By now I’m sure most—if not all—of you have heard of Shane Koyczan, the amazing spoken word poet from British Columbia. Perhaps you watched him perform at the Olympics, saw his recent anti-bullying video To This Day (IT IS A MUST-WATCH YOU GUYS), or heard some of his lesser known work (Move Pen Move is one of the most heartbreaking pieces of writing ever). Anyways, Koyczan recently teamed up with cleaning supply brand Seventh Generation to promote toxin-free living. So he wrote a poem about it!

 

They’ve also suggested some easy ways to live a more toxin-free life, which I actually find really useful:

  • Once a week, even in the winter, open all the windows in your house for five minutes. This releases the vapours and brings fresh air into your house—it needs to breathe, too!
  • Don’t recycle your receipts. They ain’t your typical paper! They actually contain Bisphenol A that will contaminate other recyclables. So, either throw them in the trash or go paperless all together if you can.
  • Trust your nose. If it’s good enough to follow it’s good enough to trust, amirite?! (Stupid line? Yeah I think so. Sorry.) If something smells bad it may contain a Volatile Organic Compound, which you don’t want to be inhaling.
  • Get plants! They exhale things you want, and they want things you exhale—beneficial for all parties involved. Plus they spruce up a home real nice! Speaking of which, I need to water my phalaenopsis plant soon.
  • “Unscented” is not the same thing as “fragrance-free.” Sometimes “unscented” products actually contain hundreds of secret chemicals that aren’t the best for ya. Improve your label literacy!

And as Koyczan says: “Play as if it’s ok because it is; live as if life gets dirty because it does.”