I have been on a path toward living in wellness and environmental sustainability that common people can afford to enjoy since I was in undergrad. I was tempted to become vegan when I learned of the obscene inefficiency of the animal product industry (I’m not vegan, don’t stress). I am also not interested in promoting a sustainable world via cashew butter and Teslas. Those things are great, but my expertise is not that of wealth creation (yet). Most people cannot live upper class so I can’t consider Bourgeoisie solutions to global problems to be solutions at all. (The Matt Damon movie “Elysium” makes the point clear) What are the rest of us to do?
A pull-yourself-up-by-boot-straps American would say that you can make anything work if you try hard enough. True. I sprouted beans, fermented Suarkraut and used a lot of powdered wheat grass in the van. I had some success living healthy and poor but I felt like an animal.
I eat Taco Bell too sometimes because I’m weak and hot food with flavor restores a sense of dignity to my being.
How absurd is that!!?? How can a canola oil and glyphosate ridden, $1.29 burrito make me feel dignity? Cuisine is laced with pesticides while organic, nutrient dense non-gmo wheat grass powder tastes like….well grass clippings.
That is the point. Our civilization is doing something wrong. Or maybe I just need to recover the savage inside and celebrate the fact that I can live on mostly wheat grass, bean spouts, produce and olives. If I followed that path I’d end up sitting in full lotus in the Whole Foods parking lot on cardboard as a public image of a whole human.
Psssst. American’s don’t take kindly to reminders of virtue. We prefer to fill our voided minds with the vectors of vice via celebrities. We prefer to not be reminded of Christians or yogis, and certainly not vagrants Wellness Adventurers, with good posture. That is why we must lock the worship of spirit into a sacred space called a church. We hide our maintenance of the temple of the holy spirit in yoga studios. Otherwise the unspoken judgment passed on the public Wellness Adventurer is…
“Who does that homeless guy think he is enjoying the Sun and the air with out paying taxes? He has no need of a chair! And he’s eating wild plums. He is insulting my illusion that comfort comes to those who work hard and suffer for it”
No! I say comfort comes to those who abide in this: “Pain isn’t your problem. The problem is that you mind pain.” I’m paraphrasing the First 2 noble truths of the Buddha. For example “Your problem isn’t that you don’t have a chair. Your problem is that you want one.” LOL.
I don’t use backwards riddles to imitate a sage…. I am a social drop out and I suspect these are the truths drop outs tend to learn independent of theological study. Why? simply because society (or as I like to call it ‘Mother Culture’) distracts us from meditating on death, which brings more freedom and life to person! I think many gurus will lord their secret knowledge over students to make money or at least maintain power over them. Its might be easy to take advantage of a population so mentally ill, hopeless, and lonely that they will pay to be part of a tribe whose leader inspires them to keep breathing.
I am a new student of breathwork. The breath is the center of mindfulness and posture. I get odd looks for sitting in lotus as some show off poser move to get attention. OK. that’s half the reason, but the other half is practicality. To sit with respect to my spine on the ground I have spent many out sitting cross legged, then half lotus and I found full lotus is best for the spine and breath.
The point is, my life that would seem to mimic a yogi actually developed organically as a result of a pursuit of health despite poverty. I behave this way not to be an overt insult to society, but since I live outside norms (or perhaps I just have low social intelligence) I have the freedom to behave naturally. Go figure. When you live naturally, you look like a teacher.
The joke is I have nothing to teach. I can only help a person remember their own intelligence. Consider a child of 6 years. He or she has PERFECT running and squatting form. You were once a personal trainer, but no one recognized you for it. Indeed culture put awful shoes on you to help you forget your innate athlete. You are still a trainer. You are your first client (Matt 13:31).
The Universe brought me here, which means the Universe brought you here too.
Hi. I’m Garrett, a Wellness Adventurer. Follow me.
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