I spend an intentional 2 hours a week teaching yoga to my Thai students.  Our focus is always connection. Connecting our breath with our movements, our laughs with our hearts, and hopefully our practice with our lives.

 This week our attention is on our planet, and how to show our love and appreciation for all that it gives us.

 We first made lists of “Why we love the earth” and “What hurts the earth.” The general consensus was we love the earth because it’s our home, it gives us life, and yet we all agreed that we are responsible for hurting it.

I used plastic as the man culprit of pain. 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans and seas each year, killing everything from plants to birds to whales. Our project today was creating an alternative to plastic bags. We got second hand fabric, I brought a bag of clothes I no longer wear, and we got to work.

I did a no sew approach, simply cutting the bottoms of my skirts in long strips in order to tie them together in knots. You then turn the skirt inside out, and make handles out of the leftover fabric. The looks varied, but you can be as simple or as creative as you please. My students who are sewing experts, from fixing their socks and uniforms, began sewing their bags instead of cutting and tying.

I live as close to a zero-waste life as possible. My village knows that I bring my own bags, cutlery, spoon, and jar everywhere I go. I’m able to buy beautiful and local fruits and vegetables year around, and I use my bike to get them to avoid being in a car. Setting an example for our kids about how to live your values is how we prepare the next generation to take care of the planet we love.

 It was a project all my kids loved, they were easily able to see how their actions were helping the planet and how much joy it brought me!

 All you’ll need:

·         Old t-shirts or skirts

·         Pair of scissors

·         Little creativity

·         Love for the future of our planet

Hi I’m Liv! I am a Peace Corps Volunteer and Kidding around Yoga teacher in Thailand. You can email me at livonearth@gmail.com to learn more about what I do here or my zero waste lifestyle. My website is livonearth.com