What More Can I Do?
“We are losing a species of organisms faster now than in the previous five mass extinctions. Our loss of species is 1000 times greater PER DAY now than at any other time in our history!” This is a scientific FACT!
When I think about this it reminds me about how I felt when I visited Rome and walked through the ancient grounds of the Colosseum. I was reminded about how stubborn is the human being in maintaining their ways despite ages of civilizations before us that have disappeared themselves as a result of their behaviors. Yet we go about our days and ways without any real concern for the impact we have upon each other or our environment.
When you read that quote above, did you find yourself in one of 2 major camps:
Oh, great! Madelana is officially off her rocker! OR
Who said this and where can I get more information in case this is true?
It is becoming imminently clear to me that the next “World War” is not one that will be fought with weapons that bloody the soil. No, rather what is happening to the soil has the potential to be far worse than this because our toxic thinking and careless or selfish behaviors will ultimately make our soil infertile, our food inedible, our health impacted sadly and unnecessarily, and our climate extreme and unmanageable.
That quote above was from Epigenetic Scientist, Dr. Bruce Lipton who spoke with my friend, Alan Steinfeld on his show, New Realities. Dr. Lipton explained that we are in the 6th mass extinction period that the Mother has seen (Mother Earth) and science is reporting this data without equivocation!
The Pope is calling on people to wake up to the impact of their actions on the soil of our planet. He is calling on world leaders to recognize that they will create an impact that will reach far into the future and they have an opportunity to make that impact very positive, very negative, or quite benign.
From Science to religion, the world is waking up and speaking up! This is a wonderful time to find ourselves alive and be a part of a new kind of reality. But still we must ask ourself the questions: What am I doing to make a difference? Can I be doing more? What more can I do?
In our household I am a vigilante about recycling. We recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum. If our town would take more products, I would recycle those items, too. I reuse Ziploc bags. I prefer parchment paper to aluminum foil (for reasons of the environment as well as our health). Ricky has changed out nearly every lightbulb in a socket with an energy stingy LED, which I must say have come a long way (in terms of color palette) since Rick was selling these bulbs at their emergence to the market.
We also compost. This is something that I learned to do from my ex-husband, Chris, before he was my ‘ex.’ I feel quite strongly about this. When I put our organic scraps back into the earth and I see the ingredients of our compost pile either breaking down, or sprouting new life, it tickles my heart and makes me happy!
Composting, in my opinion, is something that all local governments should offer to its residents. Sadly, Essex County does not offer this service. I know that in NYC there are places where residents can drop off their organic kitchen scraps and in Canada, friends tell us, residents put out their kitchen scraps like they put out the garbage and compost is collected!!! Come on America, really ???? What are we waiting for?
But still, I ask myself what more can I do? I collect our old goods for a yard sale that I plan to have “one day” and what I don’t want to save for selling, I give away to Goodwill several times each year.
We are mindful about our heat and scantly use our air conditioners. When we moved into our new home, Ricky made it a point to insulate all the uninsulated compartments of the property. His current project is scraping and repairing the window sills and caulking and sealing (though he used a different word) the cracks and spaces where cold air can escape or water can cause damage. All of these jobs help to make our house operate more efficiently.
Now why, you may be asking yourself, is a Yoga teacher/bodyworker/movement educator bothering me and herself to talk about this? Because, my friends, this IS YOGA!!! Yoga, you see, is integration. Anytime we integrate anything we are practicing YOGA. By integrating knowledge into my lifestyle, I am practicing Yoga. By practicing acts of non-harming (ahimsa), I am practicing one of the Yamas (self-restraints) from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yoga is not just the physical postures that you do on your mat, though they are beautiful and have many health benefits of their own. Yoga not taken off the mat and into the heart and into the life is nothing more than exalted fitness. We must nourish our hearts and train our minds and organize our priorities so that we can expand our vision and improve the world. We must graduate from the practice of only asanas that help us to rehab our body to the pranayama exercises that clean and clear our mind and shift our energy and onward to the meditation practices that expand our vision. If we are to become true yogis and yoginis, we must always integrate all of the principles and teachings of Yoga into our life off of the mat and find the ways that we can make the world better in exchange for the gift of being here.
About the Author:
Madelana Ferrara is a teacher of Yoga and a student and practitioner of its related disciplines of Meditation and Ayurveda.