CURA TERRAE

Holistic wellness, herbalism, spirituality and skincare.

[curaterrae]

Setting Up Systems

With the beginning of a New Year, a lot of us are feeling a little push to set goals, intentions and think about what we can achieve in the next year.  Resolutions may not work for some (and breed toxic positivity in a way) or put an unrealistic pressure on people making some feel that they will become a different human starting new year's day, which isn’t quite possible. I feel that we always have time to reinvent and reflect on ourselves. Everyday is truly a new day and a fresh start in every aspect of life. Personally with my venus in virgo especially, I have a tendency to always write goals, lists and entries in my journal of ways to better myself or things to work on and organize. Flipping through pages of my journal I stumbled upon an entry I made last year titled ‘Setting up systems’.

For a while I was doing straight up resolutions and goals that were so open and broad, making it hard to realistically achieve. Scheduling and writing out a calendar or bullet journaling didn’t really work for me as well since I couldn’t stick to it in my everyday life. I was about to give up. I thought to myself ‘hey, maybe goals just don’t work for me anymore’. This left me feeling a bit lost and unable to grasp what I truly wanted my future to look like and what I wanted to achieve. Was I going anywhere in life at this point? All the big questions started pitter-pattering in my head about life's purpose and what I was here for.

When I started to spiral into oblivion, I decided to purchase Ram Dass’ ‘Be Here Now’. I won’t go too deep into it, but damn, this book really got me. I was in a time of uncertainty, feeling like my energy and creativity was blocked and I had let go of most of my passions. I delved right into this book letting it consume my whole being for the two days it took me to finish it. After completing it I felt as if a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I felt light, filled with eagerness and positivity. I think I may have had a small partial ego death at that point.

Quick note: I want to acknowledge Buddhism and it’s creator Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) and it’s origin in India.

My key takeaways from this book based on Karma buddhism, ego and Ram Dass’s journey with it were to put it simply: -No one is putting you under a microscope -You are literally just a human and no one really cares about your bullshit -Material possessions literally mean nothing and do not make your worth -You can be the most technically educated, but that doesn’t mean shit either. -Worrying about the future won’t get you anywhere. -JUST RELAX

This is when I realized, I need to stop worrying about where I'll be in 10 years, because I have no control of it and projecting all these unrealistic goals will burden me more than help me. A lot of this book also touches on the process of thinking and taking in perspective. At this point I trashed all my old resolutions and goals, tried to curb my shopping addiction and connection to materialistic things (still a WIP) and started tackling my journey with my insecurity and shyness. I felt empowered to be myself and let that take me where I'm meant to go. Embark on my own ‘Sadhana’ (spiritual journey). This got me thinking into what ways I can hack my brain into setting myself up for success, which brought me to systems.

If you think about systems, which by definition is:

“a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.”

That's practically our brains in a way, right? I’m no neuroscientist, but I know our brains constantly send signals throughout. I delved into what my usual thinking habits are, which due to my ADD is ALL over the place, i’m usually thinking scattered thoughts with no structure.  If I could set up a framework and way of thinking to gain more perspective and understanding into the root of what I am trying to work on, I can work through my scattered ADD thoughts. So I started to create thinking systems.

I categorized my life into sectors. Body, Mind and Food. Those are the things I mainly wanted to work on and explore. After figuring out my sectors I decided to create a thinking process for them. The important questions to ask myself to get to the root of things.

This is what I wrote. Keep in mind this is ever evolving and always changing and was right after I finished “Be Here Now” so now I was in a deep karma buddhism trance.

In conclusion, this helped me a lot. In no means am I asking myself these questions everyday or referring to it with every thought comes into mind, but I like to keep it in the back of my mind when i’m feeling a bit chaotic. If you made it this far, thank you for giving me your time to spill my thoughts. Let me know if maybe this works for you, or if you have any feedback on it.

By Anna Zeltins

[curaterrae]

Sustainability Guilt and Lifestyles

Hello there, it’s been a while.

I wanted to touch on the topic of guilt in the context of living a sustainable and conscious lifestyle. In 2016, when I first started gaining interest in alternative ‘lifestyles’ I thought that the only way to do it right, was to go all in and never look back. I believed that if I wanted to be minimal, I needed to get rid of all my belongings or if I wanted to be natural and organic I needed to get rid of all my products and start all over again. Going into a waste conscious lifestyle I had the same mindset, that I needed to get rid of everything that didn’t align with the ‘lifestyle.’ This was an incredibly unhealthy approach that did not set me up for success later on. As years went by and I bounced between what I wanted my life to look like, I started to lose focus on why I was doing it and the ethical reasons that made me want to change in the first place. I began doing a lot of self-research and in lieu, began this website, Cura Terrae. I wanted to create something I wish I had access to when I had all these pondering questions and times of uncertainty that left me un-inspired and not motivated to continue with it. I found that what I was reading online was relatable and disconnected. It felt like I was given E-How steps on how to change my life. Everything was sugar coated, not speaking to realities such as lack of wealth, transportation, access to food, education and healthcare and a lack thereof. I also noticed how these ‘lifestyle’ and wellness communities were predominately white, and lacked the voice of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities and had a classist and even sometimes racist undertone to them. This is when I wrote my ‘WASTE CONSCIOUS, NOT ZERO WASTE’ piece.

I was fueled with anger, frustration and confusion yet a light of passion to hopefully get others to recognize the lack of diversity, inclusivity and accessibility in these spaces. I started doing workshops, organizing events and creating content. After a few months I slowly started to lose my sense of passion and started slowly drawing away from my strict rules I had set for myself. I spent months creating small habits, like bringing my cups and using my tote bags and walking wherever I can, but this ‘Lifestyle’ consumed me and left me in the dark feeling like I wasn’t making a difference. 

Here I am almost two years later, and a lot has changed for me. I started really focusing on my physical and mental health, and I used my very busy 40 hour work week, on the go lifestyle almost as an excuse for not having myself and the earth’s best interest in mind. I had this huge weight of guilt, feeling that I was contradicting all my beliefs, ethics and values and that’s when I realized what I was doing wrong all along. 

LIFESTYLE.

By definition a lifestyle is a ‘the way in which a person or group lives.’ Just as I had realized with the term ‘Zero-Waste’ it was a label that is not realistic and doesn’t take reality into consideration and labels it with something. Minimalism, Nomadic, Hygge, Veganism. These all to me were labels of a specific way of life with set rules, ideals and ways of living and is heavily focused on the aesthetic of it. I do think that a lifestyle can be adapted in a healthy way, however with modern lifestyles that created movements and trends, these labels can feel unwelcoming and scary. In the past, I tried it all. I did minimalism challenges, was vegan for a few years, bought organic for a few months ( not feasible at all) and fell out of them each time because I would do one thing outside of that lifestyle that leave me to believe that I failed completely. As I decided to get back into my healthy habits and make changes to my life, this time I used a ‘mindset’ approach. Instead of labelling things I changed my patterns of thinking and my mindset to thing through my actions and decisions. My ethics and values have stayed strong for years and I know what is right and wrong to me. Establishing a mindset for me was grouping together my ethics and values and applying them to my daily life. I got into this by learning about the ‘growth’ and ‘fixed’ mindset. Those with a fixed mindset believe that qualities are inborn, fixed, and unchangeable. Those with a growth mindset, believe that these abilities can be developed and strengthened by way of commitment and hard work. I simply felt that I didn’t have it in me to continue with a conscious lifestyle, or that I wasn’t the working out type and I was never going to reach my goals, or that my health issues could never be solved and i’d always feel unhealthy and that I didn’t have time to cook healthy meals. 

I now created the habit of questioning my actions before I do them. Simple things such as going to the store to get food instead of ordering in out of comfort, or making my own coffee the night before instead of rushing in the morning to get some before work, or meditating in the morning when I can to avoid getting anxiety later in the day. I know it may seem quite ridiculous to just say ‘hey, just think about things before you do them’, but it’s human to do things on impulse and not think of the impact it has on you, the planet, and others.

In conclusion, we all have one thing in common, our humanity. At the end of the day, we all are just humans on this planet. Utilizing humanity to nurture a connection between all of us I believe is way more helpful then telling you you have to live a certain way to be happy or feel better. Nobody is perfect, and we are all works in progress trying to better ourselves. Sometimes just stopping and asking yourself ‘does this align with my beliefs? and what i advocate for?’ or ‘Is this going to make me happy, or make me feel good?’ can lead to small actions that can change things in the long run.

By Anna Zeltins

[curaterrae]

Waste Consciousness - Where do I start?

When I first started gaining interest in adopting a sustainable lifestyle and philosophy, one of the first things I looked into was what I needed. Online I saw several different blog posts and youtube videos describing ‘Kits’ that they put together. Each product seemed pretty uncommon to me and we’re specialized, and most of them you could only get online.

The thing is, to start you don’t need anything.

I believe that if you are looking to start a new lifestyle and way of thinking, especially an eco-conscious one, going out and buying something with your money that will take immense amounts of fossil fuels to get to your doorstep, doesn’t seem like the best way to start. The best way to start in my opinion is with information. Use the internet as a research tool to look into what waste really is, to give you more of an idea of what exactly you are wasting. Some of the things I did initially was to assess my waste. This is where the whole ‘waste jar’ idea came from, and the only time I think it is truly helpful. Take a look into your trashcan, and see what is in it. Take notes of what you see the most of. It may be paper towels, or plastic wrapping, or even tons of food scraps. It will be different for everyone. Tackle on one aspect of your household at a time, and don’t just throw out your trash and ban plastic and trash forever.

What makes up a household?

I separated parts of my household that accumulates trash. The Kitchen, the bathroom and the bedroom. There is no right and wrong way to do this since everyone has a different way of living. Look into each part, and what your trash may look like. Look at the products you're using, what is in them, what are they packaged in and what you actually use vs what you gathered over the years (yes this means look into THAT drawer of junk). Once you have assessed all your belongings and parts of your household, it will be much easier for you to know exactly what you have, how much of it, and how you are impacting the planet.

DON'T FEEL BAD!

When I was going through all my belongings I started to feel extremely disappointed with what I had in possession over the years. Tons of plastic, toxic chemicals, expired products and even doubles or triples of the same product from different brands. I soon realized that being in America and being a target audience of most beauty, self-care, and hygiene products, this was a given and those companies did their job perfectly by selling these products to me without me even realizing it. With Instagram, Youtube and the internet constantly subconsciously selling you things, how can you even notice? You going through your stuff, and even looking into a more sustainable life in the first place IS enough! You are doing more than most of the population in America and even the world. Even questioning it all is a step in the right direction.

If you want to dispose of your belongings, do it properly!

Thankfully, a lot of packaging from recent years are recyclable or reusable. Separate the expired, the recyclable and the reusables. With expired products, dispose of the contents properly (look up ingredients in google to make sure your not pouring oil down the drains) rinse and wash the ones you want to refill or re-use and google the symbols or lettering on the bottom of the packaging along with your zip code or city to see if your recycling program will accept it! If you have any unopened products or things that didn’t work out, you can donate items or give it to a family member or friend.

What I’ve mentioned above so far works great for the bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom when it comes to product packaging. As far as the rest of the trash goes such as food scraps, paper products, and cardboard, you can look into composting either at home or at a program within your city.

From here, when you run out of products, all you need to do is be aware. Most of the products we buy the most frequently fall into food, hygiene, and self-care. If you don’t have access to a grocery store or farmers market without packaging, save it and see what you can recycle or reuse. Read the ingredients, look for any compost or recycle symbols, see if it’s made in the USA or even Google in the store if there is a better DIY version of what you are buying. You don’t need to shop at an expensive health foods store or spend a lot of money buying things online. All you have to do is be aware, question everything, believe in yourself and DON’T GIVE UP! And even if you do give up, know that you tried.

Soon - there will be a resources page with info on composting, recycling and San Diego specific programs. Stay Tuned!

Anna Zeltins

[curaterrae]

Waste Concious , Not Zero Waste : Cura Terrae

‘Zero Waste’ has been coined to be one of the newest lifestyle trends to hit the market. Everyone is obsessed with their $40 steel food container, and their $115 zero waste kit. With a new wave of ‘sustainable’ bloggers taking over the spotlight from minimalism, hygge and mindfulness there are more ‘sustainable and zero waste’ products, sponsorships and marketing more than ever.

Is this a good thing?

The fact that more people are becoming aware of the waste they generate is a fantastic thing. However turning a sustainable lifestyle to better the environment into a predominately upper-class market with high demand and high prices, is not okay. While going into a spiral of articles from several bloggers, news writers, and even scientists, this trendy lifestyle is not at all what it seems.

A big topic lately is accessibility and inclusivity. When googling the term zero waste, the most popular figureheads you see are bloggers. They proudly hold their one mason jar of trash they’ve accumulated over the years high and mighty. They have minimal, simple, modern and very expensive looking Instagram feeds showcasing their favorite products ( all more than $20). People are seeing that as their first look into this philosophy, which is much more than expensive reusables, an expensive looking home, and an upper-class life.

This is why I decided to do this.

The term ‘zero waste’ didn’t seem right to me. Considering we have invisible waste we don’t even know of and tons of microplastics in the clothes we wear. In the industrialized 21st century no one can ever be truly ZERO waste. I personally always felt that the term zero waste was very binding and restrictive and can set up people for failure rather than success.

There is no right and wrong

I believe that there is no one way to be sustainable and produce less waste. Some people don't have access to compost, produce without packaging and bulk stores. Not all women can use period cups to eliminate menstrual waste. Any reduction of waste in any area of consumption is enough and is a step in the right direction. If it’s bringing a mason jar every day to your local coffee spot, or bringing one tote bag to get groceries, or using a french press to stray away from coffee pods and filters. Being simply more mindful of your waste and of what you purchase not only will create a habit, but it will save you money as well.

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@annazeltins

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