Ep 35 - Navigating Microplastic Pollution with Ayurveda

Episode 35 – Navigating Microplastic Pollution with Ayurveda

What does Ayurveda have to say about living in a world filled with microplastics?

In this episode of Lean on Ayurveda, I reflect on the Netflix documentary The Plastic Detox by Shanna Swan and explore the topic through the timeless lens of Ayurvedic wisdom.

Rather than approaching this conversation through fear or panic, this episode is an invitation into grounded awareness, agency, and thoughtful action.

We explore:

• The Ayurvedic concept of Janapadodhwamsa — “destruction of communities due to a common cause”
• How ancient Ayurvedic teachings can help us navigate modern environmental challenges
• Why fear and anxiety are not supportive places from which to make decisions
• The role of Agni (digestive fire) in resilience and detoxification
• Seasonal cleansing and Rasayana (rejuvenative therapies) as tools for modern living
• Home cooking, fresh foods, and reducing plastic exposure through daily rituals
• My family’s gradual “plastic detox” process at home
• Letting go of perfectionism and making sustainable changes without drama
• Why pacing ourselves matters when making lifestyle changes

This is not an episode about doom or perfection.

Instead, I want to ask: “Who do I want to be in these circumstances?”

Resources Mentioned:

Documentary

• The Plastic Detox (Netflix)

Plastic Reduction Resources

• Unplastic Your Life (contains links to great plastic-free product guides/resources for US, such as grove.co)

Shop plastic-free (non-sponsored) in EU:

millimetres.be - candles & kitchenware (family run small business)

linentales.com - organic bed & kitchen linen & clothing made in Europe from 100% washed linen.

Dille-Kamille - plastic free kitchen ware

Work With Me

• Lean on Ayurveda Website
  
  
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Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

Speaker 0:02

Hi and welcome to the Lean on Ayurveda Podcast. Here makes you know how the ancient wisdom of Ayurvala can help us gain a deeper understanding in the body and open the gateway to finally feeling better.

Fear, Vata, And Staying Grounded

Life Inside A Microplastic Universe

Ancient Texts On Community Collapse

Food Habits That Cut Exposure

Protecting Agni And Building Resilience

Cleanses, Rasayana, And Right Conduct

Our Slow Household Plastic Detox

Agency, Karma, And How To Respond

How To Reach Out And Support

Speaker 1 0:22

Hello and welcome to episode 35. My name is Vytaute, I'm your host, and today I have a little bit of a broken voice, um, so it sounds a bit different, but it's still me, and I'm still super excited to um record this episode for you because this one is inspired by a documentary I saw recently, which I'm sure many of you perhaps have also seen because it's on Netflix, and that documentary is The Plastic Detox by Shana Swan. So if you've seen it already, that's great, and I think you'll find this episode as like an interesting add-on um coming from the Ayurvedic perspective on the whole situation. If you haven't seen the documentary, I will not be spoiling it for you. Um I will not go into too much detail about what's in there. Um but I do think it's a great idea to see it, especially if you are hoping to have babies one day, or you already had your babies and you're raising your babies, or if you hope to have grandkids one day, and even if you don't have kids and don't plan to, I still think it's a great documentary to see for anybody who even remotely cares about aging in good health. So, as a general rule, I have never been a fan of fear mongering. Um because simply put, when we instill fear in people, we cause their vata dosha to rise, which in itself can lead um towards many symptoms, right? Anxiety being one. Um that being said, there are also things I think certain truths that um it's important for us to recognize, and there are certain um certain things in life that I think we need to be able to face um simply because you know not looking at them is kind of like we come to a point where we are hiding our head in the sand. And I think as we go forward we can work on this capacity, um, and I think now it's absolutely necessary with everything that is going on in the world to um develop our capacity to look at things as they are, even when it might feel very uncomfortable, even when it might feel unfair, but being able to do so from a place of empowerment, knowing that there are things that we can do, there are things that we can change, and there are things that we can't change, right? And we can like work on our capacity to relax around the things that we can't change, right? And simultaneously use our agency for things that we can change. And so the interesting thing about this particular documentary for me, and you can tell me if you agree, is that the topic is delicate, the topic is uh one that um can inspire a lot of fear in people, a lot of desperation. Um yet this is not a doomsday scenario that this film is promoting. I actually found a lot of hope in this film and a lot of um, you know, a lot of space to empower every single one of us in our actions. So, this is what I want to talk to you about today. I want to talk to you about us living in a microplastic universe when we're living surrounded in plastic, when plastic is in our air, it's in our water, it's in our land, it's on our bodies, it's inside our bodies, and yet how can we navigate this? How can we still protect our health? How can we protect the health of our children and their future offspring? Right? Um, I feel like there is a lot that we can actually do. But first, let's look at since we are looking at this um problem of microplastics, um what would Ayurveda say about this issue? Because this is not an issue that was present all these thousands of years ago when Ayurvedic texts were put together, right? But Ayurvedic concepts, Ayurvedic wisdom is timeless, right? So it means that what is said in there must be in some way applicable to modern context, and so if we do look at ancient texts, we will find that they talk about something that's called Jhanapa Dodvansa. Okay, and jhanapa dodvansa literally means uh destruction of communities due to a common cause. So this is described in um in the Charak Samhita, which is one of um the main reference, Ayurvedic reference texts, and it talks about this destruction of communities due to a common cause, and that can be many things, right? So back in the day it would have been things like war, like epidemics, or even circumstances that have to do with climate. So, for example, having a severe drought, okay, and in the modern context, this is where our reality of living in this microplastic pollution would fit, okay? So when we're looking at Ayurvedic wisdom, this is the part where we can try and draw um inspiration, counsel on how to move forward, okay. And what's really interesting, um, you know, where Ayurveda starts differentiating, like where does that demolition, destruction of communities, um, where is that originating, right? And they describe different scenarios of that demolition being caused by something that's in the air, something that is in the water, something that is in the land or the region, right, or something that's happening with the climate, right? So it's like in the case of microplastic pollution, that would actually cover all of these, right? Because um there is pollution in the air, there is microplastics in the water we drink, there is microplastic pollution in the literal soil, right? And there is also a climate that is changing because of us burning what um plastics are made of, right? Um, so we can see how in this particular context, all of these um different, you know, like root cause locations of what is um that can be causing this distress to communities, they're actually all involved, which can actually contribute to this sense of helplessness, right? Like, what's the point of doing anything if if we're doomed anyway, right? I there I have people in my family who with whom I've spoken about this, and they feel powerless, right, in this context, because they view this through the lens of what's the point of trying, right? Which is a very natural reaction to have, right? When we have something that feels like it's coming at us from all different directions, it can be difficult to step into that place of agency, right? Interestingly, when Ayurvedic texts talk about jhana padododwamsa, which is that demolition of communities, destruction of the health of communities through these different channels due to different causes, they talk about adharma, so inappropriate behavior of humans as being one of the things that contributes to this janapadododwamsa, right? So this destruction of communities and um the demolition of the health of communities, which if you've seen the documentary, you will see that this adharma, so inappropriate human behavior, is beautifully exposed um in the film. And one more thing I also wanted to say that I felt I thought was really telling is that there is this concept of fever as being a symptom of this process of demolition of communities, right? This demolition of the health of communities. Um, the Sanskrit word for that is jvara. And the reason why I think it's such an interesting thing to unpack in this context is that obviously this would be more literally applicable in cases of an epidemic, for example, right? Like such a such as a flu epidemic or you know, chicken pox epidemic or measles or whatever it may be. But there is literal fever, and then there is there are other expressions of fever, right? Such as being hot-headed, being in hot pursuit, running ahead, click click, bye-bye, right? Going for convenience over and over, um, instead of going for what's right, right? And this lacking long-term vision that sounds like a kind of fever that the humanity has caught, right? Which is driving that microplastic pollution, right? So, um anyway, I thought it was interesting to look at like how we could apply Ayurvedaic wisdom to this current microplastic reality that we're living in, and you know, if we're drawing on the wisdom that was written down, this is what it would advise us to do. Okay, so the first thing it's not explicitly um laid out in this text um as it relates to this particular issue of jhana padodhwamsa, but um, this one I'm adding myself first of all, not giving into the fear, right? Because whenever we are living in fear and anxiety, this will be this elevated vata, this erratic vata will also be driving our actions, and so our actions will not be grounded in general, they will not be grounded in our true selves, they will be directed by our monkey mind, and that seldom can lead us to a better place, right? So that's the first thing. But now when it comes to like more specific recommendations, here is um here is what from the Ayurvedic perspective uh we could take from the ancient text to help us navigate this reality. Okay, so first of all, Ayurveda would always advise home cooking. Okay, when we resort to home cooking, we would have less plastic exposure, right? A lot of the microplastic um contamination comes through like ready-made meals um that are wrapped in plastic, and especially if we're like heating them up in a microwave, um so going for convenience over um for what is right, right? Um, and especially if we're doing this over and over again. So that's the first thing. Um trying to cook more at home and also like seeing cooking as a sacred ritual, I believe, is an antidote to this convenient way of living. Now it's not to say that we need to um run away from convenience, right? Because convenience can be nice sometimes, and convenience can be the medicine sometimes, but our cooking should not be reduced to convenience only, okay? Because the way that we nourish ourselves deserves more than just being convenient, right? Um then again, as we're circling around food, buying more fresh and local foods, right? The less plastic the food has, the more prana it will have, because foods that have been handled less, whether that's by humans or by machines, they will have more life force in them. So there is like this double win here that when we buy foods that are fresh and local, we are getting foods that are higher in life force, so our body benefits from them more if we digest them well, and we have less exposure to microplastics. The next big thing, right? Taking care of our agni, our digestive fire. This is true for you know, no matter the origin of what is the threat to the community, whether that's microplastics overtaking our water, air, and land, uh, whether that's climate change, whether that's a pandemic that we've had, um, or whether that's military conflict. Caring for our digestifier is the thing to do. Okay, if you can't do anything else, do this. Right? And um there are many ways to tend to our digestifier. Um, so I won't go into detail in this episode because this is not the point of this episode, but this is where working with an Ayurvedic professional can be really helpful because they will tailor practices that are helpful for your digestive fires specifically, right? Because our digestive fires are different in nature, right? They will be influenced by our birth constitution and they will definitely be influenced by what is happening with our doshas right now, right? So it's important to do the right things to support our digestive fire in how it is behaving currently. Okay, so caring for Agni is always important. Other recommendations, doing our seasonal cleanses, right? So this is part of you know dharmic living for a person who is in tune with the seasons, and doing seasonal cleanses several times per year, um where the intensity of the seasonal cleanse has been adapted to you as and your own bioindividuality is a practice that can help us navigate disruptions that come from outside. Because participating in seasonal cleanses harmonizes our doshas on a regular basis, right? So that's why we do seasonal cleanses regularly. It's not the kind of thing that you do once, check, I've done one, and off you go, and you never come back to it again. No, seasonal cleanses are meant to be gentle experiences if done at home. Um, they can be less gentle experiences if they're in a clinical setting where you're being supervised by a pancha karma specialist, but the point. Is that we return to these experiences and we allow our body to go through this cleansing process regularly, right? Because that is what prevents a buildup of doshas, and that is what helps maintain our agni, our digestifier, in good health, which means that our body will be better placed, better equipped to deal with whatever comes our way, right? Whether that's uh eliminating microplastics from our body more efficiently, whether that's eliminating a disease more efficiently. Another element that ancient Ayurvedic texts point us to in cases like this one when our body is exposed to a pollutant is doing rasayana chikitsa, right? So that is um rejuvenative therapies that are usually brought in after a cleanse is completed, right? And these rasayana therapies, these rejuvenative therapies can be continued for uh usually they would be continued for much longer uh than the the the time of the the cleanse um itself. And the text the texts talk about it as I'm quoting now Rasayana Chikitza forms the backbone of treatment of jhana padodvansa, right? So these rejuvenative therapies are um the backbone of treatment for whenever things come into a community that are trying to destroy it, right? Um, or something comes our way that is like menacing our health, the health of the whole community, and that is because rasayana is pivotal in enhancing the immune response, right, to pathogenic external the texts say, and internal invasion and stress. So on this podcast, there are actually several episodes that talk about Rasayana specifically, and this is a topic that I always cover at length when I do um community seasonal cleanses. Um but if you wanted to start somewhere, I would say start with episode number eight where I talk about a very specific type of rasayana or rejuvenative therapy. Then the texts also recommend non-pharmacological and psychotherapy-based approaches, okay, in contexts like this one, and they include sadita palana, which is following proper code of conduct, right? So this is a very interesting one because you can ask yourself in this case of microplastic pollution, what is my proper code of conduct, right? And that will look different for each and every one of us, but like the way I understand this, what is for me to do, right, as a mother in in the household, right? What is mine to fix, and what is not mine to fix, right? And what am I going to relax about because there's nothing that I can probably do, right? So um this is an interesting one to contemplate. Um then there are behavioral attributes like satya bhassana, which is honesty, right? So that can be honesty with yourself and honesty with others, compassion, right? So when um I saw this documentary, for example, I realized that I have a buttload of plastic in my kitchen, and I thought I was one of these people who never buys plastic, right? I shop at the farmer's market, I have my beautiful straw trolley that I take. I don't use plastic bags, I don't buy plastic bags. Um, in general, I don't like buying food that has been wrapped in plastic. Yet after seeing this documentary, I was like, Oh, I have been doing a like I have been not seeing a lot, right? And so part of that compassion piece is like, okay, now I have this new way of seeing, this new pair of eyes, right? After being exposed to this information, and I can just move on and like step into empowerment and move on to like what is the proper code of conduct for me now, and not dwell on the part of like, oh, for all these years I have been exposing my kids to this or that, right? I simply like didn't realize or didn't know better, right? So being able to access that self-compassion is really important, it helps our body do its thing when we're able to meet ourselves with that compassion. So then there are a lot of other recommendations, but I um feel like I want to, it's probably more powerful if I name just a few and then let you kind of ruminate on them and and see how these ones land for you. And then I also wanted to share with you what um how I am interpreting my own code of conduct um in this situation after having seen the documentary. Okay, so you can kind of see like our process as a household, and if you choose to implement any changes, I will leave some good resources that have been recommended by Shauna Swan, and also some of my own resources that I have used so far on this journey, and maybe you will find some inspiration in the way that I have chosen to go about this, or maybe you will think of a different way for you. But um, nevertheless, I wanted to share my process. So when we saw this documentary with my husband, uh we were a little bit shaken up by this documentary, but as I say, like for me, it wasn't in a fearful way, it was more like in a I want to do something about this kind of way, which is a good place to be. And so what we decided to do, and I think this is very important if you have a big reaction to something, whether that's you know, this documentary or or you you're exposed to some other information out there, and suddenly you have this big desire to change a lot about your life, right? Um, what is helpful is to build a structure around the change and make sure that it's happening at a steady pace. I can't emphasize this enough because when we try to do a huge overhaul of our lives that um you know especially can involve like the the whole household, and if you know, if there are like other people there and they will be affected, that can create an imbalance of of its own, right? And sometimes doing a big overhaul is an answer, sometimes having a huge disruption is the medicine, but in many cases, uh you know, like here for me, there's so many moving pieces, and there's also like a considerable financial investment if you really want to change a lot about your household, right? And if you want to do the things well and in a sustainable way, you need to find a rhythm that will work for you, right? So, what um we are doing with my husband is that we are dedicating about a month to our kitchen, right? And really looking at so what I did was um after I saw this documentary, I have kind of like collected all of the plastic items from my kitchen, which was a really shocking thing to do because I realized like I filled out an entire shopping bag, like one of these big carry bags, um, with plastic stuff, and I thought my kitchen was pretty much plastic free. It turns out no, it wasn't. It turns out there was plastic where I didn't see it, and so what I'm doing is I didn't like chuck it all out, but I have it um sitting outside my kitchen, and I am um trying to go about my kitchen business in a way without using these items, and what I'm doing throughout this month is taking note of what I am missing and taking note of the purchases I need to make and how many of what I need, right? So, this is my process for um deplastifying my kitchen stuff and cookware, and uh I mean my cookware was um was already uh clean, but you you wouldn't believe how much plastic I still found um in my cupboards and my drawers. So, this is what I'm doing for as far as the kitchen goes. Then, you know, the following month, for example, we are going to be um sorting out the cleaning products because um that is something that I also feel will take quite a bit of my brain space because I will need to work out like I want to go back to making my own detergent, which is something that I used to do uh years ago when my kids were babies, but then I have slipped back into convenience, right? So this is something that I want to tackle, but not at the same time, right? Um we always want to have like to really pace ourselves when we're bringing about change, whether that's in our routine or that's in you know our household as a whole. So pacing ourselves is good. Another place where we have started the process um after having seen the documentary is um going through um our clothing and really reading the labels, um you know, and whenever we and kind of like I'm putting clothes aside that are not a hundred percent natural fibers, right? So that they might have polyester in them or another kind of um synthetic um fibers, so I'm also setting them aside, and since I know that many of you who are listening to this podcast are um yoga practitioners, um I wanted to also say that for me, my Lululemons are also now sitting in that pile, and I've spent a lot of money on them in the past, but now they're sitting in this pile, and I know that they will have to go bye-bye. Um, but I'm allowing myself this like grace period where I get to see them in this discard pile, and I get to make peace with the fact that they're made up of stuff that is not good for me. That is simply what is, and I can choose not to have any drama about it. I can choose not to engage with that part of my brain that might be saying, but do you know how much money you spend on these things? How can you just chug them out? Well, it turns out you can. Once you've seen enough, you can, right? And I think this this can be um, you know, this Lululemon story um and not having drama about it can be um a good illustration of what can happen when we have seen with our own eyes, like when we have been exposed to the knowing of the truth of things, right? So, for example, if you have the like if you kind of know that when you're working on your bedtime routine, you you kind of know what is helpful for you in the evening and what is not helpful for you in the evening, right? So you you know better, you know that watching Netflix at night is gonna disrupt your sleep, and you know that you will pay for it the next day with your energy, with your mood, with your health, right? But you do it anyway, right? But there comes a point in this inner knowing when you just accept things as they are, right? And that can take a lot of our inner drama, like will I, won't I, should I, should I not? It can make things really clear, right? This has got to go. And that's it, right? Uh, and it's actually very easy. I have them sitting in a pile, but I feel like it's it's not that I feel attachment to them. Um, it's more like a reminder that they are no longer um deserving a place in my wardrobe, right? Um in the same way that you know if if you are prone to like watching Netflix at night when you know you should be sleeping, you can get to a place of choosing to not have any drama about this, choosing to see things as they are and decide that Netflix after a certain hour or TV after a certain hour doesn't deserve a place in my calendar during you know the work week or whatever it is that you know um you you feel is appropriate for you. So our process in this um plastic detox journey is really gradual. That is what we are choosing to do, and um I would be really curious to hear if you are on the journey or you would like to be on the journey, how are you doing it? What works for you, and again, a reminder that um choosing to surrender to fear is never ever helpful, and also like looking from the Vedic perspective, we have chosen to be here at this time. It means you know it's part of our karma to be right where we are in these exact conditions, so there is a part of us, a part of our high selves that has chosen this, right? So it means that um that is what is given, right? Yet what we do with it is up to us. So who do we want to be in these particular circumstances, right? And some of us will be loud voices, right? Some of us will speak up, some of us will be quieter voices of resistance, like educating ourselves and educating our family members and making like little choices that feel aligned with our purchasing power as well, right? Because there's that that needs to be taken into account. So as I wrap up this episode with my deep and broken voice today, I'd be super curious to hear your views on um the plastic detox, the documentary by Shana Swang. If you've seen it, um let me know. Let me know what you thought of it, let me know if it inspired you to take action, or um perhaps you had a different type of reaction. Um, and you can um you can reach out to me either by sending a comment. So if you're listening on Spotify, you can send a comment um on the episode. Uh, you can always email me at hello at lean onaiurvata.com and you can also reach out to me um via social media. If you enjoyed this episode, remember to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any future episodes, and consider leaving me a rating or a review for the Linan Ayrada podcast because this really helps support the show and it really helps this show to be discovered by other people who have no idea that it exists yet. Um, you can also support my work by sharing and tagging me on social media and sharing this episode with a friend. Alright, thank you for being here, thank you for listening all the way until the end, and I look forward to connecting with you in a couple of weeks. Have a lovely day.