NASA has released an infographic, containing plants with the highest oxygen-releasing, and air purifying capabilities.

Humans and plants rely on each other to survive.  Plants give humans oxygen, food, clothing and shelter. In exchange, humans release carbon dioxide, which plants need, and distribute plant seeds throughout the world.

Plants provide us with oxygen, via a process called photosynthesis. This is where sunlight combines with carbon dioxide and water to provide food for the plant, and clean breathable air for us.

In a world filled with industrial factories, countless V8 gas-guzzlers, and rapidly increasing deforestation rates, who couldn’t use more clean air?

In the 1980’s NASA, along with with the Associated Contractors of America, conducted thorough research to determine which plants were effective at filtering out toxins like benzene, ammonia and formaldehyde from the air.

The study, led by Dr. B. C. Wolverton, might be from  25 years ago, but it is still considered to be the most accurate and comprehensive results to date. Continue reading →

Recently, a friend of mine wrote about her beautiful Ayahuasca experience, and all it entailed, from start to finish. It made me think about my own Ayahuasca journey, and how much effort I put into preparing myself for what was to come.

We like to think of ourselves as individuals, don’t we? We’d prefer to be a flawed original, than a perfect copy.  Yet when it comes right down to it, we are simply living the life of a label.

We define ourselves as extroverts or introverts, vegan or vegetarian, hippie or hipster. But we are none of these things. We think we are creating a society of individuals, when all we are really doing is expanding our dictionary of personal descriptions.

Who are you, really?

Did you grow up with a family who was constantly trying to make ends meet, or were you even blessed enough to have a family?  Did that define who you became as an adult? No, of course not. You choose who you are, not your past, and not your labels.

“We inhabit a world in which we tend to put labels on each other and expect that we will then march through life wearing them like permanent sandwich boards.”
–Nick Webb

Nothing is permanent, not even the words in which you choose to define yourself, and others. As our society is ever-changing, so are our likes and dislikes, wants and needs, and personal aspirations. But you will always be you…

A human being, a beautiful soul, experiencing this life as only you know how to- one moment at a time. Labels don’t help bring us together as a community, they divide us into groups. Nothing great has ever come from separation; we must join together and realize we aren’t any of these labels. We are all the same. Continue reading →

Most of us consider ourselves to be ‘positive people.’ Or, at least, we try to be as often as we can. Sometimes though, our thoughts get the better of us.

Thinking about a problem can cause an overabundance of other thoughts to follow, causing an endless spiral of overthinking. Our thoughts have power- if you think too much about something, it can cause unnecessary stress and even make you feel like you are losing your mind.

“The more you overthink the less you will understand.” – Habeeb Akande

That quote holds a lot of truth. How many times have you not been thinking about something, when suddenly, out of nowhere, the answer comes to you?

It happens to me all the time. When we think about something that happened, and we try to analyze it, we sometimes create problems that weren’t even there in the first place.

Overthinking can cause serious problems in your relationships and with your mental health. Here are 5  ways to calm an overthinking mind:

1. Don’t blame yourself.
A common pattern with overthinkers is that they tend to blame themselves when things go wrong. They observe a situation and pick it apart, trying to find what they could have done differently. Continue reading →

When you think of Roman Catholic churches, an “interactive display of light and colour” probably isn’t the first thing that pops in your mind.  Thank to Miguel Chevalier and his Magic Carpets, that might just change.

Magic Carpets takes the main corridor of the Casablanca Cathedral (Sacré-Cœur de Casablanca) and transforms it into a seemingly-endless carpet of light, filled with vibrant colours and oceanic movements. As curious visitors walk along the installation, they immediately become captivated by the merging, bending, and twisting patterns engulfing their senses.

Born in 1959 in Mexico, Miguel now resides in Paris, where he continues to find inspiration for his contemporary art. His website gives us an in-depth explanation of his pieces, ” his works investigate and explore recurrent themes such as nature and artifice, flows and networks, virtual cities and ornate designs. His images are a rich source of insights into ourselves and our relationship with the world.” Accurate it is, as you can see all of the aforementioned attributes in Magic Carpets.

Inspiration for this particular installation came from  microorganisms, cellular automata, and the world of biology. You can clearly see some of the resemblances to our micro-verse within the many moving shapes and colours of Magic Carpets, along with several of Miguel’s other works, like Fractal Flowers in Céret, France, and Pixels Wave in Singapore.

The following videos are two examples of this incredibly beautiful artistic concept, and I hope you enjoy them both. Watch the colours blend into each other with fluidity and ease, and imagine walking along the constantly moving digital display. Combining complexity and simplicity, with nature and technology, is an incredible feat. Thanks to Miguel Chevalier, it is now it is one you can be a part of and experience personally.

Continue reading →