(yogic) reasons to buy fair trade

With the natural introspection that comes from an economic recession, the "buy local" movement is gaining momentum.  However, there are a lot of good things in life that simply don't come "local", at least not in these temperate climes!  Tea, coffee, cotton, silk, spices, chocolate... to name just a few!  Now, we could live without them... Nah, who am I kidding?!  In any case, I don't believe that boycotting imported goods is really a good thing, since on the other side of those goods is another human being who depends on trade for their livelihood.  I do, however, believe that those people, just like me, should be paid a fair and decent wage for their work - enough to support their families and invest in their futures.


According to the UK's FairTrade foundation: "Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers."


From a yogic perspective, I look at buying fair trade as an expression of the yama of Asteya, or non-stealing.  When we buy goods that are sourced through exploitation, we are complicit in a form of "theft" - taking people's time and the fruits of their work without compensation.


Fair trade goods are likely to be more expensive than their regular competitors, but I like to think that when I buy my tea or coffee at fair trade prices, I am likely to value it more and use it more wisely, recognizing that it was produced by another person, halfway around the world, and that in some small way, that connects us.


Does FairTrade really make a difference? I think so.  A few months ago I was lucky enough to attend a small lecture at Oxfam.  The guest speakers were two women from Ghana, who are members of the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa-producing cooperative.  They earn their living and support their families (and extended families) purely on producing and selling cocoa, that is turned into chocolate.  Kuapa Kokoo is even more special than most - the cocoa farmers in the cooperative also earn a 45% share in Divine Chocolate, the company that turns the cocoa into (delicious!) chocolate and nets the profits from consumers.


The women who spoke to us told us what a difference fair trade prices, and dividends from the chocolate sales, make to their lives.  One woman was supporting her sister's 3 orphaned children, and the other was paying for her younger siblings to go to University.  Both women owned their own land - a rarity in West Africa as well as many other parts of the world.


So yes, I think fair trade makes a difference.  And if the world is our backyard, then behind each of those products there is also a "local" farmer or producer, who depends on that commodity for their livelihood - to build their house, feed and clothe their children, and build a better future. 


In the UK, fair trade goods are marked with the distinctive symbol.  And while fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate are fairly easy to come by, other commodities like cotton are not yet consistently marked.  However you can find fair trade lines at many major shops these days - including of course, the fabulous online Oxfam shop!  And although the prices are high, at least when you buy fair trade goods, you know that you money is actually going to go to the producer, and not to the middle-man.  It is a good test of our commitment to the yogic principle of generosity!

Every little bit helps

It may not be as dramatic as an earthquake or a tsunami, in terms of making the news.  But the drought in East Africa could affect over 10 million people - that's more than 3 times the number affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

Every little bit helps - please donate.

(Warning - this video contains some pretty disturbing images - the kind that are real.  And happening.  To people.  Just like you and me.)

Q&A

Last week, I gave you a gorgeous print from Eliza at ArtAsana.  Having got in touch, she asked me some questions, which I answered, and I thought I would share.

Want to spread the love?  Answer them yourself, and link back to Eliza at ArtAsana!  The questions are:

1) What's the biggest frustration in your yoga practice or life experience right now?

2) What do you most want to achieve from your your yoga practice or life? By when?

3) What do you think you need in order to reach your goal?

4) What strategies have you tried that have and have not worked?

5) What would it feel like to have your biggest frustration handled?

6) What will it cost you not to have this frustration handled? Any fears come up?

Here are my answers... what are yours?

1) What's the biggest frustration in your yoga practice or life experience right now?

Wow, this is a huge question.  I think that yoga mirrors life (and not the other way around, 'cause that would be a bit obsessive!).  I think my biggest frustration in my life at the moment is the gap between what I want my life to be like, and what it actually is at the moment.  And I think the same applies to my yoga practice.  Practically speaking, I find it hard to balance my desire to practice yoga and grow and evolve, and devote time to that practice, with my need to work and also live my life!  The result is that I'm often too tired or busy to practice as much as I would like and to push my body as much as I push my mind.  But at the same time, I love my job and so I just have to accept that it's a balancing act.

I think it's important to remember that the goals that we have are a moving target, and sometimes it takes time to adjust.  The things that I want now, I didn't want a few years ago.  And vice versa a few years from now.  In yoga, the things that were important to me a few years ago are no longer relevant.  We evolve, our practice evolves, our dreams evolve, and it's the most natural and inevitable thing in the world.  I remember when I spent an entire year absolutely torturing myself trying to learn handstand.  It was SO hard, and so full of fear and emotion for me.  And when I finally got it, after SO much work...  Well, handstand is not even important to me anymore.  Because it was never really about the pose in the first place.

2) What do you most want to achieve from your your yoga practice or life? By when?

There was this book that I read when I was a kid, it was called "The Big Orange Splot".  Bear with me here.  ;) In the book, this guy lives on a street where all the houses look exactly the same.  And then one day, by accident, a bird drops this bucket of paint on his house, and it makes a big orange splot.  And he gets inspired and starts to transform his whole house into a tropical paradise, and he says about it: "my house is me, and I am it, and it looks like all my dreams."  That's what I want from my yoga practice.

3) What do you think you need in order to reach your goal?

Well, orange paint alone probably isn't going to do the trick...   I think the biggest thing that we need to realise our dreams is self-realisation, awareness of what we really want.  We need to dig through all the stories we tell ourselves, all the mind-games and justifications, and get down to the heart of what we really want and need in life.  We need to be honest, and to be honest we need to be brave, and to be brave we need support and love and probably a lot of tea and chocolate (i.e. self-nurture)!  Yoga - whatever your yoga is - helps us do that.  As do good friends (the kind who ask you hard questions and don't let you avoid the answers), family, good relationships, and a little dose of those higher powers who put just the right obstacles and opportunities in our way.  So really I guess all we need is an open mind and an open heart.

4) What strategies have you tried that have and have not worked?

I can't categorically say that anything I've ever tried "has not worked".  I have learned something from everything I have done.  However, I can say that self-delusion, avoidance, making excuses, lying to myself and others, and running away from hard choices have pretty much only led to disappointment and wasted a whole lot of my time - duh.

5) What would it feel like to have your biggest frustration handled?

I'm not really sure what you mean by handled - I don't think anyone else could just make my frustrations go away - but maybe that's just me, "lone hero" syndrome and all.  Seriously though, I just don't believe in easy solutions, especially not in life - or in yoga.  Nobody can just magically transpose meditational zen onto you.  You have to just do the work, and deal with that.  Besides, we are human - there will always be another frustration around the corner!

6) What will it cost you not to have this frustration handled? Any fears come up?

The cost of not resolving issues - too high to think about.  Stagnation.  Unhappiness.  Unbearable waste of short, precious time on this planet.  There are some journeys that we have to go through, but there is also a time and a place for everything.  Even hard things need to have boundaries.  Some of those will be in days, some in months or years.  Some things will never go away, just be transformed or absorbed.  But we must change, we must evolve!  Otherwise we are missing the opportunity that is our fortunate, fortunate life on this beautiful planet.

Rooting, rising

It's hard to believe how fast June is flying!  Hard to believe that I left East Timor nearly 6 full months ago.  It's funny, because in my mind I have a vision of it, just as I left it.  But of course, things change, and nothing ever stays the way you left it.

This week the teacher who took over my yoga classes back there has left, and there is nobody to take over.  It's funny how bittersweet that feels - sweet for all the memories, and sad that (and yes, I am coming a bit late to the party here) a yoga era is over.

Maybe the first class you teach is like a first love - there is something innocent, naive, and absolutely enthralling about it.  I can look back on it and chart my evolution as a teacher, remembering the things I tried, the mistakes I made, the lessons I learned, and the inspiring yogis and yoginis who I shared a small, sweaty room with 2-3 times a week for those years.  No matter where I go in the world, every time I teach, I will carry those classes with me.

We are rooted in the past, and from it we grow, change, stretch, bloom.  So I guess although things change, they are not lost - they carry on.  Namaste to all my Dili students - I miss you!

[To illustrate this post, I found this amazing work by Eliza over at artasana.com - check her out!  The title of this piece is "Rooting, Rising", from which I also borrowed the title of this post.  It feels serendipitous!]

Perception vs reality

Before watching the video, ask yourself:

• What do you think about spending on overseas aid?
• How much do you think your country spends on overseas aid as a percent of GDP?
• What impact do you think this makes?

Now watch the video:

Perception vs. reality...  Thoughts?  I have a lot to say about this but I want to start by opening it up!

Because no 2 yogis are alike!

After my class yesterday, I stayed late to ask a question on a difficult transition that we had practiced, that I have been trying - and failing! - for months (titibasana to bakasana, if anyone wants to offer some tips...).  The teacher looked me over and said something to the effect of: "well, I'm not surprised it's difficult, since your legs are so long!"  Which is true - my legs are quite long in proportion to the rest of my body.

This led us to the discussion of how, indeed, no 2 yogis are alike.  We come in all different shapes and sizes, we are of different genders, ages and attitudes.  And so when it comes to yoga, there is only so much you can learn from another person's practice, another person's experience.  At the end of the day, you have to figure out what works for YOU.

Yet another reason why it's so important to try and develop our OWN practice - no matter what that practice is, and to understand that teachers are guides, not gods.  Whether it's asana, pranayama, yama or niyama, the steps and the answers are different for each and every one of us.  In the meantime, I'll keep on kicking back my long legs in hopes that one day they will land where they're meant to!

Slow & steady wins the race?

After a 3-month dry spell since my last class experience, this week I managed to get to not one but two yoga classes!

Neither class was any one particular style, but both were quite different from my usual Ashtanga-based practice.   The first class was a 2-hour intermediate class.  It wasn't exactly Iyengar, but definitely Iyengar-inspired.  The class began with a 15-minute free period to practice any poses we wanted and get personalised instruction, and also to practice headstand/handstand/arm balances, which weren't included in the rest of the class.  Interesting!  I have to say that I am more of an inversions-at-the-end-of-practice kind of girl, but that is usually for my morning practice.  For an evening class, I can kind of see the logic of starting off with something strong and energising like a handstand - although headstand without warming up, I'm not so sure about.  Thoughts, anyone?

The rest of the class was a slow-paced flow through some standard & challenging standing poses including a new variation of a balancing downward-facing dog, and a nice long seated session.  The teacher was present and open and gave me some nice tips on alignment and keeping my bandhas.

Tonight's class was a hatha class with quite a bit of strengthening work (I'm feeling my triceps already...) and some slow ayurvedic flow sequences (if anyone is familiar with Mukunda Stiles, the teacher studied yoga therapy with him - lucky!).

Both of these are a radical departure from my usual practice.  But they say that the universe provides you not with what you want, but with what you need (I think the Rolling Stones said it best actually!).  So maybe this is a sign for me to slow down and work more seriously on my technique - at least a few times a week!  Or... considering that those two classes set me back 18 pounds - a whopping 30 US dollars... maybe a few times a month!