Divas That Care Network
The #DivasThatCare movement is a dynamic force of positivity and progress. It's a collective of empowered women united by a shared vision: to pave the way for future generations. These women are not only breaking barriers—they’re also committed to equipping the next generation with the tools, resources, and confidence to lead with purpose.
By discovering and defining your purpose, you unlock the power to uplift those around you and contribute to a better world—every single day.
The Divas That Care Change Makers lead by example. They’ve walked the path, and now they’re using their voices to inspire others—one intentional day at a time.
Divas That Care Network
Intend to Sustain
Come and listen while Host Gia-Raquel Rose, owner of Airs Above Yoga chats with today's guest Ann Scheerer.
Ann Scheerer, PhD, is a professor of environmental sciences and sustainability and a longtime meditation and yoga practitioner. Ann's courses explore the current "unsustainable" planetary situation and engage students in designing social responses to prepare for changing conditions. Ann believes contemplative practices like meditation and yoga are crucial for personal resilience in these complex and uncertain times. She came to Yin Yoga practice to slow down and listen to her body. Through deep and long Yin yoga poses, she found a deeper connection to her body and to the earth. These practices have supported Ann's teaching and influenced her curriculum. As a proponent of slowing down, Ann encourages students to be more aware of our choices and self care. Ann embraces change and has shifted her career a few times following her curiosities and earning multiple degrees. In addition to her PhD, Design and Planning, she has obtained two Master's degrees - MSLS (Master of Strategic Leadership for Sustainability) and MPA (Master of Public Administration).
What if sustainability wasn't just about saving the planet, but about creating a more fulfilling life for ourselves? Our guest, a university sustainability instructor and yoga teacher, reveals how her path shifted from corporate work to community-based sustainability action, forever changing her perspective on what truly matters.
At the heart of sustainable living lies a powerful concept: efficiency. Before investing in solar panels or electric vehicles, we must first address the efficiency of our homes, habits, and systems. As our guest explains, "Efficiency is really the number one thing to look at because it usually can be addressed by a behavior change." Those changes—sealing windows, insulating properly, reducing food waste—create the foundation for meaningful environmental impact while often saving money and improving quality of life.
The conversation explores the "tragedy of the commons," where public resources become degraded when no one takes ownership, and how community cooperation offers the solution. When we engage with our neighbors through river cleanups, trail maintenance, or local food systems, we not only protect shared resources but fill our own cups through meaningful connection. These community bonds represent the antidote to convenience culture, where quick decisions often lead to environmental harm and disconnection from place.
Simple swaps emerged as powerful tools for change—bringing reusable bags to farmers markets, carrying water bottles instead of buying single-use plastic, walking more often, buying in bulk to reduce packaging, and supporting local businesses. The "100-mile diet" challenge of sourcing most food from within 100 miles exemplifies how sustainability practices can deepen our connection to place while reducing environmental impact. As our guest reminds us, "It's not like all doom and gloom based on maybe mainstream what we hear in the news, because those people are still doing the work."
Ready to ground yourself in sustainable practices? Listen to this episode, then join us for our special Earth Day meditation designed to deepen your connection with the natural world. What one small change will you make today to benefit both yourself and the planet we all share?
For more Divas That Care Network Episodes visit www.divasthatcare.com
It's Divas that Care Radio Stories, strategies and ideas to inspire positive change. Welcome to Divas that Care, a network of women committed to making our world a better place for everyone. This is a global movement for women, by women engaged in a collaborative effort to create a better world for future generations. To find out more about the movement, visit divasthatcarecom. After the show. Right now, though, stay tuned for another jolt of inspiration.
Speaker 2:Namaste and welcome to the Divas that Care Network. I'm your host, gia Raquel Rose, owner of Heirs Above Yoga, and you're listening to Above the Ground podcast, if this is your first time tuning in. Our network is going into its 15th year and is listened to in over 30 countries. I'd like to personally thank you for giving me the gift of your time, as it is my honor to hold space with you, and today again, we are in for a very special treat with a dear friend and also yoga instructor, by day or by night and share, and with a very important and very, very oh gosh I want to use the word magnanimous, quote unquote day job, and she is here to share with us. You know what called her heart there, the reasons why she made the shift, and with that would you please introduce us and let us know exactly what called you to sustainability and to you know how we can all better serve ourselves, our communities and our planet.
Speaker 2:I hope, yeah. Thank you yeah exactly In time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you very much for the introduction and for having me back here. For the introduction and for having me back here. I appreciate that greatly and gives me a chance to to talk about myself and my work. So that's always fun. But yes, ask questions if I get off topic. Yeah, I really appreciate the chance to talk a little bit about my role as teaching sustainability courses to people and what is sustainability and why does it matter?
Speaker 3:I came upon sustainability as a topic in general back 1997, last century, when I was making a career change and I had been in the corporate world and was kind of looking for something that I could kind of understand better in terms of my place in the world. So I decided to do a career change, moved to Seattle and got involved with some volunteering on the ground and community around, gardening and connecting with a lot of like-minded folks that were looking for a little bit more from life than maybe the corporate world. So I connected with this group and really got involved in sustainability at the community level, like that's where it all starts. So I myself got involved with that, worked for a local government, worked for some nonprofits, helping to. You know, a big part of it is to do outreach and get do community education as to different choices, right Transportation choices that we have out there, ways that we can reduce our waste and dispose of waste. So I really got into working on sustainability issues and decided to pursue my education. So I've been always loving learning new things, so I followed that path in as kind of these issues were emerging in the world, and so that was a pivotal time, I think in my career was to engage in something that now, as one of my primary philosophies teaching philosophies is to get students engaged in their community in a way that they can observe what sustainability might look like in their community.
Speaker 3:So I do a lot of community-based projects and where students are teaching, both online students as well as students that are on campus in my past role, students that are on campus in my past role. So we've done things like a waste audit for the university, so a practical application of what does the waste look like here. That's a via, you know, kind of characterization study so we know how to get to the root cause of things and stop those behaviors that are causing certain ways and how do we design programs around that. So we do a lot of problem solving and depending on kind of frameworks that spell out the principles of sustainability and strategies for for moving forward sustainability and strategies for moving forward. So, in a nutshell, teaching, you know, undergrads and graduate students to think about how to apply some of these lofty concepts in the real world. What I'm trying to do.
Speaker 2:And would you say that, you know, sustainability has kind of what I will say, almost a direct parallel or correlation to efficiency, Because it sounds like just by and again we're just picking you picked the audit that you did as an example, but you know, when we're talking about long term trends of of, let's say, usage, consumption, that kind of a thing Is it? Efficiency has to play a role in not only waste on a mass level, the way that you're talking about, but even in our communities, in our day to day and in our own personal lives, right? So would you say that that plays. How important role is efficiency and how does that help us? You know, on the macro versus the micro level.
Speaker 3:Oh, that is huge. Efficiency is really the number one thing to look at, because efficiency usually can be addressed and responded to by a behavior change. Responded to by a behavior change. So if we look at energy which is a good example, so like our energy usage in our home, we can there's two strategies. Basically, efficiency how efficient are you? Is your tight? Is your envelope of your building tight, so you're not losing a lot of energy, you know? Are you? You know insulated? Is it insulated well enough? Are your windows? You know air leak? So just really it insulated well enough? Are your windows? You know air leak? So just really the tightness of the envelope of your home is really the efficiency of your home.
Speaker 3:And then are the kind of strategies to do more of a adaptation or reducing as your source. So you can put on solar panels, for examples. But if you don't have an efficient house to begin with, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do solar panels because it's such an investment. So you got to make sure you've got a tight building. That actually can be a lot of savings there. Um, so efficiency is number one strategy. But but then you can also do get renewable energy sources so you might reduce your carbon emissions, which we've proven have caused a greenhouse gas effect which is trapping heat gases in our planet. That is causing climatic weirdness, right, right, um, wildfires, uh, flooding, you know things happening. Extreme storms in the gulfs, uh, gulf coast. So we're seeing these things play out.
Speaker 3:Uncertain as to how the climate system will change. It's changing so in a way that we haven't seen, um, so that you know part of the teaching is like how do we deal with these uncertainties? Well, we're not only doing the mitigation piece, where we're reducing emissions, but we're also doing the adaptation piece, which is more preparing for the impacts. Right, ok, we're going to still try to reduce our carbon emissions, our greenhouse gas emissions same thing. But at the same time, we know we might have an extreme storm, sea level rises that might affect our beach house, so we might have to adapt the landscapes with maybe more green we might have to adapt to not living on the ocean shore people. You know it's development has caused a lot of these issues, so there's an adaptation is a huge part of thinking through long term. You know potential impacts from things like climate change or biodiversity loss those are probably the biggest. You know out of control things and just trying to mitigate and adapt.
Speaker 3:So we think about those things yeah.
Speaker 2:And so one of the things I think that this comes into play for us again, on the, I can only speak with my limited knowledge on the on the situation to. You know the, the micro level of, of, unfortunately, convenience. The problem is that convenience is, nine times out of 10, a direct, the opposite of efficiency and it's the opposite of a thought through plans. You know it's, it's the styrofoam cup theory, right, it's the. It's easy, it gets the it's easy, it keeps your hands from getting burned, right, and then it's going to pollute and toxify our, our existence. So it kind of comes into the same thing like a fast food model, right? So again, I'm going to come from the health and well, I have, like, that's my background. So totally like, yeah, is it what's quicker and easier? Stopping at some sort of no name mentioned drive through to get your food, or going to a farmer's market, taking a biodegradable bag with you, going home to your home and making a meal that's going to nurture you and is going to take, oh, I don't know, quadruple, 10 times the amount of time versus grabbing something in the car on the way? And again, that element of convenience.
Speaker 2:You know, when you it kind of triggered me, when I don't be triggered a negative way, but when you mentioned, you know, living on the coast. Well, yeah, people love to go to the coast. It's super inconvenient to have to drive there, right? So the people that live on the coast generally have deep pockets and the ability to choose, to choose to purchase properties such as that and they're beautiful and they're wonderful and amazing. But are they doing harm? And is that convenience or that human instinct of me? First, that Darwinian, we reached the top of the food chain by dominating everything around us, right? That mentality definitely comes into play when we're talking about the harm potentially that we're doing to the planet and our maybe lack of foresight or our potential selfish impulses that we put in front of the immediate desire that comes before. You know, our children's children are going to have to worry about that. Oh yeah, not a problem.
Speaker 3:Right, right, well, those are perfect. You know. Comments Like first of all, what you're describing is tragedy of the commons. There's, like that's a theory where you know if it's a public space in general, then you know no one's taking ownership of it, and so it becomes the commons and it gets trashed, and that is a tragedy in that human behavior for sure. So how is it solved? There's been all sorts of scholars trying to figure out how to solve the tragedy of the commons, but it usually boils down to cooperation. You know, let's all work together to make sure that we take care of our coast, you know. But the other thing you know you started with talking about like so you know, what do I do? Go to the farmer's market with my, you know reusable bags, or, if I can't, go to Walmart, well, I think that at the bottom line of it all is we do, we're embedded in this system for sure. So that's part of the thing right, in this system, for sure. So that's part of the thing right. And so how can we do with our choices? Shift the system, buy locally will be helpful. Maybe we don't give as much money to corporations that are outside of our place because they don't care that much about our community, maybe we have.
Speaker 3:There's a continuum. One end of the continuum is the ultimate carry. You're doing everything right. Like you said, you're walking to the farmer's market with your reusable bags, buying only local produce, and then, on the other end of the spectrum, you're driving your SUV to the Walmart and buying, loading things, a lot of things up that are plastic, you know, packaged with lots of plastic and things that don't biodegrade. So you've got two ends of the spectrum and the idea is, in between, to kind of educate ourselves or become aware of what are my choices. In between. There there's always tradeoffs and yeah, so we don't want to beat ourselves up, but we realize that, yeah, that could be the most. Well, maybe I'll just then drive my car to the Basel bandwagon and get organic food Instead of you know shameless basal bandwagon, because that's where I do all my shopping.
Speaker 2:But I love that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love, that, I do, I love them.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, Ralph is the best. I will tag them when I post it.
Speaker 3:Totally. Well, you know there's trade offs to everything and we can't do everything right. But then you know there's trade offs to everything and we can't do everything right. But then you know, oh, maybe I'll ride my bike two days this week to work, or, you know, lean into it right, like we do across the street, right.
Speaker 3:So, and you know then there's health benefits too. So it's it's not necessarily just a you know tree hugger, woke, you know way to look at life, but it also, you know it feels good and you connect with your community. You can, you know, get more exercise, walk around your community healthy, eat healthy foods. So anyway, there's a lots of trade offs involved. But kind of thinking through, you know, as we, being aware of the choices we're making, we sit, make so many every day. You know what could be the one that would be, you know, meet all those things. That's economically, you know, feasible for me. It's not a lot of packaging, it's not that much of a you know imprint on the planet and you know it supports my local economy, you know. So as best, best as possible, like trying to think of those things when we're making decisions, um, so getting students to think about that, like we've, I have them, you know, create a, an audit for their um household, and so you know what are the things that you know based on these sustainability principles of um, you know land degradation, um toxic, you know persistent chemicals, there's like three ecological, um sustainability principles that you can really apply to seeing what you're doing, that might, you know, not be super sustainable. But we can't do everything just kind of getting students to think in those terms and applying it and reflecting on things.
Speaker 3:And you had mentioned to me how your theme this week is filling your cup kind of, and I think, just based on what I know about you and how you, um, engage in your community, I think that would be such a big thing to do. To fill your cup is, you know, get involved in your community in some way. That, um, you know, helps you connect to people and also make it a, you know, the world a better place. So if it's a river cleanup, which we've got one happening in Highbridge and I'm, you know, I'm kind of telling myself this too, because I'm fairly new to this area and I need to, you know, connect more with my current community here, your backyard.
Speaker 2:So Well, and I do sit on the board of a local land trust, so I'm working in that and we do cleanups monthly and we have a 10 mile trail system that we're putting together and it's the Tewksbury land trucks. I'll plug that as well, why not? So please join us anytime. And yeah, it's, it's huge and it's how I've met so many people in the area with shared and common values. And I think that it really, when it comes to you know the idea of filling your cup and you know it's really about. It's about what serves your highest good, not so it's like the opposite of convenience. It's not what serves your immediate need, it's what serves your, your best overall. The macro right, like what are you keeping that nurtures your soul? What are you doing for yourself, what you know?
Speaker 2:and I kind of jokingly plug Marie Kondo and the sparking joy, but but in all seriousness, in that mindset, you know, as you, as you purge your closet, as you purge your life, as you purge your diet, as you go through the audit of your home and the energy efficiency of that home, or your, your impact that you're having. You know what. What is, what does spark that joy? What are you going to keep? And it's all about bringing that balance in because, as yoga instructors, as meditators, as people who are conscientious, right like it's about being conscientious at life for yourself or for your surroundings and for your planet, and I've said so many different times that you know, when I'm talking about this is usually on a Reiki bent, but when I'm talking about you know being that light making someone stay brighter, like any interaction that you have.
Speaker 2:If you see someone in a store and you like her glasses, like your glasses, or your, you know your beautiful necklace, and you just say, hey, that's a beautiful necklace, and that person right, it's kind of like pay it forward that person smiles and maybe they were having a crap day and maybe they feel a little better and and you know, you're just being that little bit of light. And I always imagine it as the picture of the planet at night again, for sustainability, not ideal, but with the cities lit up, right, as you said, it's all about your local community and it's like if I do that little light and you do that little light, and then everybody lights up and it's a choice, it is absolutely a choice whether you're going to be that light or whether you're going to be the person that cuts in front of that same lady who's got a beautiful necklace and is having a bad day right.
Speaker 3:And make it a little worse.
Speaker 2:So it's really about consciousness.
Speaker 3:That's so true and I think that when you have a community that comes together to work on something to better the community, there is that kind of bond that happens, you know, amongst people and a shift that you know that can really shift a community. And I think that, you know, I really felt that in my high school years, like because I was involved with all these community things but then I went off to college and the corporate world and I just felt so disconnected from that and it did affect, like from a community kind of stance, like who's my neighbor down there? You know I lived in a big city and so, you know, coming back to kind of more of this community-based work really did nurture my soul as far as my life's work. And I think maybe the theme is, you know, what we all need to ask ourselves and be curious and about you know, what does fulfill us and fill our cup, you know, if it's engaging in community, what way is that? You know, maybe we need to do a community-based yoga in the park.
Speaker 1:Absolutely we should absolutely do that. Yeah, yeah, and we're I'm actually spoiler alert.
Speaker 2:I may already have a have a nod to that with the, with the board that I sit on, but, but maybe you can comment on. We can. We can share that. If you'd be happy to teach a class, yeah, or you can just come in and I'll leave the class, and we can do that too, yeah, um, but yeah, you know yoga is its own.
Speaker 2:The other thing that's wonderful about this is is, you know, again, to not to be trite, but the whole think, think global, act, local, is basically kind of what we're touching on Right and and that aspect of you know yoga is is its own community and with how much connectivity we have to to everyone on the on the planet.
Speaker 2:In theory, most people um the ability to, to share positivity and to to. I know that, especially when we're talking about sustainability, part of the motivation I'm sure for many people involved in in what you do is I don't want to say it's fear based, but it's reality based, and the reality is not necessarily pleasant, right, like we are, our impact as a species on this planet is not loving, it's it's a little more take, take, take and a lot less give, give, give and so like. How can we come from that place of love and support of Mother Nature, of what sustains us, of what literally like the one episode that I did was April showers to fill your cup, what literally fills our cup? The rain that literally nurtures our soil, that literally feeds us? The bees, the gentle bees, like? What can we do for the bees?
Speaker 3:You know, I mean, like focusing on miracles, yeah, of life all around us the birds and, yeah, coming out and all the babies yeah, it's really a miracle, isn't it? So that's that's kind of that connection between you know, somehow these bigger human activities and they're so beyond just our control, but we can collectively shift systems. If we try, and we are, it is happening. I mean, there are the farmer's markets, now more than ever. Now there is a lot of, you know, clean, organic food available. There might be more transportation options, you know, more rail or like bike trails and rail trails than maybe there was 15 years ago. But so we're making progress and so it's not like all doom and gloom based on, maybe, mainstream, what we hear in the news. Right, because those people are still doing the work and we do need to make behaviors that we want more convenient. So that is a big challenge.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, like the EB and things you know slowly get adopted and prices come down if they do get adopted. So you know, market transitions are never easy. Um, but new technologies come in and, um, there's lots of, you know, uncertainties with in life in general. So for me, I think, having you know a grounding in some ways that I can kind of particularly view my actions and things. Is is helpful and you know, just also have faith that the the planet will stay for us, stay good, clean and good for us.
Speaker 2:Yes, so to that. And may I ask, are there any I'm kind of air quote the word convenient are there any tips and tricks that you can share for the average bear homeowner or you know, or or family, um other, other than, obviously, like small, smaller things than you know, redoing all your windows, like accessible daily things? That maybe are I like to call them like simple swaps, right? So think of, like, when you're talking about dietary things, swapping avocado for mayo, right? Like easy health swaps, like, are there any sustainability swaps that we can, you know, other than, obviously, like plastic bags are already no longer a thing in New Jersey, I think you know which is a good thing, but are there other?
Speaker 2:small things we can do.
Speaker 3:I guess I think you know. First thing, I just really plastics are such a problem on the planet. You know there's the plastic floating garbage patch out there and you know plastics don't really break down all the way. I mean, they're going to be there forever. Then they're breaking down into PFAS kind of microplastics that are seeping into waters and stuff. So I would say that plastics, if you can just avoid. Plastic packaging, yes, it's not convenient. And oh I, just those plastic water bottle. You know plastic bottles filled with water from the convenience store. That really makes me so upset. So if we can kind of just eliminate all the plastic that comes into our life, I think that would be great. Um, and you know food waste is another big source of methane emissions. But if you compost it, or maybe if there's, I don't know food waste is something to try to keep out of the landfill and out of your garbage can. So are you able to compost in your jurisdiction?
Speaker 2:I'm going to be a very, very bad human by telling you that I don't actually have the answer to that question and I should, but I would imagine we're a very, very bad human by telling you that I don't actually have the answer to that question and I should, but I would imagine we're a very rural community community, so my guess is probably yes, um, but we also have a lot of all of our waste disposal is private, so that may play a role in that as well. Like there's, we don't have public municipal waste here that I'm aware of. It's all privately sourced.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, you know in general. You know when you look at kind of global emissions, food waste is can be a big share. So keeping that to a minimum in the landfill, throwing it into your garbage can, is always recommended, but it's hard to do so.
Speaker 2:composting out here is generally referred to as feeding the fox, is what I'm going to be honest about.
Speaker 2:So if there's like food stuff, it's all like nine times out of 10 with anyone that I that I know in the area. It's like you know, we have some very happy crows out bag. We have some very happy foxes, like that food waste. If there's again a plastic takeout container that came home with you that you didn't get to bear fox raccoons, some someone out there is eating well this evening let's put it that way more so than garbage.
Speaker 3:We also have a fox. So yes, I totally, totally can relate to that. So, but if you just do plastics no, and just you know, think about other ways to. If you can walk to your store or walk to your local restaurant, you know, maybe once or twice you are always walking around your neighborhood, but I think in general it's such a you know that's another thing that fills your cup is walking around your community. I think don't you Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, oh my walking, I think, don't you? Absolutely, oh my walking, I think? If there's, you know, and I will, it's again touching a little bit on the on the not so thrilling side, but I have an elderly father and he had a hip injury. Well, he had a, an issue that created an issue with his hip. And I'll tell you, he was, he was always so active, he worked out all the time, and when that hip, hip issue, he can't really walk and work out anymore. And mobility and as, as you know, so the yoga instructor, like if you don't move it you lose it.
Speaker 2:Like walking, if you do nothing else in your life for your, for your physical health, walk anywhere, everywhere, exactly, keep walking it is so and so, and yeah, not only is it wonderful for you, it helps the planet, right, if you, if you're lucky enough to live in an area where you can walk to places right, and so you know it's, it's, it's it's, only I mean, I don't think there's anything but benefit to it.
Speaker 3:Mm, hmm, I agree, yeah, and it's such a good way to connect with the critters and the plants, and just you know. Yeah, I agree that if there's anything, let's take a walk every day in our neighborhood is probably a good thing for our psyche horse bathe, and you know, and go on a hike.
Speaker 2:You know it's, it's just that's, that's just so positive for your body and your mind right the surroundings. Do play, do play a part, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yes, I've been doing my earth meditations this week. Spoiler alert. Oh, it's hard not to. Things are bursting or or starting to, yeah, but not bursting.
Speaker 2:Yet it's happening, though it's very exciting. So, as you brought that up, that was going to be, you know, one of the things that I wanted to, you know, push off till the very end. But when we talked about conscientiousness, we talked about, you know, these things that you can do, being conscious of plastic, right Like, and you know we try to be, I know everyone tries to be, but it seeps into our existence and so having that be, you know that if you can do nothing else, do that right. That's the most important thing. But of that idea of mindfulness, and you know those little swapsaps, those little being present enough in the moment to take a pause and say I'm gonna bring a metal water bottle with me instead of grabbing that gas station water bottle. But that that mindfulness, um has to come from, and that conscientiousness has to come from being able to take a moment outside yourself, beyond yourself, and to be in the present. And to be in the present moment.
Speaker 2:And can we do that on a?
Speaker 3:large scale level. Excuse me, I was thinking with that like really being intentional in that present moment I intentionally am going to just pay attention to the plastic that comes in my life. You know, my partner never really paid attention to that and he was yeah, plastic sandwich bags. I'm like oh my gosh, there's reusable pipe, you know. Bags, oh, but these are just plastic, you know. So, anyway, that's a hard behavior to change.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, but you know what you have. The first step is acknowledging it right, like you have to, and I will be honest, I will plug them again. I would buy, you know, gallons of alkalized water and I saw my recycling bin and I saw like how much, and I was, and certain a certain store, which shall remain nameless, just kidding, that's Basil Bandwwagon, has a flow water machine. And I saw not only the price differentiation, because a lot of times people, I think, get hung up on the oh well, organic's expensive or oh well, you know, I've literally had people say to me like basil bandwagon's so expensive. I'm, like you know, like I'm very dietary restrictive and it's, you know, pretty much eating for eating for one. So you know it's, it's I don't have a family of four to shop for. But also, to that end, it's significantly less expensive to bring a bottle and fill up on the flow water machine that they have there. It's, it's a significant less cost versus you know, like.
Speaker 2:I encourage you to check it out, um, but, and that has saved I don't even know how many plastic water bottles from entering landfill, and I saw the extreme. I was like, wow, this is on my part, like so confession, right, like sheepish hand raise. I like it was me, I am the problem, right. But and I saw it, and now I take my metal water bottle to the gym and I have my gallon jug and I fill it up and you know, I think, I think it's is becoming aware.
Speaker 2:I think awareness is not news to anybody.
Speaker 3:But, you're so right, being intentional, and, and there's always going to be an opportunity to buy something to solve that problem. But you know we got. Do we need to buy something new? Is another big question we ask ourselves. Like you know, it's great I mean, I love new stuff too but we, you know, consumption is out of control and some you know another thing you know my partner loves Amazon. And so easy just to click, click, click and get something the next day if you need a screw or a you know tool or you know whatever. And you know, each time you do an Amazon order, you know you should try to collect them at one time is the might.
Speaker 2:Hit the all in one box, button right yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, sorry, thank you for letting me have a little bit of uh, you know airing out my hey, listen, I mean, you know, I've been told by count.
Speaker 2:Like I have a partner of mine who says you know, why don't you just order your dog food from chewy? Well, because I'm going to go to the little mom and pop pet store that I've been going to for over a decade and I'm going to support my local tiny tiny little dog food store, because everyone and their brother shops on chewy. And no, you know, no condemnation, but like it's, you know, the Amazon of pet food products right Like so you're not that you can't get dog food on.
Speaker 2:Amazon, right, like that's kind of the joke. But you know, I think I think again, the intentionality of it, you know, is and then you can go down the rabbit hole of, well, I have to drive there, right? So is that any? Is that? Is that carbon emission now? Now, is it, is it better to just have it delivered? But at a certain point I think no, because it's a rabbit hole, right, and you have to there again, much like yoga and like you have to have balance, you absolutely have to have balance.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:But I'd much prefer to give money to to the local pet store um that's been there for a hundred you know however many years um, and I just, and so you know I'm a big fan of supporting local and uh, I think that that is a great way, maybe not necessarily for sustainability, but at least for the mentality surrounding sustainability right, sustainability is all about community-based, local context.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the ecological aspect, but the human ecological interaction, because these ecological problems are because of human activities. So you can't just say it's. You know they're separate, they're all interconnected. So how can we think about that? Yeah, small communities around here. You know they're separate, they're all interconnected. So how can we think about that? Yeah, community, small communities around here, you know, are so cute with the different um, you know keeping maintaining the history and um, and really you know inviting people in. So that's huge to sustainability is maintaining kind of cultural you know things and and connecting with those small store owners.
Speaker 2:So for sure, yeah, there's an element of simplicity, purity, you know, and I always say when we're talking about diet and nutrition, I think you can probably make the same correlation for, for sustainability is, you know, the simplest ingredients, right, Like I.
Speaker 2:Just my last episode that's, that's that's air was about filling your, filling your mug and healthy beverages, right, and you know the less ingredients. One of the big things that I said was use raw honey unless you have some sort of, you know, glucose intolerance, right, but like, instead of buying a soda that has sweetener in it, you know, put, put a little raw honey in in some a blueberry, smoothly, like if you need the sweetness, but like it's going to be healthy, If you can find local honey, if you can support local right. Like it's all about I'm, I'm taking. It takes extra effort, it takes your time, it takes your effort, it takes your intention and your conscientiousness, but it also if the ingredients that I'm putting into my body are just as important with what you drink is what you eat. And if you're going to do that, like raw honey is one of the top healthy sugars that your body can have, right, Like sugar not necessarily is a great thing, but that's one of the best ones and you're supporting your local farmer. You're hopefully helping healthy bees right.
Speaker 2:I'm all about saving the bees, like you know. So so much about saving the bees. So you know, I think that all those are again bringing it back to the intentionality. But simplicity and sustainability and purity, like in.
Speaker 2:You know the roots of the area that you're growing up in, staying true to yourself, staying true to you. You know the nature of the farm, the local farming like. If you think about local farming versus mass farming, you know there are areas here where you can go and you can buy your cow and it's running around right there and you can split it with your neighbor, right it's like that's the thing that happens around.
Speaker 2:We're very blessed right to live here, but that's the thing that happens around here all the time. So you know it's made very sad for that, like, oh my gosh. A friend of mine said a cow that had a really good life and one bad day.
Speaker 3:And really well, you know that is. That's kind of the other thing is like looking at who, what is the source of this food you know, knowing where it comes from, because a lot of times we don't know and we're like buying chickens or you know eating chicken and all sorts of stuff. We don't know where it comes from, so that you know and so there could be you know. You just don't know what they do, but what buying locally, like that. You know you're the source of that beef and so you trust that it's really well, you know, well-raised and it's going to be healthy. You know another thing with that you had kind of mentioned about filling your honey cup.
Speaker 3:Is it made me think of another behavior? That is something to think about and I struggle to keep it set up well in my pantry is bulk buying. So instead of buying, you know an at the basil. Basil bandwagon, like Whole Foods, there are, you know, and at the basil bandwagon, like Whole Foods there are, you know, opportunities to buy in bulk and so you really minimize packaging. At that level you can buy for a long period of time, usually for less money, and then you know you don't have to deal with all the smaller portions that you buy over the six months. But it does take. You know preparation for things like beans and you know to cook them up and not have canned beans. So that's a transition, but you can save a lot of packaging and money, yeah, by buying in bulk, for sure.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that is, again, a great place, a great place to do that. Um, and another person that you may want to check out is uh, that came on to this podcast is, uh, jason de salvo, and he owns coldbrook farm, and they are 100 organic farmer in this area.
Speaker 2:So if you are looking, just for your own benefit to plug him again because he was kind enough to come on. Um. He's huge in sustainability, in organic and regenerative farming. Um, and if you want local, he does his own honey, he does his own grain, so definitely yeah, check out the website because they sell their own grain.
Speaker 2:They sell and it's very it's heirloom. I mean, he, he went all out in that. So by all means, please check him out, because it's something that you could probably take that a bit from, especially if you're talking about buying in bulk and you know talking about know where, know where it comes from. It comes from you know, a stone's throw away.
Speaker 3:Right, you know this reminds me of a program we did around this was in Oregon around the hundred mile diet.
Speaker 3:So join me on the hundred mile diet, where you try to buy all your foodstuffs within 100 miles and so you know we were kind of doing a challenge, you know, to see if we could do it, and of course you really can't do it 100%. But you know we also talked about where we can get great local foods for good prices or you know different things. But the whole idea was, I think, to do 80% of your diet buying food from within 100 miles, which is a real sustainability thing, because you know then you don't have transportation of goods further away and you know, so you minimize that way your carbon footprint, and then you know your local farmers and all that. So that's another thing we could do is go on the 100-mile diet and Jason DeSilva would yeah 100 mile diet and Jason Silva would yeah, he would satisfy that, he would Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, we're very like I said, we're very blessed in this area to be able to eat pretty well on that 100 mile diet just because we live in the Garden State. Right, got that name for a reason. Yes, yeah, exactly. But now that we are, you know, reaching towards our end, I would like to do a little. Well, it's not really going to be a teaser at this point, it's gonna be a straight up spoiler alert. But I did give a teaser that you may be hosting the meditation for this month and all about the intentionality. And you know we're tongue in cheek, it's Earth Day, it's April, so we're going on that event. But would you just give a little bit of a teaser to our audience about the meditation or anything about it that you might care to share, and then we'll? We'll have that up and out for them and, you know, in the upcoming before.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I'm working on it and we'll record it tomorrow, and so I just really want to take the opportunity to and Earth Day gives us a great reason to do it on a podcast is to just ground ourself in the earth for 20 minutes, and I've got some very good I. I've got a reading I want to base it in from Thich Nhat Hanh, who has done many earth-based meditations from walking on the earth. I mean, if you want to be inspired, that's a good resource to look at, um and into just you know some good uh ways to um in our meditation. Ground ourself so we can kind of start our day off at a centered place in a centered place.
Speaker 2:I love that Well, and thank you for doing that. I'm very much looking forward to enjoying the meditation, as opposed to leading it. I love the meditations that I leave, but it's also I'm very much looking forward to actually practicing the guided meditation. So thank you for sharing that for not only myself but for all of our listeners. And it's so funny that you mentioned that, because on the board that I sit on for the land trust, we did a Thich Nhat Hanh walking meditation, a silent meditation, around one of our land trust preserves. So we did that last year. So I will definitely make sure although I probably let your, your, your partner you're probably calling your partner in crime at this point, but your partner in crime.
Speaker 2:I will make sure to give you the heads up, Even when we do that again this year, because I think you'd really enjoy it, but yeah he is a wonderful I mean meditation father of meditation. I think he may be dubbed. So, amazing resource and I very much look forward to the bringing some intentionality and some grounding and some connection with our Mother Earth into into our lives and it'll be evergreen because it'll be up on, you know, social medias. And again, and I thank you so much for sharing your time with me today.
Speaker 2:It's such a wonderful treat every time we get together and I can't wait to practice yoga with you at some point. Yes, I love that.
Speaker 3:Definitely.
Speaker 2:Let's do that. It's truly been inspirational to learn about not only what you do but how what you do can implement such mass hopefully mass change from the local, like I said, all those little lights lighting up from from just starting where you are, meeting yourself where you are, and continuing on to to grow that little bit of community so that we can all benefit from intentionality and conscientiousness with our actions and our behaviors. Thank you so much for that Definitely Well said.
Speaker 3:Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you so much for that Definitely Well said.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the opportunity and thanks to each and every one of you for sharing your space with us today, and please feel free to share the same with your loved ones For more goodness. Follow me on all the socials at Above the Ground Podcast, or visit my website airsaboveyogacom and, as always, definitely check out my other episodes and all of the amazing sisters at DivasThatCarecom. You can find us on SoundCloud, Spotify, Odyssey, Apple or anywhere else that you may feel guided. Again, my name is Gia Raquel Rose, owner of Heirs Above Yoga, and you are listening to Above the Ground Podcast, where every day is a good one.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. This show was brought to you by Divas that Care. Connect with us on Facebook, on Instagram and, of course, on divasthatcarecom, where you can subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss a thing.