The Lowdown
Daily actions make an impact.
Whether it is the daily rituals of self-care to keep our mind and body healthy or making zero waste, sustainable choices and keeping Nature clean and wild.
It all adds up and matters.
Ayurveda returns us to the Earths heartbeat, aligning ourself with nature so fluidly that we become nature itself..... Listening to our bodies and care taking these glorious Temples we have been given.... Following the rhythms and cycles and seasons as they ebb and flow like riding the waves in the ocean or the gusts of wind in the sky. Soothing rituals and self-care effortlessly creates balance & resiliency. Like a flower who waits naturally for the perfect time to bloom, we flourish in our connection.
That number does not include conditioner, body wash or other bathing products –
only shampoo bottles!!
And what about shampoo's environmental impact? Like, in the water ? In the soil ?
As the shampoo leaves your hair, the chemicals are sent down your drain and out into the water supply. These chemicals have been found in wastewater, surface water, sediment, groundwater, and drinking water. Luckily, our drinking water is treated so you’re not ingesting those chemicals but our lakes, rivers, and oceans and all the plants and animals in them, are not.
These chemicals can harm both aquatic life and the animals that drink from these bodies of water.
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The chemicals in personal care products like SLES, SLS, parabens, formaldehyde, TEA and DEA, dioxane, TCS, methylisothiazolinone are known carcinogens. They can change the hormone levels in aquatic organisms, which can cause a variety of health problems, including damaging their ability to reproduce and countless birth defects that can affect an entire species. Not to mention beneficial bacteria death, overgrowth of algae, die off of foodchain populations.... just a few of the ways shampoo runoff water poisons and upsets the balance of the ecosystem.
And we lather ourselves up with this stuff, and put it all over our childrens' heads! Its in our toothpaste! Eeeww...
Save the manatees! Save the reefs! Look fabulous!
Dont even get me started on the Coral Reefs and the Aquifers....
How about I'll just list the top 4 pollutants....
Literally rubbing toxic ingredients all over our body
We read the backs of food packaging, so why don’t we check out the ingredients in shampoo before buying it? After all, our scalps absorb even more chemicals than our skin does, which increases chemical exposure.
Sulfates (SLS, SDS, SLES)
Sulfates make cosmetics foamy (think of the lather created when you wash your hair). Nearly 90 percent of hair care products contain some form of sulfates. However, You still might come across shampoos advertised as “Sulfate-Free” and for good reason. Sulfates can form carcinogens that result in kidney damage and hormone disruption. It can also acidify surface water and soil which damages surrounding ecosystems.
Parabens
Parabens have been proven to be linked to breast cancer cell growth. Although the preservative is incredibly dangerous and should be avoided, many cosmetic brands still use them in their products.
In addition to harming our health, parabens also take a toll on the planet. When released into the oceans, parabens also kill coral. They’ve been detected in surface waters, sediments, and even in marine mammals and fish — another great reason to not eat seafood!
Triclosan (TCS)
In 2016, TCS was banned from antibacterial soaps. However, it is still widely used in shampoos and other cosmetic products like toothpaste. This ingredient turns into chloroform (which is carcinogenic) when combined with the chlorine found in tap water. Like other cosmetic ingredients, TCS can disrupt hormones and cause cancer or affect the development of a fetus. That’s a heavy price to pay for shampoo.
In the environment, TCS can have similar reproductive effects on fish, causing developmental and reproductive delays in the animals and their eggs.
Formaldehyde
It’s outstanding that formaldehyde is still being used in some shampoos. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that can cause or worsen asthma, and cause toxicity and cancer. Environmentally, formaldehyde is just as harmful. The chemical breaks down quickly and creates formic acid and carbon monoxide, both of which are environmentally destructive.
If wildlife is exposed to formaldehyde they can become sick, may have trouble breeding, experience behavior or appearance-related changes, and live shorter lives. It’s also incredibly toxic to aquatic life.
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Even if you are lucky enough that your bottled shampoo and conditioner are free of these toxins, the bottle itself has a major impact on our environment .
Did you know....in the United States alone, 550 million empty shampoo bottles are thrown away every year, enough to fill 1,164 football fields.
Never buy another plastic bottle again...
make the move...
We need permanent global change.
This is why Body Temple Botanicals was formed. As much as we can work within this system and try and "clean up our act" by buying natural, local and sustainable products we can only go so far when we are including ingredients that alter the balance of our ecosystems and still packaging in plastic, throw away containers. Shipping one bottle of hair oil to Austrailia just isnt gonna cut it anymore, not for our children and our grand-children. Not for the Water and the forests that make those boxes for us, or the dinosaur bones that fuel that jet plane. We need BIG change, we need zero waste and conscience re-usable packaging, we need distance and quantity minimums for shipping products. We need to think differently about our daily rituals and their impacts and utilize our collective buying and selling power to shift the tides and level-up.
#sustainableisattainable
Why
Botanicals & Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is the world's oldest system of medicine that originated in India more than 5,000 years ago.
It is based on the Shad Darshan, the six philosophies of life, which were realized by the sages.
Ayuh means life and veda means science, so it translates as “The Science of Life”.
Ayurveda defines health as one who is established in Self, who has balanced doshas ( primary life force) balanced agni (waste products), well functioning bodily processes and whose mind, soul and senses are full of bliss is called a healthy person. A persons dosha is set at birth, and their specific path to health, from the Ayurvedic perspective, is to return to their "original" doshic make-up or their prakriti. Ayurveda relies heavily on refining the rituals of self-care (dinacharya) to balance a persons dosha; addressing and supporting daily, seasonal, and lifestage changes. Ayurveda first considers the Four Pillars of Life, guiding a person to look acutely at their personal rhythms and find balance through the eyes of their dosha. Lifestyle: routine. Nutrition: what we take in through our senses. Sleep: rest and digest. and Energy Management: dealing with stress. It also further supports health and wellness with the use of herbs and medicated oils, culinary spices, and clinical spa treatments.
Ayurveda is all about finding and maintaining balance. Health and wellbeing is not just about preventing disease but finding a rhythm and harmony within ourselves and with the world around us.
Instead of treating disease, Ayurveda treats patients.
Emphasizing prevention and focusing on cleansing and rejuvinating naturally.
Ayurveda teaches us to cherish our
innate nature - to love and honor who we are”
