In pop culture today, we tend to recycle trends of years before. Every couple of years, it seems that a different decade is popular in the current fashion: "The 90s are in!!" "The 80s are so popular right now!" Well let me tell you, there is nothing better than hailing from the 60s and 70s and identifying as a hippie.

A hippie (n.) is a member of a counterculture, believing in the core values of peace and love, emerging in the mid-1960s Basically, they want the world to live and work in harmony, where everyone has a source of positivity and accountability in their lives. It's the simple life

While the days of Woodstock and Monterrey are gone, the modern hippie takes center stage and use those same ideas from 50 years ago and molds it into what we need for the world today. It's about living to make you happy. It's about squeezing the life out of every single day. It's about being kind to those around you, including Mother Nature. It' about taking opportunities. It's about living purely and simply.

So how do you incorporate these notions into your own life? It's easier than you think.

1. Be conscious

It's time to start thinking about how you contribute to the world. Whether it's repurposing some old fabric or creating a compost garden, lessening your footprint gives the Earth a big break. COTAP (Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty) has a carbon footprint calculator where you can enter your gas usage, home electricity usage, and air travel to estimate how many tonnes of Co2 you have contributed to.

It's also easier now than ever before to eat local! By eating locally raised meat and produce, you save gasoline used by transport trucks, your product is noticeably fresher, and you know that your money is going directly into the pockets of your community members. Find a farmer's market or a roadside produce stand on a Saturday morning for some fresh finds.

2. Balance your energy

There are countless ways to balance your energy. Yoga, meditation, acupuncture, and crystals, are common forms of centering the body, refocusing the mind; almost as if you hit a 'reset' button.

Crystals are a great way to enter into the realm of metaphysical products. Crystals are said to contain healing powers that have been absorbed from the world around them. Energies from the sun, the moon, and the Earth differ in each stone, but these energetic vibrations connect with the natural vibration in our bodies, creating a healing attraction. This crash course gives you a full introduction to the world of crystals.

My favorite crystals are clear quartz, sodalite, moonstone, amethyst and lapis lazuli. Clear quartz provides overall protection and is a great first stone to have in your collection. Sodalite connects to your throat chakra and aids with de-stressing, healing, and spiritual awakening. Moonstone reinforces feminine energy and is a great stone for that time of the month.

Amethyst is another great protection stone and aids with beauty, clearing negativity, and prosperity. I conclude with lapis lazuli because it is a great stone to help connect with your spiritual side and paranormal side (if you believe in the paranormal, that is).

3. Embrace the persona

Sometimes dressing like a hippie actually makes you feel like a hippie. You gotta play the part, right? Your favorite places like Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, and Anthropologie all take inspiration from the Woodstock era. This entire outfit screams a modern-day beatnik (I think my mom had those exact platforms too, yikes).

High-waisted bellbottoms are always a closet staple, no matter the season. They pair amazingly with a cropped smock top with long flowy sleeves. Seek platforms, florals, and Janis Joplin hair— stat!The goal is to try and emulate Stevie Nicks as much as possible. Or The Mamas and the Papas. Or Jefferson Airplane. Give me all the boho women!

For the guys, focus on the vibes of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. Always focus on Jim Morrison (I love him). I'm talking more bellbottoms, more flowy tops, more shaggy hair.

Okay, so you have the outfit, now what? It's time to get educated in what the old folks call "classic rock". Fortunately, I was raised by hippies so I was exposed to this before I even came out of the womb. For beginners, I highly recommend The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, The Rolling Stones, Buffalo Springfield, Donovan.. shall I go on?

There was so much good music that came out during the late 1960s and early 1970s that it's hard to condense down to a few artists. Experiment and figure out what you like, because there's nothing like the classics— they're called the classics for a reason.

4. Spend time outside

Fresh air is good for you! Take a hike, go kayaking, or just sit on the campus green with your friends. It's nice to get outside and not have to worry about your battery percentage, or whether you'll connect to the wifi. What matters is connecting with nature. Business Insider shows us that in as little as two days spent outside, our cortisol levels (stress hormone) were lower. Even a window view at the office or library is shown to boost our mood!

Nature teaches us to live in harmony and to appreciate the beauty around us. Technology and our hectic lives cause us forget to slow down and realize how small we are in the grand scheme of things.

5. Fight for what you believe in

Many great things happened because of hippies and people in the counterculture. "Treehuggers" helped Nixon establish the EPA in 1970 along with a flurry of other environmental laws. Hippies held businesses, governments, and each other accountable when the world was changing at a rate faster than anyone imagined. Hippies believe that if you want said change to happen and that change will benefit the greater good, then make sure that change happens.

It's about not backing down and picking yourself up after you fall and fall again. This generation has more power at its fingertips than any other generation in time— we have the power to create change and we will use it.

Some of us are incense-burning, yoga-doing, chakra-aligning hippies, some of us are activist-leading, change-making, outdoor adventure hippies; some of us are both, and some are none. If you want to emulate change, then you're a hippie. If you dress like Janis Joplin and listen to Crosby Stills Nash & Young because you want to, then you're a hippie.

Bottom line: hippies are accepting, honest-natured, and want all things good for the world. Forget the stereotype and look around— you're probably surrounded by more hippies than you think.