Eco friendly Yogi

There is an increasing awareness these days that Yoga is so much more than just bending your body in to complicated positions. People are starting to cotton on to the fact that it is, in fact, a way of life. As well as the physical postures, Yoga also teaches us certain principles for living in the world, principles that help take us from self-centred to other-centred. Non-harming or Ahimsa is the first of the five Yamas or principles. I've been thinking about Ahimsa a lot recently and what this means in my own life. Something that's important to me as a trainee yoga teacher is that I'm authentic and trying to practice the Yogic way of life to the best of my ability. When I first thought of non-harming I just thought of the obvious things like not stepping on insects, refraining from harsh or harmful speech, being vegetarian, and generally being kind. Recently I've had my eyes opened to lots of ethical, sustainable and organic issues and I've come to realize that these issues fall under Ahimsa. It got me thinking about the shopping choices I make with both food and fashion and how by starting to have more of an awareness of what I'm purchasing ie. where it comes from, who made it, were any animals or insects harmed or killed in the process, that this can become a daily practice of Ahimsa. It's easy to get carried away with this sort of thing and start to feel like you can't leave the house in case you harm another living thing but as one of my Buddhist teachers once said "there's a lot or room in Buddhism for common sense" and I think that's appropriate here. We live in an imperfect world and there's not always going to be a way around something but when we can make a better choice I think we should.

Here are some of the things that I'm going to do to practice Ahimsa in regards to my purchases:

1. Where possible to buy locally grown and organic produce

I'm lucky in that I have access to a local organic farmers market in Shrewsbury and can get my fruit and veg from there. I recently went to a lecture on organic superfoods (yes I know how wanky that sounds but it was great) and the woman giving the lecture mentioned how many people say to her "Oh I'm not fussed about organic, I've been eating this kind of food for years and there's nothing wrong with me". She explained that although that might be the case, our food decisions aren't just about us. Harmful pesticides don't just kill insects but can also kill small animals such as field mice and small birds and of course are harmful for the environment.



2. Continue to switch all my beauty products to ethical, organic and sustainable brands. 

To be honest I jumped on this band wagon a long time ago when I lived in Sydney and used to work for Perfect Potion. When I learned about the harmful sulphates and other toxic chemicals contained within most beauty products I was horrified, not to mention the cruelty of testing on animals. It's too expensive for me to purchase Perfect Potion products now that I'm back in the UK but luckily I have Neal's Yard Remedies. 

On this topic, if you're wanting to switch to natural and organic beauty products just make sure you read the label! There are a lot of companies out there using these buzz words like organic and natural but if you check the label they're still full of harmful crap but have just added a bit of almond oil in to the mix. If in doubt it's best to buy products that are certified organic by the soil association as this means they are at least 70% organic.

3. Continue to clothes shop in charity shops

I've shopped in charity shops ever since I can remember and its always been because I've been broke. I've often day dreamed about the day when I could afford to shop in swanky designer shops but after learning that UK consumers purchase around 1 million tonnes of clothing every year and discard roughly the same amount, I am going to continue thrifting! And besides, I love it. There's nothing more rewarding than scoring a Moschino belt for two pounds and the old dear behind the counter telling you that she thinks they might be quite a big name.

4. When the urge to purchase something new takes over, to only buy from sustainable clothing companies

Times have changed and buying sustainable, fairtrade and organic clothing no longer means that you have to dress in a hessian sack and try to make it fabulous. There are so many affordable sustainable clothing companies out there these days you don't have to choose between looking great and being eco friendly. Two of my favourite brands are People Tree and Braintree

Also, did you know that ASOS have a sustainable fashion section called the ASOS green room? And I've found some amazing organic and sustainable clothing shops on Etsy.com such as Kowtow (pictured left).




5. To switch all my house hold cleaning products to eco friendly ones

These items are no longer that hard to get hold of thanks to Oxfam. If you do a lot of washing up your skin will thank you for changing to an eco-friendly washing up liquid but you can also rest assured that you're not pouring harmful chemicals in to our water supplies. Likewise with switching to eco-friendly laundry detergent and softener.

6. To make the switch to either a moon cup or re-usable pads

Ah, the dreaded topic of how to have an eco-friendly time of the month. Ok, it's not as bad as you think! There are some amazing companies out there offering eco-friendly products such as moon cups and washable pads (sorry to any blokes who may be reading this, but we bleed, this is not new information). I'm yet to try anything but I am finding the Luna Pads wesbite very helpful.


I really hope this post inspires you and doesn't come across as me getting on my sustainable, eco-friendly high horse :) thanks for reading, XO