Have you ever tried yoga?
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Green Your Mind With Yoga: Santosha
Our sixth post about how the non-physical aspects of yogic tradition intersect with green living brings us to the Niyamas. Most of these ten practices have a fairly doctrine-specific focus (dealing with aspects of temple worship, faith, and vows one takes in life), but one in particular deals directly with the consumerism and natural resource over-consumption plaguing the planet.
Be Content With What You Have
Santosha means 'contentment'. It's something you can cultivate and leads towards a natural simplicity, joy and serenity. I find this advice from the Kauai Aadheenam particularly inspiring:
Be happy, smile and uplift others. Live in constant gratitude for your health, your friends and your belongings. Don't complain about what you don't possess. Identify with the eternal You, rather than mind, body, or emotions. Keep the mountaintop view that life is an opportunity for spiritual progress. Live in the eternal now.
Contentment is the Exact Opposite of Consumerism
Let's bring that into green focus, even if this just scratches the surface of contentment: With few exceptions, the greenest product is the one you already have. By all means, when something is beyond repair or reuse, do all the research and pick the one with the best green credentials. But don't use low environmental impact as an excuse to just keep buying.
The Jains have this one right: Before you buy anything ask yourself if you really need it; if you got along this long without it, why do you now need it?
Be content with the things you have and reduce them to an absolute minimum, with those things you do buy being beautiful, long-lasting, and made in an environmentally friendly way as possible.