Happy Monday all! Yes, today’s blog post is dropping a day early, for a very special reason. Today is the first Impact Day of 2020! I’m sure you’ve noticed over the last four months I have one post every month that starts with “Happy Impact Day”, and you may be wondering, what this impact day is. Well, I am about to tell you.
Back in October I was accepted into the Wild Keeper Ambassador program with Keep Nature Wild. Keep Nature Wild is a company based in Arizona that picks up trash with profits made and awareness provided from the selling of their merchandise. The KNW Team alone picked up 74,802 pounds of trash in 2019! Their Ambassador program helps them with their mission to pick up trash and help make our planet and our wild places just a little bit better than we found it. This last round of Ambassadors totaled almost 1,500! That’s 1,500 people every month picking up trash, on top of the clean-ups that KNW hosts in their local wild areas in Arizona. That means not only is more trash is being collected, but in more places, as their program is world-wide. Ambassadors alone picked up 14,507 pounds of trash in 2019! This spreads awareness of the idea of making a positive impact in several ways. First, ambassadors can share the importance of packing out what we pack in. Second, ambassadors can share the importance of everyone picking up trash we find, even if it isn’t ours. Third, it can encourage people to either use something reusable or biodegradable when and where possible to help alleviate our impact even more. We can do this in person, for those who cross paths with ambassadors during a clean up and ask ‘why’ they’re cleaning up. Ambassadors are also sharing this concept online by posting about it on their Instagram and other social media platforms, especially on Impact Day. Which is the day all of us Ambassadors flood Instagram and social media with the trash we’ve picked up and the Impact we’ve made on our local wild places. I joined this program to help make me put my money where my mouth is. I do my best to live a low impact lifestyle, and I am always trying to improve and do better in my personal life. But it is also an important reminder as to why it’s so important to me to be low impact. Seeing trash in places where it doesn’t belong, damaging the environment, helps solidify why it’s important to do what I can, recycle where I can, and avoid as much as I can. Because, inevitably, it can end up out there, damaging a park or natural area or animal that accidentally eats it. Even in the landfill, trash is out of sight but it is not truly gone. That’s why its important to compost and recycle as much as possible. Other than cleaning up trash I also get to connect with other Wild Keeper Ambassadors, see and hear about their experiences. I also get codes to buy Keep Nature Wild gear that I can sport, I have KNW stickers on everything, and I have an awesome hat! Overall, I have had an amazing experience as a Wild Keeper Ambassador, I hope I get accepted into another term as an Ambassador (fingers crossed!). No matter what, it’s been a great opportunity and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make a positive impact on our environment. You get to clean up trash, get outdoors, meet new people, and add a new experience to your repertoire. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, I would highly recommend you apply! It’s free, you do not need a huge following to be accepted (just a public Instagram account and be 18 or older), clean up trash and post about it. Here’s the link for their Spring 2020 Ambassador program: https://keepnaturewild.com/pages/wild-keepers I hope to see you as the next Ambassador! Much Love, Jess
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I didn’t know there was a Dinosaur National Monument until I drove through Dinosaur, Colorado on my way to Utah to do my check-in dive. My obsession with Dinosaurs kicked into full gear and I knew I needed to go. The following summer I finally made it to the land of Dinosaurs, and it did not disappoint! It’s not a huge park like Rocky Mountain National Park or Yellowstone, but it still has a lot to offer. Dinosaur National Monument has a bit of everything. It has camping, rafting, swimming, hiking, dinosaur fossils, petroglyphs, a museum, and more. We stayed in the on-site campground. It’s what is called dry-camping, which means no facilities at each camp site, such as water, sewer, or electricity. The bathrooms do have running water, but no shower facilities. If you have a camper you would need to fill your tanks and empty them at the dump station and run a generator or solar for power. We stayed in a tent, made use of their nearby water spikets, the public bathroom, and just lounged in the Green River at the end of every day. The campground had lots of trees, a good amount of space and privacy between each camp site, and friendly staff. We went in the middle of summer so it was extremely hot. Bring as much water as you can, I used a camel back and two water bottles on every hike. You’ll either want shorts, tank tops, and a ton of sunscreen, or very light and breathable long sleeves and pants to protect you from the sun without overheating you. Don’t forget a hat! We lived in baseball caps the entire time we were there. We also took water breaks under trees or behind large rock faces. There is a museum in the Park as well as fossil hikes and petroglyph hikes. It isn’t far from Dinosaur, Colorado and Vernal, Utah where there are grocery stores, more museums, restaurants and just civilization things. We elected to visit the museums before we did a lot of hiking. Since we knew we wouldn’t have access to a shower for about a week, we didn’t want our lovely odors to disturb the other visitors. However, towards the end we went to the King Tut & Dinosaur Café (yes, this is a real place and it was pretty good too!) in Vernal, Utah. The poor waitress stood quite far away from our table, we felt bad for her poor nose. We ended every day with a dip in the Green River, which runs right beside the campground. It was the perfect temperature and the perfect place to watch the sun set. Then we would then walk back to camp, hang our clothes to dry, and start up a campfire to cook dinner on. If you’re looking for a fun summer camping spot to explore, I would highly recommend Dinosaur National Monument. With paleontology, archaeology, natural science and history museums, hiking, biking, rafting, fishing, swimming, horseback riding, stargazing, and more, this is the perfect place to go. Since it isn’t one of the huge national parks it isn’t as crowded with tourists. There were times when we were out hiking that we didn’t see or hear any sounds of humanity or civilization for the entire hike, save for a plane that may fly overhead. I’ve been dying to go back ever since I left. Here is a link to their site so you can plan your visit! https://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm Much Love, Jess Well, here we are. It’s the first day of 2020. With the passing of 2019 we also begin a new decade. I’m not going to do a highlights and lowlights list. Life isn’t a competition of you versus everyone else, I’m not going to say if/how much things have changed because that simply drives the competition angle that often comes from social media. Every life is different. Every life is unique. My path is not your path and visa versa. So, as this year comes to an end and we prepare for a new year and a new decade I want to help end the social comparisons, to stop feeling bad for where you are in comparison to someone else. Yes, we can and should change and grow constantly, but it should be an inner organic desire, not an outside pressure pushing down on you making you feel inadequate and small. That being said, I’ll list a few things that felt completely organic to me and gave me joy. My organic goals for myself for the next year, and some ideas to achieve them.
My favorite moments of 2019 were: Going to Mexico with my human best friend, adopting my furry best friend Holmes, and reading over 15 books this year! My Organic Goals for 2020 I really want to be healthy. I know that is absolutely everyone’s first item on their list, but this past year I yo-yoed a lot and got to see first-hand and feel the difference between when I was truly eating and exercising intuitively and when I was out of control. Not only my weight, but my energy, my sleep patterns, and feeling sick. Lately I’ve felt sick more often, gotten sick in relation to foods consumed, and just felt tired, heavy, and generally unhealthy. This is not a societal pressure, this is a personal desire. I want to feel healthy, home, and capable in my body. I also want to focus more on what I eat, where it comes from, and how it was prepared. I want to eat more all-natural and organic foods as often as I can. Eat more alternatives or buy from local small farms and/or family farms. More whole simple foods like seeds, nuts, berries, vegetables, and unprocessed meats. I do not like diet culture. I find it to be repressing, depressing, and creates shame and guilt around food. This is not healthy mentally or physically. I want to re-develop a healthier relationship to food where it is seen as nourishing or not, pleasurable or not. Not as an enemy or as a substance of avoidance. To listen to my body when it is hungry, nourish it, and not over-compensate. My goal for the year is to lose 50 pounds. This will fit in with a healthy shift in action and not cause stress around the goal. I also do not want to be limited in what I can do because of an unhealthy body, one can lose weight and still be unhealthy. It’s important to move every day. Rachel Hollis lists this as one of her musts for creating your best self, and she’s absolutely right. To be in tune with our bodies intuitively for eating carries over into being in tune with it physically. I already do martial arts 2 days a week. I will add Yoga 2 days a week, walking/running 2 days a week, and stretch on Sundays. I will also go to the chiropractor once a month to keep my body in alignment. Meditation and prayer. I have also noticed a difference in not engaging in a prayer/meditation session at least once a week. Research has shown that religion or spiritual beliefs and experiences create a positive outcome for those who participate. Just taking a few minutes a day or each week to disconnect, get outside of ourselves, and find peace in the divine is as helpful and positive as physical activity. Of course, it only is positive if you are having positive experiences with the people involved, the religion or activities being engaged in, and there is genuine belief. Issues in any of these areas completely negate or make impossible the benefits. So, it is important to follow what truly resonates with you, whether you were raised in it or only recently adopted it. If it calls to you in a positive way then it is an extremely powerful and positive force in the human experience. Whether you believe you are talking to God, the universe, or simply taking a moment to sit in peace, releasing stress and other burdens is good for the soul. This is not an inherently feminine practice either, people of every identity can and should seek peace. On this note, let’s not judge what other people believe. Hatred and anger will not build peace in our hearts and world. Two habits I started last year that I want to carry into the next are reading every day as well as practicing my Spanish lessons. I also have added more low impact and sustainable lifestyle practices like creating a compost bin, switching to shower supplies that are recycled, plant based, and cruelty free, using only reusable k-cups, eating a plant-based butter alternative, using toilet paper and tissues made from recycled paper, and buying my own bamboo straw so I don’t need plastic ones anymore. Every year I add a little more so as to create less of an impact on this precious planet. Next year we are switching to a local dairy, this will cut down on Co2 emissions from shipping milk to a supermarket, as well as being delivered in reusable glass bottles versus toxic plastic bottles. I know I’ll add more, but we’ll have to see what they end up being. These are my goals and the logic behind them for 2020. Do you have any personal or professional goals that are organic to you and come from an inside desire and not an outside pressure? I would love to hear about them below! Let’s make next year, next decade, a time when we are driven not pushed. Much love, Jess |
AuthorJessica Marie Cunningham - Intentional lifestyle blogger, aspiring author, and podcast host. All things Slow Living, Books, Writing, Art, creativity, Christianity, and personal stories. Archives
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