Seva

BE-A-LIGHT

Be a light unto yourself.
If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
- the last teachings of the Buddha as he was dying

To Be a light unto yourself is to realize the light within us – literally our solar-charged cells as well as the power of realization – to awaken from within and connect beyond our limited perception.

GIVE A LAMP TODAY

100% of your donation goes to buying a lamp for homeless or at-risk youth through our "Be-A-Light" program.

For the Malibu Wishtoyo Chumash Village, kids come to the village to be in nature by the ocean (often for the first time) and are given a lamp to use to light the night for school work at night, safety and for inspiration.

Every $13 donation gets a lamp to someone.

Click here to donate.

We often take the power of light for granted. In Africa, only 13% of the population has electricity and globally over 1.3 billion people light the night with kerosene tin lamps – a toxic fuel source that is equivalent to 4 packs of cigarettes a day. This toxic fuel also costs 20-50% of a family’s income as light is so important for education, keeping basics like clinics open, and particularly for safety and reducing violence towards women.

Solar Lanterns are now an accessible, renewable, positive solution that is creating a people-to-people solution as micro-business and solar-lending libraries through the solar light company D.Light (founded by a peace-corps volunteer) have provided over 47 million lamps worldwide sine 2003.

After several years of research, I have started the “Be-A-Light” Solar Lamp Project to activate the yoga community and beyond to support the power of Solar Lanterns right in your own home and globally at the same time. The concept is to empower solar ambassadors to work people-to-people in their community by giving them direct access to ordering lamps and empowering their community.

Personally, I live in a solar home, drive a solar-powered electric car or cycle, and started the Solar Lantern Project “Be-A-Light” to supports people-to-people grassroots solar projects locally and in East Africa (in partnership with d.light and www.solar-aid.org) who have spread solar lamps to over 47 million people worldwide.

Here in LA we are focusing on providing solar lamps to make a small dent and empower the some 15,000 homeless youth who go to school in the LA Unified School district and often have to live without light at night to study or just feel safe. This is the same issue around the world where over 25% of the world’s population lives without electricity with the majority (1.3 billion) using toxic kerosene lamps instead of the non-polluting, renewable solar lanterns. I lived with a kerosene lamp for six months in Kenya when there was no alternative available and the black smoke from those toxic lamps was awful.

I feel empowered to give back and try to elevate our consciousness and positive actions towards greater energy, care of natural resources and renewable energy.

International Year of the Light

For over 1.5 billion people around the world, night-time means either darkness or the dim glow of an unhealthy kerosene lamp or candle. Such poor-quality lighting has a dramatic impact on health and educational opportunities, and an important aim of the International Year of Light will be to promote the use of portable solar-powered high-brightness LED lanterns in regions where there is little or no reliable source of light. This website has resources explaining this problem, explaining how we are planning to address it, and showing how you can get involved.

In developing and third-world countries without access to electricity, 1.3 billion people depend on kerosene for light. The burning of kerosene lamps leads to the death of 1.5 million people every year. Inhaling kerosene smoke is the equivalent of smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day, and commonly induces respiratory illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and cancer in tens of millions of people. The open flame of kerosene lamps also pose as an obvious danger to households. Moreover, impoverished families spend up to half of their income on kerosene, which not only provides inadequate illumination but also emits extremely harmful black carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere. Kerosene lamps contribute to a vicious cycle of poverty that needs to be broken.

Providing clean, efficient forms of energy to developing communities is not only important for health reasons; it is also vital for productivity. Families in rural communities rely on work to provide for the most basic needs of their family, and are currently limited in hours due to scarce lighting after sunset. The majority of children in developing countries are also expected to work during the day to help provide for their family. With no or inadequate light at night, these youth are unable to read or write, and thus deprived of an education. Possibly the most pressing issue of all is access to healthcare. Hospitals are able to care for patients during the day but shut down operations at night because they do not have adequate lighting. With limited health care professionals and increasing levels of illnesses and disease in developing countries, it is crucial that these hospitals receive new means of lighting.

Difficulty convincing these off-grid communities that sustainable, high-tech lighting alternatives is the reason many are still using kerosene lamps. There are countless organizations that devote their efforts towards providing clean lighting in the form of solar and LEDs,

We just can’t seem to break our addiction to the kinds of fuel that will bring back a climate last seen by the dinosaurs, a climate that will drown our coastal cities and wreak havoc on the environment and our ability to feed ourselves. All the while, the glorious sun pours immaculate free energy down upon us, more than we will ever need. Why can’t we summon the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us? The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What’s our excuse? – Neil de Grasse Tyson

Courtesy: Light Up The World (lutw.org)

GIVE A LAMP TODAY

100% of your donation goes to buying a lamp for homeless or at-risk youth through our "Be-A-Light" program.

For the Malibu Wishtoyo Chumash Village, kids come to the village to be in nature by the ocean (often for the first time) and are given a lamp to use to light the night for school work at night, safety and for inspiration.

Every $15 donation gets a lamp to someone.

Click below to donate.

INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES:

Yoga Journal: “Planted Planet”

Yoga Journal: “Global Yoga Event Celebrates Peace”

Yoga Journal: “Yogis: Take Action on Earth Day”

Yoga Journal: “10 Body Mudras to Celebrate Earth Day with Shiva Rea”

MindBodyGreen: “Yoga and Earth Day”

YEA! Yoga Energy Activism

“We must use time creatively. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative, peaceful extremists (in service to the people).

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Namaskaram!

I would love to invite you to be an Energy Ambassador through simple participation in the Yoga Energy Activism (YEA) campaign.

Our energy future has no borders. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are interconnected as every community is "downwind" of the next.

We waste more energy that we create - 54% according to GOOD magazine’s issue dedicated to clean energy.

The good news is that it would only take .02% of the current solar energy from the sun alone to supply power to the entire world. We are abundant in natural renewable energy BUT WE CHOOSE and are dependent on toxic, non-renewable energy sources both as a lifestyle and often as an inner state.

The yoga community is full of natural participants for this grassroots awareness campaign in which individual efforts can have a powerful collective ripple effect.

Yoga has always been intimately connected to the prana of nature from the open air yoga centers (shalas) to the knowledge of synching the body with the elements. During many holi-days connected to the moon and the sun, many people fast or feast, alone or with family, “unplugged” from modern energy use with only candlelight as a way to be more connected. Through that natural act of either not using energy or using energy in a special way (a walking pilgrimage), the body is attuned to a deeper rhythm AND the side benefit - you actually save energy. Quite a bit of energy.

We are encouraging yoga practitioners around the world to unplug, tune in and take responsibility for our energy future. By participating, we are encouraging the yoga world to take an energy fast-Sabbath for a day. Our main goals are to reduce consumption, reduce waste, and increase awareness in our homes and in our communities. These YEA regeneration days are days to take a technology fast, create meals that produce no waste, use alternative energy sources, and celebrate the abundance of natural energy and resources all around us with our friends and family.

Please see below for simple ways to participate and be involved in the YEA Movers + Shakers Project: SolarAid Campaign as a tangible way to feel the strength of the collective, get your community involved.

For the earth,

Shiva

YEA! Yoga Energy Activism

Join the energy revolution! Become an energy activist by committing to transforming our inner and outer sources of fuel from toxic and limited to healthy and renewable. YEA! Inspires, educates, and provides resources for yogis to become leaders in a green future for all.

WAKE-UP AND PARTICIPATE on an individual or community level in creating a cleaner energy future. Unplug Tune-In Recharge

WHAT? YEA! is about committing to use less energy for as long as you can (from one hour to the entire day)and waste less energy and support energy regeneration. It is about conscious energy use and moving toward actively minimizing our carbon imprint on the planet.

WHY? We waste more energy than we use. We throw away more food than we eat. We are the #1 Trash Producing Nation. We have an abundance of natural energy to tap into. It takes only .02% of the Sun’s energy to power the earth’s current needs

Simple Steps for getting involved (take a try at it!):

1. Decide how and what to unplug and for how long. Here are a few ideas:

• Bike instead of drive
• Use solar or candle light for zero electricity use
• Unplug all applicances• turn off cell phones, computers, ipods...(except refrigerator)
• Rest, be with lovers, family, friends, read, reflect, create, play, be quiet, be festive
• Go for zero or as little waste as possible by composting and recycling
• cook less, eat less, waste less
• Reduce water consumption: flush one less time / cut 2-6 minutes off your shower
• Reading
• Journaling
• Longer meditation and yoga practice
• Fasting: eating once or twice a day, or juice fast, or fruit + vegetable fast

2. Go to Facebook and sign up to participate via our Yoga Energy Activism group page - unplug, use zero waste, and tune in with thousands of other yoga practitioners around the world to inspire positive global change.

• Post ideas, and ways for us to get more people and studios involved in change
• Post photos of your Global Mala event

Post your personal experience

SolarAid Campaign

One small light, one big idea

A solar lamp does more than shine a light. A solar lamp protects the environment and transforms lives.

598 million off-grid Africans have no access to electricity and many rely on toxic kerosene for lighting. These brutal lamps emit noxious black smoke and burn up to 20% of the household income - locking millions into poverty. By contrast solar lights cost as little as $10, pay for themselves after 12 weeks and last for five years. Having free, clean light and not wasting money on kerosene transforms peoples’ chances in life. We have taken on the challenge of getting these lights to the people that need them most and aim to get a clean light into every home in Africa by the end of the decade.

Learn more about SolarAid.

Call to Action!

Be a Mover and Shaker for YEA! Get your studio and students involved!

Join a worldwide grassroots activation of the yoga community connected through the Global Seva Challenge and the Global Mala Project to save energy, CO2 emissions and waste through Energy Sabbaths and Take the pledge:

"I pledge as an energy activist to take responsibility for my personal energy consumption, get informed on the direct and indirect impacts of my energy demands, and mobilize my community toward greater collective sustainability for the benefit of all beings and future generations on this planet."

YEA Thank you!

INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

Mantra Magazine: “Five Steps to a Water-Conserving, Ojas-Building Lifestyle”

Mantra Magazine: “Doing Nothing to do Something”

LA Yoga Magazine: “YEA! Yoga Energy Activism”

YogaDownload.com – Yoga Energy Activism

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Yoga Energy Activism Speakeasy at Wanderlust

Yoga Journal LIVE!: Meet Shiva Rea – Yoga Energy Activism

YogaDownload.com – Yoga Energy Activism

Global Mala Project

Founded by Shiva Rea in 2007, the Global Mala Yoga for Peace is a seed of a world-wide experiment into the power of meditation in action. This event is offered annually in conjunction with worldwide celebrations of the Global Mala project in over 50 countries, uniting the global yoga community from every continent, school, and approach to form a "mala around the earth" through collective practices based upon the sacred cycle of 108. The intention is to join thousands of planetary rituals that are raising consciousness on Fall Equinox and UN International Peace Day. Learn more about Global Mala at www.globalmala.org.

INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

Yoga Journal: “Global Yoga Event Celebrates Peace”

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Global Mala Introduction

Global Mala NJ 2012 by Studio Live TV

Global Mala 2012 Newark NJ

Global Mala Worldwide Movement Meditation – Live Streamed Sept 21, 2013