WEBVTT - The Pursuit of Curiosity 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.200 Welcome to Time Out. I'm Eve Rodsky, author of the 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.879 New York Times bestseller fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space, 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:13.400 activists on the gender division of labor, attorney and family mediator. 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.599 And I'm Doctor add In the rut Car, a physician 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:21.080 and medical correspondent with an expertise in the science of stress, resilience, 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.360 mental health, and burnout. We're here to peel back to 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.600 layers around why it's so easy for society to guard 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.960 men's time as if it's diamonds, and to treat women's 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.400 time as if it's infinite like sands. And whether you 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.200 are partnered with or without children, or in a career 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.960 where you want more boundaries, this is the place for 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:44.000 you for all family structures. We're here to take a 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:49.560 time out to learn, get inspired, and most importantly, reclaim 0:00:49.760 --> 0:01:00.360 our time. Good afternoon, add high E. Great to see 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.240 you as always. I know I really enjoy our our 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.240 own little unicorn space that we've carved out for each other. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.080 But I wanted to tell you a story today about 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.400 a journey, a Unicorn space journey. But that journey is 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.080 going to take us through three things. It's going to 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:24.280 take us through curiosity, connection, and completion. So why those 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.240 three things? Why those three c's. Well, for me, it 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:33.080 started with curiosity, my own curiosity with understanding our obsession 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:38.319 with happiness. So when I was researching for fair Play, 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:43.000 so many women were saying to me, I don't feel happy. 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:47.200 I have everything that society told me I wanted. I 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.200 have the two point five kids, the nice apartments or 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.760 a house. I have house plans that don't die. I 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.720 have a nice partner. I have a good job, and 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.960 all these things things that I've been searching for the 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.080 path that was set out for me. I ticked every 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.839 single one of those boxes. And yet I still feel unfulfilled. 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.120 I still feel unhappy. And so I got really interested 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.560 in this idea of happiness. What is it? One woman 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.600 said to me, Eve, I'm gratitude journaling myself to death, 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.160 and so I said, oh, yeah, there has been a lot. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.920 There's been a lot of books on happiness the past 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:32.239 ten years. We've spent a lot of time and happiness podcast, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.800 happiness books, happiness journals, and so I sat in a 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.440 few of them. I sat in some happiness labs. I 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.919 read many positive psychology articles. I spoke to many experts, 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.560 and here's what I came to happiness and the pursuit 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.400 of happiness is going to make you more sad m 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.200 This is when I start to understand from the research. 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.959 What I understand is that off and happiness and meaning correlate, 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:04.119 and for a lot of my life maybe it did, 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.560 especially when I was on that extrinsic path. And then 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.080 there are times where happiness and meaning don't go together. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.919 Happiness without meaning, we know what that is. It's actually 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.360 been a lot of my coping mechanisms during the pandemic. 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:24.480 That's my emotional eating, doom scrolling, binge, watching TV, things 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.960 that ultimately feel empty when they're done, but in the moment, 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.160 I think, okay, that that feels good. And then I 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:37.160 found out that there is meaning without happiness, and it's 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:41.560 sometimes correlated with caregiving, and that's how I often feel 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:45.520 too that existentially taking care of my kids, I feel meaning. 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.280 But as a study show, people would rather be in 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.560 a freaking root canal than hanging out with their toddler, 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:56.040 and by people, I mean me. So happiness without meaning, 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.640 meaning without happiness is where I think a lot of 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.440 us have been stuck, especially in the past two to 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:07.600 three years. And here's the good part when happiness and 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:12.240 meaning intersect, where those two come together, that's a sweet spot. 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.440 And so the idea of mental health as being a 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.680 place where we want to be happy is a misnomer. 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.680 As my colleague Lisa de Moore says, real mental health 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.560 is having the appropriate emotion at the appropriate time and 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.240 the ability and strength to weather it. Those experiences of 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:33.840 happiness and meaning, where those collide like fireworks, is what 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:38.080 we want people to have because those experiences become our umbrellas. 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.400 And so I'm really excited because we can't tell you 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.800 what it is for you. I wish we could. But 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:50.600 what we can do is help you discover it, find it, 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.440 reclaim it, get curious about it. And the first step 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.520 starts with curiosity. What's so beautiful about what you say 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.360 is it is true that meaning and happiness are two 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.600 separate things and separate entities even in the brain. There 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:11.000 are two ways that we register happiness. The first is 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:16.000 hedonic happiness, like you were saying, binging on Netflix, buying 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:19.920 a fancy car, buying that designer bag, all of the 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:24.120 things that we do for that instant in the moment rush, 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:28.600 and that fades quickly and leaves a vacuum and avoid 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.520 and us wanting more so we do more of those 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:36.200 coping behaviors, So it's this negative feedback loop. The other 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.159 type of happiness, which we don't talk about because it's 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:44.240 not sexy and not flashy, is you demonic happiness. What 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.120 it means is the happiness that is filled with meaning 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.880 and purpose. And if you want to think about those 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.360 two a little bit differently, one is the thrill kind 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:58.760 of happiness and the other is that deep contentment type 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:03.440 of happiness. And scientifically, the way our brains and even 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.799 our bodies process those two types of happiness are very different. 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.679 So what's most interesting to me is that with hedonic happiness, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:17.280 you don't get those same deep brain or cellular benefits 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:22.240 as you do with you diamonic happiness. With you diamonic happiness, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.000 it impacts our immune system and our cells in our body. 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.159 So even at the deeply cellular level, our bodies know 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:35.400 the difference, and unfortunately, in our modern society, we are 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.880 always chasing that hedonic happiness because it's easy to see 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.560 and shout out to Professor Laurie Santos. She teaches the 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.520 most popular class at Yale, and she also has a 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.520 wonderful podcast on happiness. But even Professor Laurie Santos, who 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.080 is the ultimate expert and happiness, was able to say 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.279 to me and give me a quote for my book, 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.799 that happiness as the end goal is really a fool's errand. 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:07.240 And so I believe you adity right that you demonic happiness. 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:13.920 Is that cellular happiness. And it's harder because it's an investment, 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.160 it's a journey. It doesn't hit us the same way 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.560 that maybe, like you said, going online and getting a 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.440 box in the mail from internet shopping does, But it's 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.960 worth it. Here's a great news. We can all access 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.480 the three cs of this creative life that brings these 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.800 meaning and happiness experiences. We can access our curiosity. And 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.680 by curiosity, we don't mean, as my friend said, well 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:46.080 I scroll my friends Venmo transactions that makes me curious. No, 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:51.120 not that type of curiosity. Connected curiosity, values based curiosity, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.120 an active pursuit that you love so much, that you 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.840 wondered about, that you learn so much about that you 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.440 want to share with the world. So that's the connection 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:04.640 piece curiosity, and then this connection to the external and 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.240 then the third see which is my favorite see but 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:12.960 it's often really hard, especially for women, completion, because we've 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.680 been taught that to complete anything adity, we have to 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:20.720 be profoundly excellent as women, God forbid, were loud and wrong. Though. 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.360 Perfection and completion are two different things, but often they're conflated. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:26.680 And so we're going to take you on a journey 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.880 through curiosity, connection and completion. But today we're starting with 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:36.559 one of our favorite guests, Justina Blakeney, who is a 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:41.600 bastion of not only beauty and wonder, but she is 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.320 a person who can connect us back to our curiosity 0:08:45.400 --> 0:09:02.880 and I'm so excited to learn from her today. Today's 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.920 guest is Justina Blakeney. Justina, who has become an amazing 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.600 friend of mine, is an incredible artist and designer. She's 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.160 known for her love of bright colors, old patterns, her 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.600 beautiful use of nature. We're so excited to have her 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:23.240 with us. Welcome Justina. Thank you so much, Justina, you 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.760 are really leading the way in terms of creativity. I 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.600 wanted to first start off our conversation if you could 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.760 tell us a little bit about your journey. This beautiful 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.960 finished product of Jungalow. It wasn't an overnight success, and 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.480 so how did you get to where you are now? 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:49.080 Who you want? Some stories? Stories? Gosh, It's been such 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.360 a long and windy path to where I am now, 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.920 and I'm still on the path. Junglo started as a blog, 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.800 which really was just that. It really was a way 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:04.920 to follow my curiosity and to record and share my 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:09.920 curiosity with the world and create a conversation around things 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.600 that I loved, things that I loved doing, things that 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.679 lit me up, and really really very free form. It 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.400 started just as a way to chronicle my creative adventures, 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.040 and that really could have meant and it still means 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.240 so many different things. I didn't really know what I 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.480 wanted to do, or what I wanted to be in 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:31.400 the world and how I wanted to show up. All 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.040 I knew was that I had a lot of ideas, 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.520 was really creative, and I really loved making things and 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.160 connecting with people around the world, and so I just 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:45.240 started with a commitment. That's really how Junglo started. It 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.800 was just a commitment to be curious every day, to 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.920 be creative every day, and to track my progress and 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.360 to track what I was making and what I was 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.559 thinking about and what I was seeing in the world 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.040 that I was feeling inspired by and that come it 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.200 meant was to blog five days a week, and I 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.560 committed to it, and I stuck to that commitment for 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.160 about ten years. And that's really where Jungalow was born. 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:15.320 And it started in very small, small ways, just um 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.440 sharing a photograph of a plant outside my apartment that 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.880 was changing colors and bringing me joy, a photograph, a 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.960 drawing a project I was working on with a friend. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.800 Little by little, things started to snowball. And when I 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.720 say little by little, I mean, you know, after about 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.760 five years of of doing this every day, right, and 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:46.840 and and I started to get asked to collaborate with people, friends, relatives, strangers, 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.720 people around the world, brands. All of a sudden, the 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.640 things that I just started noticing or the things that 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:59.960 I started making, began to connect me with really amazing creatives, 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:06.640 other people, clients, projects, And really that's how the brand 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.960 was born. Just following my curiosity and having the commitment 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.600 to stick to it five days a week. Sort of 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.600 sounds maybe a little bit oversimplified, but that's really what 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.680 it was. In the early days of blogging, especially in 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:27.600 the home decor kind of world, things were pretty monotonous. 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.640 There was a specific style that it seemed like the 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.720 online world was kind of adhering to. It was a 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.280 style that was very modern. It was a style that 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:44.960 was somewhat devoid of color, of personality of UM life, 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.000 in my opinion. So when I came on the scene 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:52.640 with my colors, my patterns, my plants, taking inspiration from 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:57.160 my heritage, from my travels, bringing that out into my space, 0:12:57.240 --> 0:12:59.920 showing that a space could be maximal, didn't have to 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.320 just be minimal, it didn't have to follow UM these 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:08.040 specific trends. It was like the more I dug into 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.560 that and found that within myself and brought it out 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:15.600 and shared it, the more I attracted my community. And 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:20.000 then little by little, with the help of so many 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.959 smart and talented folks that are now on my team, 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:27.320 we've been able to turn this curiosity into a brand. 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:33.160 You said something beautifully, Justina, about taking inspiration from You 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.760 said your heritage, from your travels. We've talked about this before. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.720 I've Gracis Lee taking your time already your diamond time 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:45.360 at interview for Unicorn Space, and you you helped me 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.439 inspire a game that we're gonna be playing later. A 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:52.520 remix game, because I became so obsessed with this idea 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.440 of a remix that there could be a batter. But 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.360 you can't really have a batter unless you have your 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.840 baking soda and your flower. And it's into the delicious 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:02.559 batter that I want to eat before I even bake it. 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.480 But your life and your travels and your experiences in 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:10.560 your heritage really are all in that beautiful batter. And 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.000 I'd love to hear a little bit about the things 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:15.720 that are in your remix, like what are those ingredients? 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.080 If you were a recipe, what are you What is 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.760 your recipe for your remix? Oh, my goodness, I love 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.600 this question. Um. How fun. So my heritage, my dad 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.520 is Black and Native American, and my mom is of 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.440 Eastern European Jewish descent. My dad grew up in California. 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.000 My mom grew up on the East Coast in New Jersey. 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.440 She moved to here in l A. Actually she moved 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.880 to when she was ten, and they met in Berkeley, 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.240 which is where I grew up, kind of during the 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.920 Civil Rights movement, And so I grew up in this 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:51.880 very multicultural household. And my maternal grandmother, Betty, who I 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.120 was very very close with Growing up, she was a 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.080 travel agent. The thing that lit her up was planning 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.160 family trips to different places all over the world, and 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.760 so from a very young age she would plan these 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.480 exuberant trips for us to different places around the world 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.000 and would cut coupons and it was like a whole thing, 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.120 and we get that to the paper tickets in the mound. 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:14.960 Was like, Oh, we're going to Mexico, or we're going 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.080 to Israel, or we're going to Europe. You know, we've 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.120 got to travel from a young age and see so 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.600 many different places. So that was so important and I 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.600 just always loved, loved traveling ever since I was a 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:32.360 very small child. When I was thirteen, my family moved 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.040 to Switzerland for a year. My parents were teaching at 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.440 a university there and so we did kind of a 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.160 sabbatical year and I went to the public school in 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:47.160 Switzerland in a very small town. I learned to speak Swiss, 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:51.400 German and some French, and learned what it felt like 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.680 to be a foreigner and how much about yourself you 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:57.800 learn when you're in Trench and a culture that's so 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.960 different from the culture that you were raised in. So 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.240 that was a really pivotal thing for me. So I 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:05.440 ended up going back to Switzerland and living there for 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.800 another year when I was in high school and lived 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.280 with a Swiss family. And then I ended up going 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.760 to u c. L A. And did my junior year 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.720 abroad in Italy and fell in love with a boy 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.640 while I was there and ended up moving back to 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:25.360 Italy and staying for another seven years. So this mix 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.040 of these different locations that were very close to me 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.880 and we're sort of pivotal. And then my heritage with 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.720 Black culture and Jewish culture were sort of the main 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.520 cultures that I was raised with, and I was really 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:44.720 raised with both cultures. Those are some of my main ingredients. Um, 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.640 the mix continues and ingredients continue to be added, and 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.480 I think that that's one of those things that's um 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.760 also really important about learning about yourself and and curiosity, 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:57.840 right Like, I think that when it comes to your 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.280 own personal identity and unpacking who you are are, that 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:05.320 something that never stops, and and it shouldn't stop. You know, 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:10.880 I'm listening to your story and then I see the 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.800 visual representation of your life story in your work at Junglow. 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.080 One of the things that even I have spoken about 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:23.119 is that you have really brought us to That idea 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:27.760 of creativity is not nice to have. It's an essential 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.440 part of who you are for our listeners who may 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:36.840 not have had such a colorful life story and that 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.800 self awareness that you have to translate that life story 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:45.280 into being a maker. What is the first step that 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.359 people can take with their lived experience and their sense 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.760 of identity to really delve into their creativity in a 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.919 deeper way. It's easy for me to share what that 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.119 is for me, but I think when it comes to 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.840 everyone else, everyone's going to have their own vibe. You 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.960 might like coloring in a coloring book, you might like 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.320 cooking as your outlet for creativity. I think there are 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:11.400 so many ways to express one's creativity, and there's no 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.000 one right way to do it. For me, I love 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:21.240 the experience of input and output. So, for example, this weekend, 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.000 I was at the Huntington's here in Pasadena, which just 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:29.800 these incredible like botanical gardens, and I absolutely love going 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:34.840 to a botanical gardens and taking photos. I like to 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.960 get really abstract, get really close up to the leaves, 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.960 noticed the textures, the patterns, all the different colors. It's 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.119 something that's so inspiring for me. So I love just 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.440 really taking my time walking through these gardens and noticing 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.959 all the special little moments. I really think that's something 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.840 that everyone can do, right. You just open your eyes 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.159 to something that brings you joy, that brings you that 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.600 that curiosity that delight. Take a photo. Then I sort 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.240 of catalog these photos for myself. Then when I get home, 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.439 I usually get out my watercolors. I could maybe do 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.200 it on my computer or an iPad, like maybe it's 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.120 just a pencil and a paper, but just sketching and 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:23.000 drawing and just allowing yourself some time to explore without 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:26.960 thinking about the outcome. It's really just an exploration. One 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.600 of our mottos at Jungalow, and one of the things 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:31.280 that sort of part of the DNA of the brand 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:35.800 is that everyone is creative and that everyone can find 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.200 ways to express that creativity in their home. And so 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.640 I think it's really about just carving out time, right. 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:44.800 And I know that can be tricky for so many 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.199 of us, like dedicating even small amounts of time, but 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.920 I really consider dedicating even just fifteen minutes a day 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.320 to creativity as a form of self care, and it 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.959 can take so many different shapes, and it doesn't have 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:04.800 to include crazy supplies or an art studio or an 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.679 office or anything like that. It's just something as simple 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.879 as collecting some leaves off the ground and noticing the 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.720 different shapes and the different colors and how they play 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.080 off of each other. That's creative. Jina. You're telling me 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:22.119 either day on our Instagram live about reconnecting to the 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:29.000 simple pleasures of that daily creative practice, because obviously you 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.639 have many creative practices going on in a whole cycle 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.800 of curiosity, connecting to others in your community and completing things. 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.080 And we've talked about your love of completion, and I'm 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.440 a huge fan of yours because you complete things. Thank 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.000 you for doing that for all of us. But we 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.440 were talking about that time where you were like, oh, 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.240 I was having a bad day and sort of that 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.200 exercise you were doing in the morning. Can you talk 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.440 to us a little bit about that, because I think 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.160 I want to recreate a version of that for myself. 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:00.080 Everyone should recreate a version of this for yourself. It 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.399 started almost a decade ago at the apartment I was 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:05.879 living in at the time. We had this little courtyard 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.760 and there was a peppercorn tree, and the leaves of 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:15.920 the peppercorn tree looked like eyes, and the little peppercorns 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:19.280 kind of looked like eyeballs. So I was like just 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:21.640 sweeping up one day and I was like, these kind 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.320 of look like eyes, these kind of like eyeballs. I 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:31.919 looked over, Um, they're watching you. They're all watching you. Um. 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.000 So there's a bougun via bush across the way, and 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.720 so there's all these bright pink bracts and then they 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:41.439 just looked like little pockered lips. So they've got the 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:44.080 line that goes right for it looks like someone's wearing 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:48.560 like my favorite shade of Nars lipstick. And so I 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:50.800 just started playing, and I had a little white table 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.800 on the patio and I just started putting the peppercorns 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.160 and the leaves and the bougon Via bract and all 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.000 of a sudden, I had a face and it looked 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.320 so realistic, and I was looking at it and kind 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:05.080 of tripping out. I was like, oh my god, this 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.560 really looks like a face. Right, So I just started 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:10.399 playing with it, taking a few pictures, and when I 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:12.920 was done sweeping, I just sweep the leaves away, swep 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.119 the leaves away and put them in the compost, and 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.280 that was it. But every time I saw that face 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:31.480 on social media, yeah you so that moment, she's watching you. 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:35.560 It's returning this activity into something creepy. But no, it's no, no, 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:38.479 it's accountability. She's watching you to make sure you do it. 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:48.520 She's like the goddess of the Folian. So this, this activity, 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:53.160 and especially when my daughter was young, became something that 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.880 I did every single day. Is I would go out. 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:58.240 I would take my daughter out on walks, and I'd 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:00.240 have a little ziplock bag and anytime I all like 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:03.760 an interesting looking seed, pod or leaf, I would just 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.199 collect it and put it in my little ziplock And 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.000 then I would get home, when I would put my 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:10.920 daughter away for a nap, then I would go outside 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:13.360 and do these little faces and take pictures of them 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:16.760 and started sharing them on Instagram, and I invited my 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.000 community to make them too, because it really felt like 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:22.000 something so easy. You needed no supplies to do it. 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:25.359 It's so fun and everyone's always really smitten with the 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:28.800 results because their faces look like real faces, and they 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.800 have expressions, and they like look nad or like they're laughing, 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:34.600 or like they have a secret and they want to 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:37.040 share with you. And so I kind of started creating 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:40.880 these little narratives around these faces. I called the project 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:43.280 Face the Foliage and there's a Face the Foliage Instagram 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:47.240 account and hashtag as well, and so now people from 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:50.600 all over the world take part in this movement of 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:53.880 making these portraits out of leaves and flowers. And it's 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:57.199 just it couldn't be more simple. Okay, how did I 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.399 not know about this account? Because I'm like dying it is. 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:05.160 That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen a lot 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:08.879 of joy. What I love about this Face the Foliage 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.320 is that anyone can do it. That creativity doesn't have 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:15.560 to be something that's out of reach. You don't have 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:19.480 to be quote unquote a creative person. Why do you 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:22.720 think it is that anyone can be creative? Because I've 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:26.080 seen it. I've seen it over and over and over again. 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:29.600 I've seen it in my daughter when she was a baby. 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:33.480 I've seen it in language and learning new languages, even 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:37.160 just in a single word. There's so much creativity there. 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:40.120 And I love thinking about the origins of things, right, 0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:42.199 and so in order to create the world that we 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:46.720 live in, it just wouldn't be possible without human creativity. 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:49.800 And the human creativity is just it's so clear that 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:53.560 it's inside everyone. And so when I hear people saying like, oh, well, 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:57.080 I'm not creative, Like you couldn't get up in the 0:24:57.119 --> 0:24:59.960 morning if you were creative, you're making creative to say, 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.280 visions all throughout your day, whether you realize it or not. 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:06.160 Putting your clothes on in the morning is a creative decision. 0:25:06.800 --> 0:25:10.520 And so some people value those creative decisions in different 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:13.320 ways than other people. And so I think that when 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:15.560 it comes to home decor, which is a world that 0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:20.280