Posted on

h2om

The following is an excerpt from http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/101/plastic

Whether you buy bottled water or conscientiously tote some from home, you’ll want to avoid swallowing chemicals along with it. Below, the plastics not to choose (check the recycling number on the bottom of your bottle) :

Plastics to Avoid

#3 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) commonly contains di-2-ehtylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), an endocrine disruptor and probable human carcinogen, as a softener.

#6 Polystyrene (PS) may leach styrene, a possible endocrine disruptor and human carcinogen, into water and food.

#7 Polycarbonate contains the hormone disruptor bisphenol-A, which can leach out as bottles age, are heated or exposed to acidic solutions. Unfortunately, #7 is used in most baby bottles and five-gallon water jugs and in many reusable sports bottles.

OK, I don’t know about you, but this recently mega-publicized info has me consumed with doubt, fear, anxiety, and anger. For like the last 20 years or so I have been drilled with the enviro concept to reduce-reuse-recycle. My commitment goes in waves, but I do my best. So for the past few months I’ve been re-using a recycled water bottle. And, as we all know –8 glasses a day or else death by dehydration or some crap. Recently I gave up on store-bought bottled water because isn’t it just some other municipality’s water source anyway? At least this was last week’s big water-news story.

I’m in Point Clear, AL where the water is clean and I drink it out of the tap. I am a water-aholic. I don’t know if over the years I permanently altered my chemical make-up trying to adhere to hydration hype. The simple fact is that I need to drink water all day or I don’t feel optimally well. And up until last week I was feeling pretty good and ‘green’ with my long reused Vitamin Water bottle and my ‘healthy’ consumption.

Then whammo! Newsflash…that healthy habit you’ve been working on is killing you and innocent babies across America. Now, every time I take a sip of water these words drift like clouds across my vision…leaching styrene di-2-ehtylhexyl phthalate endocrine disruptor human carcinogen.

Is it really this bad? If it really is – the damage is already done to me and all of my organs. Unless of course this leaching is a new thing and wasn’t occurring for the past 25 years. Now we’re supposed to drink out of an aluminum bottle that is ‘coated’ on the inside. I’m SO SURE that these coatings won’t be ‘written up’ in a future issue of some scare-me-to-death publication that I should heed.

WTF???!!

I have brilliant idea. Maybe I should resort back to my college era behaviors when Jack Daniels out of a short glass was my DOC. Seems safer than a freakin’ sip of water these days. Modern Problems–a funny Chevy Chase movie from the 80’s or death by leaching carcinogens in your water bottle?

But seriously–this is when yoga and meditation save me. Because The Jack –although gentlemanly enough, is not an option. Nor is not drinking water.

What to do? What not to do?

Yogas chitta vrtti nirodhah. Yoga calms the mind.

This is all I can do.

And once again, it is as simple as that.

Posted on

Yoga Off The Mat or Tantra Latte Factor

It is the eve of my graduation from Yoga Teacher Training at a big studio in Austin, TX. I love yoga and I love to teach yoga and tomorrow after a nine month program, I will, in the eyes of the Alliance that deems us qualified, be certified to teach my art. Certification vs. qualification– another day’s blog.

So we talk alot about yoga off the mat. I am, in this moment, having a truly ecstatic yogic experience–yes– right this second. I don’t normally do it, but since I am on the road, and cruising on foot, I went to the nearest coffee shop –you know the one. It’s on every street corner and 4- lane highway in America.

So I went in for a decaf. I got swayed into buying some dark chocolate covered graham cracker cookies. Not on the ‘yogic diet’. But the pierced, tattooed, cool-chunky- dyed-hair girl barrista was SO Austinite-nice and convincing about how totally awesome dipping the dark chocolate covered graham cracker cookies in the hot coffee is. I was easily sold. Because really, how can chocolate get any better? How can coffee get any better?

I walked back to the apartment where I am staying alone. And I sat down at this computer. I dipped the cookie into the coffee as instructed, took the first bite and OMG–it’s like the union of Shiva and Shakti. The graham cracker softens and dissolves within the chocolate while on your tongue. Then the chocolate slithers all melty-like covering the entire cavern of the mouth. It is a simultaneous textural experience and taste bud explosion. This yoking, or union of cookie, chocolate, and coffee is simple in theory yet multifaceted in experience. This is tantra man! Pure delight in my heart, the free choice of a pleasurable foray (in an area usually ‘disciplined’), and it’s ALL intrinsically good. This is one of the most profound lessons from my yoga teacher training here in Austin. Oh, if the course had only cost $4.71…I would certainly be investing more into my latte factor.