This past couple of weeks we have been discussing mindfulness meditation and how it affects sustainability. To be honest, I was very skeptical about the topic and how they were both related. It took me a while to understand, but the two are linked more than I would have ever thought. After reading the article about mindfulness and sustainability, the point that our section of the article was trying to get across was that if we are in touch with our emotions and focus on what we need and not want, we are beings that do not require as much as we desire. The point that I was able to bring up to my group was that our culture is so used to seeing something and then just getting it. We do not think about the consequences of our purchases and how they are affecting the environment around us. When we being to practice mindfulness, we being to think of ourselves in a simpler form, realizing that we do not need everything that we want. Going along with my blog post from last week, I would like to give you an update. After realizing how shy I am and how it was affecting my learning experience, I decided that I would no longer just sit in the breakout room and not talk, but that I would challenge myself to not only talk but to take charge of the group and lead the discussion. I was able to do just that, and realizing how much more that I took away from the lesson was so rewarding. I was able to put my new tactic to work for this past class, and of course, my results were the same. I was able to talk about the ‘Yes’ argument of the article and bring up new and different points to my group. One point that I was able to bring up was that if the fear of globalization keeps growing, our society at some point will take action and try to make a change to our actions, but it will inevitably be too late. That is why my group ultimately decided to side with the ‘No’ argument. Other teams were bringing up the topic of fear and how that would create a cultural change, but we discussed how that is just not a realistic solution and that we will soon try to make a change when it is too late. This topic relates back to mindfulness and learning to become mindful so we can make a change before our world suffers from our doing. Our assignment was to meditate for 5 minutes and this was something that was kind of hard for me. I have never done anything like that before and it was a hard experience to just sit and be quiet and relax for 5 minutes. Because I am so new to the meditating experience, I did some research and decided to use the Clam app to guide me through my time. The app helped me calm down and relax my mind, which is something that I have never done before. As we continue of this meditating journey my goal is to learn to focus on the thought that is coming and going in and out of my mind. Learning to become mindful is proving to be harder than I thought, but I know that as I continue to practice I will being to see the benefits of it.