We Are All One: pollution, choices, yoga, SUP

A friend recently Skyp’ed me a few times while on a business trip in China and I was so struck by the heavy smog and pollution I saw in the background/sky. It was disgusting and shocking and something I noticed right away: brown, grey, heavy, think, dirty air hung like death and it felt depressing and disgusting. It’s something I haven’t been able to shake and was a conversation we had right then: the need to drink purified water, people wearing pollution masks, headaches, having to stay indoors. What kind of life is that?!

Since I can remember, I have always been a little environmentalist, but seeing thick pollution (nearly in-person) effect someone I cared about, and then in turn effect so many other people, whom I had never met, but who are just as important, I find it all the harder to buy stuff from China. I see the direct correlation of what we buy in the name of “it’s less expensive” “it saves me money” and “I can’t afford that” to people’s qualities of lives in China. There’s a reason it’s less expensive: the cost is transferred elsewhere (environmental protection and awareness takes energy and money, intention), and I can’t live with myself knowing that I am contributing to someone else’s poor life quality, but maybe more importantly, their demise. And the truth is, it effects us too! Pollution doesn’t just stay in one spot, air blows and water flows, and that stuff will come to us in one form or another. My own cancer fight, and those of so, so many others, has been linked to pollution. We are killing ourselves, and for what?! I stand again, resolved, to make choices that bring about the good for all people, animals, and this earth we call home.

If you’re with me and want a paddleboard that takes this (very yogic) belief to heart and practical practice, then Glide is your choice. They are the only made in the USA, Eco-friendly SUPs out there and it makes me all the more shameless in promoting it. Get 10% off when you use the code: AUDREYD10.

Rant over, carry on, but perhaps, with a little more intention, heart, and awareness of how powerful each of our choices are. We can make a difference, one choice at a time.

Namaste.