One of my primary messages is that our environment shapes us. Our environment literally shapes our bodies, our health, our mental state. If you want to change your body, your health, your mental state, you need to change your environment.

Over the past year on The Roots of Health, I’ve interviewed a number of guests who have helped me to relay this message.  [Check out the previous episodes if you’re curious about any of these shows] I’ve chatted with Katy Bowman about casts in our modern environment and why it’s important to re-define movement in your life. I’ve chatted with Scott Robsion about how our modern environment shapes your body and Juliet Starrett about her mission to get stand up desks in front of all school children within 10 years time to keep their bodies and minds healthy. Kit Perkins of Ergodriven told me about the Topo Mat, an antifatigue mat designed to drive dynamic movement, to keep your body in motion in your environment. Dayna Baumeister of Biomimicry 3.8 shared her story of healing breast cancer by creating an environment in her body that was conducive to life. I talked with Cathryn Nagler whose research team discovered an important link between the environment in your gut and your propensity for food allergy. Jasmina Agonovic talked to us the importance of treating our bodies as the ecosystems that they. Jane Antonovich helped to give us a feel about how all of the stuff in your environment is influencing your wellbeing. And finally, Coach Stevo of Habitry gave us some ideas about how to change your habits and environment.

And this show is no different. Mathias Ellegiers and his colleagues at Jaswig, are on a mission to make you feel better, to give you more freedom, to improve your health and productivity, and to help you know that you’ve made a socially and environmentally responsible choice in your life.  They’ve created a stand up desk, and a movement to improve the environment and to educate our youth about their connection to the environment and what that means for their health.

Mathias and I chat about what Jaswig is, about their business model that is influenced by biomimicry and the circular economy, the story behind their business, I describe their desk, we talk about the larger mission of their company (hint: awareness about your environment & your health), who was the desk designed for?, we refer to Stand Up Kids (hear my interview with Juliet Starrett here),  in light of their business model, we chat about what will happen to the desks after they’ve lived their useful lives, learn about the opportunities to work with Jaswig to support educational outreach.

Music by audionatix.com.