Create Your Moment with The Urban + The Mystic

Courtney Abbiati (right) sits with cofounder Sydney Holland. Photo courtesy of Courtney Abbiati.

The Urban + The Mystic is in the business of gifting moments.

 Their concept is simple: if you take a moment to consistently show up for yourself, your life, and the magic it carries, will show up for you.

The founders, Courtney Abbiati and Sydney Holland, set out to create gift boxes that carry out the intention of creating that moment, whatever people need it to be.

“The problem is that most of the time, people come home, they shower, they eat, they go to sleep, they’re running out,” said Abbiati. “They’re not enjoying their homes…and your home should be your sanctuary.”

Often in our own homes, the moment passes us by. Instead, we are constantly anticipating the next moment, reminiscing about our pasts, and neglecting the beauty of the moment in front of us.

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

– Buddha

Each box made by The Urban + The Mystic caters to an occasion or an intention within the moment.

The Calling in Love box by The Urban + The Mystic.

The Thank You Box, for example, creates an intention to savor the moment of gratitude. “This box gives you an excuse to sit down, stand up, lie down, whatever the heck you want to do with it, and really soak in the fact that someone is saying, ‘Thank you, you showed up for me, you helped me move, you’ve been an amazing teacher to my kid,’ whatever it is,” Courtney said. “And that one moment is the seed that I feel changes people’s lives. It’s meditation. It’s teaching you to unplug from the world for a minute, and plug into yourself.”

Other boxes savor moments like birthdays, weddings, romance, healing, and even bereavement.

“My favorite small box is our Bereavement box, because it has never made sense to me why we send something that’s going to die [flowers] to someone that just experienced death,” Courtney said. “It never has added up to me. Someone once told me, ‘Grief is love with nowhere to go.’ And so this box gives your grief somewhere to go.”

Contents of the House Blessings box. Photo courtesy of Courtney Abbiati.

Inside the boxes you can find crystals, onyx bowls, palo santo, and instructions for how to create your own moment. With the rose quartz you can create unconditional love, while the black onyx heart can be used to absorb grief.

Both Courtney and Sydney hope that the boxes will help people center themselves in a society that keeps them on edge.

“Everyone’s so busy…on their phone, on their way to somewhere, doing something all the time, and I just feel like we’ve moved so far away from being mindful and connecting and talking to someone without a phone in our hand, where we’re not looking in another direction to see if our meters are running out.”

And that’s because we have been taught to develop a scarcity mindset when it comes to time and money.

The founders said they wanted to be mindful of pricing so that people didn’t feel excluded from experiencing these moments. The 14 boxes available range in price from $75 to $310.

“I’ve had money, I’ve not had money, [and] I’ve had money again, and it’s like, the universe doesn’t care if you have to give a gift, you still have to give a gift even when you’re poor,” Courtney said. “So I wanted … that girl that was me, that was looking at something in a store that really wanted it to be able to find something for herself. Maybe it’s not the $300 box, but I got the $75 box, you know? And it’s special and she can bring it home for herself or he can bring it home for himself.”

The Birthday box. Photo courtesy of Courtney Abbiati.

Courtney said that not only are these boxes meant to create mindful moments for each person, but they are also meant to remind people that they can rearrange their spaces as well.

“I think so many times in our homes, it’s like we’ll put something here, something there, but what if you really looked around, and said ‘I actually don’t need that,’ or, ‘Let me clean this drawer out, it’s all crap anyway,’” Courtney said. “With these boxes, you’re mindfully placing stones that cultivate love, protection, [and] joy.”