Yoga with Dawn

Growing up in recent times usually means that we have been coached somewhere along the way about global warming and small steps we can take to make a difference. Most certainly everyone nowadays can recite the 3 R’s on demand: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

My concern is this: do we know how to rercite the 3 R’s so well that we don’t actually stop to think about what they mean?

In my opinion, judging by the what the people around me tend to do, Recylcing and Reusing are being done (although, for the most part Reuse is being applied to simply reusable bags when it can extend far beyond this). But the most overlooked R is REDUCE. This is one that is incredibly hard to implement, for a few reasons. One minor reason has to do with repair. In order to reduce our consumption we would have to repair broken gadgets, items, and so on. But when repairing costs almost as much as buying a brand new replacement, it’s difficult. As a result there are less specialized people around, making it even harder to repair our things – we have to travel farther and/or pay more. Most often times we opt for the newer, shiner version instead of repairing our scratched and outdated one. But this leads to 99% of goods manufactured and consumed in the trash within 6 months! This is not unintentional, unfortunately, it was all planned and perceived.

Larger and more disturbing reasons are due to Planned Obsolescence and Perceived Obsolescence, concepts created by economists and industrialists in the 1930s but “popularized” in the 1950s. Perceived Obsolescence is when things are “designed for the dump”. They used to be only single-use items like coffee cups and plastic bags but are now spreading to bigger things like cameras, computers, and music players with their everchanging technology. Perceived Obsolescence, on the other hand, convinces us to throw away stuff that is still perfectly useful. This is done by changing the way things look so that it’ll be obvious that you didn’t buy anything new for years (e.g. fashion trends, iPods, etc).

According to Annie Leonard’s amazing video “The Story of Stuff“, American studies have shown that the national happiness has been on the decline since the 1950′s, around the time this manic consumption started increasing. According to her, this is due to the fact that we have more stuff but less time for the things that really make us happy, like family and friends.

All this to say, reduce, reduce, reduce! The less you buy, the less money you’ll need, the less you’ll have to work, the more you can live. Since leaving the world of Marketing and becoming a Yoga teacher, I am so much more happier and healthier, and it is not because of money.

Please take the time to watch Annie Leonard’s video. It is well worth it and may even save you money.

This has been an emotional week for me for a couple reasons: a 10-day intense backbending workshop (known to increase sensitivity) and the untimely death of Michael Jackson. It seems out of place even for me to be hurt by MJ’s passing, since I was not a real fan of his. Although I loved his music and greatly appreciated his contribution to entertainment, it did not extend beyond that.

After his death there was an outpouring of emotion that seemed somewhat hypocritical to me, as I’m sure for others as well. For over a decade he was judged and ridiculed incessantly. But as soon as he died, all the judgments ever written about him seemed to slip from everyone’s memory, showing us that we didn’t know a good thing until it was gone.

About a week or so after his unfortunate death, I felt compelled to make my own opinion of MJ. I wasn’t so much interested in “Michael Jackson, the entertainer”, because I had no doubts there. I was more interested in “Michael Jackson, the brother, the son, the father”. I became almost obsessed watching interview upon interview, and hours of his home videos.

What angers me when it comes to MJ’s situation is that he was trying to get us to stop focusing on his life, his image and the choices he made. He tried to shift our attention to bigger issues that deserved real attention through some of his songs and videos. We were so busy judging him by what society deems to be “normal”, comparing him to our “cookie cutter” lives and expectations. But if someone lead a life that did not resemble most of ours in the least, how can he be judged by our standards?

I’m not going to bother stating my final opinion here because I think it’s irrelevant. But this whole thing helped me make a priority of something I already knew, albeit vaguely: the importance of non-judgment. If there is one thing I know for sure after 28 years of life is that we have all been victims of judgment at least once in our lives, whether it be dating back to elementary or high school. Often times though, we have been the instigators of judgment, which is a defense mechanism to hide fear or pain in my opinion, but nonetheless.

Swami Kripalu, a pilgrim of love, has said, “When you judge yourself, you break your own heart.” Given this, imagine what you are doing to someone else as you judge them. Judgment is like throwing a hot coal at someone – in order to throw it, you have to pick it up first, thus burning, or hurting, yourself before even trying to hurt the other person.

What often gets left out when we’re judging others is being able to sympathize. I truly believe everyone tries their best. It is hard to remember when we feel threatened or hurt, but it’s true. And even if someone doesn’t seem like they’re trying their best, they are trying their best given their circumstances. This last view is even harder to see, but not impossible. Another saying, this time from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince: “Eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart. What’s most important is invisible.” Basically, all this to say, let’s not judge – ourselves, and especially others. Sensitivity and courage are relative.

What you think would make you stronger could in turn bruise another emotionally. I’m not asking you to be increasingly sarcastic or start lying to yourselves. I’m asking you to see with your heart. One example I like to give is if you see someone on the street wearing something you would not be caught dead in, refrain from saying (whether in your mind or out loud), “What are they wearing???” We don’t know what is going on in someone’s life, nor what they’ve been through. Perhaps they don’t have enough money to buy clothes and that’s all they have. Or they could just like it, in which case you can say “People express their personalities in such vibrant ways”.

There are many, many layers of non-judgment. You can begin by not gossiping in groups of people. You can then cut down the amount of time you spend talking about others not in your presence. It doesn’t matter if you would say the same thing in front of them. The fact of the matter is they aren’t there to give their own side of the story. From there, there are more layers of non-judgment. Get creative. No matter how small, each effort adds up
to something bigger, and ultimately, better.

So yes, this is a daunting demand, but very do-able. I am far from being the poster child for non-judgment. But the essence of any spiritual practice is the willingness to start over and over again, until it becomes habit. As Michael Jackson sang: “There are people dying/ If you care enough for the living/Make a better place/For you and for me.”