By Kyle Roderick
Metrospirituals believe that we can infuse our lives with sacred meaning through everyday, earth-friendly actions.
Have you ever stopped to consider how everything you do, say, or purchase helps support or deplete Earth’s natural balance and all the life forms that live with us?
Metrospirituals do, and they choose to live locally conscious, globally aware, environmentally sustainable, and spiritually engaged lives. Finally, a trend that is about being and doing, rather than about having and consuming!
Metrospirituals believe that we can infuse our lives with sacred meaning through such everyday, earth-friendly actions as eating organic foods, recycling, meditating, or using plant-based, biodegradable products for household and self-care needs. Ultimately, metrospirituals believe in planetary stewardship and that every lifestyle choice you make can help you, the earth, and humanity live in peace, dignity, and safety. Here’s a short list of pioneering metrospirituals.
Amy McDonald
Sustainable spa consultant
After co-creating the world’s first ecologically sustainable luxury resort spa, El Monte Sagrado, in Taos, New Mexico, McDonald now heads her own global sustainable spa consulting firm, Amy McDonald and Associates. “Sustainability is essential to preserving planetary and human health,” says McDonald, who is based in Tucson. “It follows that spas and spa products must become as environmentally sustainable as possible.”
“My team specializes in developing sustainable spas, evidence-based and integrative medical spa programs, and organic self-care products of tomorrow,” McDonald explains. “Besides helping the spa, hotel, resort, and self-care worlds create sustainable facilities, programs, products, and events,” she continues, “we also consult on strategies for businesses wishing to implement sustainable elements in measured steps.”
Deborah Szekely
Founder, Rancho La Puerta and The Golden Door Spas
Eighty-something and still going strong, Szekely and her late husband Edmund birthed North American spa culture and the fitness revolution when they founded Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico, over sixty years ago. By living and working in natural splendor and growing their own organic food, the Rancho spa experience challenged modern American consumerism decades before the hippies went back to the land. While scholarly Edmund lectured on philosophy, spirituality, and science, Deborah embodied metrospirituality by caring for guests, leading exercise classes, managing staff, as well as cooking, cleaning, and mothering two children. After creating the luxury Golden Door Spa in Escondido, California, Deborah slowed down by running for U.S. Congress. Still an active Democrat, Szekely is a beloved mentor to hundreds in the spa industry as well as several generations of Tecate families who have worked for her
Marci Zaroff
Founder and CEO, Under the Canopy
Marci Zaroff, founder and president of the organic clothing, home linens, and accessories company, Under the Canopy, has revolutionized the formerly homespun world of organic fashion by infusing it with style, comfort, and affordable luxury – all with a yogi’s devotion.
UTC products will be sold in 180 Whole Foods Markets and all Pharmaca stores come holiday 2006. Supermodels like Angela Lindvall wear the line. As Zaroff explains, “It takes one-third of a pound of toxic chemicals to produce one cotton T-shirt, and over 80 million pounds of pesticides are sprayed on cotton every year. These chemicals eventually enter our water, table, soil, and bodies. Switching to organic cotton clothing and linens helps promote human and planetary health while ensuring a safer world for future generations.”
Rowan Gabrielle
Eco-entrepreneur and founder of Urthtv.com
A co-owner of Whole Life Expos, Gabrielle is also a founder of www.urthtv.com, which she calls “A kind of earth-conscious, sustainable, human, family Myspace.” Designed for eco-friendly products and services as well as those who deal in these businesses around the world, a basic listing on urthtv is free.
According to Gabrielle, “I want it to be a resource for people to find all of the information, products, services, and individuals who can help them develop their own enlightened businesses.” An equestrian who grew up in the English countryside, Gabrielle is also the founder of www.organicleather.com, which deals in naturally dyed and smoked leathers sourced from free-range cattle
Horst Rechelbacher
Founder of AVEDA and Intelligent Nutrients
Rechelbacher founded AVEDA Corporation in 1978, one of the first companies to formulate plant-based hair and beauty formulae without petroleum derivatives and other toxic materials. In the late 90s, Rechelbacher sold AVEDA to Estee Lauder for $300 million.
Along with helping make essential oils and aromatherapy mainstream, Rechelbacher has been a role model for corporate sustainable business practices. AVEDA specializes in helping indigenous peoples protect their natural resources and create revenue to raise their living standards. In partnership with the Yawanawa Indians in Brazil, AVEDA harvests the Bibxa orellana tree, which produces a plant pigment. AVEDA uses this in lipstick coloring instead of petrochemical dyes. In the mid-1990s, Rechelbacher started Intelligent Nutrients, a biodynamic and organic-based herbal food and food supplement corporation. His third book, Alivelihood (HMR Publishing) was published in 2005.
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