In every issue we discuss, when we attempt to brainstorm the tip of the iceberg solutions, we tend to come back to mindfulness. Overconsumption, sustainability and many more wicked problems, have a common theme of mindfulness. Meditating, for me, has truly helped me become more mindful. My father has always mediated, mainly after arguments with mom, although I never really understood why. Now, I get it. He takes that time to himself to reflect and better understand the situation and how he can go about solving the problem. That same mindset totally applies to meditating to be mindful of wicked problems. The “Mindfulness and Sustainability” reading reflected the importance of meditating and self-awareness. The reading touched on how we must take care of ourselves before we can take care of the world around us, which I think circles back to meditating to get in touch with how we are doing. Self-awareness was also a big topic in Marc Cohen’s TED Talk. He spoke about how the better your health, the better you’re able to deal with stressors (he called this resilience). I think this is a very important skill to learn, especially in college. For me, there are so many stressors and this can lead to poor mental and physical health. Hopefully meditating will teach me resilience. I think another aspect from Cohen’s speech that could help with resilience and mental health is that for every negative thought, you should have a positive one as well. Balance is so imperative for yourself and the planet. I connected to the talk when he spoke about how fear equals entropy and love equals evolution. Our love for the planet and world around us should help inspire change and evolution to help make it a better place. Love should be our motivator always. I think it’s important to try and have your self-narrative break away from the paradigm. The paradigm tends to be typical, so be atypical because why not! Your self-narrative could include creating world peace, solving world hunger, or curing cancer. Don’t stick to the status quo. Responsibility mapping is an important way to understand your effect on the world around you. Figuring out your carbon footprint can help you become more aware and possibly make changes. You can’t care if you’re not aware. I had some issues when reading the “Yes” argument. I went into the reading feeling like I absolutely had to agree with it, although I don’t know why I thought that, and I really did not agree with it. As I tried taking notes, I struggled finding points that I agreed with and felt I could argue in class. The article started off by saying impoverished countries should just emulate wealthy countries to try and solve their poverty issue. The way it was stated, it just seemed so naïve. If it were only that simple, it wouldn’t be a wicked problem. Since this was within the first few paragraphs, it put a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the reading and I struggled agreeing with the points it made. One good thing to come out of it was that I began to consider exploring consumption/overconsumption as my wicked problem after reading this article. I went back and forth, landing on global warming and energy usage as well, before I decided that I was most interested in consumption. After reading the fashion and sustainability article, I was positive. I am so intrigued by overconsumption in our society, so I am excited to dive in and learn more about it. I am learning exactly how much this idea applies to my field of work. Overconsumption can be applied to so many different topics, but there is a strong connection between it and the fashion world. The Wildest Thing activity was all about thinking outside the box and being creative. I think those two points are key to solving wicked problems. Sure, some of the solutions we came up with couldn’t be taken straight off the paper and directly applied, but with some tweaking and consideration, there is no reason they couldn’t be the next solution. It was almost like a creative warm-up for brainstorming possible solutions for our investigative report.
Blog Administrator
Contact
For more information contact cosette.armstrong@okstate.edu.-
Recent Posts
Archives
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- June 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012