shhhhh

              We lived right by the road for over twenty years and didn't realize how much all that background noise affected us - until we moved.  Now we live in a very quiet place and it is heavenly peaceful all the time. 

            The machine age is only about one hundred and fifty years old.  Before that the world was quiet.  Imagine for a moment a world without engines - no cars, no airplanes, no kitchen machines and appliances, no noisy farm equipment.  With the development of electric cars we may actually be heading back in that direction, as my husband noted the other day.    Have you sat in an electric car?  You can't even hear that the engine is running.  Generating electricity from solar panels is completely silent as well.  I remember the roar of the furnace in our old house when the thermostat switched it on, the geothermal system in our new place is almost noiseless.

            Quietness is grounding.  Alone-time is important to reboot your mind.  Are we headed back to a quieter world?  Will it help us to become more grounded and less frazzled?  When our children were small we reminded them every once in a while that they needed to stop chattering for a bit and said "It is quiet time now."  Find some quiet time every once in a while, it brings peacefulness. 

shut them off

          Oh boy is it easy to look for entertainment and distraction on your computer or cellphone.  Facebook, my email in box or Instagram can seem quite interesting when I'm supposed to be working.  Just a quick look, maybe something fun or important came in, I'll go right back to work.  Or a quick phone check while you're with friends, or before bed, or God forbid at the dinner table.  You never know, emergencies do happen, maybe someone really needs to reach me right now.  It drives me nuts when I see a party around a restaurant table all staring into their phones instead of enjoying each others' company.  Or a parent at the playground more interested in their phone than their toddler.  Or a ringing cellphone in the middle of yoga class, and worse during savasana.

            Recently a woman was killed in Manhattan when she walked across the street tapping away on her phone and failed to see the oncoming car.  Shut them off every once in a while, those devices, and enjoy your kids, your dinner partners or your yoga class.   Close your email and internet while you're working.   Here a related former blog post on being in the moment.  One last thought - your behavior is a model for your children.  

small is beautiful

         Ice cream servings in a cone are small in Europe, probably a bit less than half the size of the big scoops we are used to over here.  Generally we equate big with good because bigger is better, right? Cars used to be the size of boats in this country until people became more energy aware.  "How was the food at that new restaurant?"  "It was great, we had a lot of food."  Huh?  But how did it taste?  May be the portion was too large if you need to take half your meal home in a doggy bag.  

            E.F. Schumacher was way ahead in 1973 when he argued in his economic classic Small is Beautiful that building our economy on eternal growth is not sustainable.  Indeed, our planet doesn't expand.  Around the same time Frances Moore Lappé wrote Diet for a Small Planet.  She pioneered the discussion around the terrible environmental impact our industrial "meat production" causes and argued for vegetarianism.

            Interest rates have been shrinking, they are even lower in Europe than here,  and discussions on negative interest rates are popping up - getting penalized for leaving your money in the bank.  So spend it or put it under the mattress. 

            All of these are signs that small is beautiful, bigger is not sustainable, our economies need to shrink to halt the consumerist excess and environmental damage we have created.  Think quality over quantity.  "How delicious was that meal?" not "How big was it?"  "What beautiful material is that dress made of?" not "Buy 2 for the price of 1."

sloooooow yoga

           Slow anything is beneficial as an antidote to our fast paced lives, whether Slow Food, Slow Yoga, or Slow Something Else.  Slowing an activity delves deeper because there is more time to be attentive and reflective and experience what you are doing more deeply.  I go to both Slow/Gentle  Yoga and Yin Yoga classes and they are wildly different from the yang oriented vinyasa, power yoga or hot yoga practices that are currently so popular as an extension of the frenetic gym culture.   In Yin Yoga, which is floor based, poses  are held for longer periods of time, usually 3-5 minutes, and up to 10 minutes.  The connective tissues have time to relax and stretch, encouraging energy flow and releasing blockages.  Slow or Gentle Yoga, as its name indicates, takes it slowly and gently, and can be compared to a moving meditation.  Breath is important in this practice.  Both are calming and I usually come back feeling like I've had a spa session.  Also check out this comprehensive beginner's guide to Yin Yoga.

            You can slow any activity to experience a different spin on things.  Try Slow Cooking, Slow Eating, Slow Teeth Brushing, Slow Showering, Slow Reading. 

how you treat animals

             Mahatma Gandhi said "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."  He has a point.

            More of us need to know how the majority of animals raised for human consumption is treated - it's dreadful, and maybe this term isn't even strong enough (read Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals if you really want to know more).  It also says something about us that pharmaceuticals are tested on animals kept in captivity and subjected to potentially harmful side effects.  And that kill shelters exist is a horror.  Betta fish are routinely kept in solitary confinement in minuscule bubble tanks.  Thank goodness big game hunting is on its way out, the ivory trade also (they kill the whole huge elephant just for the tusks and don't even bother eating the meat), almost, and shark fin soup popularity is down (see an earlier post on that).  But people still wear fur coats and the Chinese still illegally trade animal parts they believe have healing properties.  Nevertheless, zoos treat animals much better nowadays than say a hundred years ago, providing them with habitats that resemble the places they came from, diets as close to their natural diets as possible, and distraction and exercise in enclosures that are much smaller than their natural territory.

            I believe that we are unable to harm an animal once we look it deeply in the eyes - because then we connect with its soul.  When animals are kept in pens under anonymous conditions we don't connect with each one individually.    That's why people have no qualms about eating supermarket meat.  If we all had to look our steak in the eyes, work in a kill shelter, spend a week in a slaughterhouse or a pharmaceutical animal testing lab things would change very very quickly.

what will be your future?

           Many people still have a hard time believing that their thoughts create the world around them, their experiences, even their afflictions.  But look around you, look at your friends, look at the place where you live, look at the stuff you own, look at your job and your hobbies.  Haven't you created all of it?  If you have a beautiful garden you love gardening and you created it.  If you have a negative friend and don't appreciate him/her reflect on why that person is in your life, then make a decision.  It's your intentions, your efforts, your thoughts and beliefs, what you did and did not do, what you did and did not think and believe that is reflected in the world around you, individually and as a culture. 

            If you don't like what's happening with the environment you need to do something about it on a personal level, change apathy and acceptance to thoughtfulness and action. If you don't like what you see, if you don't like what and who you are, dig deeper to uncover why and how you have created what you have created.  Inspect the underlying beliefs and thoughts that went into it.  It takes some work, it might be tedious.  But who said it was easy?

            Today's thoughts create your future.  If you think the same thoughts today that you thought yesterday your future will look like today.  If you don't like today you need to change your thoughts and beliefs today to create a different future.

            So what would you like your future to look like? 

it's all about the pleasure

         Guilty pleasure is an uncomfortable term and particular to this country.  I didn't grow up with the notion of "guilty pleasure." But here many people feel guilty about indulging because it is perceived as unvirtuous.  This kind of belief goes back to this country's puritanical roots and makes for a twisted relationship with food.  The result is that many feel guilty about fat (bad bad butter, bad bad whipped cream), about dessert, about chocolate.  From it came the further belief that what we enjoy tastes good, but must be forbidden and bad, and what's good and healthy must taste bad (or else it couldn't possibly be good for you).

            Hence the French Paradox.  For the longest time Americans couldn't understand that French people eat fat (butter, triple crème brie or crème fraîche), but are not necessarily fat.  Of course it's not about excess and gluttony but about quality over quantity ( a great little read on the subject is Mireille Guiliano's French Women Don't Get Fat).  Maybe the recent revelations that we actually need fat in our diet and that chocolate releases endorphins will help to turn the tables for our enjoyment.

            All that pseudo virtuousness is not healthy for the mind.  In a recent NY Times interview famed French chef Eric Ripert said about food and eating: "I do not understand the idea of guilty pleasure.  It's all about pleasure."  Live a little - it's better for your mind, it's better for your body.

spring cleaning

             Spring cleaning is not only a good idea for your house.  By all means, wipe off those spider webs, clear out your closets, wash your windows, and get rid of stuff you no longer need.  But spring cleaning is also good for body and mind. 

            To help your body transition into spring you may choose to do a juice cleanse for a day or two this time of year.  Lemon water with a bit of maple syrup, or vegetable juices are recommended, in addition to lots of water and herbal teas.  I am just getting over a cold, and those happen more in the spring and fall as the body's way to clean itself out, although I can't say that that cold was by design.

            And finally, after house and body, the mind needs dusting as well.  Yesterday we did a helpful meditation in yoga whereby you observe your thoughts (those that keep popping up when you try to meditate) and tag them to try to find a pattern and then amend it over time.  Categories might be "judgment," "feeling," negative belief," "positive observation," or perhaps "planning."  Most of my thoughts were of the last category, meaning I kept being pulled into planning and anticipation mode about future events.  On the other hand I was happy to discover that no negative thoughts kept floating by.  The message I got from the meditation was "be in the here and now."  What message will you get?

going on an adventure

          I find it really important to periodically get out of what I'm in.  Seeing the same people, doing the same things, following the same routines, reading the same kinds of books, not only gets boring but also keeps you in the same mindset. Creativity arises out of fresh inspiration.  That's why we travel, that's why we take a pottery or ballroom dancing class, or anything else that's a bit out of our comfort zone, just for shits and giggles.  Key here is "out of our comfort zone."  It's about building some new brain synapses.  It'll always be more comfortable to stay home and relax, aka vegge out.  But going on an adventure is energizing. 

            This past Sunday the weather was miserable, it was actually pouring, and I was recovering from a bad cold.  A good day to stay in, right?  But we had tickets to two dance performances at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. So we went.  Lo and behold, I was soooo glad we went for soooo many reasons.  First of all we got to see Frank Gehry's architectural masterpiece.  Second, we watched two zany contemporary dance theatre performances unlike anything I had ever seen before, one of them unanticipatedly participatory.  Thirdly, we discovered the teeny tiny cute and trendy town of Tivoli.  Fourthly, someone in Tivoli gave us a recommendation for the nicest restaurant we ended up for dinner.  Fifthly, I came back feeling way better than in the morning, more energized, and totally inspired - and I still draw from it.

            Moral of the story, sometimes you've got to pull yourself up by the boot straps and go off on a limb.  You'll never know how much of life you miss out on if you don't get out of bed and live it.

a million years!

               I am a bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to recycling because I want to make sure nothing that doesn't need to go to the landfill goes there.  In the kitchen, in the spot originally designed for the trash can, I have a big recycling bin for the usual paper/glass jars/bottles/various packaging items, which the weekly collection truck picks up.  A canvas bag hangs behind the pantry door for the returnable bottles and cans for which I get 5c each back from the supermarket.  In another canvas bag behind the pantry door I collect recyclable plastic bags - the supermarket has a drop-off bin for them.  And then I have a bucket for all the produce scraps, eggshells and tealeaves that we compost in the composting bin in the backyard.  I recycle clothing six ways from Sunday - by giving it away, bringing it to the second hand or thrift shops in my area, or dropping it into one of the many clothing drops.  Cable, phone stuff and very small electronics go to Best Buy, but a few old phones are lingering on the hallway table while I am trying to figure out what to do with them.   

            My son always comments that the back of my car looks like a junk yard.  Indeed, it can get crowded back there between the mountain of reusable shopping bags, two freezer bags (you never know), various items waiting to be dropped off somewhere, and the carton I use to safely transport my weekly raw milk, yogurt and egg order back from the farm.

            The only thing I am really frustrated about is styrofoam.  They don't accept it for recycling anywhere in our area and it will linger in the landfill for a million or so years! No kidding!

            Also revisit a previous post on the joys of composting and one on wasting less.