Week three of Plastic Free July again pitted me against the challenge of not buying any plastic products. With every week which goes by during this challenge, I continue to make mistakes as well as learn some hard lessons. That’s life, right? This week, I wrestled with the demons that are products that come in tubes and bottles. Think, toothpaste, detergent etc. I briefly touched on this in another article, but this week I wandered the isles of the supermarket looking for toothpaste in particular, to no avail. The biggest, easiest change I made which made me feel better, was switching to a wooden toothbrush. The thought of every single toothbrush I will use in my life outliving me by possibly a million years terrifies me. I have also put away my shampoo and conditioner, which came in bottles, to try and opt for the bar variety, which proved okay. It just takes some getting used to. My shower also now sports three variety of bars. The problem I have found with this challenge is monetary. It is simply cheaper and more convenient to opt for things which are not plastic-free. That’s the crux of this problem, and our society, is that the cheaper, more convenient options are often the most harmful to the planet, and us. To be plastic-free is expensive. So too organic, or vegetarian, etcetera, etcetera. I once read something which said, “to be poor is expensive”, which explained the ratio of your outgoings is much more expensive in proportion to your income. The poorer you are, the harder it is to make positive changes to your buying habits and lifestyle. It becomes an endless cycle and feedback loop. So to me, it seems the more wealthy you are, the more opportunity you have to make positive buying decisions and lifestyle choices. But often, the wealthier you are, the more time-poor you are. That wealth has gotta come from somewhere. You spend your time. So to truly make this a frugal, environmentally friendly lifestyle, one has to be able to create, cook, build, grow or manufacture the things one needs. Unfortunately, I damn well can’t make toothpaste and I don’t want to try some of the recipes I googled - some of which requires you to buy things in plastic packaging anyway - silly (but I suppose outcome (product)-for-expense (plastic) ratio may end up more economic than buying a tube of toothpaste (more toothpaste for less plastic). I wonder, if there could be a local buy & swap for sustainable products such as plastic-free items. I’d participate in that. Just a thought. For now, I gotta suck it up and buy some expensive toothpaste in a jar and have it mailed to me. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

The woman sitting on the yoga mat next to me smiles and raises her eyebrows. I nod. Then look around at the walls, noting the tendrils of green plants climbing them, wrapping around bare curtain rods. There are candles and little Buddha statues. Tones are hushed. My mat-mate is right, it definitely feels a little temple-like. Our instructor, Angela Connell, floats around the room in yoga pants and a light top, her calming voice dispensing careful instructions and words of infinite wisdom. Her arms, delicately laced with tattoos that look like prayer beads. She’d deny the temple thing. And the role it casts her in. But it is the vibe. Especially tonight. We’re here for a Tibetan Singing Bowls experience.“You might find the experience a little overwhelming.”Ange explains that each of the composite stone bowls corresponds to one of our seven chakras. They’re meant to connect with and represent different physical and spiritual parts of ourselves. I’ve researched this, so I know what to expect. I’ve also had a taster session before tonight. We sat in a circle. I opened my mind. We all closed our eyes. I heard the ding of hammer against metal and then an alien sound. A boomerang of tone. Tonight I’m eager to feel that thrumming again. Resonating in my bones, on my skin. Wrapping around and running through me. It’s been a tough couple of weeks. I need an escape. Ange explains that Yoga Nidra, or yogic “sleep” is a “consciousness shifting” practice, "releasing physical, emotional and mental tension by re-directing and re-creating new neuronal pathways through carefully guided visualisation techniques".The workshop includes a “sound bath” of Tibetan Singing bowls to help harmonise the electric currents of the nervous system and to facilitate a deeper integration of the practice.“We’ll begin our Yoga Nidra by raising our awareness.”First she guides us through a meditation. I imagine every finger, every toe. I note I am most present in my right hand. My left sole tingles, but my feet feel very far away. Parts of me feel almost disconnected. I realise that I tend to live in my head. Here’s proof, apparently.At one point I doze off. Just for a few minutes. The session is longer than last time, and it’s later. And it seems like the bowls aren’t singing as often. I wanted more of the eerie haunting tones that took on the shape of a twisted oval, or infinity sign in my mind. I wanted to be carried up and out tonight. To feel suspended above the form lying on the thin mat, under the wool blanket. Wearing my comfy jeans, wool socks and a warm sweater, I am a form still aware and awake enough to think, “I’m a little chilly” right in the middle of the experience. Higher consciousness eludes me generally. Except for a few magical moments here and there. And I’m so glad I can find them here.+++++++This “temple” is a yoga studio on the top floor of a building on Tarbert Street. It sits above the 2 Dollar Store. You can see its exposed steel beams. They’re painted the pale colour of the walls and wrapped in fairy lights. The scent of lavender and chamomile tea infuses the air. Complemented by a few essential oils. This other-worldly sanctuary is at the heart of Alexandra. Angela Connell is a local, but one who left, saw the world, and came back with a mission: to enrich and support the community in which she was raised. Even though she knows what she does isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. Ange created this space after leaving Australia, where she was working in a world light years away from what she does now: waitressing and bartending, climbing her way up the career ladder to managing a bar in Melbourne. She knew enough about herself back then to know that being able to suggest the ideal craft beer for each dinner course wasn’t in line with her values.At that point in her life, her values really started screaming. She describes feeling “stuck, hopeless and even harmful to the environment” working in hospitality, “wasting massive amounts of food, milk, produce, packaging, and resources, not to mention encouraging huge amounts of alcohol consumption and less than optimal behaviours”.So Ange decided to make a “passionate commitment to 'do good' in the world.” She turned her back on success as defined by external standards and chose to put her energy instead into quality over quantity. And to focus not just on her success, but on helping solve community challenges. One of her top priorities is sustainability. She’s kitted out her studio with driftwood art, homemade bolsters and op shop treasures (which also form the core of her wardrobe). Another is mental health, so she decided to include kids in her practice. She now teaches mindfulness in private sessions and in schools around the region. Other core values are contribution, creativity and community.Angela Connell is the life force behind Alexandra's Flow Space. When she was a student, Ange wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to be, trying three different courses that would have prepared her to be a PE or Art teacher, or even a fashion designer. At one point she applied for Environmental Science and Psychology degrees. She even started scheming up ideas for a massive peaceful protest group.But before any of that came to pass, she went traveling. First to India and Nepal and then to Australia. There, she ended up spending  six months in a monastery, where she says she was transformed.“I shed all of my limiting beliefs about what I was (or wasn't) capable of...lifted the veil of the sham of society: the things that we go along with just because everyone else does (getting a degree, being this, being that, getting this status, following those rules etc). “This dramatic demolishing of self-doubt was absolutely essential in the fruition of my goal of reducing suffering in the world and made me feel limitless in my potential. I finally believed in myself and in the power of intentional living.”Her daily mantra became “let life flow through me freely for the benefit of all beings”. With this intention in my mind, she knew that anything she decided to focus on would be supported. Her first yoga and meditation venture was in Queensland, but her heart was in Central Otago, where her sister and family had become rooted once again. In her heart she knew that this was where she felt she could change the world by being a “good human”. Giving back to life, to her home.  And she added to her daily mantra a quote by Mahatma Gandhi.“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”++++++Flow Space Yoga is what she created. It’s where people in Central can find solace and healing through massage therapy, trauma therapy, Reiki, workshops on mental health and mindfulness training. Where kids can learn yoga and meditation. Where writers can share their work at regular open mic events. And where women convene for monthly Moon Circle gatherings. It’s where people can connect as a community. Ange has also pushed past the walls of her studio. She created and hosted the first ever Holsym Festival last December. Her intention was to “celebrate and integrate creativity, culture and community by uplifting, inspiring and strengthening connections and hauora. To use the arts as a way to support wellness through a variety of creative forms”. Yet, she does this year-round.As our Tibetan Singing Bowls class ends, we can hear the sounds of people laughing outside, leaving the bar next door. The idling of an engine, the roar of an unmuted muffler. I am so grateful. For all of it. To be here, with locals and transplants who fell in love with the energy in this part of the world. To find a community of people who are curious and open at the heart of a conventional small New Zealand town. To find a “good human” like Ange, who understands there is a balance in life. Even if it’s not always achieved by being in balance all the time. Who teaches us how to stretch ourselves. To step off the traditional path and onto our own. And to create our own temples, honouring and serving and nurturing our highest values and passions.

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I’ve always been a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to sport.  Case in point; I took up rugby at the age of 33.  That’s not entirely accurate; I did play at primary school, but saying I played is probably taking things a bit far.  Rugby for me at primary school involved handing over my marmite-jar thick glasses to the coach and then running around on a paddock while blurry blobs fuzzed around, and occasionally, into me.I think many of the guys I played rugby with later in life would say that the advent of contact lenses did little to develop my game, and that age and inexperience didn’t help.  I recall the first team announcement when I was put at lock and a few murmurings of surprise (given I’m 5’10”).  The coach addressed this by saying “look, he’s too small for the front row, too slow to be a loosie and too stupid to be a back”.  No-one disagreed, including me.  But, unlike when I was at primary school, I absolutely loved being part of the rugby team, and on the odd occasion even getting to play.  I have always found pursuing fitness without an end-purpose harder than when it has a sport associated with it, and training for rugby was awesome for that.  I also made great friends and created great memories, although the great memories were almost exclusively off the paddock.  I was rubbish at the game itself to be fair, but very devoted rubbish for the 5 years I played.  And the best bit of playing rugby was that it led me indirectly to meeting my wife Linda.Speaking of which, she and I took up boxing together in our mid-40’s.  Again, most would think this was a bit late in the piece, but we both absolutely loved the challenge, the physicality and the motivation that knowing a lazy week would result in a very sore Tuesday and Thursday night brought.So; we now get close to the point of the story, and that’s that we have found a new passion, and that passion is squash.  We both played a bit when we were a lot younger, but a chance event led us to having a hit together and we immediately found that we were well matched (meaning we are both equally hopeless) and that we really enjoyed playing together.  We have found the Alex Club to have been incredibly easy to join and very helpful to new players.  For instance, there are racquets there to borrow rather than forking out for a new one.  Here’s a random question; why the hell are squash racquets so expensive?!?Anyway, we are loving it, and finally, here I am at the point of the story.  Do something new, or do something you haven’t done for ages, but have a think about doing something you are not doing now, because the benefits are just massive.  Even if I do have folks at work asking me on Monday’s why I am limping so badly.