Earth Day.

Earth Day. 

Growing up I'm sure we celebrated Earth day in a lot of cute ways-drawing pictures or making an Earth out of clay but how do we do this as adults?

For many years I really didn't care. I lived in the concrete jungle known as NYC. Don't get me wrong, Central Park is beautiful, but it is not the same as the nature that I've found since then (to be fair I had no desire to go finding that during those years). But I've been reconnecting with the Earth more and more as I've gotten to live in more places with more access to it. 

Bottom line, nature is healing and a beautiful place to spend time.🍃 

I often don't go diving into how humans might not always be so kind to mother nature-between the different toxins floating around, the food choices made everyday and even the clothing we wear, sometimes it's a lot to handle. But.......

There are little ways within our daily behavior that can make a big difference and I often encourage these. To not just take a day to celebrate but to do something everyday  that can help support mother nature. 

3 things you can do everyday:

🌲Eat locally. I know not everyone is able to do this, especially depending upon your location and sometimes cost. However, this one is multifaceted with the positives including supporting your local community, farmers are not limited to growing varieties of food that are bred specifically for long distance and long shelf life and reducing the CO2 emissions that happen with the thousands of miles that food is transported. oh, let's not forget YOUR HEALTH. Local food is often (not always but often) healthier for you as it's fresher and can retain the vitamins and minerals present. 

🌲Recycle. Okay I got issues with this one as it's not the save all that we've been taught to believe. In fact it is pretty bad. 91% of plastic doesn't actually get recycled (so even if you do throw it in that recycling bin, if you can find one-which is a whole other issue) and even if the recycling does happen almost all of that plastic gets downcycled which means that it is less useful each time until it becomes so flimsy that it can no longer be used (we won't get started on the toxins present, that's for another post). But real quick the 91% left in landfills breaks down into microplastic particles which can collect polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other chemicals that have been connected to many health concerns, including cancer, reproductive issues, a weaker immune system, and more. The US was sending the recycling to China until recently when they determined they would no longer accept it. (the environmental cost on this is insane). But these numbers are the worst for plastic- so things like glass, metal and paper are easier to be recycled so I still say go for it!  

🌲Reduce plastic use. As discussed above, this is a huge issue that I often cannot dive into for mental sanity but in short if you use less plastic there might be a chance that we reduce the amount in those landfills. Focus on buying glass and reusing it, don't buy plastic water bottles (for health on this one too) and pay attention to the deeper aspects like what are your sponges made of? Hint-most of them are made from polyurethane which is petroleum based and triclosan (another dangerous on in a lot of personal care products!) which end up releasing dioxins and formaldehyde into the soil and even the atmosphere. 

Tell me below👇🏽, what is one thing that you do that can help mother nature out? Or something you've been wanting to try! I'm so down for upping my game!