Ciara Venezia: Mga Mandirigma ng Lokal na Komunidad ng Kalusugan ꕤ Isang Serya ng Talang Dalisay Para sa HEARTH Summit Philippines
Welcome — to our first series of our interviews with community & wellness leaders in the Philippines, a interview series by Talang Dalisay for the upcoming HEARTH Summit Philippines! From people raised in the archipelago, to the diaspora, we are running this interview series until the LUNAS Pilipinas summit in January 14, to encourage our friends around the world to join in learning and de-stigmatizing Filipino culture on wellness & health starting with Siquijor Island.
- Name, age, where you are from, where you currently live
My name is Ciara, 28 years old as of writing. I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia until I was 12 years old, and then my brother and I moved to the Philippines where I spent the rest of my teenage years staying in our hometown in Malasiqui, Pangasinan. For my early adulthood, I moved to Makati where I hustled hard in the Advertising and Video Production industry. Changing landscapes have always been a part of my story until October 2024 when I decided to take root in the island of Siargao through my work with Lokal Lab’s flagship project, the Tropical Academy.
- What started your personal wellness journey? Walk us through how this sparked in your life.
Trigger warnings on DA and depression ahead: I grew up in a turbulent environment, in fact my earliest memory was of my parents being physically and emotionally hurtful towards one another. From an earlier age I learned to keep small and quiet, to be responsible and pleasing, to be the golden child so I could avoid contributing to any of the problems that we have behind closed doors. I carried all of these with me until my adolescence, deeply knowing in my body and my mind that something was extremely off.
I did not have a term for it before but later on I understood that I was deep into depression and people-pleasing behaviors. At age 15, I was already dreading far into my future for I did not see any life for myself beyond thirty. Everything in between, I believed I had to go through to make my parents proud. All the YouTube Ted talks, psychological media, and biographies about other people’s struggle and triumph helped me to feel out of my growing numbness and avoidance to life, and gain a better perspective about what I was going through. It was not easy at all navigating life as I was in an environment that did not talk openly about mental health, nor did I have any resources and access to professional help.
It was in 2020 when I finally went to psychotherapy because I could finally pay for it. It also helped that at that age, I found myself friendships who were supportive about my wellness journey and helped me reframe my perspective about seeking professional help - that there was nothing wrong with me, and that I am doing this to know myself better. Two years after that first therapy session, I was diagnosed with Severe Anxiety and misdiagnosed with Bipolar II, took meds, got off meds, got sober, learned and unlearned so much about my own toxic thought and behavioral patterns, and established myself a healthier routine. Learning how to be vulnerable and honest with myself through therapy helped me get back into my first creative outlets: visual storytelling, movement, and writing. And in 2022 I started finding communities that nurtured and echoed back these gifts in healing reciprocity, and that’s how I started co-creating the “Flow-Writing” space in Escolta, Manila and hopefully soon here in Siargao Island.
- What are personal practices that you consistently have been carrying out that have been helping your wellbeing?
Visual storytelling, movement, and writing has always been essential to my expression and wellbeing. These ‘rituals’ were my escape as a child when my external environment was turbulent, and it became my sanctuary as an adult for reflections and emotions I try to process. As I understood myself better, my creativity became my bridge towards my interconnectedness with my worlds - both internal (self) and external (the Earth and the community around me). To practice these means I honor my presence and my curiosity about my personal and shared experiences. To practice these means I honor myself first and foremost as a human being full of complexities, so I could learn how to honor others in their own uniqueness too.
Right now, I mainly write more. I learned about the practice of Flow-Writing in my own wellness journey and the way that I always talk about it is to paint a picture of ‘letting go’ through writing. With words as our anchor, I encourage myself and others to freeflow their thoughts and monologues - every bit of it - onto paper to physicalize this energy we all carry inside our minds. To see these thoughts physically as words on paper, we let go of the weight and we give ourselves a chance to literally see ourselves and our thought processes. In Flow-Writing, one does not have to be a writer. I advocate for freeflow because it is my own way of protesting against the structures and rules we place to be able to deem ourselves as ‘good’ or ‘worthy’ at the creative outlets we pursue. These structures and rules have their place in other technical spaces, but when I talk about wellbeing, what matters most to me is the fullness and acknowledgement of expression guided by curiosity instead of judgment.
- You recently moved from Manila to North Siargao. Congratulations! Tell us about Tropical Academy, your work here, and what you all aim to do.
Yes, thank you, this means a lot. I’ve been here in Siargao for two months already and it’s been the best major life decision I’ve made for myself this year. I left my job as an Executive Producer in the advertising industry in Manila to pursue my lifelong calling for non-profit work. I now work as a Program Manager for Tropical Academy, the flagship project of Lokal Lab (@lokallab)- a Siargao-based non-profit organization committed to sustainability and nature-based solutions for and with the local communities. The Academy is currently two-years old and it is dedicated to building knowledge, skills, and practices rooted in sustainability, regenerative farming, and environmental education. We’re currently working on building further the Academy so it could offer a diverse range of opportunities for individuals and communities to connect with nature, have access to sustainable vocational education, and contribute to a more sustainable Siargao. Currently, our Eco Campus hosts training and workshops for government and private partners, and we also cater to both locals and tourists of the island through our sustainable farming, cooking, and weaving tours with @lokalexperience.
As the new Program Manager, I oversee the entire spectrum of these educational programs at Tropical Academy, like management and implementation of workshops with government agencies, summer camps with students, and skill-building programs with other NGOs. Additionally, I also ensure the smooth day-to-day operations of the eco-campus, handling facilities, finances, and visitor activities. Our team now consists of five farmers under the Ihayas Demo Farm, and four campus staff for the day-to-day tour operations and campus maintenance. Together with the rest of Lokal Lab, the long term goal is to really pioneer as a vocational education center in the island by offering TESDA-accredited courses on sustainability, regenerative farming, and hospitality to fully function as an eco campus in Siargao. This project is important because it addresses the need for skilled individuals in the island, while giving the locals an opportunity to access sustainable vocational education.
- As Tropical Academy's manager, what are current and future plans people could look forward to when involving this community? How could people give back to this space?
The Tropical Academy has a lot to offer and we cater to both government partners, private businesses, and local and foreign guests. Mainly, the campus also serves as a venue rental space for both government and private groups. In the past two years, we’ve hosted various trainings, workshops, and even private events in our facilities. This is one way that we generate income to sustainably compensate the campus staff and farmers working in the Academy. Aside from that, we host daily tours on farming, weaving, and cooking through our partner @lokalexperience. We also serve fresh farm to table lunch where we serve Filipino cuisine that consists of banana heart sisig, ginataang kalabasa, veggie lumpia, ensaladang talong, and our blue rice.
Our Ihayas Demo Farm is also an up and running supplier of fresh produce in the North of the island, and together with FarmNet, we also supply the produce in The Hub’s Tabo in Burgos and General Luna. We are constantly building our network for both regular and walk-in clients that purchase our fresh produce and fruit jams. Crop research and product development is also in the pipeline so we could grow and harvest a wider variety of fruits, flowers, and vegetables, fruit jams, and other nature-based products.
Included in the campus is our Mahal Lupa Composting Facility where we cultivate and harvest natural compost, vermicast, and bokashi. Our soil is also purchased by partner resorts and businesses, and even locals who are developing their own farms and gardens across the island through this consultancy venture.
We are also open to volunteer programs with skilled guests who we can share a mutual exchange of knowledge and experience through the management of our farm, tours, and marketing ventures. Overall, these are only a few options how others can be involved with us in the Academy. Every visit, word-of-mouth, and effort to spread about the work we do is essential in building the network of knowledge sharing that can contribute to the Tropical Academy’s long term goals.
- How do you balance advocating for others' wellness aside from your own?
I used to be someone who would always extend a helping hand to other people, even at the expense of my own. It took me a couple of hard lessons to fully understand that in order to truly advocate for wellbeing, you need to serve from a place of fullness. It took a lot of right and wrong decisions, a constant cycle of becoming and unbecoming to get to know myself better - my needs, my limitations, and which boundaries I need to cultivate a healthier relationship with myself and with the people in my life.
In my advocacy for wellbeing, intentionality really changed the game for me. It is very important to ask myself first and foremost these questions: Why do I do what I do? Are my ideas and actions rooted from a place of love or fear? To be able to ask myself these questions, and also answer myself with vulnerability and honesty builds that stronger sense of self-trust that I need as I open myself up to the world in any of my interactions and pursuits. To know myself this way means I can also learn to ground myself quicker when there is discomfort or challenge. My way of being is the one thing I can control and I learned that for as long as I am breathing it will be a constant practice. I let my way of being reflect back in the ways I navigate my life and my relationships.
- What would you say to encourage Filipinos to go out of their comfort zone to destigmatize mental health & wellness?
Answering this question took me a while because I did not feel I was qualified to give advice for questions like this. I’m constantly in that journey of getting myself out of my comfort zone, I continue to grow and be the woman I could be proud of, and just like everyone else I just try. One thing that kept resurfacing as I try to reflect and provide an answer to this is the importance of acknowledging though, that we Filipinos, no matter where we are born and raised, navigate life through survival mode. Acknowledgement is always the first step. And to acknowledge this about ourselves is to be kinder and braver about the curiosity needed to navigate our every experience
Through my own mental health journey I learned that a lot of the destructive behaviors and coping mechanisms I did mostly in the past were a result of the traumatic experiences and dysfunctional systems in my environments. The human mind and body will constantly find ways to self-preserve, thus resulting in the way we think, act, and do. However, these ways do not always serve us healthily as we grow older and gain more experiences and responsibilities. We are human beings that constantly interact with life, and in both small and big ways we evolve in ways we do not recognize right away. When I learned that I had to acknowledge every bit of my hurt, shame, guilt, joy, and sadness, it was daunting. But it made me realize my limitations and my capacity to hold space for myself. I surprise myself even to this day. I think when people allow themselves to surprise themselves with their curiosity rather than judgment, it’s always worth it in one way or another. Win or lose, good or bad - there’s always a lesson.
