This week, we discussed sustainability and poverty in class. Our pre-assignment before we came to class was to read an article about the topic of how poverty may affect the environment and reflect on it. I was assigned to the NO article and it was honestly a little difficult to understand while reading. The author does not make it entirely clear what he is arguing because of the amount of contradiction in the article. One example is that he says that poverty is causing global degradation and then turns around in the next few paragraphs and says that larger companies and the wealthier people are causing global degradation. This is one example of a part in the reading that confused me. But as we started to discuss the topics in class, I started to understand more and saw how my classmates react to the topic. One example really stood out to me within the specific topic of rural poverty which is farming. I come from a large farming community and many of the farmers in my community have experienced rural poverty in one way or another. It usually happens when you can’t get the crop out of the ground in time to sell it. Either rain or drought ruins the crop, which then produces a early or late harvest and then isn’t good for selling.

This week for my 10 minutes of mindfulness practice, I participated in a few minutes of yoga everyday after my workouts. This gave me time to reset myself after a good workout and gave me time to think about my day. It really helped focus on what I needed to do and what I had already gotten done. I would recommend yoga for anybody because while it is a strengthening stretch, it also gives you a sense of calming.