The Mindful Life Community in Action
“I wake up every morning, torn between a desire to save the whales, attain enlightenment, visit the Dalai Lama or go back to bed. Makes it kinda hard to plan the day.” ~Diane English
Have you set your New Year’s Intentions being mindful of your values? I have, and one of my values has to do with Nature – loving it, caring for it, and cultivating a sustainable personal footprint on our planet. Today I want to share with you one remarkable, mindful way to reduce fossil fuel consumption. It’s so simple, maybe you’ll be inspired to try it, too!
You may remember that over the holidays, I touched on the idea of mindful eating as a way to keep the pounds off. By adding just one more piece of mindfulness practice – “consider the source” – we can also help the environment.
Inspiration for more mindful eating comes from Kris and Jo Young, creators of Ojai’s “Eat Local One Year” project. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Locavore concept? Kris and Jo have initiated a local (yet also global) project to inspire people to eat locally – food grown within 100 miles of their home for all of 2009. Did you know that if every U.S. citizen ate just one meal per week composed of locally, organically grown food, it would reduce oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels per week?! Locavores do what they do to support the local economy, protect the environment and build strong communities.
Sounds too extreme to fit into your life? It did to me, too. Luckily, the project allows you to participate at ANY LEVEL. So here’s where mindfulness practice comes in. You can sign up with a simple commitment, like eating only local honey. I signed up to participate at my own level, which is to be conscious of every food purchase and to choose local when possible. Here’s how it’s working for me: At the Farmer’s Market this past Sunday, I asked the vendors where the food was raised and chose the ones from the closest farms. So simple, really, yet it brings my actions clearly in line with my values. I invite you “consider the source” by participating in Eat Local One Year in whatever creative way you can imagine. (If you do, I’d love to hear about it on the blog.)
Now it’s your turn! How will you live your values with mindfulness practice this year? Share and inspire others with your ideas right here! Together, we make a difference!
Brook Montagna, Mindfulness Coach & Spiritual Life Coach
3 Comments
Brook,
Thank you for this beautiful blog entry! Thank you for introducing your readers to Eat Local One Year!
I love the way you have invited everyone to participate in our project, and to recognize the power of each of our unique contributions.
I want to publicly thank you for the delicious and creative, all-local food and drink that you served us last week at your home. Deviled eggs with avocado instead of mayo and/or mustard; fantastic! Lemonade sweetened with honey; superb! Your kindness and work to support our year-long commitment to all-local food, was as rich and appreciated as the food.
Your own connection to caring for others, and for our planet is so obvious in what you offer to all of us.
In peace and health,
Kris
Kristofer Young, DC
I was struck by the “Eat Local One Year” project… especially with the part about participating at my own level. For me , this would mean regularly going to the Farmer’s Market. I did this last week, and felt very inspired. This action combined with reading a book called Food Energetics has helped me shift spiritually. I am also enjoying preparing food for my children more mindfully and blessing their food before giving it to them…… yeah 🙂
Your idea is very interesting. I never really thought about saving the planet by eating locally. Eating locally is just what we do to save money and get better food. As I was growing up on the farm about the only thing we ate that wasn’t grown locally was canned tuna fish. Every thing else we spent hours canning, freezing, slaughtering,pulling up out of the water, or gathering from the garden or orchard. I didn’t realize we were helping the planet.
Yes, we still do eat locally grown as much as we can. That reminds me, it is time to start planting the garden.
Thanks for your great ideas. From now on I will be more mindful of what I choose to eat. Thank God I left those Chillean grown grapes in the grocery store.