Teacher Profile: Jen Jivani Futterman

Teaching the Yoga of Respecting Nature

Trees were some of my best friends when I was a kid,” Jen Jivani Futterman recalls. “I would come home from school and spend hours sitting up in the loquat trees in my backyard.” Jivani looks for ways to encourage the connection to nature she valued. She explains, “Right now, most kids simply don’t have access to nature. We have to get our children back in nature, and get this connection going.”

While a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, being introduced to yoga and deciding to pursue environmental studies were two pivotal experiences for Jivani. From the first moment she stepped barefoot onto her yoga mat, Jivani felt like she was stepping into a sacred space. “I loved learning this practice of coming home into my body,” Jivani explains. “There was an awareness of the breath and body, and a quieting of the mind. It was all about my experience, how I felt, and allowing myself to be guided by the teacher. I could let go, get out of my head, and just trust.”

Several years later, as a single mother with an eight-month-old, Jivani surprised herself by moving to Southern California – specifically to Palm Springs where she found ways to pursue her passions of teaching yoga and promoting environmental education.

Jen Jivani Futterman

At the Natural Science Department of the Palm Springs Desert Museum, where she was involved in natural science outreach in the public schools and leading nature hikes for adults, Jivani teamed up with Region 10 Riverside Inyo Mono San Bernardino (RIMS) California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC). CREEC is a statewide network that promotes high quality environmental education for teachers, students and the community at large. When the natural science department closed at the museum in 2004, she continued her work as CREEC’s desert communities’ network coordinator and also began teaching yoga.

Through this combination of vocations, Jivani realized the connection between teaching kids yoga and encouraging their commitment to the Earth: “An individual yoga practice enables [kids] to take action to live in balance. I view it as the microcosm being the self, and the macrocosm being the Earth. We are part of the whole. As individuals, it is crucial to first take care of ourselves and our well-being, so that we are then able to take care of our local environments, and the living, breathing Gaia, Mother Earth.”

Jivani values educational programs based on the natural environment. “Nature offers lessons ranging from using mathematics to investigating plant growth, scientific principles in gardening or exploring language arts by sitting in a garden with journal and pen.We could make the world our living laboratory. And in the end, you have kids who understand and make a connection to nature. Once you have this, it’s harder to destroy this natural flow. Nature becomes relevant.”

This is becoming a shared vision – and necessary. No Child Left Inside is a movement created by Connecticut’s Governor M. Jodi Rell and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to encourage families to enjoy parks, forests and waterways. This latest program is slowly pushing forward as the failed No Child Left Behind policy dwindles.

“When you’re at the beach, you take your shoes off and something just happens. We all need experiences with nature, whether on the beach, walking on trails or connecting with plants or animals,” Jivani says. Inspired by Disney’s Environmentality Challenge (a program that gets grade-schoolers fired up about helping the environment) Jivani wanted to educate students beyond grade school.

With local CREEC network partners including RIMS Service Learning and the Wildlands Conservancy, she helped organize the Environmental Youth Experience (EYEEYEEYE), a day-long, skill-building conference to inspire and prepare diverse youth in grades 6-12 for a life of environmental service and leadership. Jivani hopes this will be the first of many, and grow nationwide.

“The main idea of the program was to put the education in the hands of teens, and let them be the ones who spearhead the service. The point is for the youth to take their new awareness and bring it home.” Students in the EYE program choose projects, from ordering recycling bins for schools to exploring creative ways to raise awareness. For example, one group has toured to other schools performing a rap about global warming: “It’s Getting Hot in Here.”

Because of Jivani’s commitment to education through example, EYE maintained a minimal conference footprint. Printed materials were minimized, and when necessary, published on recycled paper. Reusable plates and biodegradable cutlery were incorporated in food service. Tanya Petrovna, former CEO and founder of Native Foods, donated an organic vegan lunch which proved that you can eat lower on the food chain and enjoy high-quality delicious food. Jivani hopes EYE and other like-minded programs will inspire students, parents and educators to consider present environmental commitments and future impacts.

“In yoga, we strive to be present, not only for the benefits of the now, but also to have a good future,” Jivani says. “We link the little self with the big Self, the body, mind and breath. I hope to have children do exactly the same. That’s what it’s all about. We need to see we are the microcosm within the macrocosm and realize the connection between the health of all living beings and the health, well-being and sustainability of our Earth.

Jen Jivani Futterman teaches at Urban Yoga in Palm Springs: Urbanyoga.org Stay in touch with Jen at shaktigaia@gmail.com.

Laura Marcove