Celeb Yogi Tara Stiles Wants You To Ditch Your Straw

Today, most of us live by a "drive through and toss out" mentality. We want to have it now and pay later. We got lured in by the shiny idea of being too busy for our lives and started believing that disposable products would make everything better. This romanticism of convenience has contributed drastically to the dirty mess of a planet we are in today.

The generation before us knew better. My parents were straight-edged hippies who built their own passive solar home, grew their own food, and took us on weekend litter cleanup adventures. They looked for ways to save time, money, and energy, which gave our family more time, money, and energy to direct toward the experiences that fulfilled us.

They taught us to live in a way that was better for our family and the environment. Back then, this kind of crunchy, green lifestyle wasn't trendy. They didn’t Instagram or blog about it. They just did it because they knew it was a good idea on all fronts.

I remember watching the beginnings of convenience culture foster detachment behavior. It desensitized a generation to what it feels like to think, conserve, cook, and converse. Bad decisions became easy, and they tempted us everywhere we looked.

Our personal and global health is doomed unless we choose a better way, every day.

I'm certainly guilty of playing into our throwaway culture, and I look for moments when I can become more sensitized. One such moment came this summer, when I was hosting a three-week program at Strala's home base in New York.

Hot summer days in SoHo meant staying hydrated was a must, and grabbing a drink on the go—iced coffee, iced lemonade, iced whatever—was easy. Plastic to-go cups were in everyone’s hand as they pounded down the street and into the studio. But one day, Sam Wells, an awesome Strala guide and environmental activist who was in town for the program, walked into the group and handed out reusable straws. She simply said, "Stop!" and called us all out on our mindless action.

Ditching straws has been easier than I imagined, and I'm shocked that I let such a mindless choice slide for so long. A welcome side effect of skipping over plastic straws is that I'm now spending more time enjoying drinks in cafes instead of taking everything to go and running to the next event. I'm noticing how I want less takeout, run-out, and toss-out culture in my life altogether. And it feels like paying extra attention to this one good thing is washing across all things. I suspect more space, clarity, and inspiration are coming my way.

Giving up straws has also inspired me to ditch plastic tops on coffee and reduce other single-use plastic as much as possible. Since I made this commitment, I've noticed plastic more and more. It's everywhere and will take some more planning to get out of my life completely. But I'm going to try.