moment. I'm worried about investing in a long lasting, uber environmentally friendly winter coat- even though I walk to and from work in blizzard conditions daily and my current peacoat isn't warm enough, nor water-snow resistent. Even though I could budget for this coat.

I don't attend yoga classes (I saw a 'holiday deal' for unlimited studio access for one year at 899$....wow! can you imagine spending that much on a GIFT for someone??), I didn't even go see Michael Stone's talk about Occupy movement because it would have cost Andrew and I over 30$ (which seems counterintuitive to charge money for an 'Occupy' talk).

My yoga practice has been a temporary respite and I've upped my practice goal to 4x a week (for other health reasons as well), but it's this unconscious almost underlying theme to all my thoughts, all my conversations.

Does anyone else feel this irrational emotional anxiety about their finances?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Movember is For Girls Too

2011-11-23T19:38:00.001-04:00

Movember has taken Canada by storm, even Syd the Kid, good ole Nova Scotian walking TBI Hockey Hero, is growing a Movember 'stache. Though I have no idea if he's actually raising money with his moustache.

For those of you who have heard of this "Movember", maybe some yogis sporting a greasy Mo during yoga practice, and wondered "seriously? what gives?" a quick Movember update:

Created in Australia in 2004, men across the globe are encouraged to grow a moustache, from scratch, in order to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer. They finally have a webpage and easy donating-social media pages this year (see the worldwide page to find your country's Movember page).

As wonderful as that all sounds, an interview with co-founder Adam Garone revealed that his group of friends had originally thought of "Movember" as a way to get the moustache back. The charity came afterward as a way to gain sympathy and give the movement more "cred".

Regardless of the reasons, Movember raises millions of dollars every year for prostate cancer, with Canada currently at the TOP having raised over 24 million dollars so far.

Evidence of our shenanigans...

My eco-stache and Andrew's Einstein 'stache. Sadly I couldn't convince him to fundraise...

Last weekend a group of friends met out at a dance bar (wow it's been a while!) for a Movember night out. Not to be left out, us girls Movembered up as well (along with a few non-moustached guys). Thanks to our wonderfully crafty Jen made us all Movember felted staches, mine being a recycled wool sweater.

The gang, can you spot the real "Movember"? Let me tell ya, we even danced with those felted beauties.

So- if you find yourself invited to a Movember event, you're crafty and don't being left out, a Felted 'stache is the way to go!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The Electric Car- A Miracle Cure or Mirage?

2011-11-21T19:17:00.001-04:00

A confession? I have an un-eco obsession with gas guzzling cars/trucks. Although speed is great, it's not lamborginis or Ferraris that do it, but those ridiculously large, duel-y diesel engine, quad cab pick-up trucks that make me drool. I want to drive one. I park my little fuel efficient jelly-bean of a car next to them. I have spent years mourning the loss of ever owning one (the Planet isn't worth it).

an example of my dream truck. I am a rural girl at heart.

Initially, like many environmentally conscious peeps, I was quite excited by the prospect that our second vehicle (once the Yaris goes caput in, say, another 5 years) will be electric. Nova Scotia is *so* car dependent that it's difficult to function outside of university without a car. Recently, it appears like perhaps the electric car is doing the whole "Phoenix from ashes", with governments and eco-organizations touting this rise as the miracle cure to all our carbon spewing woes.

(Nissan LEAF)

You don't have to give up your car-dependancy lifestyle- just plug 'er in! Guilt and carbon-free!

Except... is it really that simple?

According to Ecoholic, the average car produces between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds of climate-changing carbon dioxide every year. Along with carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides and hydrocarbons this toxic mess contribute in a big way to "smog" (which kills thousands a year in large cities).

The Nissan LEAF (recently introduced in Canada) has a grand total of ZERO emissions while operating. If we switched the majority of cars to electric vehicles we'd be saving our lungs from breathing in thousands upon thousands of pounds of toxins.

Beyond all the logistical "arguments" that I've heard (cost and lifespan of lithium battery, charging stations and infrastructure) which all have fabulous answers (at the end of the lifespan of the battery, 8-10 years, batteries will be cheaper, customer demand will result in infrastructure plus you can charge the car in a 120 voltage outlet anyway), there are some pretty serious *big picture* issues that need to be honestly addressed.

We are much too dependant on single occupant vehicle transportation. Despite all the progress with electric vehicles, the industry still needs quite a bit of research (longer lasting, more easily accessible and cheaper batteries, infrastructure etc) and lets be honest; the industry will take a good 10 years to make a significant switch. Do we really have 10 years to keep on our merry, polluting way?

It's concerning that so much energy be placed on the electric car as our climate change saviour- but at some distant future. Instead, our government could be encouraging use and improving public transportation and/or bicycle lanes. If the average driver travels less than 60 km a day, than a public transportation system that was efficient, clean and reliable would do just the trick.

Finally... we do conveniently forget where that electricity comes from. In Nova Scotia, most of the electricity is generated from coal plants. Although other provinces have better track records (New Brunswick actually has a few nuclear, zero emission, plants), we're far from "clean" energy.

(for a fantastic discussion on this topic, head over to radio-canada's Christiane Charette with Pierre Olivier-Pineau, professor at HEC and expert in energy politics as well as co-founder of Quebec's Green Party, Daniel Breton. The catch? It's in French...)

I am not anti-electric car by a long shot. I'm looking forward to the day when Andrew and I will have a single vehicle family electric car. However, the tempting lure of a miracle pill that would allow my lazy bum to continue driving, continue consuming is too misleading. A mirage in our floundering climate desert.

Start bicycling, start walking.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Fun Eco-Treasures!

2011-11-18T18:55:00.001-04:00

Being environmentally friendly can be pretty darn fun! Here are some fab recent finds to my eco-treasure trove:

A beautiful wrap bracelet for my birthday from "Happy GoLicky". Made from hand-dyed silk and recycled silver. I've been drooling over this bracelet for months on Etsy, and the lovely Husband took the hint :)

Gorgeous gold leafed birch bark earrings made by a local Haligonian Artist- Theresa Capell. Her etsy shop is filled with delicate beauties! I found my earrings at LoveMe Boutique!

A vegan Matt&Nat utility belt. I love how there's recycled plastic AND that there are spots for "emergency crayons".

Lily Lotus bamboo, made in USA fantabulous top. I adore this sparkly jewel. The second photo is the sparkles on the BACK of the shirt! Lily Lotus makes fun and fabulous yoga apparel and are extremely trendy here in Halifax. I found mine (and the Matt&Nat belt) at the lovely Bhavana Yoga Boutique.

There you have it!

Article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Eco-Friendly Winter Jackets

2011-11-15T20:19:00.001-04:00

Although we've been having mild November weather (to the point that we could have had YITP this month if I had planned time!), cold Canadian winter is fast approaching.

Since I'll be walking 20 minutes to and from the ferry each day again in December, I need to dress warmly. Unfortunately my winter casual doesn't usually include pencil skirts and funky tights for this reason.

Fortunately, the Haligonian winters tend to only start in January.... which potentially means some money saving time to invest in a long lasting, environmentally friendly and fabulous looking coat. Since my last winter jacket was purchased over three years ago, I know I'm not hard on my jackets. They should last years.

Looking into purchasing an environmentally friendly, warm and affordable jacket can get complicated. Many companies may have recycled aspects to their jackets, however most are 'water resistent' or 'water proof'. In order to get them this way, the companies have to spray and treat them with a 'durable water-repellent finish' (DWR) which are typically made with PFOA- the scary non-stick chemical that is polluting people and water globally.

Companies like Patagonia have some recycled polyester options, but the jackets are coated with H2No waterproof coating.... which most likely contains PFOAs. Also, it's very important to read the fine print when considering winter jackets- for example vegans should consider that many jackets are 'European Goose Down' filled (Like the Tres Parka) and not all jackets have recycled polyester.

Aritzia has some neat hemp jackets. However it would appear to be only their 'community' line and there isn't any product information beyond that there is some hemp in the jacket.

Hoodlamb.... eco-gorgeousness:

My favourite option if I had a winter jacket faery OR unlimited funds would be a Hoodlamb coat. These long and short coats are BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately they are also about 500$ Canadian (saving my pennies!). The long jacket outershell is made from hemp and organic cotton, inner lining cruelty-free fur, hemp, recycled PET and acryl. Outer shell is actually treated with eco-friendly 'hemp organic cellulose' treatment. The short jacket doesn't appear to have this fabulous eco-friendly coating.

(ok, do you LOVE this flag or what?)

Some of their coats support 'Sea Shepherd', an international non-profit marine wildlife organization aimed to end the destruction of ocean habitat and wildlife. (Sea Shepherd website). They're kinda badass, very guerrilla yoga, which I like!

From their site:

'Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations'

What about you dear reader? Have any non-PFOA, vegan and eco-friendly coat options?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Endorsing a Yoga Mat as Spiritual: Mr. Friend and Manduka

2011-11-11T17:13:00.001-04:00

Have you seen the new Anusara+Manduka marketing team up? Ya know, the latest AMAZING BEST EVER yoga mat? The SOUL MAT. (ok, I just threw up a little bit in my mouth, let's be honest).

I'm disappointed. Although I'm not really an Anusara Yogini, I like the explicit environmental commitment. After a few supposed 'eco' yoga mat debacles (TPE nonsense and poorly made rubber mat) I was pleasantly surprised by a discounted prAna Revolution mat offer that I couldn't refuse. I adore rubber mats, but they come at a premium.

Over a year later and I still adore my ridiculously large Revolution Mat. In my opinion, if you want a mat, rubber mats are the way to go re: environmentally friendly and amazing utility as a mat (i.e. grip, longevity and care).

However, I adore this mat DESPITE it's ginormous size. Honestly, I never need all that space on my mat. Although it feels like luxury to have it, I feel a bit pretentious rolling it out in a class. The mat doesn't fit in any of my yoga mat bags and I really don't want to have to buy or make one special for the size. It's also extremely heavy and difficult to bring to the park via bicycle.

Also, I agreed to this mat DESPITE the silly, over the top, embarrassing marketing video by prAna and John Friend. I couldn't believe that the people in that mat-video took themselves seriously. I also resent the fact that entire companies are working to make disposable products somehow essential and-or spiritual. BUY BUY BUY. And if the regular advertising doesn't work- make the yogi feel like the product is SPIRITUAL.

The new John Friend+Manduka mat? It feels a bit forced, and much more obvious that having one AMAZING spiritual mat isn't enough (plus, despite all that media, consumer foofoo, I think the revolution mat is a good environmental choice). Instead of pushing and creating an environmental alternative to the 'Black Mat', which is made from PVC, John Friend is encouraging yogis to purchase a LARGER, re: more PVC, mat.

If we take a quick peek over at prAna- do we notice that the Revolution mat is no longer an 'Anusara' mat?? Interesting.

The eKo John Friend mat is a 'travel' mat. Please infer- "Not your everyday mat, but an extra mat that you buy to travel". The non-essential mat is the one that is environmentally friendly. Even though the eco-thing to do would be to NOT purchase another mat, please purchase this extra mat and feel less guilty because it's 'eco'. Sorry- 'eKo'.

Finally- let's get real here. John Friend is not partnering with a yoga mat company for shits and giggles. Quote from video:

"When I was conceiving the mat, it's not just for my own practice. I thought 'This will be a mat for everybody" (that part even had little cute squiggly writing on the screen). It really comes out of wanting the student, each student, to have a deep experience of their own goodness, greatness, their own beauty"

Ummmm. That is total bs. If he really wanted to create a mat that would 'benefit the most students' as he says earlier in the video, he'd create an affordable and can we even say FREE. Instead this 'for every student' stuff, the manduka 'essential' mat is 95$.

'nuff said.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Ghost Bikes

2011-11-07T17:52:00.005-04:00

Ghost bikes. Have you seen them? Today, a strangely warm Haligonian day, I had quite a bit of driving to do for work and noticed many bicycles out and about. (As a side note, have you been outside on a warm-ish fall day and felt "I could TOTALLY be practicing yoga outside today. I wish I wasn't working"? Today was one of those days. It's almost problematic where I get a vivid image of what I would be wearing, how it would feel, the air against my skin during warrior II. Distracting.).

(Ghost Bike, photo credit)

Halifax has a Ghost Bike on North Street (click here for a picture) and it honestly did seem to appear out of nowhere. A tiny traffic island right off the MacDonald Bridge and there is a painted white bicycle with a small plaque. According to the GhostBike.org site:

"Ghost bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel."

A bit of creative searching, it would appear the Ghost Bike is the result of the bicycle death of Michael Brooker in 2007. I'm not 100% sure, but it would appear a purple bicycle was locked to a telephone poll and the public participated in painting it white as a community act of memorial.

That small area isn't the best place to pull over to take a picture.

A lot has changed in the past 4 years since his death, but bicycling in Halifax is still risky business. Sustainability demands less reliance on climate changing, air polluting automobiles (did you know that acid rain has slowly been on the rise?).

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga Drive Implosion- YDI

2011-11-06T22:00:00.001-04:00

I have a confession: there are certain situations surrounding yoga that cause heightened levels of frustration and, let's be honest here, anger. I've mentioned this before- there is nothing that pushes my anger/frustration button than being unable to get to a yoga class in time (either because I can't physically find the space or because of traffic).

This typically results in my arriving at the studio after spending a good chunk of time swearing and yelling and gesturing frantically in the car while Andrew looks on in a concerned fashion (ok, I am not unstable, we all have our buttons right?).

Some yoga studios in Halifax are virtually unaccessible sans car... and it just feels so wrong to hop in my carbon spewing car (no matter how efficient it is), spend 20min driving and contributing to carbon dioxide count in the air for a yoga class where I will attempt to spend 60-90min "connecting" with myself and my planet.

If I have to drive to yoga class, I'm already a bit on edge. Follow that up with a good dose of "where's the yoga studio??", add in "Type A Yogini" and you've got a fabulous result.

Tonight, Andrew and I were going all the way out in Dartmouth to All Yoga for a Karma class supporting Make-A-Wish Foundation. Unfortunately, we got completely lost and spent over an hour driving before we found the studio. At that point I was so tense and angry, the fact that the studio door was locked was the icing on the cake. So- we took our 20$ and my business card (I was expected to show up for this class), slipped them under the door so we were still contributing and went home.

Driving for no reason. Almost as bad as idling the car while waiting for something.

I've found the best way to burn off frustration? Sweaty Yoga.

So- I rolled out my mat and practiced until my brain and body were tired. As winter grows nearer, I'm finding my spirit and body are craving a more intense, steam blowing practice. Thank goodness when I actually DO find the studio in time there's a yoga practice as a result to stave off the "Yoga Drive Implosion" or "YDI".

Anyone else feeling this?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Balancing DIY Without Becoming a Packrat

2011-11-04T15:59:00.001-03:00

Being a tree hugging, environmentally awesome co-unit (Andrew and I) has it's pluses. Such as saving money, increasing our air quality and health and saving the planet.

(Ok, I know we're not this bad; but HGTV's 'Consumed' was making me nervous)

Something I've begun to struggle with, however, is the clutter. Andrew and I live in 700 square feet, which is actually a nice improvement from our previous Halifax apartment of 500. We have virtually zero storage, though, as we live in a 150yr+ heritage building.

I keep seeing these amazing DIY upcycled objects finding uses for old, non-used or broken items and I think: 'Wow, I could do that!'. For example, using spare fabric to make a yoga mat bag, or keeping gift bags to re-use for birthdays or Yule.

So, about a year ago I started saving these little random bits of things in case I might use them some day. Such as little bits of ribbons, old jewelry or beads, gift bags and envelopes, pretty boxes and binders. And clothing- I save clothing. Unfortunately my job requires that I look very professional. Currently I'm running a preschool teacher training 12 week intensive program (Apprendre à parler avec plaisir-LLLI), presenting at community events twice this month and traveling across the province to consult. This means my regular 'dress pants+nice ish shirt' doesn't cut it anymore. So I need to renew my wardrobe more often.

Keeping these little bits of things and clothing is great, in theory. It means these things don't go in the landfill. I'm being frugal and potential will save money with my craftiness.

However, we've reached the point of clutter. I have no room to store all this extra potential 'stuff' anymore. Everywhere I look there are little random bits waiting to be eco-fied. Ribbons, papers, envelopes. Spread out in whatever drawer, basket or shelf that has some available space. We're not crazy packrat status (yet), but it was starting to get obviously cluttered.

We barely have enough room for our clothing in our one (of two) closets we have in the apartment, let alone trying to organize an enviro-stash of DIY wannabes.

Therefore, two weeks ago I took a deep breath and LET GO of this expectation. In my current living space I cannot realistically keep all reusable items in the hope of one day upcycling and being uber Eco Yogini. Andrew and I went through our clothing and made three piles: toss (only a few stained and ripped items), donate to Value Village and donate to the women's transition house. We filled two recycling bags (we don't own large black trash bags).

That part was relatively easy, minimal landfill. It's the extra random bits of 'stuff' that I have trouble letting go- as 'letting go' equals for the most part= trash.

Anyone else feeling the clutter-upcycle DIY precarious balance? If you live in a no storage space, how do you deal? Prioritizing or accepting the limitations of small space?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Ujiai to survive blood work and roller coasters: Yoga off the mat

2011-11-03T11:18:00.002-03:00

Within months of my introduction to yoga, I was already using one yoga principle regularly off the mat... Ujiai breathing. While I practice, Ujiai helps me focus and direct my energy to meditate in movement, to make it through a difficult practice and to assure that I don't just hold my breath and pass out (hah).

Interestingly enough, that audible breathing technique (like fogging up a mirror, but with your mouth closed) can be useful in other difficult, painful and/or scary situations. Such as waxing, needles, roller coasters and getting blood work done.

Today was a blood work day. The last time was four years ago, where I also used Ujiai breathing so I wouldn't vomit and/or pass out in front of the seniors. Thankfully, as it did then, it was also successful today (that and Andrew was there to hold my hand).

Interestingly enough, other types of breath constriction combined with speaking- like whispering, where your vocal folds (cords), are brought together close enough to vibrate while allowing air to scrape past, can be harmful to these precious communication musical instruments in your throat. Whispering is bad for your vocal cords- don't do it.

Thankfully we don't use Ujiai breath all day, otherwise it would also become damaging to our precious vocal folds. (Yoga instructors out there: please don't model Ujiai breath during your classes, combined with your "yoga teaching" voice, it's most likely damaging!).

So, my first off the mat yoga practice has helped me get through various scary and painful situations. Thank you Ujiai breath.

What was your first Yoga off the mat moment?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T07:15:00.000-03:00

Happy Halloween!! Hope it's a spooky one!

Our Halloween gathering Saturday night- I was the Paper Bag Princess (and sitting in that paper bag dress was quite the adventure!) This costume cost 2.50$ (for the bag) and took less than an hour to make. Wee!

One of my best friends M. was an undead nurse- poor Atreyu looks a little shocked!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

8 Reasons Why Eco-Yogis Shed Their Shoes

2011-10-28T16:37:00.000-03:00

After living in four different provinces over the past 10 years (and spending my entire life of 30 years in Canada- yep turned the big 3-0 Monday!! EEK), I have to say that I've been to my fair share of homes and met quite a bit of people country wide.

Out of them all, only *one* family kept their shoes on in the house. One family in 30 years of visiting. I know I've said this before, but until recently I honestly thought that Americans who kept their shoes on indoors on TV were just representative of some weird tv-land trend. What seems to be the case, for the most part though, is that keeping your shoes on in the States is the rule, not the exception (whereas in Canada it's the exception...).

Here are some reasons why shedding your shoes in the house is the Eco-Yogi(ni) thing to do:

1. Less dirt tracked into your house= less to vacuum-sweep-mop= less energy and cleaners needed. I don't know why people ignore this, but when you walk outside your shoes step on dirt (etc), which depending on the weather can vary in quantity. This dirt is then dropped off at various points all over your house. That commercial for the fancy steam-vacuum that shoes the family walking all over the (gradually browned) rug? Wouldn't be a problem if they took off their shoes, where else do they think that dirt comes from?

2. Less cleaners and energy also means less house work for you... which also translates into more time for Yoga. :)

3. It's polite. Yeppers, taking your shoes off in someone else's house shows that you respect their home, their cleanliness and you trust that they keep a clean and welcome home. If you visit someone in Canada, it's a good bet to take off your shoes.

4. You can feel more comfortable curling up on the couch, chair or bed without shoes on.

5. You'll feel more connected to their earth, more grounded and centered in the present. I swear, shoes= working and being busy doing stuff. No shoes= relaxing and opening up.

6. You're ready for yoga at ANY TIME.

7. You get to enjoy wearing fun socks! (or slippers!)

8. Canadians are cool and we have fabulous ideas!

Are you an American that takes off your shoes in the house? Why or why not?

Happy Halloween Weekend!!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

A Few Thoughts on Menstruation and Yoga

2011-10-23T22:12:00.001-03:00

Yoga and menstruation: do you practice or not? In order to set the stage for this discussion, let me retell an experience I had about two weeks ago visiting my best friend in Moncton. Her friend, a 24yr old man-boy, was hanging out with us, drinking beer and chatting. Seemed like a relatively smart dude, not too immature, clever... that sort of thing. For some reason the conversation turned to male parts in puberty (seriously, don't ask) and his response:
"Well, I would trade having a penis any day over having to deal with "you know what" for the REST OF YOUR LIVES" (cue poignant and slightly disgusted look on his face for the PAUSE).

I think I actually said: "Do you mean menstruation? I'm sorry I didn't get the memo that we all die at menopause. Shitty"

So where does yoga come in on the topic of menstruation and asana practice?

Although you can find differing versions, they all come from similar themes: "A woman menstruating should restrict her yoga asana practice" in some way, shape or form. Why is that?

First we need to be honest and frank about the historical and cultural machinations at work here. For centuries female menstruation has been reviled, deemed dirty, evil, shameful and often women were segregated from public events during this time. Up until a few short decades ago, women didn't talk about their menstrual cycles and surprise surprise- medical science wasn't that concerned with understanding it until the 1990s (Angier, N; Woman an Intimate Geography 1999, p. 111).

Until and I would argue, to this day, menstruation is seen as visual evidence that our uterus is injured. It's an "other" non-natural event and should be treated as such- a time to recover.

So- that said- what are the two main reasons for "special yoga menstruation" treatment?

The first is obstructing or changing the flow of energy during inversions (or other asanas). The idea is that during menstruation our energy is "downward flowing" and that changing this direction could be harmful. I've often heard it explained that during this "difficult" time our female bodies require all the healing energy we can provide.

I would just like to point out that menstruation isn't an injury to be recovered. I'm also curious as to why other, more fragile and essential aspects of a woman's monthly cycle aren't addressed in nurturing energy flow. For example, when women ovulate. An essential part of life creation that is also characterized by a downward movement of the ovum through the fallopian tubes.

What about the energy, or chi, required to create sperm in the male testes? (Since we're chatting about procreation here). I'm just pointing out that it seems fairly convenient that what has been stigmatized for centuries in various cultures as being "other" and "injurious" is categorized as requiring special treatment during asana practice.

The second set of reasoning is more anatomical and physiological. Despite this article's dire warnings of "heavy bleeding" during menstruation, during the average period women cast off about six tablespoons (or three fluid ounces) of material, only half of which could be considered "blood" (although it's not exactly normal blood- since it doesn't coagulate).

Further, instead of being exhausting and draining, scientists have actually calculated that the uterine lining at it's richest is actually 7 times more energy costly than the act of menstruative destruction. From that logic, we should be tired and drained when we're most fertile (Strassman, B. as cited in Angier N 1999 p. 115).

It's argued that during inversions women are more at risk for tearing or increased blood flow.

The thinness of the uterine veins makes them susceptible to collapse when excessive pressure is applied to them.
During inversions, the uterus is drawn downwards by gravity resulting in a pulling motion on the broad ligaments containing the uterine arteries and veins. This pulling or stretching motion of these ligaments can also act on the uterine veins potentially leading to partial collapse or occlusions. Since the uterine arteries contain thick, muscular walls, they can resist collapse and continue to send blood flow into the uterus. Without a proper exit of blood out of the uterine veins, vascular pressure arises leading to an increase in menstrual bleeding.

(article: My Yoga Online)

Interestingly enough, this implies that during a woman's period her "uterine veins" and arteries simply continue to gush blood- causing menstruation.

Unfortunately, this is misleading. Each month the uterus may find itself with a non fertilized egg. As previously stated, instead of keeping up an endometrium lining rich with nutrients, it's much less costly to shed and move onward, start from scratch. Therefore, spiral arteries (named because they look like corkscrews and main function to supply the placenta) swell with blood and become tightly coiled. Circulation to the endometrium slows down and the cells are starved of oxygen. 24 hours before menstruation the spirals constrict sharply and circulation is completely stopped, causing the endometrium cells to die.

Then, just as abruptly, the spiral arteries open up, blood is supplied behind the endometrial lining with blood pooling in pockets temporarily- causing the cells to actively be removed. I say temporarily because shortly after the arteries close again (Angier, N 1999 p.110).

No constant blood flow to exit (that would be a lot more than six tablespoons!) but a squeeze, open, squeeze, open, stop sequence of temporary active blood flow.

I'm not a gynecologist, but it just appears strange that since these arteries only provide periodic blood flow in order to detach the endometrium lining from the uterus (from all sides I would point out, not just up and down), that the risk for engorged artery collapsing, tearing or occlusions seems fairly minimal. Especially since, for the most part, I don't spend more than a few seconds up in shoulderstand.

From the article description, it would appear that these arteries are fragile things that can tear or break at any moment. I'm almost inclined to stay seated or upright only during my periods, in case- ya know... tearing. I can't even imagine these poor arteries and how they survive providing blood to the placenta during the entire 9 months of pregnancy....(just a little bit of snark there).

I'm all for taking it easy during your moontime because you feel it's what is best for your body at that time. Or if you strongly feel that your energy doesn't enjoy inversions (I really don't enjoy shoulderstand in general as well!). However, I do feel that we can't honestly take a look at restrictions without taking into account cultural and physiological confusions and history.

Just a few thoughts :)

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Soap Bars: An Easy Way to Decrease Plastic

2011-10-21T21:14:00.000-03:00

I am a recovered body-wash addict. All things body wash, I loved the yummy smells, the ease of squishing it out onto the wash cloth, did I say the awesome smells? Similarly, I was a huge fan of pump soap to encourage people to wash their hands after they use the bathroom. (It's been my experience that certain people will be more likely to wash their hands if there's pump soap, gross but true).

Sadly, they come in plastic. I thought I'd had this one figured out by simply making my own liquid soap from soap ends.... of course it was an epic fail. Who knew that the soap ends would harden in the glass bottle? (umm, I should have).

As a result, Andrew and I have been buying only soap for "body wash" and hand soap for over a year and a half now. No more plastic bottles of liquid body wash.

Now I wonder why I ever thought I needed it? We're able to find the most delicious smelling and long lasting locally handmade soap at our farmer's market. With options ranging from coffee-mint to my all-time long lost love Aveda favourite- Rosemary Mint, what is there to miss?

We put our soap ends into a glass dish to be used as our kitchen soap. You could also crochet (or purchase!) a lovely soap saver, like this one. Getting a really nice soap dish is key. Like this fabulous recycled wine glass dish (I'd break it) or a beautiful round clay one like this.

There are a few things to keep in mind when purchasing soap bars:

1. Stick with local and handmade. You're decreasing your soap's carbon footprint and supporting someone locally.

2. Avoid palm oil at all costs. It's the world's second largest crop after soy with around 83% of it coming from Malaysia and Indonesia. One study found that 18,130 square kilometres of rain forest was lost to palm oil plantations between 1982 and 1999 alone. This continued destruction of our planet's natural air filter also decimates thousands of animal and insect species. On top of that, you can add heavy unregulated pesticide use and soil erosion. (Ecoholic, June 2006).

3. Only buy when ingredients are listed. Avoid anything with a whole slew of unrecognizable chemical-y sounding ingredients. Guess what? Soap can be made with relatively simple ingredients that don't need to be identified by their chemical name.

4. Try to stay away from essential oil-heavy soaps. Many essential oils are synthetically made. If the soap smells like a Lush store, it's probably a bit on the heavy essential oil side. Synthetic essential oils can have respiratory and skin reactions and are processed heavily.

5. Get to know your soap maker if possible. Write them with any questions or concerns, chat with them about the ingredients they use.

Our favourite soaps? Free Spirit Farm sold at the Seaport Farmer's Market. This lovely couple make their soap from pesticide free, certified organic oils and herbs. Their soaps last a long time without losing shape or getting mushy and smell delicious without leaving a weird residue. They also carry Acadian Forest Stewardship certified wooden soap dishes that they hand mill themselves. We love them!

I'm telling ya, Eco-Yogis, make the leap to soap bars and never look back!

Blessings!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Eco-Favs and Eco-Failures

2011-10-19T20:48:00.000-03:00

This is my 430th post- it's a little overwhelming to think I wrote over 400 posts on the environment and yoga!

Although I've done this before, I thought I'd put together my Eco favourites and a 'fess up to the Eco-Failures.

Eco-Favourites:
1. The DivaCup: My absolute, most favouritest environmental AND yoga invention ever. I have saved close to 300$, hundreds of tampons from the landfill and TIME with this beauty. Also, practicing yoga has become that much more easier (along with travel, work and ease in every day living!).

2. My prAna revolution eco-mat. I adore my mat, despite the fact that it weighs a ton, is a bit embarrassing to roll out in class (cuz me and the mat are disproportionate) and no longer fits in my yogoco mat bag. Yep, it's been over a year and it's still like new, sticky and beautiful and environmentally friendly. LOVE.

3. No more Paper Towel. This was a tough transition but I would never ever go back. Trying to scrub a sink, tub, toilet or counter with paper towel seems ridiculous now- it's not nearly as clean or effective as a cloth rag. We never buy paper towel, and we don't ever miss it.

4. My Lioli produce bags are my favourite part of shopping. I no longer ever use plastic bags for produce, grains, seeds or rice. These easy to wash, easy to store and fabulous to use little mesh and solid bags not only keep my produce longer (cloth allows breathing while plastic sweats and increases decomp), they also decrease our plastic consumption significantly. It's come to the point that if I forget them, I can't bare to use plastic, so I just wash the produce really well when I get home.

5. Vinegar as a cleaning tool. Weirdly I haven't written about this (that I can find). Guess I didn't think it was EXCITING. I should write about why I heart vinegar now, and how I'd never go back to chemical cleaning. (mental note- made).

6. Going off the birth control pill. Best decision I ever made.

A couple of Eco-Failures since this journey began:

1. Salt deodorant: I am STILL paying for this epic failure. I really really wanted this to work, but unfortunately underarm reactions have had some pretty annoying results that continue to be a challenge.

2. DIY Yogurt: oh yeah, we did this three times and every time I vomited in a little bit in my mouth during the entire process. The texture was just so GROSS. I couldn't handle it. So for a while I just stopped buying yogurt. Then I tried some locally made stuff, but that texture was also really weird and gross. So... I'm currently on a no-yogurt eating kick. Sad really.

3. Soap end bits body wash: ummm- sadly about a week after making this the soap solidified. Awkward.

4. Urban Gardening: Sadly all our attempts have failed, including this year's little rooftop garden. It was impossible to get up there and garden, water and watch over our plants- mostly because we had a short window each day and we'd be walking right next to our neighbour's windows (on the fire escapes). We haven't been up there in weeks and I have no idea what that little box looks like right now.

5. TPE Yoga mats. Not eco-friendly. Need convincing? Post 1, post 2.

Well there you have it!

Upcoming posts this week: soap, vinegar, menstruation and yoga.

Blessings!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The House Hippo Life Lesson

2011-10-17T20:34:00.001-03:00

Oh the House Hippo. I blame lost socks, papers and weird creaks on our House Hippo inhabitants.

House Hippos are an important lesson on critical thinking when it comes to the media. It most certainly was one of my first lessons on critical thinking just before university. How to ask the right questions.

House Hippos can teach us about many things.

Such as Greenwashing. Just because it's written, just because our media tells us, or just because you here it on the cbc doesn't make it true. Just because you read it on this blog (although... I AM pretty much an expert on House Hippos...).

They can teach us to question Body Image and how our media and society want us to *think* we should look like.

House Hippos can even teach us about Yoga. How it's portrayed in the media, how it's used and even sold.

The best House Hippo lesson? How to take a moment to examine and thoughtfully consider seemingly well-meaning, cyclic explanations and products. Like biodegradable coffee cups, Clorox 'Greenworks' cleaning company, or tree-planting neat unnatural rows of soft woods to replace clear-cut rich and diverse forest.

Everyone needs a House Hippo.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

A year already...

2011-10-16T22:11:00.003-03:00

One year down, forever to go.

Eco-Halloween Treats+Tarot Readings!

2011-10-14T17:33:00.001-03:00

On the 14th day of Halloween....

Eco-tip for Halloween!
Bake some goodies (cookies, funky cake pops, apples coated in chocolate or caramel!), place in cute paper bags with these CUTE trick or treat tags and hand these out to trick or treater's that you know. A challenge I've always found is that often eco-halloweeners are disheartened by other parents paranoia around non-packaged goods (ahhh- poisoned homemade cake pops!). To get around that, have one (smaller) stash for stranger danger parents and your awesome package-free stash for people you know.

Remember, do NOT give the little trick or treaters an option- they never have to know that you had an alternative stash!

Tarot Readings!

(As before, add your question and I'll do 2 readings next week!)

Rachel's Question: Some general advice on moving forward through the autumn without anxiety (re: workload).

Middle Card: The Situation at Hand
The Sun (major arcana): The Sun card generally indicates clarity and material prosperity. In this instance, I was thinking about how excited you are about this new step in your career and how it will bring you happiness despite the work needed to get things going. The Sun here seems to say: take a moment to acknowledge the happiness and prosperity this new step will bring you. :)

Card to the Left: The Unconscious Energies that May be Influencing the Situation:
The Empress (major arcana): The Empress here signifies powerful emotions and passion that surround the situation (anxiety on the unknown with regards to the new career, the amount of work, whether you made the right decision and *knowing* you made the right decision). You can use these powerful emotions to help energize your path. The Empress shows that you can embrace life in all its messiness and horror fully and without reservation. (it also may reveal motherhood....?? ;) ).

Card to the Right: What Can Help in the Situation:
Eight of Wands: Wands represent action and the element of fire. The card signifies pure energy, movement, a person who is strong-willed but acts according to thoughtfulness. As a card that can help it suggests that by using the other two cards as support, with a good solid plan, you'll move through all your activities this fall and be successful. The Eight of Wands also suggests a movement towards stability, which would imply perhaps making a plan to start evaluating what you can eliminate or delegate from your commitments to make your autumn more practical and manageable.

I hope that was helpful!

Bohemian Mom's Question: Should I move myself and my daughter out of our area to a bigger, more lucrative city or should we stay put as we're always moving?

Middle Card: The Situation at Hand:
Two of Wands: Wands represent action and the fire element. This card represents a desire to balance two desires; the first decision would be to stay secure and the second to go out and seek adventure. This card is acknowledging that you're struggling with a choice and (perhaps?) feeling the itch for adventure. As a fiery card, you should be careful to seek wisdom and balance before making this choice.

The Left Card: The Unconscious Energies that May be Influencing the Situation:
The 10 of Cups: Cups signify emotions and the water element. It represents happiness in family life, fulfillment and emotional possibilities in simple pleasures. Is one of your reservations about moving that you and the little chickie are settled and happy now?

The Right Card: What Can Help in the Situation:
The 3 of Pentacles: Pentacles signify wealth and the earth element. This card signifies work at a high degree and people working together. What I'd gather from this for you, Boho Mom, is that the choice really will have to be yours to make gathering wisdom from your work and financial situation, the emotional pros and cons of moving and feeling content with your fiery nature. Perhaps considering what city you were hoping to move to? (Not Halifax, let me tell you- not so prosperous on the job front right now!) Not exactly a very decisive reading... are you still feeling quite vague about it?

Happy Magic!
(ps- my tarot deck is the Revolution Tarot :) )

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The Potential Exclusive Message of Yoga, Blogs and Movements

2011-10-12T22:19:00.001-03:00

I have always loved to read, I've always adored school and language has never been a problem for me. Getting fabulous grades and excelling academically wasn't ever an issue. I know I'm a smarty pants.

My problem has always been sounding like one. Or should I say- not really sounding like one.

Coming from a small village, growing up tromping in the woods, catching frogs and riding four (and three!) wheelers since I was six years old doesn't really suit the use of a higher level vocabulary. Why would I want to use words and phrase structures that others around me would find weird, snobby or not understand? I wanted to communicate, not preach (or pontificate).

Yoga in the park- circle warrior III hands from inside the circle. All students- practicing together!

I think this is an invaluable lesson when trying to articulate your thoughts and form ideas and opinions to be shared. The way a message is packaged, the vocabulary, speaking and reading level, has always been a point of contention for me with academia, feminism and blogs.

It became increasingly clear that those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to afford university do not represent the population as whole. Even less so at the graduate level. I can't understand why movements like the feminism movement, would package ideas and theories at a language level so completely foreign to so many. If we want cultural and social change, shouldn't we be spreading the message in a way that makes sense to everyone? So even my grandmother, who didn't go further than grade 7, would be able to read and relate? (I was kicked out of that book club passive-aggressively, they changed the date and place so I wouldn't know where they were meeting...).

The same applies to the environmental movement, yoga and my blog. Over the past few years I've gone to several public environmental lectures at Dalhousie University. They've all been very interesting and informative. Unfortunately, they've all been wrapped up and presented in an extremely intimidating academia-speak... and predictably the only people there were students and academics (and us).

These people already get the message, they already buy in to the bottom line. They already know.

At times I find yoga blogs, articles and 'speak' to be similar. In the sense that it's either packaged in an intensely scriptural way, quoting the Gita or Sutras and throwing in countless sanskrit terms. It's not that I don't see the value in using appropriate sanskrit terminology for asana, nor the value of sharing 'parables' and spiritual insights. I just don't feel that it's the most inclusive way to share a message. Honestly, most people are not going to relate. It all depends if that's a goal or not.

A great example is a recent commenter's use of the word 'proprioception'. I used 'spatial awareness' to describe my inability to know where my own body is in space. As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I know the official 'Occupational Therapist' terminology for this is 'proprioception', which was kindly pointed out in the comment section. I might know this, but 'spatial awareness' will not only be much more self-explanatory (who wants to copy and google a word while reading anyhow?), it will get my point across in a much more inclusive fashion.

I might also know that our 'ear drum' is technically called our 'tympanic membrane' or that our 'vocal cords' are actually 'vocal folds', and having trouble swallowing is 'dysphagia'. Just because I know this doesn't mean I have to use it in my regular every day speak, or while trying to dialog with an unknown group of readers about a message I think is important to share (like the importance of avoiding q-tips while cleaning your ears, proper use of voice while teaching a yoga class or how to help protect your father's lungs while he eats after a having had a stroke).

When I don't know who my listeners are, I can't assume either way.

When I started writing this blog, it was for the purpose of sharing some environmental insights that I see as being a primordial aspect of Yoga and my Spiritual Pagan path.

If I want someone to make a small change (or a big one) I could go three ways:

intimidate the crap out of them with a very formal science speak. 'I use big words, hear me roar!' Some people prefer this type of rhetoric, but you peeps are the minority.
be completely silly and use very low vocabulary and simple explanations. This can be entertaining, but it's never my goal to assume that the reader can't understand a concept- it's insulting. Which isn't my goal.

- Find the balance of an appropriate reading level, humour, approachableness, likeability and respect while still putting forth the information and ideas in an organized manner.

This is the hardest thing. Finding this balance. I do believe that this precarious balance (or failing to find it) is the reason why so many scientists have trouble communicating theories, ideas and science to the rest of us... and why so many people still believe that Climate Change doesn't exist.

What do you think?

(** ps- I DO think there are a lot of fabulous writers and communicators out there who do an amazing job in yoga, feminism and the environment. Usually, sadly, there's a backlash from the more academic community- think Gloria Steinem, or even Al Gore- for 'betraying' or playing to the media and being lifted up to the 'face of_____insert movement here' as a default of no one else stepping up.)

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Being Thankful for Change

2011-10-10T22:15:00.000-03:00

After each yoga practice I thank my body for being healthy enough to practice.
My bones, my muscles, my heart and my lungs for the privilege of movement and without injury or disease.
I give thanks for my inflexibility, as at least I can practice.
I spend a few moments sending thoughts to those I know who are too ill for this practice.

Today I am thankful for my beautiful family, loving husband and fabulous friends.

I'm thankful that our social mores are moving towards making the environment matter in our daily lives and for making polluting increasingly "uncool".

I'm thankful that as women obtain more equality across the globe, so will our societies become more just, healthy and environmentally conscious.

I'm thankful that through practicing yoga mindfully I can connect with myself, my community and our Planet.

(Here we are so thankful for our delicious wedding cake! A year this coming Sunday...)

Change comes from within each of us.

I'm thankful that we all can make change happen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Magical Tarot for October- Ask Away!

2011-10-06T17:49:00.000-03:00

I adore October, the changing colour of the leaves, the chillier weather combined with (hopefully) the crisp autumn sun... and Halloween. Oh how I've always loved the magic of Halloween. The costumes, the candy and the spooky stories. Everything appears magical.

What I really don't like about Halloween is the plastic, wasteful consumerism that goes along with it. Although I've always loved Halloween, I've always hated having to dress up- mostly because I don't want to spend money on one-off occasion costumes made from nylon (re:oil) and in China.

Once I welcomed paganism in my life, Samhain- the pagan holiday when the veil between the living and the dead is at it's thinnest, becomes another layer of awesomeness for this month. I truly believe that so many non-pagans love this month because they too perceive that little spark of extra "magic" the closer we get to Samhain.

I wanted to share that little bit of spiritual magic with my non-pagan peeps, and bring a very environmentally friendly bit of Samhain to you!

Until Samhain I'll be posting a "Tarot Card Post" once a week. Comment here, or email me, with a question or comment you'd like me to ask the cards and I'll include a picture of the card pulled and the description in my next post! (*note, this is meant to be fun, so please treat it as such :) ).

Today's Tarot:

My question: How will this weekend visiting the in-laws and my fabulous friend M. go? (I'm a little anxious because I've been missing my yoga practice this week- too busy every evening, there's some emotional stuff happening with M., and the in-laws are well, the in-laws).

Middle Card: The Situation at Hand
9 of Swords: Just the picture says it all. Swords are the suit of air and intellect, and are often pointy and sharp in their message and image. This card is associated with worry, sorrow and pain (which matches the friend's emotional situation and my obvious concern for her during this difficult time). This card also encourages acceptance. What this tells me is that although there will be stressful and tiring aspects of this weekend, acceptance will make the trip smoother.

Left Card: The Unconscious Energies that are Influencing the Question
The Magician (a major arcana): The magician generally symbolizes consciousness, transformation and creative will (essentially the "magical" parts of life). It suggests that magic is present in our lives- which as the "unconscious energies that surround me" card, along with it being October and my whole little shpeel I just typed BEFORE pulling these cards I might add- is pretty darn poignant.

Right Card: What Can Help in This Situation
The 6 of Cups: Cups are the suit of water and emotion. Genuine harmony, a merger of masculine and feminine characteristics, the emotional ideal. I can combine this with the traditional Ryder interpretation of nostalgia, as M. and I go way back. For my question, the 6 of Cups is pointing to the resources that will be helpful to keep me grounded and my emotions in balance: my stable and wonderful husband and my friendship with M. When things get tense, I'll have to remember to breathe, listen and Love.

With a little bit of Magic, anything is possible!

Leave a comment for next week's post!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

My Face on Honey

2011-10-03T19:16:00.003-03:00

Have sensitive skin? Wish you could wash your face sans chemicals sans paying a fortune? Check out my guest post over at the lovely Feed Seed re: My Face on Honey where I reveal my inner, surprisingly effective, granola secret!

Blessings and Happy Quarter Moon!
EcoYogini

Yogi Confession: Yoga Class Drop Out

2011-10-02T16:51:00.000-03:00

Yesterday, for the first time in over four months, I paid for a yoga class. It was fabulous and lovely and I learned a few new things (although not really regarding any alignment).

I practice yoga asana two to three times a week and I barely spend a penny. Maybe a couple of twonies (reference for all my Canadian peeps!).

About a year ago I began to realize that attending yoga classes more than once a week would involve quite the price tag. I tried "10 class passes" which basically saved me an extra class, so over 100$ would last two to three months at a rate of 2-3 classes per week. In a year that would cost, at three months, over 400$. For yoga.

I considered only attending Karma or by-donation classes in the city. Unfortunately I realized that the Karma classes here are typically: a) PACKED, b) not reliably of good caliber c) typically on a very inconvenient day.

I seriously considered an unlimited yoga membership... typically running for close to 300-400$ per year... and realized wtf- I TOTALLY don't have that kind of money for yoga.

So I just stopped going to classes. I kept up my Yogaglo 18$/month for unlimited yoga classes, practiced in the park for free and went ahead with that. Wouldn't you know, I still practice regularly, I still learn from myself and others and I've saved in 4 months over 100$.

This is not a judgement on those individuals who can afford passes and memberships at yoga studios, nor am I trying to diminish the value of what a IRL yoga instructor can give you. It's just an observation that I've concluded I don't really need to spend a zillion dollars on yoga to get what I need.

(My fall dancer's pose two years ago in Rothesay)

Here's a quick breakdown on Yoga sans classes, cowboy style (although reversed cuz I always think it's a good idea to end on a positive note):

The Ugly:
I don't get any manual assists, real time feedback or guidance from a Yoga instructor. This is the best way I learn since I'm not exactly that great with body spatial awareness. I've decided to pick up "Yoga Anatomy" again and start reading.

The Bad:
I feel even LESS connected to the yoga community here in Halifax. It's kinda weird trying to organize these yoga events when the feeling I'm getting from (some) yoga instructors is that I'm kinda a poser. A "faux yogini" ya know? Not really committed to the "cause". Hah, I know it's all probably in my head, ok for the most part, and I'm happy enough with myself that I can move beyond how I respond to that.

The Good:
I am saving a butt-load of money without actually losing any of my yoga practice. I also have gained a bit of "yoga perspective" while stepping out and back from the yoga vacuum. My yoga practice is WAY more environmentally friendly, since no gas is used to get there and no heat or extra electricity is being used for a whole other space. My yoga carbon footprint is greatly reduced.

Finally, being forced to schedule online "yoga classes" has increased my use of Yogaglo and "Yoga Dates" with friends. This means allowing me the time and space to develop and grow without any external pressures.

October is the beginning of introspection and self-reflection. I may indulge in a yoga class once every few months, but I am now entering a "non-studio yogini" phase in my practice. And I think that's pretty darn okay.

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How to Start Saying 'No'

2011-10-01T08:45:00.001-03:00

The first day of October, I adore October!

Unfortunately the month of September was a lot of 'Yes's, which meant I'm now overwhelmed and exhausted, fighting off a cold for the past two weeks. (Rachel wrote a timely post on this too!)

How did I get here?

A quick review of what I've committed to this fall-

For work I'm running my first program for early childhood educators in French. There are sessions every other thursday evening and extremely intensive work during the week. I'm quite excited about this program (Hanen LLLI in French for you SLPeeps out there!) but am nervous at the same time.
I've also signed up for a free advanced language course offered by Université Sainte-Anne for medical health professionals. A pilot program, it involves four online evening sessions and weekly hours of homework.
My friend Jen and I are teaching the local SLP student master's program two classes on childhood dysphagia (swallowing disorders) in November. This requires reading, at least two planning and organizing sessions and quite a bit of practicing. Outside of work.
I'm most likely going to travel to at least one other site in the province this fall for an outreach.
I said I would meet with a local SLP student to help her come up with a plan to fundraise for her school.
Coffee and Yoga is coming up (although Yoga in the Park is basically done, so that's one less thing).

Combine this official stuff with my regular evening activities, like yoga, writing in this blog, and traveling to family for thanksgiving (October 10th in Canada), working from 8am-5pm and you've got an exhausted yogini.

Each of these things individually, I'm quite excited about and happy to do. At the same time, I realized yesterday that I was stretching myself too thin. Andrew and I weren't spending any quality time together anymore, all my spare time was spent trying to practice yoga, write in this blog and meet up with friends.

I need to take a step back, re-evaluate and decide how I'm going to manage these next few months.

1. Having typed out my commitments for this month I can see that some are non-negotiable. Work things will have to stay, and the level of involvement will be intense. There are some things, though, that are negotiable with regards to how much I commit or what my reaction will be.

2. For those things that I can control, I should dial it down a notch. The SLP student meeting? I have to be firm when it comes to how much I will help (i.e. beyond meeting with her- not much).

3. Although outside of work activities are important, my relationship with Andrew and our marriage takes priority. This means keeping my cell phone off for certain evenings and not committing to things on the evenings I have free. It's hard to do, since I love our friends, but Andrew and I need more than one quiet evening a week. It's how our relationship works.

4. I need to accept that practicing yoga every day, or more than 3 times a week will actually make things worse. Yoga is not an acceptable priority over my relationship time with my husband. This hasn't really been an issue, but I just thought I'd put it out there. I won't let myself get caught up in the 'I practice yoga every day how much do YOU practice?' trap.

5. New requests or commitments are a firm NO (at least for Autumn).

How do you manage over-extending your time and Self?

Blessings and Happy October!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

What Star Trek Taught me about the Keystone Pipeline

2011-09-26T19:35:00.002-03:00

Star Trek teaches me a lot, like today how Captain Picard's crew had to accept the fact that their continued use of warp travel was damaging the corridors of subspace. Decades of a way of life, and now space travel will have to change. Sound familiar? (Oh Star Trek, you are so clever).

Just like the Federation shares space with multiple civilizations and species, we have to share our planet with multiple countries. And, as subspace doesn't care whose federation each star system is touching, our water and air really couldn't be bothered to stop at country borders for a body scan.

The XL Keystone Pipeline has been a disheartening and disappointing piece of news for Canadians. I don't have a lot to comment regarding Obama's apparent amnesia with regard to his promise for 'green' policies, but I do feel that there are valuable and essential discussion points that should be addressed.

The discussion in the media has become an 'environmentalists against the economy' type rhetoric, which really misses an essential point- the economy is a human-created, not oil-dependant abstract concept. The environment is a true, delicate and concrete organism that is absolutely necessary for our survival as a species. We can't exactly live without water or air, but we can most certainly live with an economy sustained and nourished by something other than oil. As David Suzuki has said, the economy is a made up.

(This is what we're protecting... an aerial view of the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton)

Instead of focusing our money and energy into unsustainable methods of fuel and energy consumption, we should be directing our energy to creating and fostering reusable, sustainable energy. Developing better (and cheaper) electric car batteries and infrastructure, wind and solar power. Arguing that it's either a pipeline or giant refineries misses the mark. What about neither? We have the capabilities, the science and the resources if we direct them responsibly.

The transcanada organization claims, as do our governments, that it's safe and measures are in place to protect our precious farm and water ways from oil contamination. Didn't they say that about the BP oil spill? According to David Suzuki, earlier this year Alberta has already had a huge oil spill that has contaminated kilometres of necessary water and earth.

On Q (cbc radio show) on Friday, a few notable journalists commented that the big issue for discussion should be whether we allow the US to dictate our energy and environmental policies. This journalist stated firmly that other countries had no right to tell us how to treat our planet.

I disagree. It's absolutely ridiculous to stand like an immovable tadasana with the misbelief that air and water we treat here in Canada stops at this magical invisible barrier at our borders. The air I breathe, you have breathed as well. The water I drink, you have drank as well. We don't have special Canadian air or water here. Water evaporates and cycles through the system, moving as rivers, oceans and clouds across continents. It makes complete sense that we should work together to protect our most primordial resource- our Planet.

As yogis, we have a responsibility to connection. With each other to work together as Nations and peoples to protect and respect the Natural World, as well as beginning to take those measures needed to stop our addiction to consumption and oil. The tough stuff, like bicycling more, taking public transit, eating locally and stop buying STUFF. The really tough stuff, like writing our government and exercising our right to civil disobedience. Like voting for your Health and the Planet first before your pocket.

Tonight is the New Moon, the perfect time for new beginnings and new commitment. What will you do?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

A Glimpse of the Highlands

2011-09-23T20:22:00.003-03:00

After a long 6 hour drive home, I'm finally back in my own space. Some thoughts to come on "owning" environmental resources and the right to create and modify policies to come this weekend.

First though, I managed to make it to the Cabot Trail, even though I only had time to drive about 30 minutes in. Unfortunately, what with work, I couldn't even contemplate a voyage to the Red Cap, where Pema Chodron's Buddhist temple resides. Regardless, the aren't giving tours right now...

Here are a few pictures I was able to snap. I sadly didn't see a moose (although other guests at the B&B did!), or whales... but the view from up above was phenomenal. At one point, the clouds were literally gracing the tree tips and my car. The pictures really don't do it justice at just how high up I was, barely minutes out of Chéticamp. It's worth a click to make them bigger- trust me :)

The very beginning of the park, those are the beginnings- towards Chéticamp.

The first ocean picnic-ing place about 5 min drive in.

A random 'Inukshuk' someone had left.

I snapped this as I drove, if you look closely you can see the ocean, hundreds of metres below as the road winds through the highlands.

That ocean sur is far down. The beauty of the highlands is that in a few short weeks, unlike the furry mountains in BC, they will burst into reds, oranges and yellows since they're covered in leafy trees. Also, interestingly enough, that many leaves means there was a constant almost ocean-like sound of the wind through millions of leaves.

A zoom in from my camera to the ocean.

And this is my customary boat shot in Chéticamp for my dad :)

Blessings!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Discovering Cape Breton's Chéticamp

2011-09-20T21:22:00.003-03:00

I'm typing this in a Bed and Breakfast, nestled in the most beautiful part of Nova Scotia- Chéticamp. After an uneventful five and a half hour drive from Halifax I arrived to tiny Acadian town called Chéticamp and will be here all week for work.

After reading Yancy's post at FiveSeed about how she drove less than 3000 miles since last September I am definitely feeling the "eco" downer. My little Yaris is pretty darn fuel efficient, but that doesn't take away the fact that I've been driving it a lot this past year. My job requires that I travel across the province (and I've had to receive training in Ottawa, New York and Montréal...). That's a lot of carbon emissions. Unfortunately I can't afford to purchase offsets and my job is my job. If only we had teleportation- "Beam me up!" (yep Trekkie here!).

Since I need my job (and I also adore my role in bringing French services to the province), I can't change the amount of traveling I'm going to be doing. I have been thinking more and more seriously about whether I can afford to purchase some sort of carbon offset. Andrew has started University again this fall and we're now back to 'student-mode' in the apartment.

Anyone have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

Although I was exhausted and the wind is a bit chilly up here, I managed to get a bit of sightseeing done as well as some yoga overlooking the ocean on the cliffs of Chéticamp Island. I plan on going back for some more serious 'yoga-ing' tomorrow wearing actual yoga clothing (although the jeans worked out fine).

I'll be honest, the Okanagan Valley can't even compare to Chéticamp and the surrounding areas. With 'furry' mountains behind you and the powerful atlantic ocean spreading out as far as the eye can see, who wouldn't want to live here?

Here are some lovely pictures of my journey here- I'll be taking some more over the next few days... :)

As soon as you enter Cape Breton, all the town signs are 'bilingual'- English and Gaelic! It's very cool.

The view near Inverness... Homes are nestled amongst the furry mountains the entire way. Just beyond those furry mountains is the Atlantic ocean.

Made it to the Acadian region- from here signs are bilingual French-English :)

If you look closely, there's a barn with the entire side painted like an Acadian flag... this was just outside of Chéticamp.

My walk to Chéticamp Island, just at the very start.

You can see tiny little white dots- those are the houses in the outskirts of Chéticamp

Even the grass is beautiful and wavy in the wind.

The island comprises of grassy outcroppings onto cliffs overlooking an ocean that goes on forever. There's a constant noise- it's the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks of the cliffs all around. There is no 'peace' here, but power and beauty. I rolled out my mat directly on the soft, mossy grass.

Blessings and Happy Mabon!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

How to Enjoy A Book

2011-09-15T18:47:00.000-03:00

(For those of you considering abolishing "real" books from your life in favour of a (no!) e-reader, I present you with a few essentials to live by...)

How to Enjoy Books 

(this is one of our book shelves, with my current book that I'm enjoying: "Wildwood" written b y Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis)

Step 1: Entering a small, locally owned bookstore/library/Secondhand bookstore pause briefly and take a deep breath. You are now surrounded by books. Enjoy this moment thoroughly.

Step 2: Start perusing each section, gazing upon the rows and rows of colourful spines. Perhaps grazing your fingers across a few, tilting your head sideways so you can read the titles or even removing a few to take a peak at the cover. Don't rush, walk slowly or stand quietly for a few moments. It's socially acceptable to do this in a book purchasing/borrowing space, take advantage.

Step 3: Find a book that interests you. It may be the topic, the title or even the cover art. Pick out the book and hold it in your hands.

Step 4: Pass your hand across the front of the book. Feel the finishing of the book, the weight of it in your hands. Is it a light book, or is it extremely heavy (meaning the possibility for a very lengthy and amazing read). Does the cover have bumps or art that feels different?

Step 5: Read the description at the back and check for an author's photo. You never know, it may sway your decision.... seriously.

the beautiful illustrations in the book caught my imagination

Step 6: If you've made it this far it means you've got a serious contender. Open the book and take a rifle through. Feel how the pages move. Do they have rough edges? (I LOVE those books!) Do the pages feel dry and stiff or do they flop through, heavy?

And... the ultimately most important part of the Book Adventure:

Step 7: Open the book and bring your nose in close. No, no, I mean REALLY close- right up in the pages. Inhale...

You might call me a huge weirdo, but different types of books have different scents. Some pages smell like chemicals, some like older paper. Library books have their own special smell (umm, I am not a fan honestly lol).

Books are so much more than the story inside. Having a real paper book has Seven essential steps before we even get to the Story World waiting inside. E-readers.... they can't even compare.

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

J'me 'garde dans la bourrique

2011-09-14T19:37:00.002-03:00

Bourrique: n.f. Nombril (terme enfantin). Historique: Depuis 1925, expression vulgaire pour nombril. Paraît être une variante des formes "bourit" ou "bouril" au sense de "ventre, abdomen" relevée dans les parlers de Saintonge.
Dictionnaire du français acadien,Yves Cormier

Bourrique: Childhood term for belly. Historic: Since 1925, lay expression for stomach. Appears to be a variant of the forms 'bourit, bouril' in the sense of 'stomach, abdomen' from the speakers of Saintonge.

In the past few weeks, predominantly the last few days of this Harvest Moon, there's been quite a bit of introspection bouncing around. A looking inwards, gazing at my mystical belly button. Ma bourrique. Coumme si ma bourrique y'avait les réponses...

Several things have come out of this:

1. Upon much thought, yoga and I will remain together. We just need to set new boundaries and expectations. A slight reshuffling of priorities and yoga's place in my life, yoga to a 'miniscule' and no longer a 'majuscule'. I'm pretty happy with this new step.

2. Since yoga has taken a side step to 'miniscule', it's time to begin shaping and molding what my spiritual practice truly shall be. Exploring my connection with the Goddess only had a brief time to grow before Yoga à la majuscule 'Y' left no space for Her.

3. I need to begin reshaping my place in the world. For the first time in my life my future is settling down, growing large roots with the potential to get dusty. I'm married, I have a full time job and am thinking qu'un jour j'serai enfamille. Big Life Stuff. I imagine myself ten years ago and I had ideas of where I might go in life, write music and perform, travel to see Ireland, something a bit more glamorous. Don't get me wrong, I've traveled and met l'houmme de mes rêves, but will there be more? Just a slight mental readjustment of reality shifting into place and saying 'Hi!' to my dreams.

(A little pumpkin trikonasana pour vous!)

The waning Harvest Moon, the last full moon before the Fall Equinox on September 21st, is a beautiful time to begin an examination of one's mystical 'bourrique'. A time of closing up shop, reigning in and contemplation. Summer is waving goodbye for another year and my favourite season, Autumn is stretching Her arms to play :)

Blessings!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Thoughts on Lululemon and Their 'Bottom Line'

2011-09-11T17:22:00.000-03:00

The beginning of 'Salutation Nation'- the International 'Ohm' Lululemon sponsored yoga event this Saturday, the ambassador leading the class intro'd with a little speech about Lululemon.

This speech, although I was strangely surprised (I shouldn't have been, Lulu was hosting it), brought up some interesting points of consideration. Many of which I do not agree with... even though I was there and took part in the event, since it was free.

Our first spot w Miss Veronica and Andrew's bike, Mr Manelli (he's not very original). Unfortunately, softball games were everywhere and a ball actually flew into the crowd almost hitting a yogi... so we moved. The second spot was actually better :)

Firstly, before I get into the good stuff, here are some positives of Salutation Nation:
- It did bring over 200 yogis, practicing together. Although mostly university aged students, there were mothers and their children as well as some guys and a few 'post-university' yogis.
- Practicing with that many people outside was pretty darn neat to see!
- Everyone was pretty positive, the overall message was positive (if not somewhat 'foofy').
- It provided an opportunity to practice yoga for free- woot!

- While over 200 yogis were lying down for savasana, I stuck out like a sore thumb in my seated meditation. I made sure to take off my sunglasses to make it more obvious that I was meditating and not just being difficult. I was SO nervous- I knew the ambassador could see me... sitting up amidst a sea of corpses. I closed my eyes and just tried to breathe, mentally preparing for when a helper instructor would come up and ask some questions. Instead- I felt a leg against my back and an instructor's hands opening my shoulders as if I were in savasana. Such a moment of honest and open acceptance brought a few tears to my eyes. I was (am!) so grateful to that instructor that I actually said 'Thank you' out loud (without opening my eyes) after she finished.

Our final practicing space- those empty green spots quickly filled in!

Alright, the points of contention.
The ambassador's opening speech went something like this: 'Lululemon is a fantastic company that does so much for our communities across the globe. They're manifesto is 'Elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness' (this is their 'vision statement' actually)...' and continue onward with 'Yay Lululemon is so great and wonderful' speech with how their main purpose is to bring together community and a healthy lifestyle. It was a serious 3-5min of gushing, an 'Ode to Lululemon'.

I get that as an ambassador OF Lululemon, at an event that is hosted by Lululemon would begin by thanking the company for organizing and sponsoring the event. I expected a short something thanking them.

However. To imply that Lululemon's *main purpose* is to support community is ridiculous. Lululemon, a company with CEOs, lawyers, accountants and PR-planning committees, has as it's main goal to make money and sell clothing. That is the ultimate goal. Sure, they have many 'community' based events (for the most part in their store- where participants can see all the wonderful products waiting to be bought), but this isn't Lululemon's bottom line. We all know this. Lululemon doesn't set up shop in the most impoverished and in-need neighbourhoods, countries and cultures globally. They have stores, set up to sell costly clothing (not even made in that country) to upper middle and upper class women and men. The community events aren't geared for the homeless, or the impoverished, but to the market of people who could potentially purchase their clothing.

Cynical? Perhaps a bit, but I'd be surprised if the upper circle of the company thought differently.

What would make them a truly inspirational company?

- If they invested some of that time, energy and money into creating and manufacturing all their clothing from environmentally sustainable fabrics in low or ZERO carbon footprint and pollution factories.

- If they manufactured their clothing IN the country they sold them, instead of factories located in impoverished countries with lower health, environmental and work policies as well as workers that made a pay we'd find unacceptably low.

- By investing in local, Canadian (or American) factories, they'd lower the carbon footprint created by the huge container ships they need to use to ship the clothing, as well as *truly* be investing and supporting local communities and economies.

- Instead of community events in their store, wouldn't it be beautiful if they sponsored health and yoga events for those who are actually in need; such as the homeless, women's shelters, those who struggle with mental health or illness. (Supposedly each store has 'charitable giving' that the consumer's choose local charities to 'give back'- when I searched the Halifax store site there was no information. I have never ever heard of Lulu hosting a charitable event in Halifax, Montréal or Kelowna- where I've lived. If they do, it's the exception and not the rule).

Hey, I own some Lulu clothing and obviously am willing to take advantage of a free yoga class they've organized. However, I'm not going to pretend that this Business's bottom line is something other than making money and selling clothing.

There are so many other local companies that invest and actually do give back to our communities (like LoveMe Boutique who sells only Canadian Hand Made products, or Bhavana who offers Canadian and American, sustainably made yoga clothing) who truly have more than 'selling clothes' as their bottom line.

I am not 'Anti-Lulu', I'm more of a 'let's be real' kinda yogini.

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Blueberry Pear-Cider Jam Filled Cookie Recipe!

2011-09-08T20:16:00.000-03:00

While in PEI I discovered a wondrous thing (that most of you probably already knew): liquor can be added to a jam recipe. WEEE!!

After picking 15lbs (of which we got 10lbs) of blueberries, I was determined that we would make (successful!!) blueberry-champagne jam.

Unfortunately, champagne (and bubbly) was not available at the Farmer's Market. QUICK- change of plans (cuz I fly by the seat of my pants like that)- Tidalview Cider. After some deliberation as to the best flavour for blueberry jam, the deciding factor was the fact that we'd have to drink the rest... so Pear Cider it was.

As there weren't any blueberry- pear cider jam recipes we kinda had to wing it. That and I had no idea how to do the 'canning' part. We must have used THREE different recipes, for a mish mash. Wouldn't ya know- it worked out!

EcoYogini's Blueberry Pear Cider Jam:

Software:

6 cups of blueberries

5 cups of sugar (ack!- but we'd already bought normal pectin and not low sugar so...)

1 package of regular powdered pectin (Certo)

1/2 cup of local Pear Cider

Hardware:

Large saucepan/pot

4 large mason jars (or six smaller ones)

A canning pot & rack (you can get cheap versions at Canadian Tire)

Potato masher

Step 1: Take blueberries out of the freezer, place all six cups in the large saucepan and turn on low. If your blueberries AREN'T frozen... well luck you! Have faithful man-assistant periodically try to mash the blueberries.

Step 2: Place the mason jars in the canning pot, two inches of water above. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes to sterilize. Bacteria can be nasty buggers, especially if you're preserving. Afterwards, leave the jars in the warm water until you're ready with the jam.

Step 3: Open the Pear Cider, pour a 1/2 cup in a measuring cup, cover so fruit flies don't kamikaze into the cider. Continue to pour you and your man-assistant each a hefty glass of cider. Enjoy.

Step 4: Into a bowl, add 1/2 cup of the allocated 5 cups of sugar to the pectin package- mix.

Step 5: When the blueberries are all mushed up by the potato mashing skills of your man-assistant, add the pectin-sugar mix and bring to a hard boil. Then add another 4 and a 1/2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of pear cider. Stir continuously, bring back to a hard boil (that a stir can't break) for 1 minute.

Step 6: remove the jars (this was scary as we didn't have handy dandy jar lifters, so tongs were used. No jars broke thank goddess) and fill them with yummy jam leaving 1/4 inch from the rim, clean off excess jam. Place lids and put back in the canning water pot.

Step 7: Keep 2 inches above the jars and boil for at least 5 minutes- we boiled for 8 minutes.

Step 8: Remove the jars (seriously, fancy lifters would have been handy). Place where they won't get bumped and leave overnight. Done!! Jars should be kept sans lid-rings to better see spoilage if it happens and should be good for 6 months (put date on lids). If you don't preserve them, the jam needs to go immediately in the fridge.

More than just jam for your toast, this yummy creation makes a kick-butt filler for my mom's jam-filled cookie recipe. YUM!

EcoYogini's Blueberry-Pear Cider filled Cookies:

Preheat oven at 350F, use butter to grease pans (ew- Pam spray is gross and fake)

Cream together 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of butter (melted or softened), 3/4 cups of sugar.

Mix in 1 and 3/4 cups of flour, 2 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla, pinch of salt.

Roll dough in balls and place on cookie sheet. Afterwards, dip your thumb in flour and make little thumb prints. This recipe is a blast to do with children (or your hubby.... lol). Using a spoon, fill the thumb prints with your beautiful blueberry-pear cider jam.

Bake for 8-10 min. This is crucial- check the cookies at 8 min. They are ready when you see a tiny hint of brown along the bottoms.

Enjoy!!

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Salutation Bicycle Nation: Practicing Yoga with Intention

2011-09-07T22:23:00.000-03:00

As a non-studio specific yogini, I like yoga events that are not 'studio' centric.

A great example is the Global Mala Project. A global initiative on the Fall Equinox (September 21st) where yogis across the world practice yoga together in the name of Peace. The essence isn't to get together, hang out and practice some free yoga, but to inspire action, fundraising and community connection for our Planet. Something I can get behind.

Sadly, Halifax had one studio who participated with limited between-studio linkages, participation and results. As far as I can tell, the entire event has been dropped.

This weekend, I received a facebook invite to something called 'Salutation Nation; Neverending Ohm'. You can probably guess- sounds lulu-esque huh? Yep, sponsored by Lululemon, this (free!) one hour yoga class happens on September 10th in Canada and the US, outside and led by one of Lulu's ambassadors. Guess how many people are signed up? So far in Halifax over 200 people have confirmed attending, with over 80 maybe attending. Myself included.

I'm happy to practice outside amid so many yogis (did I mention it was free?), but I'm a bit disappointed that a clothing store with an event that doesn't take advantage of gathering so many yogis together, was successful at creating a yoga community event where the yoga studios were unable.

This event could have so many positive (and environmental!) spins to it- I'm left utterly confused why the goals are: 'Join your community and move, breathe, connect and get your downdog on!' Sounds a bit like a yoga professional networking to me.

Here's what would be even more"ohmtastic":

(please feel free to steal this little badge- I made it just for you!)

'Salutation Nation Ecofied':

Leave your carbon monster at home and take the true Yogic Transportation:

Your Bicycle.

Nothing beats coasting to an outdoor yoga class on two wheels, a nifty helmet and a cute dringdring bell.

All yogis attending 'Salutation Nation' I challenge you to step up and Ride Your Bicycle to Yoga.

Make this event about more than just a yoga class, about a commitment to our Planet.

Who's with me?

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Saying 'NO' to Hair Dye; Mousy Browns have More Fun

2011-09-05T19:59:00.000-03:00

All the hair highlighters, raise your hands. (*I shamefully raise my hand*).

Since at least grade 11 (um, 12 years?), I have joined the ranks of people who have had their hair highlighted. I've been pretty darn blond, and once RED, and at least highlighting once and often twice a year. My natural hair colour is pretty boring, a mousy brown. BORING.

That said, I haven't dyed my hair in over a year (since before the wedding) and I'm starting to get the itch again. Especially since, I will vainly admit, I'm feeling a bit wonky about a new, shorter, haircut.

This post is to remind myself why I should reconsider the hair dyeing decision.

I know it's small, but this is an example of how blond my hair got- I'm at Gray Monk Winery in the Okanagan Valley. My hair is naturally quite mousy brown, so you can definitely see the artificiality at work here...

Conventional hair dyes contain a ridiculous amount of nasty chemicals. Anyone with a nose knows this- that nostril burning smell? Those are cancer-inducing chemicals that you're inhaling into your lungs, soaking into your skin and entering your body. Yum!

Scary chemicals in hair dye:

Ammonia and peroxide: known allergens and skin irritants
PPD(p-phenylenediamine) and diaminobenzene: toxic to the chemically sensitive. PPD has been linked to cancerous tumours in lab tests by the US National Cancer Insitute (as cited on David Suzuki)
Coal Tar: darker dyes (like deep browns or blacks) often contain coal tar, or a synthetic version. This ingredient has been linked to higher rates of cancer. These coal tar derived ingredients may also be contaminated by heavy metals which are toxic to our brain (David Suzuki).

A few studies have linked prolonged use of hair dye and an increased risk (two to three times and for hairstylists-estheticians up to 5x!) of bladder cancers, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancers and multiple melanomas (Ecoholic 2006, p. 13).

What isn't absorbed into our bodies gets washed down the drain:

Above and beyond our health concerns hair dye is directly washed out and down the drain, entering our water ways, rivers, lakes and oceans. These chemicals are toxic to aquatic life and how vain can we be that we'd risk our precious water sources for our hair to be a different colour?

Cultural Reality of 'Grays'

Ok, I say all this, but my one 'white-gray' hair is in my left eyebrow (yep, weird I know). I know that once I start getting whites and grays I'll feel even more tempted to dye dye away. COAL ME UP. In our culture of 'worship of youth' anything age related has left us conditioned with a knee jerk fear reaction. Nothing shouts age more than gray or white hair. I once thought one of my supervisors in Montreal was in her fifties as she sported a beautiful cap of gray hair. She was 36.

Lets be honest, gray and white hair will result in the perception of age. I do believe that we need brave women to say 'NO' to this culturally defined version of 'beauty' and 'worth'. But am I brave enough to be one of these women? I hope that when the day comes (most likely in a few short years) I will be. I am not judging though, that's all.

Some Solutions:

100% Natural: Henna is the number one natural darkening hair product. Yancy at FiveSeed has a first account post on the pros (and a few cons, notably the alfalfa aroma) of Henna; the results mainly of fabulousness. She also has a guest written post by Callah about Lush's Henna.

Halfway: Companies like Herbatint, Ecocolors and Naturcolor all have 'less chemical' hair dye solutions (Naturcolor is an ammonia-cruelty-free plant-based option *low* in PPD for example).

Not So Terrible Pros: If you're like me and am definitely not into DIY with your hair, there is virtually no chemical-free salon options. That said, Aveda, (who have, I will grudgingly admit, upped their 'eco' game in recent years) have hair dyes that are up to 97% plant based. (I highly doubt Aveda doesn't have at least a few sketchy ingredients...). Sadly, the Aveda salons here in Halifax are filled with not so friendly, snobby stylists.

Another option- pick up a box of the 'Halfway' options and bring it to your stylist, insisting on your and our planet's health. (Not for the faint of heart, I'd hope to have a kick-butt relationship with my hair stylist before attempting this one).

What about you, trusty readers? What are your thoughts on bucking the hair dye economic machine? Will you take a stand when those gray hairs start creeping in?

Blessings!

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga on the lake, s'mores and blueberry picking!

2011-09-03T16:33:00.000-03:00

Just returned from an entire week at a cottage on the lake, without internet access OR cell phone service. Yep, there are places still that do not have cell phone reception. It was bliss.

Highlights included Yoga on the dock in the mornings while the mist was still drifting up and away from the lake, a campfire with yummy s'mores, a quiet canoe ride, the quiet and clean air surrounded by trees, water, mosquitoes and birds. The entire week we watched the trees quietly turn from green to red and welcomed Fall with acceptance and connection.

Sadly we forgot our camera (and I forgot to bring the runes to bless them near the lake- but no worries Roseanne and Aradia, they will be blessed by the Atlantic Ocean after tomorrow's Yoga in the Park!). So here are a few pictures taken by my mom of the cottage over the past two years:

The living 'room' area. All the woodwork, including the actual structure, cedar walls, window coverings even that little coffee table, bedframes, vanity in the bathroom, kitchen cabinets... all made by my dad over the years. This space has been a labour of love for our family over 25 years. We may have all the conveniences now, but there was a time when we had to run outside to pee in the outhouse... lol. This picture was taken in the wintertime if you take a peek outside.

The view of the cottage last autumn in October.

The view from the front yard last Fall. This lake is fed by two rivers on both ends and is beautifully clean and home to fish, birds and a rare pink flower that only grows in this region.

A fun highlight was blueberry picking. Wild blueberries (lowbush) taste SO much better than highbush or cultivated blueberries. Usually my parents pick 10-20lbs of wild blueberries every year, and this year instead of mooching we decided to pick our own this year. Unfortunately, the wild blueberry fields aren't being cared for like they used to, with regular burnings every few years. As a result, no wild blueberries were to be found and we planned a trip to a high bush u-pick in Yarmouth.

Before this, Andrew and I discovered some actual true wild blueberries out in the woods on a wheeler (ATV) path behind our cottage. We barely picked a cup of blueberries, and I kept an eye out for black bears as we picked, but they were YUMMY. Totally worth the deer tick that hung a ride and was found commando crawling on the bathroom floor (ick!!).

(cell phone photo of me holding Grand-mère's blueberry basket filled with berries. Amazingly, Grand-mère used that basket to pick berries and now my mom uses it. It was perfect, very sturdy and holds exactly 10lbs of berries. I felt so connected knowing that generations of 'd'Eon' women have used that basket, picking berries for jams and preserves)

The highbush berries kinda resembled a winery- rows of wiry bushes with plump blue berries hidden beneath green leaves. The owners of the u-pick were sketchy to say the least, an unhappy dusty farmer's couple straight out of an American-type movie. A sign claimed that the berries were 'organic' as in 'not sprayed' while you had to walk by a pile of garbage waiting to be burned on your way to the bushes.... lol. Classy!

Out of a quick 30min pick we got 15lbs of blueberries easy- and my parents were both quite disappointed with the limited berries available! I now have 10 lbs of frozen blueberries that we'll make blueberry jam (hopefully with champagne!) and that I can eat with my morning granola!

All in all, it is nice to be back in the city where I don't have to gas up my car 3x a week (typically it's a two week gas up for me!) and the farmer's market is around the corner. That said, when Andrew and I build our 'eco' forever home (someday!) we'll definitely be near the ocean and out of the city.

Happy Labour Day Weekend!

article and photograph copyright of ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga Bracelet Winners-Videos!!

2011-08-24T20:40:00.002-03:00

WINNERS!! I decided, in the end, to make TWO bracelets... hence TWO videos of me choosing a winner... :D (Videos and a box because I really hate the 'random.org' idea of choosing, but wanted to be obviously transparent and fair). I wrote out the names and key words on the back of an old bill envelope (Nova Scotia Power I think), cut them out all the same size, folded and into an old Yule gift box they went!

You'll have to watch to see who the two lovely peeps are! (ps- I am a bit ridiculous, I apologize in advance... And I'm still wearing my work clothes....
Annnnd I said 'necklace' instead of bracelet. but I meant bracelet in the second video. Just so ya know :) )

Thank you all for your lovely words and I wish I had enough time and runes to make a bracelet for all of you!

Blessings!

Upcycled Yoga Bracelets and a Giveaway!

2011-08-22T21:02:00.001-03:00

Practicing yoga with jewelery can be a tricky endeavour. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I still do. I may not be that lady with a zillion rings, ready to take out an eye, or with the dangly earrings clonking her in the face, but I most certainly have my 'yoga jewelery' on the ready.

Little earrings that don't move, my wedding band that barely can be felt and my favourite- my arm band hand crafted from environmentally tanned Alberta leather (I never said I was vegan). Being an environmentally friendly sparkle-obsessed yogini, that means I can justify spending a bit more on locally handcrafted jewelery... which can get dangerous for my budget. (But it's ART!).

After seeing a beautiful wrap bracelet on Etsy, followed by this amazing 'T-shirt Necklace' tutorial on My So Called Green Life, I decided that I would make my own version of a wrap bracelet. At least, I'd try!

(This used to be a wrap- until I cut ALL the wrap parts out...)

I have a bunch of stretchy shirts that I knew I would never wear again, but I love the colour and the fabric was still good. Kellie on My So Called Green Life made the cutting look so easy, because she has a fancy fabric cutter dealy AND a measuring cutting board. To which I do not.

Therefore a long time of cutting was involved, including fixing of the crappy cutting job afterwards. My first necklace attempt was pretty darn sad, but I gotta say my second attempt is fantabulous! As I also don't have a sewing machine, but got this little sewing kit from my Tante B a few Yules ago, I decided that I would give hand stitching a try.

(My impromptu messy craft table, supervised by Atreyu himself)

Wouldn't you know I can sorta rock the stitching?? YES!

Follow this up with the discovery of some runes I had bought for a former friend. Since runes really aren't my thing (Tarot is), I wasn't sure what to do with these beautiful, hand carved runes. Until now! After I do a cleansing and Blessing ritual, they will be perfect for little wrap bracelets that I can pick and choose depending on my day and the rune. I made a lovely test-run bracelet for my friend Alli's birthday and it worked beautifully. I even had time to do a quick cleansing and grounding before gifting it to her.

I also happened to have an old 'Foxy' bracelet that I no longer ever wear. After a bit of awkward sewing and threading... it is the perfect wrapped bracelet with a pretty metal sparkle.

(My 'Foxy' upcycled bracelet. Pretty but not as cool as the rune bracelet!)

All upcycled, all hand made by yours truly. And all (well except the necklace) perfect for an Eco Yoga Asana practice.

Just goes to show that even the most uncrafty of us out there are completely capable of DIY-ing it.

(The fruits of my labour- a fabric necklace that isn't quite complete, the Foxy bracelet and a few runes!)

GIVEAWAY!

In Celebration of Eco Yoginis and my new crafty self, I would love to give away one special Rune stretchy bracelet. I have two options for fabric- the lavender purple you see here in the picture and white.

How to win:

Leave a comment (with your email address pls) telling me what you'd like to welcome into your life right now. For example: Balance, prosperity, change, creativity, new beginnings (this is so I can pick and Bless a Rune just for you!) and of course the colour of fabric you'd like.

I'll be choosing someone Wednesday, August 24th at 8pm Atlantic Time. WEEE!!!

Many Blessings and Good Luck!

article and photograph of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Natural Medicine and our Planet: A Cautionary Tale

2011-08-19T21:15:00.001-03:00

My life has been a bit chaotic and my body is letting me know. Aches and pains, tired- all I feel like doing is popping extra strength Advil and sleeping. A recent visit with my cousin has brought up discussions on healthcare and natural medicine.

Now, to be honest, I strongly believe that we need to be careful about an extremist type of view that can crop up when talking about healthcare in yogic circles. Western medicine can be helpful and life saving when necessary. That said, as a pagan and Planet Lover, I feel like we can reconnect with our roots in a lot of ways that are easier on our bodies, Spirit and Planet.

A Recap on Pharmaceuticals and our Planet:

Canadians spent 20$ billion on prescription drugs in 2005 (not counting over the counter). Aggressively tested on animals (and reportedly on our world's poorest peoples- see "The Body Hunters" by Sonia Shah).

WASTE: Big Pharma pumps out billions of pills a year;

Water wasted per day: 266 millions gallons (way back in 1990!)

Much of the chemicals and solvents used are considered untreatable by regular wastewater treatment systems and are hazardous.

Pollutants spewed in our air: cyanide, VOC's and neurotoxin toluene (among many others).

Pollutants in our water: From 50 to 90% of the active ingredients aren't broken down by our bodies- they're peed (and pooped). Some of them can't be broken down by sewage plants (IF your city has one, Halifax was without for over a year. All those drugs and raw sewage straight into the ocean). Anti-seizure drugs for example. Although no research has revealed that these drugs (over 100 different kinds in the US and Europe) are having an affect on humans, estrogen from birth control pills are feminizing fish all over. (Ecoholic 2006 p. 45)

'I use only Natural, Chinese-Ayurvedic-Tibetan medicine, so I'm not contributing' you say?

It would appear that many 'Natural' medicines don't really give a crap about the environment or how the ingredients are harvested.

(Echinacea field- credit here)

Wildcrafted herbs can be some of the worse. We think of them as being 'better' for us because they shouldn't have pesticide residue, but there is basically zero regulation regarding limits for harvesting these herbs. Ingredients like ginseng (now on the Canadian Federal endangered list), wild echinacea (endangered in the US) and lady slipper (endangered in both Canada and the US), licorice root (depleted by 60% in the wild), goldenseal (officially a threatened species in Canada) are disappearing in the wild due to overharvesting (Ecoholic 2006, p.48).

According to the WWF, of the estimated 40,000-50,000 plants used in natural medicines, most are harvested from the wild. Of course, like all large crop farming, huge plantations of herbs and popular ingredients have been pushing food crops out in countries such as China. (Ecoholic, 2006 p. 48).

Since natural medicine is also less stringently regulated, contamination can be a concern. In 2005 Health Canada issued a warning that some Ayurvedic tablets were contaminated with high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic. In 2008, a study found that of 230 requested Ayurvedic products, 20.7% contained heavy metals (all of which exceeded 1 or more standards for daily metal intake). The study is fabulous, if you're interested you should check it out: 'Lead, Mercury and Arsenic in US-Indian...'.

Adria Vasil of Ecoholic recommends that you purchase authorized natural medicine with an 8-digit Drug Identification Number(DIN), Natural Product Number (NPN) or homeopathic number (DIN-HM).

Natural Medicine Musts:

Wildcrafted: if you're interested in supplements, look up your ingredient and find out if it's endangered (Nova Scotia's Species at Risk). Check out smaller, local companies with fabulous reputations.

Organic herbs are great solutions to avoid pesticides and sustainable harvesting.

Avoid animal ingredients at all costs. So many species are being killed to extinction for benefits that have not been supported by research. Never worth it.

Eat healthy, stay physically active and most importantly: don't discount western medicine. The best healthcare would be a natural, preventative balance of both eastern and western working together.

Blessings to your and the planet's health!

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The Onion Known As 'Eating'

2011-08-15T19:40:00.000-03:00

I walked through the door today, my legs and arms shaking, my heart beating my face flushed... and I wondered why this keeps happening. I felt fine leaving work, as always, but arriving home after a 20 minute walk I felt as if I could collapse (actually I did, right on the bed).

During the day today I had a jar of blueberries and strawberries, a sandwich and half a chocolate scone. Since when has that not been enough?

For the past several weeks I arrive home as above, a shaking, blubbering mess. It usually means I need to eat right away, including days when I practice yoga in the evening. There's no two hour wait- I wouldn't make it through the yoga practice.

I'm going to be honest here and admit that feeling full has never made me happy. A combination of digestive issues (IBS) and a pervasive social culture that values thinness has always left me feeling uncomfortable when full. I know I can't be the only woman out there who has a strange feeling of satisfaction when her belly is flat and empty. Even typing this makes me shudder: I am NOT that woman!- but I think it's important to talk openly about something our culture forces on us as young as prepubescence.

It's there in yoga as well- the feeling of 'lightness', of floating. 'Diets' that are masked as 'cleansing' meant to purge our system (of what? nutrients? I'm sorry, my intestines do a pretty good job cleansing themselves naturally as they were meant to). It wouldn't take long to get caught up in micromanaging our eating around what Dosha, yoga practice, or recent health fad is recommended. The act of eating takes on another layer of spiritual morality on top of the cultural and social pressures, the socio-economic pressures and the environmental pressures making up one hell of an onion called Eating.

Bringing a lunch to work is tricky for me, since I walk 20 minutes to and from the ferry. It means carrying stainless steel and glass jars filled with food over my right shoulder. Since I'm not getting a backpack (budgeting reasons and just cuz I'm sorry, but I think they're ugly), I hate the idea of loading more than my lunch tin, my coffee stainless steel Klean Kanteen thermos and a jar of berries.

These past few weeks taught me that I may need to. A larger lunch paired with an afternoon snack will help me arrive home in ossicular form as opposed to amoeba. I can spend more time with Andrew cooking a healthy, sustainable supper instead of something quick and easy just so I can stop shaking.

My happy self having a 'moment' where I actually picked something up with chopsticks at 'Le Lotus Bleu' in Montréal. I ate copiously during our visit and drank lots of wine and I felt gorgeous the whole, full, time.

My brain will be happier with more nutrients during the day. I will feel better because in the end I will be eating more, which will make me a REBEL against the constant 'thin' culture we live in. My body and my yoga practice will thank me. The planet will thank me.

My Spirit will thank me.

Blessings!

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

DIY Beet Blush: FOYF (Food On Your Face)

2011-08-11T20:14:00.000-03:00

Makeup has definitely been a difficult eco-change in my life. I just like me my MAC products ya know? They're just so darn amazing- the down side are the chemicals... I know many of you are makeup-free gals (or makeup minimum) which I say 'Good for you!' but I like to paint my face. It's fun, evens out my skin tone and makes my sleepy eyes more awake.

So when I saw this fantastically easy tutorial by a former makeup artist on EcoEtsy I thought: I can DO that! Seriously. I can. Three ingredients? I am a GO.

We just had to buy some beets. Which typically come in bunches. Since neither Andrew nor I eat beets, the rest will get donated to Home Heather, who LOOOVES them :)

There were definitely a few little bumps in this process of making the beet blush, but in the end it ACTUALLY WORKED. Even Andrew was shocked and surprised. So here's the process with a few little editorial comments on the process from yours truly:

Ingredients:

1 beet

1 tablespoon of honey

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Equipment:

Blender or food processor

wire mesh strainer

glass container for storage

dealy to squish beet mush through the wire strainer

Step 1: 'Cut your beet in half and trim off the skin. Cut in tiny pieces'

(the colours are so pretty!)

Ok- at first I honestly thought that despite the ingredient list calling for 1 beet, that cutting it in half meant we used half the beet. Not so- after trying to blend half the beet I quickly realized that it really didn't look like enough. **Note: you need the WHOLE beet.

ALSO- since when is peeling a vegetable easier after you cut it in half?? Too late I realized it would have been so much easier to peel the beet first then cut in tiny pieces.

Modified Step 1: Peel your beet and cut in tiny 0.5 cm pieces

Step 2: 'Add all your ingredients in the food processor and blend until liquified, strain and separate liquids from solids'

(ew- horror movie worthy)

I saw in the pictures that she had used a magic bullet. Whoa, we TOTALLY have one of those! Score. So I gave it a whirl. It was noisy and a long and painful process. If you have a food processor please use it. Or a stick blender even.

The straining of the beet barf (seriously, it had chunks, it was weird) was not fun. I realized that Andrew and I don't actually own a metal mesh strainer or even cheese cloth. I do have a straining mechanism in my reusable tea mug... So that's what I used.

(my ghetto straining process)

It was pretty darn awkward. I had to use a plastic spoon that I had kept from a previous outing (I know, but at least it got used!).

After the separation I noticed that MY blush was especially liquid-y while hers looked more like a smoothie. WTF? How the crap did she 'strain' hers?? Anyhoo- I kept the weird chunky stuff in case I would need it.

Modified Step 2A: In preferably a food processor or stick blender, add olive oil, honey and cut up beet and blend until liquified or smoothie texture.

Modified Step 2B: Using a large metal mesh strainer, strain the larger chunks out.

'Step 3: Pour liquid stain in a glass jar or other air tight container.'

This was a moot point- I had to press the chunks into the glass container. DONE! yes :)

'Step 4: Using a lip brush or cotton swab, slide the stain over clean dry lips.'

Oops, forgot to try this. Will after blog is finished!

(before picture, I actually have face powder on to make sure it worked with my regular makeup routine)

'Step 5: Using the same tool, dab three dots of stain onto the apple of your cheeks. Smile to help placement.'

(after, I don't like a lot of blush, so it's pretty subtle, which makes me happy)

'Step 6: Blend onto cheek in a circular motion until skin absorbs the stain. Repeat on the other cheek.'

I so didn't use any tool... I just used my pinky finger. It was clean and worked just fine. And I'm lazy and only like my kabuki brush and angled eyeshadow brush. That is all.

'Step 7: When done, store in refrigerator for up to 4 weeks or freeze for up to 2 months.'

I was a little nervous that this stuff wouldn't wash off my face- I mean my fingers appear permanently stained right now. However, I tried it before taking pictures first. I was totally able to wash it all off to redo for the Before-After pictures no problem at all!

Amazing stuff. It's also not as purple or pink as it appears when you first blend it up.

I am suitably impressed. Who knew that beets could be used as blush? Now I know they're good for something :)

article and photographs copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Bilingualism: Myths and Facts

2011-08-11T18:14:00.017-03:00

**Yoga the environment and blogging are definitely an evening-weekends thing for me. My 8-4 job, Paediatric Bilingual Francophone Consultant Speech-Language Pathologist takes up most of my thoughts and time. I love my job and am very happy to share this little bit of evidence based info for y'all. Email me if you'd like specific research supporting these statements, or a reference list.

NB: Each country has a different climate with regards to bilingualism and second language learning. In Canada French is highly valued and Canada has two official languages, English and French. However, research is showing that as a bottom line: humans are wired to learn more than one language.

Bilingualism: Myths and Facts

MYTH: Learning two languages is more difficult than learning one.

FACT: Children are capable of learning two languages without particular cognitive difficulty. The brain does not add information, but processes it in a much more complex way and can easily handle two languages at once.

MYTH: Children who are learning two languages start talking later than those who only learn one.

FACT: Children who are learning two languages should begin talking at the same time as those who are learning only one: first words between 12-14 months, combining words ('juice daddy') between 18-21 months. If your child isn't combining words at 21 months it may be prudent to refer to a speech and language assessment.

MYTH: Mixing both languages (i.e. 'franglais') is a sign that the child has not mastered either language and should be corrected as soon as possible.

FACT: Mixing two languages (using English words in French sentences and vice versa) is natural and expected for bilingual speakers, child or adult. It is not considered a sign that the child is confused about their language development and should not be corrected.

MYTH: Acadian French isn't 'good' French and is harming the language development of my child.

FACT: Acadian French isn't 'wrong' but is simply an older version of standard French, many words and phrases originating in the 1600's and 1800's. Even grammatical differences (like 'j'allions' and 'j'avions') are older ways of conjugating verbs. Acadian French has grammatical and vocabulary rules just like all other languages and dialects and as a result is simply different.

MYTH: Learning two language is more (or too) difficult for children with a language delay.

FACT: As the brain does not process language by adding information, learning two languages isn't too difficult than learning one. Therefore learning two languages isn't too difficult for a child with a communication delay. In fact, being bilingual can help support communication skills of children who are struggling by providing them with resources from a whole other language.

MYTH: If we remove (or concentrate on) only one language this will be better for my child's communication development.

FACT: Bilingualism neither harms nor delays a child's language development. If the child has difficulty in one language, they will struggle in the other. Removing one language will not make learning the other language easier to learn for the child. Instead...

Removing one language could:

Limit the child to only one language for communication, whereas before the child had access to two languages.
Reduce the child's capacity and quality of communication with their family, community and friends.
Lead to a reduction in self-esteem and family attachment (we use communication to get to know each other, language binds us. If the family is using both languages and the child is only allowed to use one, this restricts the child and the family's ability to adequately communicate and connect).
Impact the child's self-identity with regards to their family (who may be bilingual while they are not), their community and their culture.
Diminish education and job opportunities (depending on geography).
Reduce the number and quality of language and vocabulary models.

Any questions? or Comments? feel free to comment or email me :) I have plenty of resources!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Acadian Yo: Music Jam!

2011-08-10T20:33:00.011-03:00

A little doodiddly for you, my readers...

I'm almost embarrassed to post it here, as it doesn't exactly showcase my voice OR my guitar skills.

Still... after another visit to Montréal I feel the need to share two of my favourite Acadian songs:

'M'En allant à Saulnierville Station' by Suroît, which is actually a Québécois band (but the song is about Clare Nova Scotia... which is close to my home).

Hé Yaille Yaille (also by Suroît): This one's actually written from a Cajun (Louisiana) perspective. I can totally relate, except for the gumbo, cuz I was pretty darn homesick while living in BC and I also 'parle en 'Cadien' or 'Cajun'. (Cajuns are Acadian's distant cousins- we both are descendants of the original Acadians who settled in Acadie. Cajuns are those who were deported to Louisiana, whereas my ancestors hid out with the First Nations Mi'kmaq until the burning and pillaging had subsided. My Acadian village is the oldest still Acadian today, settled in the mid-1600s).

Please disregard the awkward way I'm playing... feels weird to play with a green light rolling lol. Weirdly enough, I'm not really a twangy country music kinda gal... although my voice sure sounds that way here!

Blessings!

article and video copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Grounded in Montréal...

2011-08-07T23:22:00.000-03:00

Shu dans la belle province... Went to Montréal pour la fin d'semaine (jeudi à dimanche), and missed our flight tonight.

So- unexpected extra night chillin' in the city. We have wine, a hotel (with a shower we can actually stand-up in, no more 'chair pose' showers!-long story...) and netflix. All is well.

I'll have more to report this week on the French adventures!

Stay tuned... (blog post to come from the airport demain!)

Thunderstorm Yoga

2011-08-02T20:42:00.000-03:00

If it wasn't ridiculous or completely insane:

The most powerful yoga practice would be outside in a lightening and thunderstorm.

Lightening in Halifax June 2011 (Halifax NewsNet)

Lightening tonight over Cowie Hill- photo credit

Something I never realized, but while living in BC summers consisted on almost zero thunderstorms. Here in the maritimes thunder and lightening storms are a staple in the summer. Summer and lightening hang out together. I missed it.

As I type Halifax is just wrapping up an intense chain lightening+hail crazy thunderstorm complete with a hazy yellow sunset and double rainbows.

I need to figure out a way to make yoga in a thunderstorm happen without killing myself.

I'm thinking a gazebo with a lightening rod nearby to divert possible hits. Sounds like a solid plan eh?

What Does Sustainable Healthcare Really Mean?

2011-08-01T21:53:00.001-03:00

Sustainable healthcare. You'd think that with how much we Canadians like to go on about our 'free' healthcare that we have it all figured out. Unfortunately it's definitely far from the truth. Although I never have to worry about how much it will cost when I go to the hospital (for an emergency, to give birth... whatever), my healthcare definitely costs me money. And I'm not talking taxes.

Medications and pharmaceuticals that are often essential for treatment of diseases like cancer and diabetes (type I) aren't free under our medicare system. If we don't have an insurance plan with our job we have to pay ourselves... and our insurance doesn't cover everything. Last year my uncle was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly the drugs he needed to prolong his life are not covered under medicare. As a self employed fisherman, my uncle had no insurance and no means to cover thousands of dollars for medications.

Instead of being with his family and loved ones for longer, he passed away within months.

A few months ago, we had a special 'Coffee and Yoga' to chat about what Sustainable Healthcare means to us with the local representatives of Capital Health. It was very interesting and although didn't result in any real 'solutions', it truly was meant to begin the dialogue between a massive organizational beast (Capital Health) and the regular citizen shareholders.

The biggest message was that in order to have a sustainable healthcare system we need to take more preventative measures. The healthier our population the lower the cost on healthcare. The discussion had some nifty stats on disease, for instance 70% of cancers are preventable through lifestyle and diet. That's a whopper.

It seems foolish to invest only in a reactionary system as opposed to a preventative model.

It's difficult to see the end-picture and encourage government and shareholders to invest in programs that have negative effects: i.e. they work if people 'don't' get sick. It's difficult to measure- would that person have become a demand on the system if they didn't eat healthy?

local sustainably harvested blue mussels at the Blue Mussel Café in PEI -YUM

Locally caught haddock and local potatoes and veggies at Blue Mussel Café, best meal of the trip!

The trick is to make healthy eating, healthy physical lifestyle accessible to all. Lets be honest, healthy food (organic, sustainable, local) costs more than junk processed food. Eco-friendly products that are toxin and chemical free can be costly. Making your home sustainable can be costly (solar panels, geothermal heating, upcycled and sustainable building supplies).

Yoga classes are costly.

If we're going to be serious about a sustainable healthcare, making healthy food, chemical-light homes and clean air to breathe a priority is a nice place to start.

Many of these issues are larger than us to address. At the same time, we can all do small bits to help the whole. Calling your political representative and making your thoughts and views known. Start eating healthy and getting active yourself.

Give back to your yoga community and offer free, accessible (i.e. not during work-week hours) yoga classes.

What ideas do you have to make your health and healthcare system sustainable?

article copyright EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Boat Races: Why I finally understand the appeal of Nascar

2011-07-31T22:53:00.000-03:00

Spent a short two days in rural southern Nova Scotia for my cousin's wedding. On our way back to Halifax we stopped in Argyle to hop on my dad's lobster boat and watch the boat races! Unfortunately we weren't very prepared, it was very spur of the moment 'Let's take dad's boat!', so no BBQ, chairs or snacks for us.

Although I had moments of 'OMGoddess, look at all the oil spewing out of those boats, look at all the black smoke, look at those beer cans floating by (douchebag racer was tossin' em in...)' I have to say two days of rural living wasn't enough. I may be a city gal now, but I'll always be a country ocean bumpkin at heart.

The Camp Cove warf, packed with trucks, people and lobster boats!

Rainbow traps, they keep changing colour 'trends' from green, purple, yellow to blue. This is dad's section of the warf where he keeps his boat tied up. On our way to hop in!

Dad is up on the front untying the boat, sadly we weren't allowed up there due to flip flops, but I will point out that most other boats out there had people up on front and top!

About a quarter of the lobster boats hanging out, waiting for the best view of the boat races.

The windmills on Pubnico Point.

This metal weapon is used to haul up the traps and what you can't see is that it's held to the top by duct tape... oh yeah.

Three young guys chillin' on top of this boat- in sword fishing you can see the fish from up there.

I love love love the ocean.

More boats all filled with excited people!

One of the big racers, 'Turtle' (which didn't win the few races we saw). These boats are specially made to look like the bottoms of lobster boats (obviously smaller versions of what Yarmouth-Shelburne counties have) and tricked out with huge chrome engines. The racers wear helmets and most where ear protection as it's soooo loud. It's like nascar for fisher-people.

Foot-Lovins Sans Toxins

2011-07-27T22:14:00.001-03:00

I judge feet. Yep, I am one of those people who notice feet... although I don't have a foot fetish (ok peeps, get your brains out of the gutter!), I definitely can appreciate pretty feet.

Yoga makes us think a lot about our feet, without really noticing them- ever realize that? Lots of 'spread your toes', 'ground your feet into your mat', 'anchor the outside of your foot', 'line up heel to arch'... Our feet are an important part of the practice, ever try to practice with a charlie horse? Lately I've been getting them often (probably should look into that).

All this focus on our feet and toes and do we spend the same amount of time taking care of our feet? We wear heels, flip flops (or thongs if you're a westie!) and never massage or stretch our foot muscles. Truly, we should be taking each practice to warm up and strengthen our foot and ankle muscles and tendons. Especially if you're an eco-yogi(ni) like moi who walks a whole bunch to get places.

My purple leopard print socks. I think my feet look cute in socks- especially LOUD socks. Weird as it is, I believe in complementing my feet... it's so important to find something about yourself that you like and let that part know. Often. :)

Probably my favourite foot pose is 'Virasana' or 'Hero' (please be careful and use a block under your bottom if you have knee sensitivities!). We spend so much time flexing our feet out in yoga that it feels so perfect to have it stretch the other way. Other actions like ankle circles and point-flexing our feet are also great and would be a wonderful way to start each practice.

Wouldn't you know it, summer time being flip-flop season- never mind the lack of arch support- but that plastic is leaching into your skin through your feet. In 2009 Danish researchers found that four types of phthalates (re: endocrine disruptor) in children's plastic sandals. A follow-up 2010 study of 'foam' adult and children sandals (vulcanized rubber or 'cross-linked' plastic) revealed that most had at least one phthalate and majority had them ranging from 10-46%. Their overall conclusion: phthalates leaching from plastic sandals are a significant source of reproductive toxins in our bodies, increasing if we wear sunscreen or lotion on our feet (Ecoholic 2011).

It's kinda late in the game for me to switch flip flop gears (and I don't have enough money to actually own more than one pair of flip flops). However, should YOU have the cash, OR if you'd like to investigate for future summer-y seasons (like moi!) here are some eco, reproductive toxin-free options:

El NaturaLista: LOVE their sandals (and shoes- so cute!). Sadly, a bit pricey, so I'd be saving up my moneys for a pair.... especially this sandal and this shoe! Made from recycled plastic, recycled rubber, hand stitched and assembled, ecologically tanned leather, cork... the list goes on.
OR Recycled PET flip flops from Simple Shoes (although I had annoying results with these guys- their prices are ridiculously skewed to American dollar- even though the Canadian looney is almost at parity... blegh)

Another option is to try leather.... but then that's a whole other bunch of issues.

My fav eco-friendly nail polish? Zoya!

Aimez vos pieds et vos orteils... et ils vous remercieront!

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Yoga Safely with Sunscreen: A Badger Review

2011-07-25T22:26:00.001-03:00

Being the daughter of a red head means that I've thought about skin cancer. A bunch.

Practicing yoga outside and skin cancer kinda go together now... Don't get me wrong, I used to lay out on a tanning bed when I was a young-un (ok, 17-18yrs old) and the thought of actively exposing my delicate skin to Ultraviolet rays makes me feel a little nauseous. Unfortunately, unlike my red headed dad (and my pale pale husband) I tan *very* well and easily.

Weirdly, the UV index has been extremely high in the past few weeks... I never thought about it before, but it seems it's just permanently set to '9-Extremely High'. Didn't there use to be lower UV numbers?

According to the World Health Organization, there's been a marked increase in skin cancers worldwide, and although we've made great strides in eliminating ozone depleting chemicals we're still exposed to high levels of UV radiation. Exposure to Ultraviolet radiation is the cause of 20% of 12 to 15 billion global cases of blindness, 130,000 malignant skin cancers and has been linked to suppressing cell-mediated immunity; limiting the efficacy of vaccinations (WHO). According to this article in National Geographic, the ozone layer was thinner this spring- awesome. (check out this fantastic post at Balance Blog for a more in depth look at sunscreens!)

For a successful Yoga in the Park, a Yogi(ni) MUST wear sunblock (and have a 'YITP friendly' mat- a cloth mat or old mat that won't break down from the sun).

Of course, sunscreen has some pretty nasty chemicals that seep right into your skin. EEP. Oxybenzone; a weak hormone disruptor found in 95% of 6-8yr old girls' urine and found in our soil and waterways, estrogenic octinoxate, hormone disruptor homosalate and possible carcinogen enzulizole all are found in common sunscreens (Ecoholic 2007).

So- This year I was determined to find a fabulous eco-friendly sunblock for my staple weekend Yoga in the Park.

I thought Badger SPF 30 was the winner. Non-nano with certified organic ingredients and made the Environmental Working Group's best sunscreen list for 2011.

Too bad it was an epic fail as a sunscreen. (sorry no pics of the actual sunscreen, it was thrown out in a fit of anger).

The Review:

Smell: Yummy, like shea butter. mmmm...

Look and texture: icky white oily paste that is difficult to rub in.

Casual walk around the city test:

Both of our arms turned pink and my arms tanned while his face pinkened.

Yoga in the Park between 10h30-12pm Saturday:

Despite both of us slathering the stuff on, we both burned to a crisp. Sadly, Andrew burned even worse as he doesn't acquire base tans. It was honestly as if we hadn't been wearing sunscreen at all. In fact, Andrew's non-sunscreened legs (yep he forgot) burned *just* as badly as his supposedly 'protected' face, arms and neck.

Andrew's lovely legs- TWO days post Yoga in the Park. Saturday evening he was crowned 'Lobster Man'. Only a very supportive husband would let me post pics of his legs on my blog... lol

Lesson- Avoid Badger Sunscreen. As it's late in the season and we're not risking any more skin cancer or cataracts, we bit the chemical bullet and bought regular sunblock. Eff-it, we'll try again next year.

Any environmentally friendly sunscreens that actually work?

Yoga Safely- wear sunblock!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Ethical and Essential Honey

2011-07-23T17:29:00.001-03:00

When I was four I stepped in a wasp hive... and was stung a dozen times. It was terrible, involved screaming, mud on my head and dunking my head in the lake. Needless to say, I have a bee/wasp phobia, scrunch up my face, close my eyes and start hyperventilating whenever one is near.

Despite this irrational fear, I can recognize that honey bees are an essential part of our food production. As pollinators these insects are required for our planet's vegetation and plants suffer greatly without their furry legs spreading the love from stamen to stamen. You can thank bees for that apple you ate this morning, the coffee you drank and the tofu in your lunch.

Frighteningly, the European Honey Bee AND our native Canadian bee species are on a sharp decline. According to this study in the Journal of Agricultural Research (2010), Canadian and American beekeepers have lost 30-40% of their bees in recent years and the losses just keep mounting. Colony Collapse Disorder (possibly caused by virus+fungi, and pesticide use) along with the destruction of habitats and use of pesticides have been to blame. Interestingly enough, Canadian bees mostly live in the soil, burrow holes improving water and nutrition circulation thus improving soil quality for other crops on TOP of pollinating!

Organic honey supports local bee populations and provides a much more ethical and environmentally sustainable option as a sweetener than sugar. Top-Bar Hives mimic a fallen over log and allows bees complete freedom within their hive; comb design and shape, brood location and management and honey storage and location. Ask if the bee hives are Top-Bar when purchasing your honey.

(canadian bee- photo credit fotomex via flickr)

Honeybees aren't "IT" though, more than 800 bee species call Canada home and buying local honey won't directly support our native bee population. (although, you could argue that beekeeping associations advocate and lobby for awareness and support of healthy bee practices...).

One fun option this summer is to create a bee-friendly garden!

Here are some tips I found from David Suzuki's "Create a bee-friendly garden":

Build a bee house: details in the post and it looks like a fun family summer project!
Provide "bee-food" with a wide variety of plants that flower at different times. Plant native, heirloom flowers in order to attract native bee species (some flowers bred to be pretty are often sterile and not nutritious to bees!).
Bees like blue, violet, yellow, purple and white flowers best.
Plant four foot diameter clumps of the same flower to help bees find them.
Make a bee bath: bees are like "tanks with wings" they need a little island to land and sip some refreshing water. In your bowl or small bee bath, add rocks as landing pads and place bath at ground level. Remember to refresh the bath daily!

Regardless of where your political and ethical views stand, we need our bees in order to have food to eat. Supporting environmentally friendly land management (i.e. buying non-GMO and organic soy for example) and ethical beekeeping is an important part of recognizing our role in helping (instead of hindering) our planet's delicate ecosystem.

We may be late in the summer, but my next goal is to plant some of my non-flourishing indoor violets out in front of our window with a small bee bath- pictures to come!

Blessings!

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

I Have Discovered Guerilla Dining

2011-07-17T17:53:00.000-03:00

Ever been to a restaurant and thought, 'Wow, I've had much better food at a recent dinner party than here... and for free!'...? Sometimes just the large impersonal atmosphere of a restaurant can be intimidating or cold. How many of you have Chef friends and secretly wish they'd cook and create something delicious just for you?

So... I have become aware that there is such a thing as 'Guerilla Dining'. A recent article in Halifax's 'The Coast' feature's a journalist's experience of finding, being invited to, attending and interviewing the hosts of a local Haligonian Guerilla Restaurant experience. I had no idea these things existed! Are they new? Are they everywhere?

A quick Google resulted in a little history info (which perhaps the American and British peeps may already know about...). Guerilla Dining is part of the Underground Restaurant scene, stemming from supper clubs (originated in the 1930-1940s) and closed door restaurants. Big in Latin American and London England, these dining experiences are becoming increasingly popular in the USA (and supposedly Canada). (wiki).

A guerilla dining experience today means finding out from word of mouth or facebook, showing up to someone's home, paying a lower than restaurant price for restaurant-style food. Sans liquor and food licenses, these dining experiences stay hidden and customers definitely dine at their own risk. What I thought was uber interesting was the Chef's reasons- to allow for creativity and exploration of their own craft at their control.

How cool is that? In Halifax I'm imagining that these Guerilla Dining experiences remain low-key, slightly hipster with a local-vibe, from the article's description. That and Halifax is just kinda like that, casual and hipster. I can imagine, though, that in bigger cities, the exclusivity of these shindigs can attract a whole other clientele. Instead of celebrating creativity and local ingredients, that exclusivity could foster a 'I'm here cuz I'm cool and connected' vibe.

I'm not sure that even in Halifax I'd have the nerve to show up to one of these backyard restaurants, even if I were invited. I'm just a bit of a chicken that way.

What about you? Did you know about this phenomenon? Have you ever attended a Guerilla Restaurant?

I've always thought that Yoga in the Park could be that way... word of mouth and facebook allowing a Yoga experience without the constraints of a studio and in a fashion that is accessible to all (ahem, free!).

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

Redecorating à la Cheap

2011-07-15T20:48:00.000-03:00

It has been a long time coming, but we're finally feeling the economic crunch in the EcoYogini home. Let me tell ya, it's stressful and annoying. All superfluous spending is out. That includes yoga classes. Thank goodness Yoga in the Park has survived another close call (another story... and not a very nice one. I'm honestly not sure I feel like sharing- let's just be happy Halifax still has a free yoga in the park).

With the money crunch comes the reality that we can't afford to purchase non-essential things. After a year of living in our new apartment, I was just coming up to feeling like we should make it into a 'home'. Years of apartment living, moving every two years, has resulted in never being able to justify investing the money into making the space a home. I never bought art, furniture or painted. It just seemed like a colossal waste since we'd be moving in a few years anyways.

But now we'll most likely be living the apartment life (cuz who would ever give us a mortgage?) for quite a few more years. Ah, it could be worse, I could be unemployed...

So what to do? Our apartment needed a sprucer-upper.

What's an environmentally friendly option? A top to floor scrub. Yeppers, we spent hours scrubbing the floors, walls, dishes, furniture, appliances. We tidied up, straightened the clutter away and finally I lit some cleansing black candles (pagan). Wouldn't you know it helped.

View from the kitchen (please note Asteya in her favourite place- the box, and yes that is Andrew playing WoW)

View from the door (diagonal to the previous picture. That black thing under the couch is the retired full sized keyboard... wish we had space to haul out that sucker).

More Environmentally Friendly Re-Decor Ideas:

Now's the yard sale-ing season! Like a huge creep-o, drive (or bicycle!) the streets of your neighbourhood scoping out the loot. Take a deep, full bellied breath, and be prepared to haggle and look through other people's stuff. You never know what you may find for uber cheap! Make sure it's quality though and something you'll love for a while. Don't buy it just cuz it's cheap.
Replace your comforter with a funky quilt- instant bed change.
Re-arrange your furniture- zero dollars and may just quell the 'change' itch you got going.
Choose some of your favourite photos and have them printed. Find some funky frames at a yard sale or a Value Village (used store) and make a fun framed montage.
Have a little cash but can't buy art? Purchase a canvas, some paint and some paintbrushes. Make your own art!
Buy fresh flowers at the farmer's market every so often. An instant mood lifter and room brightener.

What about it fellow EcoYogi(ni)s? Got any other ideas? Has the economic crunch resulted in a more minimalistic, non spending lifestyle for you? If so- regardless of how you feel about our planet going in the crapper, you're now officially being environmentally friendly :) (and if you do a massive cleaning, make sure to take pictures like we did so we can remember just how clean the place can get lol).

article copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com

The Yoga-Music-Enlightenment Triangle

2011-07-13T20:48:00.000-03:00

Any musicians out there in internetland, you'll know what I'm talking about- Music=Yoga=Spirituality. Not as a then-then-therefore type connection, but more of a triangularity of Music intersects with Yoga and I would argue enlightenment (or connecting with the Divine).

(me and my new Larrivé guitar at our old apartment a few years ago- I am very happy.)

When I was taking classical piano and voice lessons the whole losing myself in music wasn't really present. I practiced my scales (major, minor, dominant, augmented... you classicists got me), 45 minutes of classical piano practice and 30 minutes of voice every day. Although hugely beneficial, this practice didn't even compare to how my 3am piano-singing sessions, wrapped in my grandmère's quilt in my pyjamas made me feel. Or when I got to belt it out while singing alone surrounded by forest, or with my high school band on stage (hello noise induced bilateral sensorineural hearing loss with a dose of tinnitus).

Yoga sometimes makes me feel that way. Not during a teacher led class, or while practicing with friends or during yogaglo. It's those yoga moments outside, on the beach or alone in the apartment just flowing where I feel connected.

But... yoga is even better with the right music and doesn't even compare to how I feel when I sing and play guitar. I honestly don't feel that without music I wouldn't have coped as well during difficult parts of my life.

A beautiful song, especially spiritual music (even Christian hymns and choir music, which do not fit within my own religious beliefs as a Goddessian) often move me to tears.

The Music-Yoga-Spirituality Triangle. Should be tacked on every yogi(ni)s wall. Ya know?

article and photograph copyright of EcoYogini at ecoyogini.blogspot.com