As a little girl raised in a meat & potatoes household, I never envisioned adult life as a vegetarian. My favorite meals growing up were steak sandwiches and lamb chops, and I would never turn down a spicy tuna roll. But as 2018 rolled around, I changed my mind.
I found yoga 3 years ago as I struggled to keep my mental health in tact through college. My favorite thing about practice is the constant reminders to self reflect so you're able to take what you need and leave what you don't. As I left the studio, I realized that a lot of the decisions I made throughout my days had become mindless tasks, carried through my life by mere habit. That's when I began to notice and question each decision I made throughout my days, no matter how small.
When I started this practice it served as more of a self assessment to help me understand my weak points and to evaluate which areas could be addressed. This process also really helped me hone in on my key values by forcing me to think about what is most important to me. It helped me to identify the metrics that I use when making decisions now.
I've realized that my decision making process depends on how I answer to these 4 metrics:
a. The environment. Sustainability is one of my main focuses because of my love for nature, and because I'm disgusted by how humans treat it.
b. Social consciousness. This one may or may not be rooted as I grew up as a daughter of a civil rights attorney. There are so many injustices in this world and we should all be paying attention to how we can do better.
c. Cost efficiency. I think this one comes from growing up during a major recession, but this is probably my most crippling restraints. This one also consistently conflicts with the other 3 and halps me maintain a good balance.
d. Creative capability. I'm always drawn to out-of-the-box thinking, and employ it wherever I can. I think non-conventional is usually more ingenious than conventional, and I think being more mindful often leads to innovative solutions.
Asking myself these questions has helped me to make some major changes in my life. One of the biggest is that I don't eat meat anymore. I'll share my answers to the 4 metrics that I identified earlier:
(a.) The meat industry is definitely bad for the environment. According to studies by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the meat/dairy industry competes fairly well with oil and gas companies in terms of environmental impacts.
(b.) In a non-conventional way of thinking about "social consciousness", raising animals just to kill and eat them is definitely not the kindest of practices.
(c.) Not eating meat is more cost efficient than eating meat, since other sources of protein (like beans) are significantly cheaper.
(d.) Meatless meals challenge me to be creative with my cooking, and I'm up for the challenge!
Through this thought process, I've decided that the meat industry is just something that I can't morally justify supporting. Raising animals packed with antibiotics in small pens just to then kill for food isn'y my style, so I just won't eat them anymore. And viola! A vegetarian is born!
This doesn't always have to have ground breaking effects, but I've made considerable changes since I started questioning my own decisions. I definitely don't buy as much stuff anymore (clothes, shoes, other things I don't need), and the stuff I do buy is either eco-friendly or socially responsible. I try and eat organic produce whenever I can, and never turn down a trip to a local farmers market. I've also started a habit of carrying around water in my klean kanteen and an empty Hydroflask for coffee when Matt inevitably stops for coffee when we're out and about. I use Tom's fluoride free toothpaste and Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products. Even small changes like these have a pretty big impact when you think about how much you use every day.
Some of the most useful resources I use when buying stuff online come from these two blogs: thegoodtrade.com and sustainably-chic.com
This is just how I practice being mindful, and I'm definitely not perfect! I am still growing and trying to find the balance in my own life. I hope this helps you on your journey.
Keep growing! ~Namasté~