“Regenerative”
As I was coming home from our trip to the Northeast last Friday, our last leg from Los Angeles Airport was delayed due to the wildfire burning along the Interstate 5. It took 4 hours to get home from LA where it should have been an hour-and-a-half drive. I was tired but still quite lifted from the “unlike-conference” with my regenerative real estate group, LATITUDE. I say “unlike-conference” because the main objective for the event was to be like a “conference” to network with other like-minded professionals who are in the field of real estate whether realtors, architects, developers, planners, and the like, but it didn’t look anything like a typical conference.
Not typical because we were hosted by The Ecology School in Saco, Maine, a non-profit organization that “inspires stewardship of and connection to the natural world through experiential learning in ecology, conservation, farming, and sustainability” by providing immersive, experiential programs for kids and adults. The place is on a 105 acre of farm land surrounded by forest and Saco River where we got to gather, have lots of conversations around our works, play, swim and boat in the river and eat scrumptious meals prepared by Chef Rich with produce harvested on the land and locally sourced food in all electric commercial kitchen. The buildings we slept and gathered are living buildings which “asks for spaces to give more than they take from the environment around them.” In other words, deeply green facility — perfect fit for our intentions and commitment.
Talks by our thought leaders and group discussions around “regenerative real estate” included community building, development, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), regenerative economics, and so on. I’m sure you would ask what “regenerative” and/or “regenerative real estate” mean, and that’s what we’re all individually and collectively working on defining through our own inner works as well as professional works. There was so much input during the time of gathering that I’ve hardly digested and barely grasping all the ideas and concepts we worked on.
For now I will say “regenerative” to me means ways in which we generate more energy, more safety and comfort, more peace of mind than we consume, extract, spend and exert both on physical realm and spiritual realm. We know this Earth cannot support the growing human population in the world in the way we have lived on physical level consequently affecting us emotionally and spiritually. So “regenerative real estate” is a practice of real estate business that “seeks to encompass health and wellness, sustainability, ecology, community, and spirit in the built and natural environments.” We want to be the guides for anyone to live in such a way via real estate transactions or advisory.
And let me be the one to confess I am far from being a regenerative practitioner despite my intention and desire to live consciously. I still use fossil fuel to heat my house, dry my clothes and cook. I buy food in plastic packages and use products in plastic containers. I am desperately trying to compost so I can divert my food waste from methane producing landfill but not quite succeeding yet. It pains me that these actions I take are certainly contributing to everything that’s challenging us globally.
As we literally live through the unprecedented heat waves and wild fire dangers, and floods, hurricanes, and many other crisis we face globally, recognizing the inter-connectedness of everything is so crucial. Everything we do has impact on not just the environment but also on us, humans and all the other species that we share this Earth with.
I often ask people who come to my mindfulness practice group what brought them to be interested in meditating. More likely than not, it is the stress in life that led them to seek some kind of spiritual practice. Mindfulness practice is a tool to be able to pause our busy life even for a few minutes to become aware of what we’re doing, thinking and feeling. I’d say mindfulness practice is a part of regenerative practice in which we can replenish our body, mind and spirit to allow us an ability to reciprocate our own place we live, our communities, our environment and our life in general. I’m grateful to have been exposed to the practice as it certainly helps me to be well, “regenerative.”