yoga is our natural state.

You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state. ~Sharon Gannon

I love love love my computers. But their impact on the world? not so much..

Lets face it... none of us are going to give up our computers! But it's good to know some facts and ways to lessen their (and our) impact on the environment. And we'll save money too! Yippie!

I was surprised a a lot of this stuff so decided to share.

(all these facts taken from a cute little book simply called "how to reduce your carbon footprint" -by joanna yarrow)

Some sad facts are:

-The IT industry accounts for 2% of CO2 emissions which is the same as aviation

-Over 31 million PC's are thrown away worldwide each year.

-The average PC takes around 2 tons of chemicals, fossil fuels, and water to produce, generates around 220 lb of CO2 per year, and is junked after 3 years.

-The plastic alone in each PC requires nearly 2 gallons of crude oil to make

-It's estimated that an average PC is in use for 4 hours each work day and idle for 5-6 hrs

-If you leave your computer on overnight you'll waste enough energy to laser print around 800 pages

-Only about 15% of the 250 billion -worth of power used by computers worldwide each year is spent actually computing-the rest is wasted while idling.

Some tips I just learned this morning are:

-If you need a desktop choosing one with a flat LCD (liquid crystal display) screen uses about 30% less energy than cathoderay monitors.

-Laptop computers consume up to 90% less energy than a desktop

-If you upgrade your existing computer instead of buying a new one, you could save around 500lb of fossil fuel.

-If you set your computer to enter power saving mode after 10 minutes of inactivity-this could cut its energy use by 60-70%

-Its best to shut off the computer if we aren't using it for a hour or two- it's a myth that computers use a lot of power to start up.

Namaste fellow yogi's!

Are you addicted to groupon?

I know there is groupon, swarmjam, and some others, and it's fabulous to be able to save some cash these days anyway we possibly can. I don't know too many people who aren't looking for ways to save money.

I sure am! Especially since the HST came into play!

**There is a new local group buying one called Ethical Deal. They have daily deals from local GREEN companies! It looks like the best one of them all. We can save money and not hurt the planet, and shop local! (it is Vancouver based)

The website is here

As far as yoga goes, it should never cost a fortune in my opinion, and thats why the cost of my classes are like groupon everyday. The cost of my classes on a regular basis are as inexpensive as I am allowed to make them. $9-$13 a class when you register and just a little more if you drop in.

(*And registration is on for January btw!)

Click here for The Roundhouse and here for Mount Pleasant

Happy Ethical shopping and I'll see you on the mat! ♥. ♥ .♥. ♥ .

The Shanti Uganda Society

This video is a couple of years old now but if you haven't seen it you should check it out. It is truly wonderful what this organization does and has accomplished, and is still doing. Although they have reached some goals, please consider helping if you can..

Shanti Uganda's website is here (www.shantiuganda.org)

It feels so good to be a part of this. Let's all help!

They just have so many ways to help and so many gorgeous items you can purchase. Gifts you can buy to enjoy yourself personally, or gifts you can buy and give to others! Click here

And gifts of action. All which give and give and keep giving!

-To sponsor a midwife click here

-To donate supplies click here to see what's needed

-To volunteer locally click here and in Uganda click here

-to donate to help build the fence that is now needed click here

-To purchase the beautiful jewelry and textiles made in the women's income generating group click here

And with the New year approaching so quickly check out Shanti's beautiful Inner peace Prenatal Yoga 2011 calendar here - you may even be in it as some of the lovely moms from my prenatal classes volunteered their time! This calendar is so lovely.

Click here for their December newsletter or here for their blog to stay up to date with the latest happenings!

The bottom line is that there are countless ways to help!

Lets give some gifts this holiday season that give twice :)

Namaste..

Defining moments in life

You may have seen this, or other clips of this rare hero's work circulating around the internet, Facebook and CNN. His name is Narayan Krishnan. He has been at this for a quite a while now (since 2002), and has fed, cared for, and freely given of himself to the needy in his community every single day since then..

He was 20 years old with everything going for him. He had even passed up a lucrative job in Switzerland as a chef when he had an experience that he calls his "defining moment"..

As he puts it:

In June 2002, Krishnan witnessed his life-changing event -

He saw an old man suffering from acute hunger and eating his own human waste.

As the old man ate the food given to him, he held Krishnan's hand, giving the very real sensation of a powerful energy. This triggered an experience of inner happiness and fulfillment Krishnan had never felt before.

Since then he has worked tirelessly and without a break, serving 1.5 million meals to the hungry, destitute, uncared for, mentally ill, elderly, sick, and helpless folks in his community. And not only food, but love. Clothing. Hair cuts and shaves. And dignity.

Anyways, his videos are out in full force again this holiday season as they always are this time of year.

This man is a true hero if ever there was one. One line he says that gets me everytime is;

"Just give". "Feel the joy of giving"..it's so simple and yet so true.

Should you want to learn more about what this incredible man and his team do or wish to donate his website is http://www.akshayatrust.org/

Namaste.

Life is so beautiful and precious. Stop, sit, breathe and take it all in..

The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally we sit down for a while.

-Kobun Chino Otogawa (乙川 弘文 , 1938—2002)

Out of clutter, find simplicity-Albert Einstein