Mindfulness and Self-compassion with Deirdra Martinez of The Uplift Movement – Part Two

Mindfulness and Self-compassion with Deirdra Martinez of The Uplift Movement – Part Two

May 25, 2020 | Interviews, Opinions

Mindfulness and Self-compassion with Deirdra Martinez of The Uplift Movement – Part Two
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Deirdra is a holistic health professional and a cannabis health coach. She has a Masters in Public Health and is the founder of The Uplift Movement, “a resource for ‘higher’ health education and plant-assisted therapy.” Through her work, Deirdra empowers her clients to find relief from chronic health conditions, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and addiction by using plant medicine, dance, yoga, mindfulness and self-compassion. Deirdra’s own life has been transformed by these practices and therapies, and she is passionate about sharing them with others.

You use mindfulness and self-compassion practices as part of your holistic health coaching. You do a lot of different kinds of coaching and teaching from Cardio Dance to Yoga, and you also do mindfulness-based coaching around food and nutrition, which I think is really interesting because so many people do sort of eat mindlessly.

How did you get into that and can you tell us more about it?

Most people do eat mindlessly, that’s really common. It’s interesting because I had always struggled with my weight, pretty much my whole life, and even when I was dieting and cutting out carbs and exercising every day, it was always so hard and I would yo-yo all the time. But, my Dad’s wife is just so thin and eats whatever she wants and she would always say it was her genes, but I wasn’t convinced. I think genes are an easy way for people to explain that, but I noticed that she was just a very mindful eater; she ate slowly, she took her time, she didn’t watch TV while she ate, she focused on her meal, she allowed herself to eat whatever she wanted, there were no restrictions. I think that inspired me and I got very curious about that, about her habits and her approach to eating.

So, I found a program called The Psychology of Eating and I decided to do a certification with them. It was a six month program and it started to introduce me to Eastern philosophy and Yoga and even mindful eating. They didn’t really call it “mindful eating”, but that is basically what they were talking about, intuitive eating…basically all these different forms of eating and nutrition. It wasn’t necessarily about trying to figure out the right diet; it was about healing our relationships — our relationship with food, our relationship with our bodies, even our relationships with family.

food, mindfulness and self-compassion


Mindfulness and self-compassion can change your relationship to food

For me, my background was in fitness and diets, and having done basically every diet, I thought “wow, this is weird and this is deep and this is good and I like it, but it’s terrifying”. I didn’t know if I could really be without a diet or really go one day without weighing myself…I honestly didn’t know if I could do it. But, I had spent so many years doing those other things and none of it had ever worked, so I thought I might as well try something else. And it was tough, especially within the first six months of finishing that program because it was all about learning things in a new way, having a different perspective, trying to not revert back to those old, familiar habits when I wasn’t getting results right away.

I think fate works in interesting ways because, what ended up happening is that I got injured from teaching Zumba again — which would happen to me all the time because I over-exercised — so I couldn’t teach. All I could do was Yoga, which is how I got into Yoga and then trained to become a Yoga teacher and then that’s how I met the mindfulness person. So, that’s sort of how I brought everything together and created a foundation for my own coaching practice.

What I found was that a lot of people would say “oh, I eat mindfully”, but they don’t really know what that means; they’re still eating fast, not chewing enough, watching TV while they’re eating, they don’t breathe enough while they eat, they have anxiety about what they’re eating, wish they could be eating something they might enjoy more…basically they’re not present. I started to notice all of that, and I had my own experience of it as well, and I thought “wow, we need some help here.” We eat for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with hunger, right? We eat to cope and to soothe, or because we’re having fun or because we have social anxiety. It’s a hard thing to really help people connect the dots with. People get set in their ways, it’s very hard to change habits, even when the habits are creating conflict and what can come from it, like obesity and eating disorders…but it’s just hard for people to change.

In that sort of instance, do you think teaching people mindfulness and self-compassion first, not around food but just in general, helping them have daily mindfulness and then applying it to the food mindset afterwards, is that beneficial?

Yes, exactly! That’s kind of my angle with most of my clients and it works. Taking the focus off the actual dieting and weight and feelings about food, just teaching people to breathe and pay attention to their body. A lot of times what’s driving the anxiety around food is just the inability to manage stress. So, just teaching people how to have awareness and acceptance, mindfulness and self-compassion, teaching them letting go is okay…all those tools, which are simple but they’re difficult to implement. But, if you practice them regularly, they eventually trickle down to all the other areas in our lives that we struggle with.

 

“Teaching people to have awareness and acceptance, mindfulness and self-compassion…all those tools which are simple but difficult to implement. If you practice them regularly they eventually trickle down to all areas in our lives that we struggle with.”

Mindfulness and self-compassion in Tulum


Deirdra dedicated herself to practicing awareness and self-love in Tulum

I remember you telling me about a trip to Tulum and you decided during that trip that you were just going to go with the flow and practice acceptance, especially self-compassion and self-love. I think that’s such an incredibly mindful way to approach travel.

Can you tell us more about that experience of mindfulness and self-love?

Yes! I did a 30 day self-love challenge and, within that period, I had that trip to Tulum. Actually, I think my challenge kicked off in Tulum. It was funny because I was in my Yoga teacher training already — I hadn’t started the mindfulness yet, but I learned later that this kind of self-awareness is part of mindfulness — and I had binged on all kinds of Mexican food, I just went on a food fest, and I was beating myself up about it. My friend said to me “why do you do that? You take all the fun out of it. You need to just enjoy it, if you’re going to do it!” It was sort of a wake up call for me, something clicked and I realized it was true. So I asked myself what would happen if I didn’t do that…what if I just stopped beating myself up about that kind of stuff and just loved myself in every moment? And it completely changed everything, my trip, my perspective, it was a whole, huge shift. Learning to be gentle with myself and loving myself and just letting myself be okay.

When I say the term ‘mindful traveler’ what does that evoke for you?

You know, I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I would say when I went to Tulum that time, there were different layers of mindful travel in that experience. If I were to travel mindfully, I would do that same sort of thing, where I just go on a trip open and adventurous and go with the flow…I mean, I might want to pick the places I’ll stay at in advance but, supporting small businesses, supporting the local culture, looking at different ways to give back, because I wouldn’t want to be mindless and take advantage of any culture or the locals in any way. I’d want to be very intentional, and participate and be mindful in how I interact with the culture and how I’m present with them.

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Kids, mindfulness and self-compassion
Self-love, mindfulness and self-compassion
Yoga, mindfulness and self-compassion in nature

Something else I’ve been thinking a lot about is how teaching kids to be mindful and have self-compassion from a young age could help them be so much better prepared later to deal with life.

What are your thoughts around that?

Absolutely! It’s interesting because I think sometimes, as adults, we think kids aren’t going to be into this stuff, that they have so much energy, they’ll be easily distracted. But I have friends who are teachers and they practice mindfulness and Yoga in class and they say that their students actually really enjoy how it makes them feel. They really benefit from it. It also creates that sense of awareness at such a young age, which can be so powerful to have that available when you’re so young. I think it’s important to get the whole family involved too, because it’s really the family that has to be supportive. 

That’s true and it’s an interesting point.

Did you ever get any pushback from anyone in your family when you were getting into mindfulness, or was everyone generally supportive?

When you’re studying this stuff, you’re not preaching it as the “best way”, it’s more that you want to just embody it. It’s interesting because, whenever you do some sort of personal growth work, other people can internalize it as “oh, you think something’s wrong with me because I’m not doing that?”. But it’s never about criticizing other people — that’s another part of mindfulness and self-compassion, there’s no judgement. So it’s something that I’ve always been pretty cautious about, trying not to preach or judge but just approach it more from a loving place, you know? There are a lot of lessons to be learned from all this mindfulness stuff.  Enough for a lifetime!

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Mindfulness and Self-compassion with Deirdra Martinez of The Uplift Movement – Part One

Mindfulness and Self-compassion with Deirdra Martinez of The Uplift Movement – Part One

May 24, 2020 | Interviews, Opinions

Mindfulness and Self-compassion with Deirdra Martinez of The Uplift Movement – Part One
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Deirdra is a holistic health professional and a cannabis health coach. She has a Masters in Public Health and is the founder of The Uplift Movement, “a resource for ‘higher’ health education and plant-assisted therapy.” Through her work, Deirdra empowers her clients to find relief from chronic health conditions, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and addiction by using plant medicine, dance, yoga, mindfulness and self-compassion. Deirdra’s own life has been transformed by these practices and therapies, and she is passionate about sharing them with others.

As you know, you were my very first mindfulness teacher. You introduced me to the world of mindfulness and self-compassion, and both have made a huge difference to my life, so I’m very excited to talk to you about this!

To start, what does mindfulness mean to you in your life?

It is this ongoing practice that just continues to deepen my love and self-compassion and presence, and continues to elevate my awareness, as well. It’s amazing, when you realize you’ve been spaced out for so long and then when you can all of a sudden tune in and check in and be present. So, it’s an ongoing practice for me and I’ve noticed that it just helps me show up authentically and be available to others in a more authentic way.

I think that’s so amazing and it’s so true, because it really is so much about how you show up authentically. And the only way to really do that is to have that awareness, to have that mindfulness.

Yes, exactly!

What did your journey towards a mindful lifestyle look like? When did it first show up in your life and how did you get started?

It was really funny because students come in and they come to you to learn something, but then I would end up learning something from them too. There’s this mutual growth and learning there. I was teaching Yoga, and I was starting to work with clients, and I was very new as a Yoga teacher. When I was learning to become a Yoga teacher, mindfulness wasn’t really brought up, the focus was really on just Yoga. Of course we talked about taming the whirlings of the mind — that’s what Yoga is about, yoking and bringing the mind and body together — but the mindfulness connection didn’t sink in for me at that moment yet. It wasn’t until I was teaching at a studio and I had a student that was having difficulties — just very stressed, lots of anxiety — and she had told me that Yoga was really helping her, but also mindfulness and self-compassion. She told me that she had just started to take a course at InsightLA and I thought it sounded interesting. And, you know, we’re open, we want to be open, we want to learn more… So I went to the InsightLA website and I checked out one of the courses they were having and took it, and it just blew my mind. It was a whole new level of meditation. 

 

“The thing is that practicing awareness, self-acceptance, lovingkindness, mindfulness and self-compassion, these are things that we aren’t necessarily taught.”

Yoga for mindfulness and self-compassion

Deirdra practices yoga daily for mindfulness and self-compassion

Do you have a daily mindfulness and self-compassion practice? What does it look like?

I do a couple of different things…I really like to practice something every day; whether that’s while I’m driving, or how I communicate with my husband. I really am very intentional about that, to practice small moments of mindfulness and self-compassion throughout the day. Then, I also do a lot of Ujjayi breathing [an ancient Yogic breathing technique]. I just ask myself “where’s my breath?” throughout the day and reconnect with it constantly. The breath is so powerful. I think, because I’ve been doing it for a long time now, it’s kind of in my practice in general, but then I also make it a point to teach it too. Because, when you teach something, you have to practice what you teach, so I always like to make sure that I’m offering different practices to my students. 

But it really is just such an ongoing practice. We have so many distractions in life — literally, everything is a distraction in some shape or form — and, in a way, sometimes being in a trance or sometimes not being mindful, can also teach us something. And that’s part of our evolution and our growth; a reminder that there’s still something we need to work on, and that can be beneficial also. 

The thing is that practicing awareness, self-acceptance, lovingkindness, mindfulness and self-compassion, these are things that we aren’t necessarily taught. And it’s not that we aren’t taught because our parents didn’t love us or anything like that, it’s culture and social programming and how we interpret things, and it’s all very complex. But that’s why I think it’s just so powerful, in terms of our own evolution, because when we do become mindful and we practice it, we can change; we can change our habits and become more authentic, and it can heal so many things within us.

 

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breathing for mindfulness and self-compassion
Dancing for mindfulness

What are some of your go-to mindfulness tools, other than tuning into your breath, which you’ve already talked about?

Yoga. Yoga is a big one. Because I’m one of those people that had a really hard time sitting still to meditate. I just really felt I couldn’t do that. For me to learn Yoga first was a nice entryway into just being able to sit and be still. So, I’ll do the combination of both. When I’m doing my Yoga practice, I tend to like Hatha [a branch of Yoga designed to align and calm body, mind and spirit] more because it’s basically a moving meditation, and you get to witness everything that starts to come up. You really have to ground into being present and focused on your breath to allow that mindfulness and self-compassion to come up. So, I love that, and it’s another thing that I do pretty much daily.

Also, being present with whatever your mojo is — for me that’s dance, so I dance and that’s how I also practice my mindfulness, because I have to be very present in my body but I have to let go at the same time. Whenever I’m teaching dance, I’m very much in a mindful, present sort of space. For some people, their mojo might be painting and for others it might be being out in nature…whatever helps you to wake up those senses to get you connected again.

For someone who is just starting to get into mindfulness, would you recommend breathwork as the easiest tool to start using?

I think it’s a simple way to right away get people to feel and notice a difference. Because most people don’t have that connection of noticing how they’re breathing in any given moment — they might be shallow-breathing or holding their breath. That simple practice can be very powerful. Just paying attention to your breathing, that’s the first step, and then starting to notice what starts to happen in your body as you breathe. The next step is noticing what starts to happen in your mind, the narrative that comes up. Everybody has that voice in their head, and when you begin to hear your breath and you’re focused on your breathing, it’s hard to hear that narrative because you’re listening to your breath. That’s why, particularly the Ujjayi breath, I think that is a very powerful tool.

Do you have some favorite mindfulness teachers that you turn to regularly?

Yes! I love Tara Brach. I really love Jack Kornfield also, he’s amazing, and Eckhart Tolle. There’s other teachers that I really like too, that teach the principles of it, like Wayne Dyer and even Oprah! Michael Singer, he wrote The Untethered Soul, such a beautiful book; it’s all about introducing the voice of mindfulness and I found that really powerful. He also has another book about unconditional acceptance and surrender, and ultimately that’s what I try to practice…it can be hard, but it’s all about going with the flow.

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Low-impact Travel and Zero-waste Living with Genevieve Livingston of Eco Collective

Low-impact Travel and Zero-waste Living with Genevieve Livingston of Eco Collective

Oct 23, 2019 | Interviews, Opinions

Low-impact Travel and Zero-waste Living with Genevieve Livingston of Eco Collective
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Genevieve is an entrepreneur, business owner, outdoor enthusiast, competitive sailor, environmentalist, sustainability advocate and, of course, mindful traveler (she actually lives on a sailboat!) doing her part for zero-waste living and low-impact travel. She is co-founder of Eco Collective in Seattle, a “one-stop shop for all things sustainable”, offering eco-friendly and zero-waste alternatives to all the products we use in our daily lives, ranging from home cleaning products to toiletries to kitchen basics to travel gear. 

What is a zero-waste lifestyle, in your view?

The way I define it is as a holistic way to have a smaller footprint. So, minimizing your impact, in whatever way it makes sense for your lifestyle.

What set you on the path towards zero-waste living?

A few things, but a few years ago, I was living in an apartment here in Seattle and we had a small bathroom trash can and I just found myself having to empty this trash can all the time because it would fill up constantly. I just couldn’t understand how I was making so much trash. So I did a trash audit and I started to consider what I was throwing away and how I could minimize that. First, I started to make small changes, like instead of using tissues, I switched to a handkerchief. When I used up my last razorblade I switched to a safety razor…that one took some research! I just started changing one thing at a time and I was hooked. I mean, it was so satisfying and eventually, we didn’t even need a trash can in the bathroom anymore because everything we used was either compostable or re-useable. So yeah, that was really what began my zero-waste journey.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned on this journey towards leading a zero-waste life?

The most important thing about the way that I’ve done this is changing one thing at a time. Because if I were to try to revamp everything all at once, I don’t think I would’ve stuck with it. I think I would’ve gotten bored, first of all, and I think I would’ve gotten overwhelmed and just thought “this is impossible”. But because I looked at it as simply changing one thing at a time, then it became a challenge and it was really satisfying. So, anytime I researched a new product and spent that much time finding the right thing for me and for the Earth, it was just really rewarding. That was really revolutionary for me and I think that is kind of the key to the whole movement, it’s not doing it overnight, just changing one habit at a time. I mean, I have been zero-waste for 4 years now and I’m still making changes!

People ask me all the time how do I get my friends, family, neighbors on board, and I think it’s as simple as inspiring change. It’s actually kind of fascinating when you do one thing at a time, because you’re talking about it and someone says “oh, yeah, that sounds really easy” or “that sounds like an even better alternative” and then, all of a sudden, they’re kind of hooked too.

Another lesson, I think, is to not beat yourself up. Although it’s good to have your rules about the way you’re going to do things, I think that when we get so zeroed in on that, it can take away from the bigger conversation. Because if you’re worried about one thing that you did “wrong”, but there are still areas in the U.S. that don’t recycle, you’re sort of picking pebbles. So, it’s not only important emotionally and to keep you going on this journey, but it’s important to find your happy ground, find that place where you feel like you’re doing everything in your power but can still be compassionate with yourself and know that, every now and then, you’re going to get your coffee in a to-go cup, or you’re going to forget your reusable bag for the grocery store. That stuff is going to happen, but if you can let that go and then think about what else you can do with your time…can you request that your city gets curbside composting? Can you lobby your local grocery stores to ask them for bulk? Doing those bigger things, where you’re getting involved with the community, where zero-waste becomes less of a personal journey and more of a global movement, that’s also really important.

“So, anytime I researched a new product and spent that much time finding the right thing for me and for the Earth, it was just really rewarding. That was really revolutionary for me and I think that is kind of the key to the whole movement, it’s not doing it overnight, just changing one habit at a time.”

 Zero-waste items on display at Eco Collective Seattle

What do you think are the biggest obstacles holding people back from going zero-waste?

People think it’s a lot harder than it is. Sometimes, when I talk to someone about it, they’re either sort of sceptical, you know, so they’re just not that interested, or they think it takes too much effort. But I do think it’s a lack of awareness too.

For the most part, a lot of my friends have started making changes now that I have, it’s been very contagious, but people still don’t understand what it is. For example, I’ll be at somebody’s house and they’ll open a bag of chips and they’ll be like “I’m so sorry”, and I just tell them it’s OK, I’m not here to judge or anything and, to be real, sometimes we buy chips too, you know? But I think it’s as simple as making those small changes and it’s as simple as asking yourself, what actions can you take? I think a lot of people see it as – all of a sudden you have no plastic in your life. I mean, that’s impossible right now. It may still be the goal but the questions should really be; what can we do in our own lives? What makes sense for us? Maybe to be zero waste for you means that you carpool or that you don’t travel as often. Maybe you buy your food in bulk. And maybe for someone else, it means that all of their bathroom products are refillable or they’re buying second-hand clothes. It’s about what zero-waste really means to you, because it has to fit your lifestyle.

Another issue could also be convenience. For example, we have curbside composting here in Seattle, and now even businesses are required to compost. I think we need to do with composting what we did with recycling because, you know, food waste is one third of all waste and that’s really significant because food doesn’t break down in landfills. But even more so, I think with recycling, we’re suddenly guilt free, so I think we kind of need to have that next revolution and it’s about composting and making it accessible and convenient for people.

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What are your top tips to get started on the path towards a low impact, zero-waste lifestyle?

I would say, start with something that inspires you. Anything from carrying around your refillable coffee cup, or maybe you want to switch over all your makeup, or try out this new biodegradable deodorant. Whatever it is that piques your interest, go there first and then when something else piques your interest, it’s time to move on. But I would say, go with your inspiration, because then it becomes a project instead of a chore. I would also say, do a trash audit! Literally look through your trash and see what’s causing the most waste and see what you can change. Because I think you can read a lot of guides that will tell you all the ways you can switch [to zero-waste alternatives], but maybe for you it starts with grocery bags, maybe it’s learning to make something at home that usually comes wrapped in plastic…it could be anything. But it all starts with seeing what trash you’re making.

What does being a mindful traveler mean to you?

I mean, for me, part of mindful travel is being a conscious traveler and trying to be aware of your impact, both environmentally and socially, which is why I think zero-waste travel sort of wraps up into it.

Yes, absolutely! For me, mindful travel starts with preparing for a trip. I will research an area and figure out what the deal is with their trash-recycling-compost set up, which is kind of a weird thing to research and it can be hard to find information on certain destinations, but it’s super helpful because then you know what to expect. Because typically, we cook in at our accommodation a lot. So, if I know I won’t have both [recycling and composting], then I mostly buy produce and find other things in cans, if I need to, or in glass, but then I still have to figure out what to do with the waste. We were recently in Costa Rica and some of the AirBnBs would have just a trash can and so I’d be figuring out what to do with my recycling or food waste…Yeah, so that was kind of eye opening in the research you do before you go, because things can change per town. 

I think being mindful about what you bring with you is important too, which also has to do with your research and preparing for the trip. There’s a lot to be said for low-impact traveling with zero-waste toiletries, for example, and just being prepared for what you’ll need. I think these days, many of us, when we travel, we bring the basics but then we count on the hotel having shampoo and conditioner or soap, and they’re always in these tiny plastic bottles and it’s just the worst! So, I have a face soap that I travel with that I also use as hand soap, body soap, and then typically I’ll also cut off a piece of a shampoo bar and I’ll bring conditioner in a small refillable bottle…so I have all my travel mini toiletries and they’re all in tiny little tins or containers that are refillable. The other thing is going solid. It’s really great because then you don’t have to worry about the whole liquid TSA thing! Zero-waste toiletries just lend themselves to travel really well.

So, for me, that’s all been kind of a game changer; just preparing for everything you’re going to encounter at your destination, in terms of your impact, and already being mindful before your trip.

How do you think we can be more mindful about the waste we produce and the environmental impact we have while traveling?

You mentioned earlier that maybe one way people can lower their impact is by choosing to travel less. This is a big discussion in the travel community right now, this notion of “flight shaming” and cutting back on emissions by slow-traveling, taking fewer flights or, in some cases, no flights at all. What are your thoughts on all of this?

You know this is a really interesting topic because, when people say slow travel, the truth is that, in many cases, it’s just not feasible. I mean, I live in Seattle but I have family in the East Coast. If I’m going across the country to see them, I can’t exactly get on a train because it’ll just take way too long. I’m sure that the most sustainable thing to do would be to move near them, but that’s not what’s going to fit my current lifestyle. So I don’t really subscribe to a lot of guilt when I’m traveling, but I’m hyper-aware of the ways that I can make it as sustainable as possible. I have heard that airlines are developing some alternative fueling methods that are going to be ready a lot sooner than we expect, and I think that’s pretty huge. For those of us with means, we can sort of invest in things like that, especially if frequent travel is something that you do for work or for pleasure.

So, in my case, there’s a couple things that I do; I tend to fly direct because it uses less fuel and I travel with just a carry on, which I think they’re getting much better at encouraging people to do. Because, literally, how weighed down the plane is means more fuel. And then – a lot of people are really controversial on this – but I personally do really like doing carbon offsets. I think the reason that it’s so controversial is that people don’t want to have anyone under the impression that paying for carbon offsets fixes the environment…you’re not actually offsetting the footprint of flying, but I think it’s something that is sort of within our power to do in the meantime and, if you’re going to fly anyway, then you might as well invest in something that makes somewhat of a difference. To me, it’s about being aware, you know, recognizing that we have this impact when we travel and doing something, even though we know it might not necessarily change the world.

Say you fly somewhere but then when you get there you don’t rent a car or you don’t fly within your destination. Maybe you rent a bike or maybe you plan a trip that’s in a concentrated area where there’s lots to see and do within walking distance, or you’re getting around with public transportation. I mean, that’s so doable and it kind of lets you get to know the place more because, if it’s not to see family and it’s not for work, I think the point of travel is to expose yourself to other cultures. I think we in America are quick to hop in our rental cars and not ever talk to any locals, but to actually get out there and do things as the people there do them, travel simply, open those conversations…I think that’s all part of the idea of conscious travel.

In terms of being a mindful traveler overall, not just on the environmental or sustainability front, but also in other ways. What are some of the ways that you think we can be more mindful travelers?

Well, something that we always try to do is to learn the language, at least enough so that we can connect…because most countries will be pretty forgiving if you’re not fluent, and it goes such a long way to be able to say, “OK, I know a little bit, enough to connect and engage with you”.  The whole reason I travel is to learn from other cultures; environmentally too, because I want to learn about their method of brewing coffee or whatever it may be. So, wherever we go, all we’re trying to do is talk to the locals, hang out with people and just get to know them because, not only are you going to find some really amazing, undiscovered, untouched spots, but I think you’re just going to learn and benefit from having those conversations, striking it up on something you have in common and then getting to know how someone lives their life.

Also, I travel pretty light and this is something that I’ve really started to enjoy. Although it takes a little bit more time to pick what you’re going to take, it really limits your choices. And that can be really enjoyable, because you’re there and you just don’t have to think [about what to wear], you just have your basics and you’re not lugging around a suitcase, which I think can help you feel more at home and like you stand out less. Just being really purposeful and asking yourself “what am I really going to need on this trip?” and focusing on the experiences you have while you’re there and not so much on what you look like or what you’re wearing.

What are the top zero-waste items you recommend for mindful, low-impact travel?

I would say, multipurpose soap is my first one, and then I would definitely say toothpaste tablets, because they are so cool and make so much sense. A handkerchief because, no matter where you go, you usually need paper towels or napkins. I really like taking an insulated bottle; I can literally get my coffee in the morning, then fill it up with water for the plane ride because, even if they’re pouring into your own container on the plane, they’re still pouring out of a plastic bottle. If I do want to get a drink on the plane, I’m usually going to order either a sparkling water or maybe a beer, something that comes in an aluminum can that they’re going to recycle – because I’m usually flying with Alaska [Airlines] or with another pretty conscious airline. But typically, I will just have my water ready to go. And then, I can put food in there, put leftovers, I mean you can literally use an insulated bottle for anything…even for compost, to carry it around until you’re somewhere where you can dispose of it. So, that’s a big one. I always travel with a fountain pen, which might be kind of weird, but I feel like you always need a pen and they’ve come such a long way that traveling with them is so easy because they’re very small and compact.

You mentioned that you travel a lot with Alaska, which is known as one of the more sustainable airlines. Is that something you think about as well when you’re booking accommodation? How low-impact or eco-friendly it is?

Yes! I think that’s huge. We camp a lot and, a lot times, the reason that we camp is because we want to be outside, in nature, the entire trip but also because we want to be so simple and self-sustaining. We’re not camping in a campground that has a lot of heavy use, necessarily, we’re doing it so that we can really minimize our impact. But if I do book accommodations, I’ll book for the first night we fly in and for the night that we fly out. We’ll get an AirBnB and I think that’s a really nice way to support the local economy, of course making sure that it’s a local who has their home there and they’re trying to make a living. And then, I try to find some place that either has solar energy or something like that, which you can’t find everywhere but if it’s available I like to book it. There are some super sustainable hotels cropping up, but for me it’s about interacting with the locals, supporting their economy, hopefully, and doing what I can to support the local businesses that are environmentally focused.

You can follow Eco Collective on @ecocollective_ and Genevieve on @genevievelivingston

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Interview with Genevieve Livingston, an entrepreneur, sustainability advocate and founder of Eco Collective in Seattle, doing her part for zero-waste living and low-impact travel.

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