Welcome to Care More Be Better, a podcast for people like you who care about the social impact of conscious companies and everyday heroes.

Hear inspiring stories from those who put people in planet before profit and personal gain.

You'll learn how you can make a difference, vote with your dollars, and get involved today.

Here's your host, Karina Belizey.

Welcome to Care More Be Better, a podcast exploring the people, practices, and possibilities that

help us regenerate our planet and ourselves. Today's episode is a little different. It's just you

and me now. No guests, no big agenda, just a conversation about the spirit of giving as we head

into Christmas and the holiday season. Unlike many of you, I finished my holiday shopping months ago.

I took on this practice when my kids were little,

so I wasn't impulse buying as much around the holidays.

It has helped me to manage my pocketbook, my kids' expectations,

and also keep the holiday season madness to, let's call it, a minimum.

Now, this is supposed to be a time of joy, of generosity,

connection, and let's be honest, the stress of the holidays strips away so much of that.

We buy a lot of stuff. We feel pressured. We consume more, and often more than we can truly afford. But what if we could

shift that story? What if giving looked less like consumption and more like connection,

less about piling presence under a tree, and more about presents with one another? This episode is inspired by a conversation I had

early in the show's history back in 2021 when I connected with Stephanie Safarian. She's the author

of Sustainable Minimalism and a host of a podcast of the same name. In that interview, Stephanie

shared powerful ideas, powerful ideas about

intentional living, reducing waste, and giving with purpose. Today we'll draw on that conversation

as we reflect on how to celebrate while creating a more meaningful and less material and less stressful holiday season.

...