Image by Jon Fife, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.
Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:
1. Pretty much the only yoga-specific blog that I read on a regular basis, The Everything Yoga Blog, has a post titled Yoga Privilege that discusses the tendency that some typically-cheerful, focus-on-the-bright-side, spiritual folks have to actively avoid addressing the "dark" aspects of life. Combined with that, there is the possibility that someone will catch said people on a bad day and ask in a snarky tone, "I thought you were all about being grateful and everything being love?" The author (Diane DeGiorgio) defines this as yoga privilege—yogis are expected to be happy-go-lucky, zen, meditative, chill people who aren't supposed to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, impatient, afraid, or grumpy. Rather than buy into this outsider's opinion, DeGiorgio recommends that we give ourselves the permission to feel all of our feelings fully, even the "bad" or "negative" ones.
2. Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement showing that processed meat (like hot dogs and bacon) causes cancer. Eating 50 grams of processed meat (meat that has been salted, cured, fermented, smoked, or processed in another way) each day increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. In addition, red meat (which includes beef, lamb, and pork) was deemed "probably carcinogenic to humans" and has associations with colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer. In light of that news, I would like to encourage my friends and family to put down the plate of meat and pick up a plate of vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds!
3. During the same week that a South Carolina police officer was fired for violently throwing an unarmed (albeit unruly) high school teenager across the room, one cop in Washington DC spun a negative conflict into a positive dance-off that was fun for all. I highly recommend checking out the video. As one of the DC kids mentioned, "There are some good cops." Amen to that.
4. Turns out that people who have stressful jobs suffer from years being shaved off of their lives. In other words, according to science, your job is literally killing you.
5. Finally, to leave you with some otherworldly brain fodder, a think-piece that discusses the concept that if we encounter extraterrestrial life, it may be inorganic. This means that the aliens we're looking for may be more similar to our cell phones, televisions, computers, and aircraft than any organic life that exists on Earth. This idea does sit well with me, as it makes sense that the next "stage" in evolution could involve inorganic, rather than organic, life forms.
That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.