Mindfulness is something which I have strived for during my two years of meditation experience and refreshed myself while reading this weeks chapter in our book. During class there was a guided meditation podcast played which, to no surprise, totally calmed all my nerves and thoughts until I no longer felt overwhelmed. If you are not well with your environment then you will not be well with yourself either, for they have direct correlations to one another. I have wanted to feel that I was totally in the moment and enjoying doing so, but currently I still tend to focus more on the future. Focusing on the future does not allow myself to live in the now, but planning for the future. This practice also should make the person who has mindfulness feel more connected to themselves and their emotions or feelings in specific environments; this is also the process of becoming aware of oneself. This brings me to a quote by Marc Cohen from the Ted Talks video in class when he explains that “it is hard to be happy unless [you’re] well.”

The environment, which has a direct correlation to your happiness, is slowly dying. If the environment is dying, how are you meant to feel happy in something which will soon be nothing. This is why sustainability correlates with mindfulness. We must be, as a whole, better at sustaining our environment and our world; to do so, more people need to become mindful. After watching the Ted Talks, I began to dive deeper into my wicked problem on campus. I believe that we should have more recycling bins around campus, along with the numbers of items that can be recycled. From my experience, many friends have tried to recycle but did not understand the process or where each item should be sorted. If we as an entire campus could begin recycling more, the benefits will be directly gifted to our generation and future generations who will inhabit the Earth. This idea emerged when our group began the Wild Things Activity, for this got me thinking about all the things that would barely change our lives, but save our environment too.