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Stay Sparked #21 - "Festival Hacks"
7 Plays2 years ago
Betsy just got back from an inspiring local Burn. So we took the opportunity to share some of our favorite tips for making your Burn or Festival experiences fantastic.
We talked about tricks for flying to an event (vs. driving), ways to pack, tips for Gifting and Participation, how to keep our bodies & skin healthy, and the importance of "neccessories." Enjoy!
LINKS:
Halcyon & Phenomenal's free "Burning Man Bootcamp" video series.
www.PlayaPrinciples.com Burning Man Tips & Tricks
HOSTS
BETSY FINKLEHOO is a healer of massage therapy, CranioSacral and Dharma Coaching. She is an 8 year burner and has spent the last several years seeped in the personal development world, cultivating her passion for transformation and growth. Her recent project, The Power Affirmation Journal and virtual group empowers women to cultivate self awareness and healthy habits so they can live in greater freedom, mind body and spirit.
http://poweraffirmation.com/
Click here to get a FREE affirmation for Stay Sparked Listeners!
HALCYON is full-time Love Ambassador. He is the founder of Hug Nation YouTube channel and daily zoom gratitude circles. He is co-founder of the Pink Heart Burning Man camp and the 1st Saturdays project for people experiencing homelessness. In his free time he coaches individuals on how to live joyfully and authentically. His other podcast is "Hard on the 80's."
http://JohnStyn.com
JANUS REDMOON is a 10-time Burner, and has spent the last several years as an advocate for psychedelic medicine research and treatment. He is the founder and CEO of NuWorld Nutritionals, a nutritional supplement company providing mushroom-based, all-natural products to improve and maintain health for both body and mind. (Use code "SPARKED" for 10% off)
http://www.nuworldnutritionals.com
MASSIVE Thank you to Dub Sutra for their beautiful opening music. Check out their incredible music catalogue online.
https://dubsutra.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Stay Sparked.
00:00:04
Speaker
On this show, we explore how to stay inspired in the modern world through the most profound lessons from Burning Man, relationships, entrepreneurship, psychedelics, spirituality, travel, and more.
00:00:17
Speaker
Today on Stay Sparked, it's festival season and we've got the hacks for packing, travel, food, how to manage your health, and how best to participate and engage with your community of fellow festival goers.
00:00:32
Speaker
Enjoy the episode.
Festival Season Hacks
00:00:35
Speaker
Welcome to Stay Sparked.
00:00:37
Speaker
We are three friends here to share conversations aimed to inspire and light you up.
00:00:41
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening.
00:00:43
Speaker
And if you've been enjoying these conversations, we deeply appreciate you leaving us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts.
00:00:50
Speaker
And please share to help spread the sparks of inspiration.
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm Betsy.
00:00:56
Speaker
I'm Halcyon.
00:00:57
Speaker
And I'm Janus.
00:00:59
Speaker
I am a holistic healing arts practitioner and the founder of the Power Affirmation Project, inspiring life skills for sustainable happiness.
00:01:08
Speaker
I am a lifestyle artist who has been sharing his life publicly online for over two decades.
00:01:13
Speaker
You can follow my journey and wisdom on HugNation.com.
00:01:18
Speaker
And I am the founder and CEO of New World Nutritionals, a nutritional supplement company with mushroom-based products designed to improve your state of mind.
00:01:28
Speaker
All three of us are also...
00:01:31
Speaker
We have been to Burning Man many years and we have been in the festival culture for quite some time and we love sharing topics that inspire festival
Practicing Gratitude
00:01:43
Speaker
life.
00:01:43
Speaker
And so on today's conversation, we wanted to talk about
00:01:47
Speaker
Festival hacks.
00:01:49
Speaker
What are some things that we can do to enhance our experience, whether that's through packing, travel, food, health, participation, ways that we can just continue to refine our experience?
00:02:03
Speaker
As longtime burners, I'm sure we probably all have picked up some things that work and also gotten some learning from the things that don't work.
00:02:12
Speaker
And so I'd love to dive into that with you guys today.
00:02:16
Speaker
And before we start, I'd love to make sure that we always start with our gratitudes.
00:02:21
Speaker
So why don't we start with you, Halcyon?
00:02:22
Speaker
What are you grateful for today?
00:02:25
Speaker
I am grateful for a...
00:02:28
Speaker
Daybreaker Dance Party that I went to this weekend.
00:02:31
Speaker
It was a sober morning dance event.
00:02:35
Speaker
And I was so encouraged by the vibe that was created.
00:02:42
Speaker
I was a little nervous about
00:02:44
Speaker
an experience that would be different and doing it, you know, without the traditional crutches of a little buzz.
00:02:52
Speaker
But very quickly, the way that they created and crafted this environment, I felt I sank into it.
00:02:58
Speaker
I boogied my butt off, met cool people, and just really pleased by a new experience and to see fellow humans really bringing a sparked vibe in different ways.
00:03:12
Speaker
I'm super grateful for it.
00:03:14
Speaker
Amazing daybreaker early morning sunrise dance party.
00:03:18
Speaker
How about you?
00:03:20
Speaker
I am grateful for having a clean house, having a clean home today.
00:03:33
Speaker
My partner and I were pretty busy over the last week, so things have gotten a little unkempt, shall we say.
00:03:39
Speaker
So I spent a good party yesterday just like dusting, vacuuming, wiping things down and doing all the laundry and everything else and waking up today to a much, much cleaner situation.
00:03:54
Speaker
home was was nice it was kind of like i've forgotten you know i've kind of just woke up doing my thing i was like and like as soon as i walked out i was like oh wow everything's nice i'm like oh yeah i spent i spent all day yesterday doing that and it's just like it's like ah so it was a good way to start the day so uh thankful for having a clean spot spring cleaning spring cleaning indeed
00:04:14
Speaker
Awesome.
00:04:16
Speaker
Well, I'll share my gratitude is I am just coming off a, of an incredible weekend at a regional burn in South Carolina near Charleston.
00:04:25
Speaker
It was called emergence burn and it was absolutely incredible and
00:04:29
Speaker
The place that it was held was where there's two lakes and these giant angel oak trees with Spanish moss hanging down.
00:04:38
Speaker
And there was this beautiful setup with the stage and just incredible people from mostly from this area, which I'm, I have primarily been a West coast festival goer.
00:04:49
Speaker
And so this was one of my first East coast festivals and I just,
00:04:54
Speaker
loved every bit of it.
00:04:55
Speaker
I'm so grateful that I put forth the effort to fly out here and get to travel to a new experience.
00:05:02
Speaker
And so just really sending so much love and gratitude, especially to one of my dear friends, many of you might know vibes.
00:05:10
Speaker
It was his event and he was the catalyst for me to go.
00:05:13
Speaker
So really grateful for the expanded soul family and burner family.
00:05:18
Speaker
Nice.
Festival Preparation and Travel
00:05:20
Speaker
How nice that we get to use your festy energy as we go into this topic.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, you know, the afterglow, right after coming off of a weekend festival, you know, there's this like, you know, afterglow that that continues on.
00:05:37
Speaker
I feel so inspired.
00:05:38
Speaker
So yeah, I love that we're getting to talk about this today.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's just the season for for the festivals are just getting underway.
00:05:46
Speaker
Like really March and April is kind of like the start because the weather is starting to like improve a bit so we can be outside without the fear of cold or rain and such.
00:05:56
Speaker
So.
00:05:56
Speaker
So, yeah, now's the time.
00:05:58
Speaker
And speaking of now's the time, I think one of my favorite hacks that I ever was given or advice was that your journey begins the minute you decide to go.
00:06:11
Speaker
So, you know, as you are doing your packing, as you are putting together your plan and your travel, that it's easy to get so focused on the destination that you can get frustrated or whatever.
00:06:25
Speaker
But if you can kind of remember that this is, you're in it, the adventure has begun.
00:06:29
Speaker
I think that that can really help all of it become, the growth process can be a part of it from starting now.
00:06:38
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:06:39
Speaker
So what I wanted to ask, Betsy, is there's a difference between when you're okay.
00:06:45
Speaker
So when we're okay, I'm going to the festival.
00:06:47
Speaker
So there's a difference, though, if I have to, if I'm going to be driving a few hours, or if I'm going to be flying cross country.
00:06:54
Speaker
So what's
00:06:56
Speaker
Can you explain the difference in your process?
00:06:59
Speaker
What was different for you to prepare for a festival that you were getting on a plane for as opposed to something you could load up the car for?
00:07:08
Speaker
How did you streamline that process for yourself?
00:07:10
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's a lot of learning because this was my first time doing it.
00:07:14
Speaker
And I know a lot of people do it and there's many different ways of doing it.
00:07:18
Speaker
For me, I'm really, really grateful to have had some connections out here in the Carolinas to be able to strategize with.
00:07:27
Speaker
So that made a huge difference for my packing because it, you know, I didn't have to pack a tent or any of the camping gear because my friends out here were willing to share.
00:07:35
Speaker
the camping gear.
00:07:36
Speaker
So that made a huge, huge difference.
00:07:39
Speaker
Um, and I would say, actually, I'm going to infuse two sparks here around that topic because, um, the packing process is, uh, you know, done differently by everybody.
00:07:49
Speaker
And I am the type of person that have, has learned to begin early because otherwise, if I wait to the last minute, then I feel really stressed.
00:07:58
Speaker
And I was talking to a friend actually, um, out here.
00:08:01
Speaker
Cause I got here a week early and I was like, Oh, Hey, have you started packing?
00:08:04
Speaker
And he was like,
00:08:05
Speaker
No, I usually wait till the day before and I like, you know, get everything last minute and then I'm like super stressed and then I finally get there, you know, like, oh, how's that working out for you?
00:08:14
Speaker
It's like, I, one of these days I'm going to change.
00:08:16
Speaker
And so we were talking about it.
00:08:18
Speaker
And one of the things I've learned to do is that, yeah, in that decision to go, it's
00:08:22
Speaker
I put a box out in my house and even though I'm going to be still working and tending to my regular life things, I have that box.
00:08:32
Speaker
So that way I can slowly start putting things in it because my mental process, I start thinking about all the things I want to bring.
00:08:41
Speaker
And then I have this internal checklist that just gets a little overwhelming in my head.
00:08:45
Speaker
And so I just will put one thing in at a time.
00:08:47
Speaker
And then when it's time, like the day or two before, I'm
00:08:50
Speaker
to go, then I have this box full stuff that I can really start to, um, decide are these essentials or are these, um, you know, things that I can let go of.
00:09:00
Speaker
Um,
00:09:01
Speaker
one word that came through is the, uh, necessary necessaries are really important thing, right?
00:09:07
Speaker
Is it, um, really necessary or is it just an accessory or is it a necessary?
00:09:12
Speaker
Right.
00:09:13
Speaker
And so, um, finding ways to be able to pack efficiently with the things that are going to be useful and also fun, uh, and adorn us.
00:09:24
Speaker
Uh, that's one of the things that I'd like to think of when I'm packing.
00:09:27
Speaker
And then what I learned on this trip, actually, less is more.
00:09:33
Speaker
I feel like I always learn that even when I drive.
00:09:35
Speaker
But I flew here and I ended up bringing way too many things.
00:09:39
Speaker
And what I did at the festival, I was like, wow, I brought so many things that I'm not going to use.
00:09:45
Speaker
I'm going to try and use at least everything I brought for at least one minute.
00:09:49
Speaker
Like I had a few extra outfits I didn't end up wearing.
00:09:51
Speaker
And when I was getting ready with one of my friends, I was like, I'm going to put this rainbow outfit on for five minutes, even though I'm not going to wear the rest of the time.
00:10:00
Speaker
Just so that way I actually feel like I used everything.
00:10:04
Speaker
That's funny.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:06
Speaker
A friend of mine mentioned years ago, and it was I only ended up doing it like one time, but I definitely saw the value in it.
00:10:13
Speaker
She would go for going and this is would work for like flying as well.
00:10:18
Speaker
But going to a festival, she had a decent sized car, but she made a rule for herself that she had four boxes of varying sizes.
00:10:25
Speaker
She's like, if I can't put it in these four boxes, then it's not coming.
00:10:30
Speaker
And she had room for more in her vehicle, but she's like, but then I ended up bringing, I ended up bringing everything and half the stuff I don't use.
00:10:38
Speaker
And so she just kind of made a rule for herself.
00:10:40
Speaker
All right.
00:10:40
Speaker
These, these four various size boxes, fill the boxes.
00:10:43
Speaker
If it doesn't fit in the box, any of these boxes, then it's not coming.
00:10:47
Speaker
And she said the first time she did it, it worked like a charm and she's done it ever since.
00:10:51
Speaker
That is crazy talk.
00:10:52
Speaker
That is to me.
00:10:53
Speaker
That's like hearing that the world is flat to me.
00:10:57
Speaker
Like if I have room for another thing, I am bringing it.
00:11:00
Speaker
I bring basically, one of the things I love bringing my, my Hugmobile motorhome is that it's like, I have 24 years of accumulated running man clothes and I bring
00:11:10
Speaker
most of it when I can't.
00:11:13
Speaker
But I want to touch on the travel with via plane, because I think that that is a really interesting challenge and topic, especially within 10 principles when you have like a radical self-reliance.
00:11:26
Speaker
I think that really has to be massaged when you think about traveling abroad, especially.
00:11:33
Speaker
Like I went to Blazing Swam, which is a Western Australia regional burn.
00:11:37
Speaker
And to truly be self-sufficient at something you have to fly to requires an insane amount of unnecessary purchasing, you know?
00:11:45
Speaker
And so I think that radical self-reliance when it comes to flying, part of your reliance is building relationships with people that you can rely on.
00:11:55
Speaker
And that is whether you can borrow things or you can help with them or they can help you find things.
00:12:01
Speaker
I mean, because really, if you have to be relatively self-reliant and you need to bring everything, that's not gonna work.
00:12:08
Speaker
You can't do that in suitcases and it's so wasteful to buy it.
00:12:12
Speaker
But if you know you can partner with friends or a theme camp or even, and I think that I've found that people are pretty receptive.
00:12:18
Speaker
If you find an online community and you say, I'm flying in,
00:12:23
Speaker
So that is often an easier way to find people.
00:12:26
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:12:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:28
Speaker
I love that point too.
00:12:29
Speaker
And, you know, it is radical self-reliance and it's also community.
00:12:34
Speaker
And so when we work together, then we can create this really beautiful experience.
00:12:39
Speaker
And I know for me, I have these two friends that were like, we have all the camping gear.
00:12:43
Speaker
We have everything that you need.
00:12:45
Speaker
That made me start thinking about other ways that I can contribute.
00:12:49
Speaker
And so I was like, okay, well, if they're bringing all this other stuff, I want to make sure that I'm showing up in the best way that I can to, you know, like I love feeding people and
00:12:59
Speaker
And so I was like, okay, I'm going to make these really delicious things to feed people.
00:13:03
Speaker
I'm also going to bring other ways like massage people or, you know, acts of service to be able to balance out the contributions because that's where it feels like that's when we're working together.
00:13:16
Speaker
Right.
00:13:16
Speaker
So that's one thing that's really valuable.
00:13:18
Speaker
And then also to speak to that, um, unnecessary purchasing.
00:13:22
Speaker
One of the things I learned on this is that I realized I couldn't pack festival boots because, you know, I'm flying and there's a certain amount of footwear.
00:13:31
Speaker
So I ended up going to a thrift store and finding a pair of, um, of boots that I could wear to the festival.
00:13:37
Speaker
And then before I leave, I'm actually
Community and Resource Sharing
00:13:39
Speaker
giving them to a friend.
00:13:40
Speaker
And so it kind of works out perfectly that I was able to, you know, find that what I needed at a thrift store.
00:13:46
Speaker
You know, there's so much abundance in the world.
00:13:49
Speaker
You can really find what you need wherever you go, you know, unless you're going to some crazy remote place.
00:13:56
Speaker
But thank goodness for thrift stores and for other people that are, you know, passing things on.
00:14:01
Speaker
I actually learned to I should have I should have packed space in my suitcase.
00:14:09
Speaker
I got more stuff.
00:14:10
Speaker
Shoot.
00:14:10
Speaker
So now I'm going to have to get rid of the stuff to be able to fly home.
00:14:14
Speaker
Right.
00:14:14
Speaker
Right.
00:14:15
Speaker
And that's something that could be done when we're flying is like you guys mentioned to reach out via online to either the organizers or the attendees and be like, hey, I'm coming from out of town and this is what I'm kind of looking for since I can't really pack anything.
00:14:31
Speaker
You can get hooked up that way.
00:14:32
Speaker
And conversely, you can also reach out to these same people and be like, OK, I'm flying.
00:14:37
Speaker
Where can I donate this stuff?
00:14:38
Speaker
Even if you have to purchase stuff, you can get cheap camping gear or thrifty clothes or whatever, and you don't necessarily have to bring it back with you.
00:14:49
Speaker
So you can find people that you can donate that to.
00:14:52
Speaker
A lot of festival organizers have some sort of setup, like if you want to donate a tent or...
00:14:58
Speaker
um tarps or what whatever whatever that you might need to acquire you don't necessarily have to bring it back with you there's you just got to think a little bit outside the box with this stuff but you can usually make it happen when you tap into the community that's involved another uh little hack for travel and by plane that i did when i went to love burn which is the florida burn
00:15:18
Speaker
At one time I went, I did not, wasn't able to secure everything I needed in advance through friends.
00:15:23
Speaker
So I went through Southwest, so I had two pieces of luggage and one, I had my cooler and I had a sleeping bag inside my cooler.
00:15:31
Speaker
And then I arrived at the airport, went straight to a grocery store, filled my cooler and took the Uber directly to the event.
00:15:40
Speaker
But it's definitely way easier to say who's got an extra, who's got an extra.
00:15:45
Speaker
Although I will say just if someone has an extra cooler or an extra XYZ, it's probably not the best one.
00:15:53
Speaker
So you got to be willing to deal with the one that they don't want to use.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah, the whole beggars can't be choosers thing.
00:16:03
Speaker
So it's like you got to be, you got to have a smile on your face if you're borrowing somebody's cooler.
00:16:08
Speaker
And it's like,
00:16:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:09
Speaker
Or they're buying somebody's tent and it's like, oh yeah, it's missing a pole, but it's yours.
00:16:13
Speaker
It's like, huh?
00:16:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:17
Speaker
Thanks.
00:16:18
Speaker
Thanks.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:19
Speaker
Go, go, go out hunting and bring your machete to hack some sticks down with when you get there.
00:16:26
Speaker
Totally.
00:16:26
Speaker
I think it's really such a cool thing that what burners do is have this global network.
00:16:34
Speaker
You know, it's really amazing.
00:16:36
Speaker
I know personally, and I've talked to so many people that are like, wow, I met another burner and they don't even know me and they offer to support me in this way.
00:16:46
Speaker
Right.
00:16:46
Speaker
So I talked to someone this weekend that said that he went to an Aussie burn, flew there and put a message out on the Facebook page about it.
00:16:54
Speaker
And had someone offer their place to stay for free, you know, just because they're burners, right?
00:16:59
Speaker
Burners look out for burners.
00:17:01
Speaker
There's this like commonality.
00:17:02
Speaker
And I feel like it's beyond festival culture too.
00:17:05
Speaker
Like whether that's like a yoga community or a hooping community or a surfer community, there's when there's this like common bond, there's this really beautiful support that we offer each other.
00:17:15
Speaker
And I think that's one of the greatest gifts when we're, when we're going home.
00:17:19
Speaker
far beyond our hometown.
Festival Food and Health Strategies
00:17:21
Speaker
And I know personally, if another burner comes into my town, then I want to meet them and I wanted to support them.
00:17:27
Speaker
Also, it's really just this cool opportunity to, to share and bring those 10 principles outside of the festival.
00:17:36
Speaker
Right, because ideally, if they are burners, they are embracing radical self-reliance and gifting.
00:17:43
Speaker
And so if you're doing that throughout your life, then you probably are someone that wants to be doing that for others that are doing that.
00:17:50
Speaker
I mean, you want to do it for everybody, but especially other people that are doing it.
00:17:53
Speaker
So it's important, I think, to try to embrace that so that when you're in a situation where you need to receive information,
00:18:01
Speaker
It all works out.
00:18:01
Speaker
Like you don't want to be the person that shows up knowing that people are going to take care of you.
00:18:05
Speaker
You know, you do want to be the person that can, that has built up enough, you know, trust and relationships and participate enough in the, in the community that it feels good to receive and know that you are a part of this kind of ecosystem.
00:18:21
Speaker
No sparkle ponies.
00:18:25
Speaker
They have their place, but yeah, it's, um,
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah, you definitely want to, you know, be to be the, you know, show up, show up in the in the in the ways that people will appreciate the math will appreciate.
00:18:39
Speaker
So one other thing that.
00:18:45
Speaker
I started doing, you know, towards the, you know, about the midpoint, the smaller festivals in particular, the ones where you're just like, you know, where you're kind of camping with friends.
00:18:55
Speaker
And then there's like a there's like a food court.
00:18:57
Speaker
So any place that is like providing food, which is what a lot of these smaller festivals will do.
00:19:03
Speaker
What I started doing was just being like, you know, I'm just going to eat the food that's there.
00:19:09
Speaker
I would pack a few snacks for myself because I don't always want to have to walk back and forth with the food, and I kind of want what I want when I want it.
00:19:18
Speaker
So things like I'll have a means to make hot water and some snacks, but there's –
00:19:25
Speaker
there was a time where I was like, you know, I'm just going to eat the food that's provided.
00:19:28
Speaker
And if you're kind of prepared for that going in, that definitely made things a lot easier for me as well.
00:19:34
Speaker
So if that's in somebody's means to do that, that takes a lot of packing and prep and stuff.
00:19:42
Speaker
It opens up a lot of bandwidth for yourself to not have to worry about the food situation.
00:19:47
Speaker
So if that's available to you, that's definitely an option worth considering.
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:19:55
Speaker
Burning Man festivals definitely don't because it is pack it in and pack it out.
00:20:01
Speaker
Radical self-reliance.
00:20:02
Speaker
For sale, but yeah, some of the other festivals definitely do, whether it's Lightning in a Bottle or Lucidity or these other festivals.
00:20:11
Speaker
One of the things also I wanted to check in with you guys about, considering you've been many, many years to Burning Man, I think one of the most important things is staying well.
00:20:20
Speaker
I know for me, right, it's like my older days of pushing, pushing, pushing so hard and then having to recover for weeks.
00:20:29
Speaker
I've learned a few things.
00:20:31
Speaker
So I'm curious around some of your guys' health hacks for the best of all life.
00:20:38
Speaker
Well, the health hack that I put the most energy into, I think, is taking care of my skin.
00:20:45
Speaker
And this is specific to Burning Man and Black Rock Desert.
00:20:49
Speaker
But I find that the acaline dust really makes...
00:20:56
Speaker
There's a number on my body.
00:20:57
Speaker
And so I bring a pair of new pair of gloves for every day.
00:21:02
Speaker
So I bring like I buy band gloves, like color guard gloves, and I have a new pair of gloves every day.
00:21:10
Speaker
And I almost never expose my hands to apply when I'm out.
00:21:14
Speaker
But I bring a new pair of gloves.
00:21:15
Speaker
Every time I go in and out of my tent or motorhome, I spray my hands with a mixture of water and vinegar or of something that has got that pH to it.
00:21:29
Speaker
And then I put coconut oil.
00:21:31
Speaker
And I do the same thing with my pinky with coconut oil up my nose every time.
00:21:38
Speaker
I'm constantly putting coconut oil and a vinegar spray on my skin.
00:21:43
Speaker
over and over and over.
00:21:44
Speaker
And then I also, for my feet, I keep my socks on when I take a shower and then I bring in enough pair of socks so that I can just take a pair of socks.
00:21:55
Speaker
I wear my socks back from the shower so they cover up in mud and then just strip off the muddy socks and put the clean ones on so that I can just avoid the hassle of trying to wet nap your dirty feet clean.
00:22:08
Speaker
Oh, I've never heard of that before.
00:22:10
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:17
Speaker
One thing that would help that, that I found that helped, uh, definitely on the play, but also off, uh, to just, these are the festivals is yeah, there are a lot, there are festivals, a lot of places they're held in areas that get dusty or dirty or windy and such.
00:22:31
Speaker
So, um,
00:22:33
Speaker
So when you're at a festival for a couple of days, if you blow your nose, you will be horrified by the results you get from that.
00:22:42
Speaker
So what helped me was they actually make like a saline gel and a saline spray.
00:22:50
Speaker
for your nose.
00:22:51
Speaker
So I would start using that.
00:22:52
Speaker
And that kept myself feeling, that kept my head feeling nice and clear, nice and clean, because that dust will get all, it gets everywhere, like literally everywhere.
00:23:02
Speaker
So that would help me
00:23:04
Speaker
Kind of keep my sinuses clear.
00:23:05
Speaker
And when your sinus is clear, I just tend to be in a much better mood for that.
00:23:10
Speaker
So and speaking of face stuff, definitely chapstick and have it like on a clip or something or just someplace that, you know, that's going to get your that you reduce the chance of losing it.
00:23:24
Speaker
So they make these like little like carrot taps like carabiners on that.
00:23:28
Speaker
So that's something that I would make use of as well.
00:23:31
Speaker
For sure.
00:23:31
Speaker
I actually, this last trip, I realized one of my favorite hacks is actually bringing about five to eight different chopsticks and putting them in all my different pocket belts.
00:23:40
Speaker
You know, I have like multiple pocket belts.
00:23:42
Speaker
I have a holster.
00:23:43
Speaker
I have a pouch next to my bed.
00:23:45
Speaker
And that way I'm not like, wait, where, where's my, where is it?
00:23:48
Speaker
There's always, there's always one available.
00:23:51
Speaker
Same thing with little mini lighters.
00:23:53
Speaker
Cause you know, people are always like, do you have a lighter?
00:23:55
Speaker
And then they take it.
00:23:55
Speaker
So you bring one and then you're like kind of screwed if somebody takes it.
00:23:59
Speaker
So I bring multiples and then give those out.
00:24:01
Speaker
And then also to kind of go back to a couple of things that you guys mentioned.
00:24:07
Speaker
So the saline spray, yes, amazing.
00:24:10
Speaker
And also I actually loved bringing a vintage handkerchief.
00:24:14
Speaker
You know how like the old school handkerchiefs are like really nice and cool?
00:24:18
Speaker
Like dry boogies out there.
00:24:22
Speaker
Like I don't want to be like picking my nose, but like I just got a boogie to get out.
00:24:25
Speaker
Like, okay, handkerchief is like always a really fun thing to just have.
00:24:32
Speaker
And then also to kind of spark off of your hand protection, this became a hack, but also an offering.
00:24:39
Speaker
Last year on the playa, one of my gifts was hand treatment.
00:24:43
Speaker
So I created this little pouch that had about four different small spray bottles in it.
00:24:49
Speaker
One was with water and tea tree.
00:24:52
Speaker
And so that's like a cleaner.
00:24:54
Speaker
So you can spray your
00:24:56
Speaker
hands off to get clean.
00:24:58
Speaker
And then I did, I think I did rose water for moisturizing.
00:25:02
Speaker
So you could do it on your hands and your face.
00:25:05
Speaker
And then I had aloe.
00:25:08
Speaker
So that's really great for skin and for the cuticles.
00:25:11
Speaker
And then shea butter.
00:25:13
Speaker
And so it was like this continuous practice of like cleaning and moisturizing and just really making sure that my hands and cuticles, mine were staying well.
00:25:22
Speaker
And then I would be noticing if I would be out on the playa and like look at people's hands.
00:25:28
Speaker
If somebody's hands were looking pretty, gnar, gnar.
00:25:31
Speaker
Like I have something for you.
00:25:33
Speaker
And it was so fun to be able to like connect with somebody and just massage their hands and clean them off and tend to their cuticles.
00:25:41
Speaker
It was like one of my favorite acts and offerings last year.
00:25:46
Speaker
That's nice.
00:25:48
Speaker
With your idea of having multiple, uh, chapsticks, I think that another hack that I like to make sure that I have a, you know, a go-to bag with all the things that I need, but I make sure that I have a daytime and a nighttime bag, because there are things that you always want at night that you don't need today, like flashlights or lights and things like that.
00:26:05
Speaker
And those are just too heavy to carry around all the time.
00:26:07
Speaker
But if you just know that this is where you're going to put all your stuff for night, or this is where you're going to have stuff for day, um,
00:26:14
Speaker
that's helpful to have that in advance.
00:26:16
Speaker
So you have repeat and doubles.
Fashion and Hygiene Tips
00:26:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:21
Speaker
One, one thing leapfrogging off of, um, or not leapfrogging, but piggybacking on that is when it, when it comes to hand, there are a couple of, uh,
00:26:32
Speaker
form, you know, practical fashion things or practical, yeah, practical use of a couple of things is wigs do a good job of like, they make you look great and they protect your hair.
00:26:46
Speaker
They protect your scalp.
00:26:47
Speaker
And because after a week, especially on the playa, but after a week in the festival or on the playa, your hair is going to just be like, it's going to be like super dried out, super messed.
00:26:57
Speaker
But wearing a wig a good amount of the time
00:27:00
Speaker
goes a long way for that.
00:27:01
Speaker
So that's a good something to consider.
00:27:04
Speaker
And also one thing like Betsy was mentioning, the hands of the cuticles.
00:27:08
Speaker
When you're out in a festival, you're out in your outdoor doing most of the things and using your hands a lot,
00:27:14
Speaker
and your fingernails get really dirty.
00:27:16
Speaker
And so you can like clean your fingernails out.
00:27:19
Speaker
There've been times where I clean my fingernails out and an hour later, I'll just happen to look and they're filthy.
00:27:23
Speaker
I'm just like, I just cleaned my fingernail.
00:27:25
Speaker
You know, what is happening here?
00:27:28
Speaker
A good way to kind of like out of sight, out of mind, paint your nails.
00:27:32
Speaker
uh paint your nails some fun some fun color and then this way they'll always look colorful even though there might be some like some nastiness underneath there you'll get around to cleaning it and it won't at least at least it won't look like it an hour after you clean it it's like your your nails will look great and you can um you can get away with like you know once or twice a cleaning day without having to be this this constant like uh you know like attending to your stuff so those are two good tips
00:27:57
Speaker
I love that.
00:27:58
Speaker
I went through that this weekend and like had this my own little process around like, ah, my nails.
00:28:02
Speaker
And this girl actually gave me some really great just reframing around the microbiome of the forest being under fingernails and like just embracing it and really recognizing that everybody has dirty fingernails.
00:28:16
Speaker
It's just part of being in the nature.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely something to be said for just you're in it, embrace it.
00:28:22
Speaker
It's like, this is part of it.
00:28:24
Speaker
It's, you know, it's, you can definitely reframe it and learn to love it no matter how dirty you might be.
00:28:31
Speaker
Totally.
00:28:32
Speaker
And you know what?
00:28:32
Speaker
One of my other favorite festival hacks too, and camping in general is spray bottles.
00:28:37
Speaker
So like, you know, having a shower is not as accessible as it is in our day-to-day life.
00:28:43
Speaker
And so I love being able to bring a spray bottle that can, I can spray my face right when I wake up, or I could even just take, you know, some rose water or different sprays to kind of like feel fresh and
00:28:57
Speaker
And then even for cleaning, one of my favorite cleaning hacks while at the festival is using a specific type of essential oil that is antibacterial.
00:29:07
Speaker
It is through doTERRA called On Guard, or Young Living is called Thieves.
00:29:13
Speaker
And it's a blend of rosemary, orange, eucalyptus, clove, cinnamon.
00:29:19
Speaker
And you can use it on your dishes.
00:29:22
Speaker
You can use it on just like cleaning surfaces.
00:29:25
Speaker
You can even spray it on your teeth and your mouth.
00:29:28
Speaker
And it cleans your teeth.
00:29:30
Speaker
It smells amazing.
00:29:31
Speaker
So that's like one of my all-time favorite festival hacks because, you know, even a dishwashing thing.
00:29:36
Speaker
station can be really challenging, you know, because you got to be in awareness of your water consumption and simplifying things is a really important thing.
00:29:47
Speaker
So those are a couple of those.
00:29:48
Speaker
And then the other one that I wanted to kind of piggyback off of your around the wigs.
00:29:54
Speaker
I mean, you got me starting to think about costumes and
00:29:58
Speaker
And one of the things I love doing with my accouchement, my accessories, my clothing and jewelry and that sort of thing is when I arrive, if I'm in a tent or RV, I like to put things out as if they're decorations too.
00:30:14
Speaker
And so it's not just, um, it's not just like wearing them, but like, Oh, okay.
00:30:18
Speaker
I can like, like hang some of my flow toys up in our, our tent and it becomes this colorful contribution, um, or like hanging my jewelry up in the tent and it's like, I can look at it and it's beautiful when I wake up.
00:30:33
Speaker
So like finding multi-purpose for the things that we bring, not just to wear, but having as decor.
00:30:40
Speaker
Can we talk about bathroom bags?
00:30:41
Speaker
Because I think that's important.
00:30:43
Speaker
The port-a-potty experience, if you prepare for it, it can make your festival and your burning experience so much better.
00:30:51
Speaker
So I recommend everybody have a bag that you just grab whenever you go to a port-a-potty that has a
00:31:00
Speaker
know if you use wet naps i know about have wet naps in it but also have a bag in it that you can put your used wet naps because if you are unaware of port-a-potties if it doesn't come out of your body it can't go in the potty and i'll be honest i didn't know that when i was first burning man i thought port-a-potties were magic i thought you just could throw anything in there and they would deal with it
00:31:21
Speaker
So, um, if it doesn't come out of your body, it doesn't go in the potty super important, but that doesn't mean you can't, um, you know, make your experience better by having wet naps with you, a bag that you can put that in.
00:31:32
Speaker
And I will speak out of line because I have a penis attached to my body, but I've heard such amazing things for having a, uh, a funnel for if you're a woman and you're
00:31:44
Speaker
excuse me, if you do not have a penis and you have to use a porta potty, you are in a situation of having to sit because you can't use a little urinal thing.
00:31:53
Speaker
If all you have to do is pee and you still have to sit, you have to deal with that, the horrific situation, depending on when it's been cleaned.
00:31:59
Speaker
But if you have a, a,
00:32:01
Speaker
a she, we, or something like that, you can use the urinal and avoid the sitting at all, at all, you know, which is, trust me as someone who has able to use the urinal when the port-a-potties are terrible, you will be happy that you have that option.
00:32:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:18
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:32:18
Speaker
And that's a great nature too.
00:32:21
Speaker
I have a pee funnel that I keep in my car when I'm going on long road trips and stuff like that to be able to go in nature or if a festival you're going to has tons of trees and everything.
00:32:30
Speaker
It also saves so much as a female-bodied person to be able to have
00:32:36
Speaker
you know, access with my, all my layers and costumes, you know, it's a thing.
00:32:41
Speaker
So yeah, definitely a P funnel.
00:32:43
Speaker
Like that is one of the most Supreme hacks or that you called it.
00:32:47
Speaker
That's cute.
00:32:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:48
Speaker
My, just my partner swears by it.
00:32:51
Speaker
And I know enough women who that this is an essential piece of equipment that you just have to have.
00:32:58
Speaker
And it's good.
00:32:58
Speaker
It's good for hiking.
00:32:59
Speaker
It's good.
00:33:00
Speaker
You just, you just have to have, it's just something you should have.
00:33:03
Speaker
And I've said, I have too many women in my life that I
00:33:06
Speaker
absolutely swear by it and love it.
00:33:07
Speaker
So it's something that everybody should, everybody, every woman should, or every, everybody without a penis should, should take advantage of that for sure.
00:33:17
Speaker
The other pee based equipment that I have to encourage is a jug, a pee jug that, that if you are going to have to get up from your tent in the middle of the night and go walk to a port-a-potty and deal with a port-a-potty,
00:33:32
Speaker
i never do that anymore i always bring a jug in fact i shop around in advance for a good jug kitty litter for example make a kitty litter container is a great one or a detergent bottle it's a great one and then you just use it in your tent and then you carry the whole thing and you dump it um i also since i've been using a p jug for a long time i recommend bringing some uh
00:33:57
Speaker
like RV tank deodorizer that like blue stuff that you see in a porta potty.
00:34:02
Speaker
And if you have a little of that, then you can keep your jug smelling nice, even as your urine bakes in the sun over days and days and days.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's that's a strong hack to have because it's like that that middle of the night, like having to get up out of your tent or or leave your whatever your situation is to go find a port-a-potty or just to go like out just to leave your tent.
00:34:25
Speaker
It's such a it can be it's such a hassle and it's such so easily solved with the pee jug.
00:34:31
Speaker
So however you want to navigate that for yourself, it's definitely something worth doing.
00:34:36
Speaker
It makes my life so much better that I have one in my car at all times.
00:34:39
Speaker
I have one under my desk right now.
00:34:42
Speaker
Right now.
00:34:43
Speaker
I'm holding it up if you're watching our YouTube channel.
00:34:46
Speaker
It has a picture of you on it too.
00:34:48
Speaker
Well, I want to make sure that I don't actually drink it.
00:34:50
Speaker
Yes.
00:34:52
Speaker
So that's another one.
00:34:53
Speaker
If you do use like an old Gatorade bottle, put a whole bunch of duct tape on it with like crossbones and skull and crossbones because, you know, often people use an old bottle that you use to drink.
00:35:01
Speaker
And then I'll just say it's happened.
00:35:04
Speaker
It's happened.
00:35:06
Speaker
It happened, yeah.
00:35:07
Speaker
Dry skull and crossbones on the lid.
00:35:09
Speaker
Something along those lines.
00:35:11
Speaker
Totally.
00:35:11
Speaker
I love that.
00:35:12
Speaker
Well, you know what?
00:35:12
Speaker
I really love what you shared around the Port-O-Potty bag.
00:35:17
Speaker
You have your little special pouch that you bring every time.
00:35:21
Speaker
And that actually, I want to kind of just trail off of that because I am definitely a pouch packer.
00:35:28
Speaker
I love little pouches.
00:35:29
Speaker
So I have pouches for all of my things and it creates a really awesome system for my process of being at the festival or also even in traveling.
00:35:39
Speaker
So like, um, for example, I have a nighttime pouch that goes right next to my bed.
00:35:44
Speaker
It never moves.
00:35:45
Speaker
It always has the same things in it.
00:35:47
Speaker
And it's always, you know, chapstick.
00:35:49
Speaker
It is like my little face white wet wipes and
00:35:52
Speaker
It has a little spray bottle.
00:35:55
Speaker
It might have like a mint or a cough drop, a throat spray, and my wellness formula tincture because right before I go to bed, I love to make sure that I have all those little things.
00:36:05
Speaker
And then I also have other pouches.
00:36:07
Speaker
for other things.
00:36:08
Speaker
Like I have a pouch for a little gifties that has little stickers in it or little magnets or like little trinkets that I like to give away or crystals.
00:36:15
Speaker
And then I have a pouch that has, um, my other wellness stuff in it, right.
00:36:19
Speaker
That has always has the cough drops or it has the throat sprays or it has the things that I know that I need to stay well, maybe allergy medicine or, um, nose spray.
00:36:30
Speaker
Right.
00:36:30
Speaker
Um, so all of my pouches are essential, right.
00:36:34
Speaker
Um, and then throughout the experience, the main thing that's, um, I've learned is keeping everything in their perspective pouches, because I think we've probably all been there for anyone that has been to Burning Man and has like, you know, the tornado moment in your tent or in your RV where you're like trying to find that one thing.
00:36:53
Speaker
And then you're like pulling everything out to find that one thing.
00:36:57
Speaker
And then you find that one thing and then you look around and all your stuff is everywhere.
00:37:01
Speaker
And then you can't really find anything.
00:37:04
Speaker
It turns into like a chaos moment.
00:37:07
Speaker
So I have found, yeah, those pouches are really helpful.
00:37:10
Speaker
And then also what I love doing is bringing one of those little plastic drawer bin kind of things like that has the multiple drawers.
00:37:19
Speaker
And then that way I always can pull those drawers out and have like, whether it's like Sharpies or scissors or tape or these little
00:37:27
Speaker
things that are a rope or like my, my pocket knife, you know, to be able to stay organized throughout the experience has provided actually a lot more time for me to get to play in the festival and not spend so much time looking for something or trying to figure out where I, you know, need to, you know, put things.
00:37:47
Speaker
It's just like systems provides a lot more freedom to play.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:53
Speaker
And it's, it's easy to get frustrated when you're, you know, when you're having trouble finding something or you're just, you're in a state of mind that makes it easy to lose things.
00:38:02
Speaker
So kind of, yeah, setting yourself up for success and getting some organization in the beginning planning stages.
00:38:09
Speaker
So once you're set, you're good to go.
00:38:12
Speaker
And it definitely frees you up to have more fun because that, that tent tornado is,
00:38:18
Speaker
is really tough to recover from because like once once your tent gets tossed, it's able it was kind of never going to be the same after that.
00:38:27
Speaker
It's like things will just end up shoved in the corner and you just can't get you just can't be bothered with it.
00:38:31
Speaker
So
00:38:32
Speaker
have a system to start off organized and that will allow you to stay organized.
00:38:36
Speaker
Whether that's the plastic drawers, you know, that Betsy suggested is a great idea.
00:38:43
Speaker
Pouches, like the Ziploc baggies, like whatever.
00:38:47
Speaker
Just keep things from getting loose in your space will definitely help keep the tornado shenanigans from happening.
00:38:55
Speaker
So you mentioned something, Betsy.
00:38:57
Speaker
Go ahead, Halcyn.
Creating Memorable Festival Experiences
00:38:58
Speaker
I'll say in addition to like...
00:39:00
Speaker
having things out post tornado, especially at Burning Man, because the dust is so fine, anything that is out is gonna have some dust on it.
00:39:08
Speaker
So if you can keep things packed away in their bags, in their bins, in their Ziplocs, at least you keep it from acquiring that level of dust.
00:39:17
Speaker
And along those lines, I also suggest that putting a once I'm off the playa outfit,
00:39:24
Speaker
in a Ziploc bag so that when you get to Reno, you can put something on that doesn't have dust on it is so nice.
00:39:31
Speaker
Cause you're even something that you didn't wear and is clean is gun to, is going to be dusty after it's been in your tent all week, whether or not you had a tornado, you know, experience or not.
00:39:40
Speaker
So just having something that you never let, you know, never open it, just stash it and know that that's what you're going to wear.
00:39:46
Speaker
You know, once you get your first shower is super nice.
00:39:48
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:39:50
Speaker
That's good.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's great.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, having that clean pair of underwear, those clean socks that don't get busted out until you're like on your way home or like that last day is so key.
00:40:02
Speaker
So good.
00:40:03
Speaker
Speaking to that, there is a friend of mine.
00:40:09
Speaker
I went to...
00:40:10
Speaker
visit her like maybe my third year on the playa and she had an RV, but she had all her outfits were in vacuum sealed bags that were like labeled like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
00:40:22
Speaker
And it was just like, and it's, and it took up no space at all because after you
00:40:26
Speaker
seeing somebody's you know somebody's set up like it's easy for you like this massive wardrobe and these massive bins it takes you know clothes and boots and all that um takes up a lot of space so when you can get your clothes like in these vacuum sealed bags like her whole like weeks worth of of outfits took up like this much space like it was just like handled and that was like i was like wow that is genius level like uh
00:40:52
Speaker
So if it seems like a luxury, but if you have access to like a vacuum sealer with these bags, putting your outfits for the week or the weekend in there is a pretty, seems like a great idea.
00:41:02
Speaker
I thought about that recently, but then I was like, what happens if then on your way back, do you have to bring a vacuum?
00:41:08
Speaker
Cause otherwise everything's just going to be bigger on the way back.
00:41:11
Speaker
You open everything up.
00:41:13
Speaker
You just have to have, have to deal with figuring out how to get it back in the bins, even though you don't have to, you like use your mouth.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, suck it, that's it.
00:41:25
Speaker
That could be a Burning Man gift as you drive around and suck out people's vacuum.
00:41:31
Speaker
Exactly.
00:41:32
Speaker
Another, just to keep in mind, if you do have a plan of bringing your outfits day by day by day, haha.
00:41:41
Speaker
Oh, yes.
00:41:41
Speaker
Make a plan.
00:41:42
Speaker
That's a good idea.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:41:44
Speaker
Because you just never have an idea of what the weather is going to be like.
00:41:47
Speaker
And so if you are thinking things through about outfits, I think it's good to think of like things that work together.
00:41:52
Speaker
You know, if you have a single color for each day, then you're kind of confined to, you know, what that is.
00:41:58
Speaker
But if you have like a jacket and a bunch of shirts and a bunch of, you know, hot pants that all kind of work together, then you can layer and still have a cool outfit together.
00:42:09
Speaker
and not just have the tragedy of not being able to wear your favorite thing.
00:42:15
Speaker
That is a tragedy.
00:42:16
Speaker
Betsy mentioned something that got me thinking about
00:42:21
Speaker
You know, as far as like the stuff to pack, gosh, now I forget what it was you mentioned, but you mentioned something about, you know, having something that you were going to share with the people.
00:42:30
Speaker
So that kind of reminds me about the idea of like, okay, so we're taking care of ourselves.
00:42:35
Speaker
Now, how do we, you know, we're taking care of our food or our porta potty accessories and all their other stuff, our personal fashion.
00:42:44
Speaker
How do we...
00:42:46
Speaker
you know, how do we prepare to participate?
00:42:48
Speaker
How do we prepare to engage with our community?
00:42:51
Speaker
So what are some good things?
00:42:54
Speaker
And you're, and you're super good at that, Betsy.
00:42:56
Speaker
Um, I remember you're, you're, you know, bringing and setting up the creation stations, uh, back in the day.
00:43:02
Speaker
And you were always like, you always made it easy to, to, for yourself and for others to actually, to engage in the community.
00:43:10
Speaker
So you, you kind of strike me as the maven for, uh,
00:43:13
Speaker
Festival community participation and engagement.
00:43:16
Speaker
So what you got for us?
00:43:18
Speaker
Yes, I love it.
00:43:21
Speaker
I definitely do have a lot of different hacks for creating participation and engagement and bridging that connection.
00:43:29
Speaker
And it really actually comes from overcoming some of my social anxieties and
00:43:36
Speaker
wanting to connect with people but not really enjoying small talk and so I have found these tools to be able to bridge that gap so I first started off with paints so face painting is something that is very common in the festival culture everybody wants their face painted you know it's like it's like we're all little kids here to play and we want to be colorful and adorned and so
00:44:02
Speaker
I use these markers called tribal markers, which are made for the body.
00:44:06
Speaker
They're made out of plants.
00:44:07
Speaker
And those are a really fun way to meet people and connect with people and then make an offering.
00:44:14
Speaker
And then another thing that I love bringing is sound instruments.
00:44:18
Speaker
So, um, little bells or a little tongue drum or, um, some kind of instrument instrument, because there's inevitably going to be people playing instruments and it's always fun to just like pop into a jam session or like, I love offering people a little sound attunements, you know, like a little rattle and asking somebody if they want, um, like kind of be playful, but would you like a brain massage?
00:44:43
Speaker
And they're like, oh, what's a brain massage?
00:44:44
Speaker
I'm like, okay, close your eyes and just listen.
00:44:46
Speaker
And then I'll use like a rattle and a little chime and give people an experience to just like go inward and feel the sound just like vibrating inside their brain.
00:44:56
Speaker
And then like, it's always so beautiful because then people could open their eyes and like, wow, that was a journey, you know?
00:45:04
Speaker
So those are a couple of the tools.
00:45:06
Speaker
And then also massage tools.
00:45:09
Speaker
So I have like a little massager that like,
00:45:12
Speaker
gets knots out.
00:45:14
Speaker
That's always a fun thing, especially at festivals, because all the travel and the packing and the unloading and everything,
00:45:22
Speaker
you know everybody's back is like feeling it.
00:45:25
Speaker
And so giving a little massages are another really great way to create engagement, participation.
00:45:33
Speaker
Those are just my top three, I'd say.
00:45:35
Speaker
I love those.
00:45:36
Speaker
I love that you said you're gifting them an experience.
00:45:38
Speaker
You know, I think that like really the, the, the, this, this main participation tool, I think that makes it so easy is, is when you find something to gift and a gifting is something that's difficult to really,
00:45:51
Speaker
go to your first festival and really and know like what would be a good gift but you can do your best you can try an easy one like before I even discovered Burning Man I remember going to raves and bringing a bag of lollipops for the same reason that you described Betsy is like it would help me to to get over social anxiety and like and you can approach someone and sit and open up in a connection
00:46:11
Speaker
with a little offering, you know, even if they don't want the lollipop, it's a way to begin the interaction and the connection.
00:46:18
Speaker
And so, but as you start to realize like what would make this experience better in any situation, it could be to go back to port-a-potties, it could be, you know what?
00:46:27
Speaker
I have extra teepee, I brought extra teepee, I'm gonna stand in front of the port-a-potties that I know are out of teepee and just give people roll, you know, like, you know, enough that they could use.
00:46:35
Speaker
And part of the fun of like really getting gifting is, is it's not, it's the attitude of like looking around, how can I make this better?
00:46:41
Speaker
How could I make this better?
00:46:42
Speaker
And if you can do that, then, then the other thing is what you touched on about, about experiences.
00:46:47
Speaker
So I like to give away like stickers or pins.
00:46:51
Speaker
And as I started to give away pins, I had like six different versions of, of sayings that I liked.
00:46:56
Speaker
And so I would put them in a bag and instead of going, would you like a pin?
00:47:01
Speaker
I would walk up to people, go clang, clang, clang, jangle it, jangle it, jangle it and go,
00:47:05
Speaker
would you like to hear what the Oracle has to say for you?
00:47:09
Speaker
Like, okay, think of something and then I would reach in and give them a pin.
00:47:13
Speaker
So it's the same thing as giving someone a pin, but it's an experience, just like a brain massage.
00:47:20
Speaker
And you can just, I mean, that may be a lot of pressure to like jump into improv right off the bat, but I think giving yourself permission, that this is the place to allow yourself to have fun and people will so appreciate it.
00:47:37
Speaker
Yeah, the key through line here for the participation is the experience.
00:47:41
Speaker
There's a lot of – because it's easy to like – yeah, it's a gifting culture.
00:47:44
Speaker
So I want to give somebody something.
00:47:46
Speaker
But I've had my own process with this where –
00:47:51
Speaker
I was happy to get stuff, but after a certain while, it's just more stuff for me to bring home with me.
00:47:58
Speaker
And so when somebody comes up, like I enjoy my stickers, like somebody wants to give me a sticker, that's fine.
00:48:02
Speaker
Somebody wants to give me whatever thing, that's okay.
00:48:05
Speaker
But there's other times where I'm just like, I don't want something I need to carry with me.
00:48:08
Speaker
I don't want something I need to keep track of.
00:48:11
Speaker
but make it at least couch it in having experience.
00:48:14
Speaker
Like, like I house this idea of like the, you know, Oracle has to say that that's fun.
00:48:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:48:18
Speaker
Yes.
00:48:18
Speaker
I'm going to walk away from that experience with a pin.
00:48:20
Speaker
I'm going to be like, yes.
00:48:21
Speaker
Awesome.
00:48:22
Speaker
As opposed to somebody just handing me something.
00:48:24
Speaker
It's like, yeah, make an experience around it.
00:48:27
Speaker
I saw somebody Betsy, Betsy mentioned the, the sound thing, the musical thing.
00:48:34
Speaker
I saw somebody, she had a bunch of these like shaker eggs, um,
00:48:39
Speaker
small little thing that you could just shake.
00:48:40
Speaker
It's like a little like rattle or whatever.
00:48:42
Speaker
And there's some music happening and she would hand out a couple of these things.
00:48:45
Speaker
And I saw, I kind of watch how one girl like got given the shaker.
00:48:48
Speaker
Cause she's like, Oh, okay.
00:48:49
Speaker
She was just kind of standing there.
00:48:51
Speaker
And then they gave it, she gave it to her and she's like, Oh, cool.
00:48:53
Speaker
So she's shaking along with the music that's happening.
00:48:55
Speaker
And she just got moving around.
00:48:57
Speaker
And I saw her like meeting people that she would not have met as she'd not had this shaker egg and just like having this whole different experience around, around that.
00:49:07
Speaker
And,
00:49:07
Speaker
The idea, I think my friend was like, I wasn't expecting to like give those away, just like shake it for a while.
00:49:13
Speaker
But then like, you know, I was going to get it back, but she quickly realized like, yeah, I don't get those back.
00:49:18
Speaker
So, but they're cheap enough.
00:49:19
Speaker
So she was like, fine, I'll just, she's like, I just need to bring more next time.
00:49:23
Speaker
That was the big issue.
00:49:24
Speaker
So she's like, I just didn't bring enough.
00:49:26
Speaker
So, um, so you get, so you get a lot out of that.
00:49:29
Speaker
Like the, the, the gifter gives something out of that and you're creating a whole new experience for somebody.
00:49:36
Speaker
Um,
00:49:37
Speaker
So the idea like, okay, if we're going to give somebody a thing, how is that going to enhance their experience?
00:49:47
Speaker
So that's an important consideration when we're going to be doing any sort of gifting out there.
00:49:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:52
Speaker
I mean, what you really want is you want that gift to be a symbol that brings someone back to a memory of a connection.
Innovative Camping Gear and Tech
00:50:01
Speaker
You know, like I often will tell people at my camp who enthusiastically want to give away stickers and we have a lot.
00:50:08
Speaker
And so they'll put them out at our water bar out on the
00:50:11
Speaker
And I'm like, no, no, no, no.
00:50:12
Speaker
We don't lay out this like we're a trade show and we're trying to give away marketing material.
00:50:17
Speaker
We want these to be a representative of a moment in time.
00:50:21
Speaker
We want someone to go, hey, welcome to our camp.
00:50:24
Speaker
How are you like this?
00:50:25
Speaker
Would you like a sticker?
00:50:26
Speaker
And then that sticker becomes, it reminds them of this experience, which is, you know, same item, totally different access point to your heart.
00:50:38
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:50:56
Speaker
And it was really fun to give it to the people that I had a really deep connection with that I just met, especially because, you know, when you're at a festival, you meet certain people and you're like, Oh, I just love you so much.
00:51:06
Speaker
And then it's like, Oh, now, now you have a pocket size version.
00:51:09
Speaker
And I'm going to like travel with you on your water bottle.
00:51:11
Speaker
I'm like, I just love that so much.
00:51:13
Speaker
Like I have a sticker of you, Alcyan and your superhero outfit.
00:51:16
Speaker
And every time I look at it, I'm like, ah, that's my superhero friend.
00:51:20
Speaker
You know, I think that's a really fun way to do it.
00:51:22
Speaker
And you can do it really inexpensively too.
00:51:25
Speaker
It's a little hack too with the stickers.
00:51:27
Speaker
Sticker Mule is always giving away really great deals.
00:51:30
Speaker
So when you sign up on their email, they like just send out these really, really great discounts, which is really fun way to have stickers with you all the time.
00:51:38
Speaker
And then also just to kind of piggyback off of what you're sharing around what you're giving away.
00:51:44
Speaker
So, and to consider like, how can I enhance the moment and
00:51:48
Speaker
and enhance someone's experience, one of the things I've learned is like, you know, instead of giving away something like a treat of like candy or something like that, like I personally don't really eat candy or sugar, but I really care about my health.
00:52:03
Speaker
And so I always carry cough drops with me because a lot of times, especially on the playa, you will meet somebody and they're like,
00:52:13
Speaker
Hey, it's so great to meet you.
00:52:15
Speaker
And you're like, wow, this person has been smoking a lot, has probably been talking a lot, hooting and hollering.
00:52:21
Speaker
And I love being able to go like, oh, hey, would you like this lozenge?
00:52:24
Speaker
And they're like, oh, yes, actually.
00:52:27
Speaker
And so I always carry cough drops with me.
00:52:28
Speaker
And then also for my personal use and some people I will share with is a throat spray to coat the throat.
00:52:36
Speaker
throat coat is just so lovely when you're out traveling and talking and screaming over loud music.
00:52:42
Speaker
And, um, yeah, they're like wellness based.
00:52:46
Speaker
products that are easy are some of my favorite things to create engagement and share and also use for myself throughout the experience you you had mentioned like the rose the rose water like face spray there there's been numerous times that i've been like out and about in a festival and somebody comes up can i give you like a little rose water and like they don't even have to finish their spiel yes um
00:53:09
Speaker
Ideally, they know exactly how much to put on there.
00:53:11
Speaker
So I don't need a towel afterwards.
00:53:14
Speaker
But yeah, that's definitely a good way to kind of refresh somebody's experience.
00:53:20
Speaker
Even if they're unsure, it's like, yeah, a little like, would you like some, you know, however you present it, obviously, you know, give them the...
00:53:25
Speaker
Give them the option and the choice as opposed to just walking around spraying people.
00:53:29
Speaker
But most people are going to be open to that.
00:53:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's important.
00:53:32
Speaker
Yeah, inquire.
00:53:33
Speaker
Because consent is important for all things.
00:53:38
Speaker
There's things that in one situation could be incredible without consent are horrible.
00:53:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:44
Speaker
You know, like you might think, oh, a spritz of cool water feels so good right now.
00:53:49
Speaker
So I'm just going to spray the people that are walking by or riding by.
00:53:51
Speaker
Don't do that because there's a million reasons why people might not want that.
Wellness and Closing Thoughts
00:53:56
Speaker
And that goes with everything.
00:53:57
Speaker
So I think it's just a good idea.
00:53:58
Speaker
Whenever you're giving a gift, you got to make sure that somebody wants it.
00:54:04
Speaker
Yes.
00:54:05
Speaker
There is a friend of ours, Dax, who has these electrified gloves, vibrating gloves.
00:54:16
Speaker
I've seen him be pretty good about offering.
00:54:18
Speaker
He never just pounces on somebody with this.
00:54:21
Speaker
It feels amazing, but there's always like, hey, would you like a vibrating hand neck massage?
00:54:27
Speaker
They'll come for a minute.
00:54:28
Speaker
People are like,
00:54:29
Speaker
Yes.
00:54:30
Speaker
Like when you hear it, like, yes, as opposed to all of a sudden you got these vibrations happening on your shoulder.
00:54:35
Speaker
No, that's, you know, that's, that's not good.
00:54:37
Speaker
So yeah, the, um, even if the experience, yes.
00:54:41
Speaker
Uh, the inquiry first, like, would you like this?
00:54:43
Speaker
Would you like this?
00:54:44
Speaker
That's yeah.
00:54:44
Speaker
It's just, that's just, uh, common sense, but, uh, common sense is often not so common out on these festival weekends and festival weeks.
00:54:53
Speaker
So yes, the inquiries is important.
00:54:56
Speaker
I want to share another quick hack too before we kind of start moving towards our closing sparks.
00:55:02
Speaker
So I went camping to this festival with this amazing woman who is, she's probably one of the most inspiring packers of anyone I've ever camped with.
00:55:12
Speaker
So she brought these really awesome beanbag chairs.
00:55:17
Speaker
So they're like poof beanbag chairs.
00:55:19
Speaker
She brought like eight of them.
00:55:20
Speaker
And I was like, oh my God, it was a game changer for our camping experience instead of the camping chairs, because you could actually like lay back on them and lounge and you can place them in all different ways.
00:55:32
Speaker
So like the beanbag poof experience was like a total up level.
00:55:36
Speaker
of the camp setup.
00:55:38
Speaker
And then the other thing she brought that at first I was like, are you sure these take up a lot of space?
00:55:43
Speaker
And she was like, these are definitely a necessity.
00:55:45
Speaker
They're called light cubes.
00:55:48
Speaker
And she has like, I don't know, three different sizes.
00:55:51
Speaker
One is a big one and then the medium and the small ones.
00:55:53
Speaker
And they're rechargeable.
00:55:55
Speaker
And she just placed them all around our camp.
00:55:57
Speaker
Instead of like these bright lanterns, we had these color changing light cubes.
00:56:01
Speaker
And it was like...
00:56:03
Speaker
an essential part of our camp.
00:56:05
Speaker
You can see it from far away.
00:56:06
Speaker
It gave just the right amount of ambience when we're in the camp.
00:56:10
Speaker
And I'll say those are my, the most recent camping experience, like next level, um, for my, uh, continued festival wing.
00:56:19
Speaker
I'll look those up.
00:56:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:22
Speaker
So cool.
00:56:23
Speaker
Oh, one more, one more.
00:56:24
Speaker
Actually, I learned about a Jackery, uh,
00:56:27
Speaker
A Jackery is a battery.
00:56:30
Speaker
Basically, it's a solar-powered battery.
00:56:31
Speaker
You charge it up before you go.
00:56:33
Speaker
It's quite small.
00:56:34
Speaker
Maybe you can get different sizes, but my girlfriend and I shared a tent this weekend, and we had it.
00:56:40
Speaker
It was charged at 100% the first day we got there.
00:56:43
Speaker
We were there for four days.
00:56:44
Speaker
And we charged our phones, we charged our other rechargeable things throughout the weekend.
00:56:49
Speaker
And by the end of it, we still had like 60% battery left.
00:56:53
Speaker
So I think they're like maybe $300 to $500 little batteries.
00:56:57
Speaker
And it comes with solar panels if you want to recharge it.
00:56:59
Speaker
But the Jackery was like kind of next level experience for the camping.
00:57:05
Speaker
that's yeah that's actually worth giving a little bit of attention to uh those those like battery packs it's like because generators are something that you use for like the bigger major kind of things but having a having something like that that you that you can charge up your stuff with in your tent is key and um that sounds like a good one they make those for much like there's like hundred dollar ones like by otterbox and such that is enough to
00:57:30
Speaker
Power a laptop if you need that power and certainly keep your phone charged and charge up with like, you know, Bluetooth speakers, things like that.
00:57:39
Speaker
Like a lot of those those things are pretty essential as well.
00:57:43
Speaker
It just definitely helps your helps your whole experience.
00:57:45
Speaker
So, yeah, totally.
00:57:47
Speaker
Oh, I have one more.
00:57:47
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:57:48
Speaker
There's like some marks flying because I just came from this festival.
00:57:51
Speaker
So this last weekend, I actually for the first time used noise canceling headphones.
00:57:56
Speaker
And so I got these really cushy ones and I put on this sound playlist of sound bowls.
00:58:04
Speaker
So it's like 18 hours or something straight up sound bowls and I put it on and play through the night and through the morning because you know when you're in a tent of course inevitably there's going to be a lot of loud sounds coming from the stages and then plus people walking by that are just super chatty chatty chatty.
00:58:21
Speaker
And I will say these noise canceling headphones with the sound bowls or the white noise helped so much.
00:58:28
Speaker
It does help that I'm a back sleeper.
00:58:30
Speaker
I sleep on my back, but I still actually with the pillow, I was able to lay on my side too with these noise canceling headphones.
00:58:36
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm not going to go to any festivals without those from now on way better than earplugs for me.
00:58:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:42
Speaker
The right headphones you actually can like sleep on your side with, they're pretty cushy.
00:58:46
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:58:47
Speaker
So to wrap it up,
00:58:50
Speaker
Betsy, would you get any closing sparks for us?
00:58:53
Speaker
Or how do we want to do this?
00:58:55
Speaker
Totally.
00:58:56
Speaker
We should close it up because we could probably just keep going and going.
00:58:59
Speaker
Obviously, I'm very inspired.
00:59:01
Speaker
All right.
00:59:02
Speaker
I'll close it up with one of my favorite hacks for staying well.
00:59:06
Speaker
that it took me some time to learn, is to prioritize my morning tonic and evening drink.
00:59:14
Speaker
And so what I've learned is I bring a little thing of GSE, which is grapefruit seed extract.
00:59:21
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:59:22
Speaker
It's all natural immunity booster.
00:59:25
Speaker
And you just put like 10 drops in your water and do that in the morning and then lemon.
00:59:31
Speaker
So I always make sure to have my, my good boost in the morning.
00:59:35
Speaker
And then sometimes those little green powder packets and mix that in there.
00:59:38
Speaker
Cause sometimes you don't get your greens in when you're, when you're out there.
00:59:42
Speaker
Chlorophyll, like liquid chlorophyll is another really great one just to keep the immunity high and just
00:59:48
Speaker
feeling good, and then magnesium powder at night.
00:59:51
Speaker
So those things have really helped enhance my staying well experience where back in the day, I didn't really know how to take care of my body out in the environment.
01:00:02
Speaker
And now those are definitely essential festival hacks to keep me feeling good and enjoy the experience.
01:00:12
Speaker
Oh, one more thing.
01:00:13
Speaker
Oh, one more thing.
01:00:14
Speaker
Wait, oh, one more thing.
01:00:16
Speaker
I have so many things.
01:00:19
Speaker
So I've actually been making tips and tricks videos for Burning Man preparation for years.
01:00:26
Speaker
And so I actually have a whole website.
01:00:29
Speaker
So my farewell hack would be some links to go deeper.
01:00:34
Speaker
One is playaprinciples.com.
01:00:36
Speaker
And then the other is a multi-part website.
01:00:40
Speaker
boot camp for Burning Man that I have out that we'll put the link in the show notes.
01:00:46
Speaker
It's got part one is planning and preparation.
01:00:49
Speaker
The second one is just about the principles.
01:00:50
Speaker
Third is about how to be a good burner.
01:00:52
Speaker
Fourth is things to know about Black Rock City.
01:00:54
Speaker
And there's a bonus one about how to have your romantic relationship last on playa.
01:01:01
Speaker
So, and the other thing I want to say is, is we would, yeah, we, we would love to hear if there's, if there's great hacks that you have let us know.
01:01:12
Speaker
We will leave a link as well for a place that you can share with us.
01:01:16
Speaker
I think this is a part one of our ongoing series of festival hacks, and we'd love to get your input and include you in a future episode.
01:01:25
Speaker
Cool, cool.
01:01:27
Speaker
And to kind of reiterate with what Betsy left us off with,
01:01:32
Speaker
the it's the health and your, your health and wellbeing on a festival has got to be your priority because it doesn't matter what you look like or the experiences you're trying to share.
01:01:44
Speaker
If you're not feeling good, or if you're waking up, not feeling great, not beyond the point of just hung over.
01:01:50
Speaker
Like if you're not taking, if you don't take care of your, your just your health and wellbeing during these festivals, it kind of, kind of defeats the whole, the whole purpose and you're not going to get all you can get out of it.
01:01:59
Speaker
So, so focusing on your,
01:02:01
Speaker
on your health and wellbeing needs to be the priority number, the first thing and last thing that you are preparing for.
01:02:08
Speaker
So yeah, those morning, those morning tonics are great.
01:02:11
Speaker
The magnesium at the end, bring your multivitamins, even if you're not like a multivitamin guy or person might, you know, there's, there's something to be said for even just bringing this stuff to, you know, the festival weekend or for the, for the festival week to burning man or whatever.
01:02:26
Speaker
Mushrooms are a great thing, like functional mushrooms.
01:02:29
Speaker
Lion's mane is a fantastic supplement to bring.
01:02:33
Speaker
So anything that's going to help with your – help you keep you healthy, help with your immunity.
01:02:39
Speaker
I'm not a big Tylenol guy, but I have definitely –
01:02:44
Speaker
Wanted and appreciated just some headache relief.
01:02:48
Speaker
If I'm out on the festival thing, doing my thing, some aspirin has definitely saved me on more than one occasion out there.
01:02:56
Speaker
I don't take it as a regular thing and certainly don't take it when I'm home, but I've taken advantage of it on the playa.
01:03:02
Speaker
So, so yeah, so, so prioritize your health and wellbeing, whatever you're going to do for that, pay attention to that and make that be the first and last thing you plan for when you're, when you're going out there.
01:03:14
Speaker
Yes, I love it.
01:03:17
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I love this conversation so much.
01:03:19
Speaker
And I think that the biggest closing spark is that we could just keep going.
01:03:23
Speaker
And so who knows, maybe we will create a second edition of this topic.
01:03:28
Speaker
And yeah, like Halcyon said, yes, please send us a message out there if you have any of your own festival hacks.
01:03:34
Speaker
And also if you have any requests or topics for us to chat about, we always love hearing from you guys.
01:03:42
Speaker
So please send us a message.
01:03:44
Speaker
And we always love to close it out with letting you guys know how you can find us.
01:03:47
Speaker
So Halsey, do you want to start us off and share how everyone can find you?
01:03:52
Speaker
Sure.
01:03:53
Speaker
I am available at johnstyn.com, J-O-H-N-S-T-Y-N.com.
01:03:58
Speaker
It has links to my t-shirt store and my YouTube channel, my books, and speaking of stickers and a free sticker offer.
01:04:09
Speaker
So connect with me through johnstyn.com.
01:04:13
Speaker
Hey, love the free stuff.
01:04:16
Speaker
All right.
01:04:16
Speaker
How about you, Yanus?
01:04:18
Speaker
You can find me and my offerings in the world at newworldnutritionals.com.
01:04:23
Speaker
That's spelled N-U-worldnutritionals.com.
01:04:27
Speaker
And our main product is a microdose product that is helping a lot of people improve their focus on
01:04:34
Speaker
learning ability, helping to relieve symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADHD as well.
01:04:42
Speaker
And yeah, it's mushroom based products designed to improve your state of mind.
01:04:47
Speaker
You can get more information at new world nutritionals.com and use the code spark for 10% off of any of our products.
01:04:56
Speaker
Amazing.
01:04:57
Speaker
Yes.
01:04:57
Speaker
And you can bring them to the festivals.
01:04:59
Speaker
Indeed.
01:05:00
Speaker
Indeed.
01:05:01
Speaker
Awesome.
01:05:02
Speaker
And you can find me on my website as well, thinklewho.com and also poweraffirmation.com where you can learn more about my healing work as a body worker, energy worker, and intuitive empowerment coach.
01:05:16
Speaker
You can also learn more about the Power Affirmation Project, which is really using tools to be able to enhance more insight on who you are, reprogramming limiting beliefs and living life from a more embodied affirmation through journaling, through meditation, through breath work, through wonderful ways of being able to just live more aware of how impactful our thoughts are on our lives.
01:05:44
Speaker
So yeah, you can use Sparked in the shop for 10% off.
01:05:48
Speaker
And then also in the show notes, you can get a free download of an audio affirmation that helps build trust in life.
01:05:56
Speaker
So check that out, the link in the comments.
01:05:59
Speaker
And we can close it out with an affirmation, shall we?
01:06:02
Speaker
Yes, please.
01:06:05
Speaker
All right.
01:06:05
Speaker
I'm going to keep it super simple.
01:06:08
Speaker
Just based on this conversation around traveling and going to festivals, one of my favorite affirmations to help me prepare for an event, especially when there's just so much to do and we're doing a lot of heavy lifting, the affirmation is it's all worth it.
01:06:28
Speaker
It's all worth it.
01:06:29
Speaker
It is all worth it.
01:06:30
Speaker
So if you like, you can close your eyes, take a deep breath and just tune in.
01:06:35
Speaker
It is all worth it.
01:06:36
Speaker
It's all worth it.
01:06:38
Speaker
All of the effort that I'm putting forth into what I'm doing is going to be so worth it.
01:06:43
Speaker
And it is all coming together.
01:06:46
Speaker
It is so worth it.
01:06:47
Speaker
It is so worth it.
01:06:48
Speaker
And then even at the end of the festival, connecting to that space of it was so worth it.
01:06:53
Speaker
It was so worth it.
01:06:54
Speaker
It was so worth all of the efforts that I'm putting forth into making this possible.
01:07:00
Speaker
So sending much love to all of you out there.
01:07:03
Speaker
Thank you, Janus and Halcyon for getting in these beautifully inspiring conversations and let's keep spreading these sparks, shall we?
01:07:11
Speaker
Thank you, Betsy.
01:07:13
Speaker
Let's stay sparked, people.