December 2006 | Mindful Living
Re: We Cycle
For even the most beloved bikes, there comes a mangled end. And when that day arrives, the best most owners can do (after picking over the bones) is retire the carcass to dust-catching in some shadowy garage junk purgatory.
Unless you’re amateur cyclist and pro-bike mechanic Andrew Gregg. At his Marquette, Michigan workshop, Gregg gives trashed bikes and their various thrashed appendages a dignified second (or third or fourth) life as a mod piece of functional art—refashioning aluminum rims and rubber tubes into slick lounge chairs, contemporary bar stools or conversation piece café tables.
Reportedly, the designs are as light, durable and comfy as they are stylish. But even if beauty were all they offered, they’re still better off sitting pretty in your living room than in the landfill.
BikeFurniture.com, 906.361.2483 —Eliza Thomas
Smells Like Om Spirit
If Neutrogena seems a little, well, neutral, try Lotus Love Beauty from the Shanti Project (LotusLoveBeauty.com). This divine body care line features an all-natural, mostly organic blend of oils and Ayurvedic ingredients sourced by owner/creator Jessica Gulati on her annual trips to India and day-to-day explorations of California’s botanical bounty. Each of the five fragrances of bath salts, oils, soaps, candles and lotions invokes an element of healing — be it the cooling tropics of verbena-coconut Shakti (energy), or the rejuvenating citrus-saffron Ananda (bliss).
In her San Diego workshop overlooking the gentle harbor waves, Gulati pulls back her equally undulating waves of dark hair to begin the day’s work. Each candle takes 24 hours to pour, and the half-pound soaps are prepared in small batches — a scant 18 at a time. “Beauty is to do good things and to give back,” she pauses, “but I don’t want to be thrown around in a bunch of grocery stores with the cold cuts. Only places of beauty.” Seems her philosophy works; Gulati can barely keep up with the demand from the handpicked smattering of upscale boutiques and apothecaries stocking her goods.
Gulati makes good on her goal to give back through Lotus Love Beauty’s nonprofit arm, The Shanti Project, a grassroots cooperative dedicated to supporting charitable programs around the world. So far the Shanti Project has gifted school supplies to orphanages and shoes to the poor in India, and offered hot meals to the homeless in Gulati’s neighborhood soup kitchen. Her next Shanti ambition? Building schools for underprivileged Indian children.
“People ask me about celebrities using my products,” reflects Gulati. “I don’t want ‘success’ that way. [Success] is about being happy when you make the products you love.” —Alison Clare Steingold
Seasonably Sexy
Since 2002, fashion duo Stewart+Brown has been one of the forerunners most effectively elevating eco fashion beyond its humble Birks and burlap beginnings. The designers bring their signature casual, sustainable style to their Fall/Holiday line, which features airy organic cottons, cozy cashmere sourced from Mongolian co-ops, delicate hemp silks, and scrap/surplus wools fashioned into smartly tailored outerwear. For those of you looking to make a statement with your holiday gift giving this season, Stewart+Brown is the go-to brand to bring an eco-curious friend into greener fashion pastures. And—just in case you needed a reason to pick something up for yourself while you’re at it—as a participating member of One Percent for the Planet, the more recycled wool coats and organic canvas totes you buy from Stewart+Brown, the larger their donation to Earth-centric causes.
For vendors in your area, visit StewartBrown.com. —ET
The Yoga of Living
Yogis living with HIV/AIDS find restoration and strength at Palm Springs Urban Yoga
Every year in Palm Springs as Gay Pride weekend nears, a petite and feisty blonde yogi named Kristin Olson emblazons a dozen sexy white tank tops and tee shirts with her Urban Yoga logo for her gay, male clientele. She then joins those students to ride in the parade—a hot woman in her 50s atop a candy-colored convertible. It’s always quite a spectacle to watch her with her gang of vibrant, yoga-bodied boys—boys who, under Kristin’s tutelage in her restorative yoga classes, have become a buoyant example of living long, healthy lives with HIV/AIDS.
“Very early on in my career, I lost a very dear friend of mine in LA who was my mentor,” Kristin describes. “When he died of AIDS, I felt hopeless, but I decided to honor his memory by taking Urban Yoga, and his legacy, to the desert.”
In Palm Springs, she found the perfect place to practice. Not only did the desert boast one of the largest and most successful AIDS service organizations in the United States, the Desert AIDS Project (DAP), but with its near perfect year-round weather and dazzling natural surroundings it was also a haven for men and women in need of healing. With the help of DAP’s wellness program coordinator Mariana Duspiva, Kristin began to develop a restorative yoga program fine-tuned to the needs of those living with the chronic disease, featuring poses designed to counter specific HIV/AIDS ailments. Her classes became so popular that within a year she was forced to open her own studio for the throngs of HIV patients newly turned on to the benefits of yoga.
“Imagine if with every step you took, you felt a burning sensation in your feet that crippled the mind from wanting to take the next step,” Kristin asks. “This burning happens with neuropathy, a common ailment in HIV patients that is caused when the drugs one is taking begin to seek out fat resources in the body as their fuel. Sometimes the last source of fat is in the feet. By using inverted poses and a focus on the breath, we are able to alleviate this pain to a manageable level.”
As she further oriented herself to the needs of her new student-base, Kristin tailored her program to focus on increasing circulation, stimulating the organs and activating the weakened muscular structure through a series of seated breath work meditation, standing poses, stretches and inverted leg movements. Her restorative, mellow adaptation of classic Hatha yoga began to enhance the lives of her students—many of whom she now considers family and friends.
“I have seen a man who lost his lung learn to live in relative comfort,” she says. “I have seen men who are dying regain their grip on life by learning to breathe again. I have seen people go from living in constant fear to embracing a sense of fearlessness. It’s miraculous!”
So compelling a miracle, that Kristin was awarded a grant by the Southwest Karma Yoga Foundation in the fall of 2002 for her HIV restorative work.
Not only has this miracle yoga gone to great lengths in helping people with chronic pain learn to face each day with a modicum of comfort, it’s also given credence to the ever-growing field of wellness arts. “Yes, we help the physical ailments with yoga,” Kristin explains, “but what is more exciting is the way we are teaching these men and women to be masters over their own minds. A decade ago, it was unheard of to see AIDS Service Organizations receive funding for wellness programs, but today we know that a major part of healing lies in a strong mind, a determined will and a sense of camaraderie. I see proof of this in my classes.”
To learn more about restorative yoga for those living with HIV/AIDS, visit UrbanYoga.org or call the studio at 760.320.7702. —Kimberly Nichols
Worth Repeating
“We’re sending $800,000 a day to some of the most hostile nations on earth. We’re funding both sides in this war on terrorism.”
—Illinois Sen. Barack Obama at an event at the African American Museum sponsored by Eso Won bookstore/Urban Issues Breakfast Forum, 10.27
“Beware of mothers who have nothing left to lose.”
—Amy Goodman, reflecting on parents who join the anti-war movement after losing children in Iraq, to an audience at the Bioneers conference 10.21
“It’s worth thinking about what the constitution would have looked liked if it had been drafted by the people who weren’t considered people at the time.”
—Attorney Thomas Linzey, co-founder of the Democracy Schools and the Community Legal Defense Fund (celdf.org), in a galvanizing Bioneers speech challenging that the Constitution, conceived as it was in a slave state, is fundamentally flawed to protect profit and property over the rights of the individual, Bioneers, 10.21
“When a black child in Oakland winces at the thought of an ancient tree being cut down in Northern California, and when a white lawyer in Northern California winces at the thought of a black teenager being cut down in those streets, then we’ll know we have arrived.”
—Paul Hawken speaking on the fundamental need to merge the environmental and social justice movements, at the Bioneers conference 10.22
Ed. note: As you can tell, we found much to remark on at this year’s Bioneers conference, an annual gathering in Northern California of environmental and social-change leaders. To hear podcasts of what you missed, and to make sure you’re part of the party next year, visit Bioneers.org.
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