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First Friday Webinars to Return on Friday, July 2! Recent Successes and Expanding Opportunities around 30×30
Please join The Ocean Project at 1:00 PM ET on Friday, July 2, for the return of our First Friday Webinar Series! We will be joined by three special guests…
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Getting Fishy with It
There certainly was something fishy about our First Friday Webinar for April. For this episode, entitled, “Getting Fishy with It,” we were joined by two speakers with information and…
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Getting ready to celebrate World Ocean Day and Party for the Planet!
In the latest installment of the First Friday Webinar Series, we were joined by three speakers with insights and advice on how aquariums, zoos and museums can make…
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Self-Care Tips for Young Ocean Advocates
Baylee Ritter is the Youth Advisor for The Ocean Project, a former member of the World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council and delegate for Sea Youth Rise Up, and a 2020 National Geographic Young Explorer. The future of our ocean is the future of humanity – which is why my work today centers on getting kids from rural, landlocked communities like mine involved in the leadership of this collective fight for a healthy blue planet! As my environmental work has evolved, self-care has gone through seasons of what it means to me, but at this point in my life, self-care means pausing. As a young person in the constantly moving wheel of change-making, there’s never going to be a point where you can say, “The earth is all good! Sit back and watch a movie, your work is done.” But just because you need to take a break doesn’t mean you won’t get opportunities to further your work or the world will crumble. I think of Atlas holding up the sky — self-care means understanding and knowing there are a lot of other cool young people who are going to continue to hold up the sky while you sit down and take a break. The world is still going to be there when you come back. So I wanted to share some tips of how I prioritize taking time for self-care and encourage you all to do the same! Turn off WiFi. It can be scary, but try to work while disconnected from the Internet and social media. While it can be a really beautiful and connective tool, it can also be a breeding ground for negativity and comparisons to others. It can be scary for me to think, “What if I don’t check Instagram today and miss this cool opportunity?” But there are always going to be opportunities. They will still be there when you come back. When discussing self-care, we often think of bubble baths and binging TV shows, but it’s removing the things that are bringing so much noise into our lives that is truly a hard but necessary thing in self-care. Do activities that are truly filling. Every morning as I’m getting dressed, I put on a song and I have to dance to that one song while I get ready. It’s the first song that comes to mind and I don’t judge it — lately, it’s been Miley Cyrus, the Bee Gees, or Mariah Carey. I’ve never done this before in my life; I don’t know why I thought dancing would be the fix during the pandemic, but it has brought me more joy starting my mornings. Get outside. The first weeks of the pandemic were really uncertain and scary. I remember the first time my partner suggested going on a hike after the local trails opened back up. We got out of our car and started on the trail and I had this moment I hadn’t felt since I was a kid: I reflected on how much I love this planet and my gratitude toward the physical earth for being there for me when I was scared. Nature was there in a way I hadn’t given gratitude for in a long time. It is fortunate to be able to go into these pristine, protected, safe spaces in nature, and that hike gave me the answer I had forgotten. It gave me that why again. Why I wake up every day and ask myself if I am doing what I can, with the energy, means, and time that I have to ensure this planet is abundant and safe for all. Even though it’s cold where I live, I’m still getting outside — I’m now trying to embrace the briskness and the changing of the seasons, and it gives me so much joy. Don’t get caught up in what society tells you is self-care. We are constantly being sold these different self-care and wellness opportunities. A spa. A fancy bath. But with what time, money, and access? For me, self-care looks like turning on a 2.5-minute song and dancing my butt off. Self-care literally looks like what makes sense to you. Taking the time to figure that out isn’t easy, but if it’s authentic to you, you’ll make time for it. You’re not going to be 100% every day. Something I’ve had to reconcile is the misconception that the moment in which you are taking care of yourself is the moment you feel 100%. But that’s an unachievable, lofty thing that puts pressure on you. Sometimes you might feel 85% but that doesn’t mean your self-care is failing. Given the realities of today, sometimes you can do all these self-care things and still feel 85%. That’s what you can give today and that’s okay. Self-care is a spectrum — there is no right way to do it. It is what it is for you and it ebbs and flows. At the beginning of 2020, I wrote a manifesto of the things I wanted to implement in my life. One of those things was to read 25 books this year, and guess what? I didn’t do it. Looking at my list at the end of 2020, I immediately felt this twinge of disappointment. But guess what wasn’t on that list? Dancing every morning. Originally posted on National Geographic Education Blog More about Baylee here.
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World Ocean Day 2021
Protecting 30% of our blue planet for a healthy ocean and climate World Ocean Day belongs to all groups, collectively everywhere. We look forward to collaborating with you in 2021,…
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First Friday Webinar for February 5: A Promising Framework and Roadmap for Audience Conservation Engagement
New starting February 2021 for the First Friday webinars: Registration required and you can do so by clicking here. The First Friday Webinar for February features a promising new…
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Protecting 30% of our blue planet by 2030
Efforts by aquariums, zoos, museums and others to help ocean animals like this sea turtle just got a big boost with today’s announcement of a new national goal to…
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The Conservation Calendar in 2021
In our first webinar of the new year we were honored to have not one, but two special guests covering the shifts in the political ‘seascape
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A Global Perspective on Effective Ocean Messaging
In our latest First Friday Webinar, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sophie Hulme, a cofounder of Communications Inc and one of the essential organizers of the
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Another Awareness Day? Why they are worth all of that energy!
By Amy Niedbalski Director, Conservation Audience Research and Evaluation (CARE) Saint Louis Zoo Like many organizations, the Saint Louis Zoo hosts approximately 20 to 30 “awareness days” annually…
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