Regan Sansiviero

This past week we added new challenges from the waste and community categories. These challenges came more naturally to me and overall were probably my favorite challenges. In the community sector, the two challenges I chose were helping at least two individuals each day and engaging in active listening. Through the first challenge, while actively focusing on helping others, I became more aware of the ways I already try to support others in my daily life. Whether it was holding the door for someone, offering my advice when asked, or assisting a friend with a miniscule task, I recognized that helping others is something I genuinely enjoy and often do without giving it much of a second thought. However, by making a conscious effort to help others, I was able to further recognize that these small gestures have a larger impact than I realized. In completing my second community sector challenge, I took the time to genuinely listen to my older brother’s opinions on politics, as well as those of my roommate. Typically, I choose to avoid political discussions with friends and family because they often lead to two things I do not like: people speaking passionately in my face and conversations escalating into arguments. However, selecting this challenge gave me the opportunity to shift my approach from the jump and focus solely on listening from the start of the discussion. By making a conscious effort to listen without immediately reacting or forming a response, I found that I was able to better understand their perspectives(even if I didn’t always agree with them) and strengthen our relationships. For the waste challenges, I chose to use a reusable water bottle and to go paperless. Using a reusable water bottle is something that I did all throughout my childhood and throughout highschool however when I got to college, I found it more convenient to just use plastic water bottles as I was always on the go. However, going back to using a reusable water bottle was significantly easier than I had thought. For my second waste challenge I decided to go paperless. This is something I already try to do on a daily basis however with school work by trying to avoid printing as much as I can. However I do receive a significant amount of paper mail to my parents house that I don’t necessarily want, so I took the time to go and unsubscribe and opt out of this junk mail. Completing both of these waste challenges made me aware of how much unnecessary waste I generate without thinking by just making little decisions focused on convenience rather than sustainability.

This week, in addition to completing my chosen daily challenges from last week, I incorporated two habits into my daily routine, turning off the water while brushing my teeth and switching off lights when they weren’t in use, as well as one one time challenge of washing my clothes in cold water. Over the past week, completing these daily and one time challenges has been a journey of learning to adapt and grow into these habits. From the beginning I never had a difficult time actually doing the tasks, what I had difficulty with however was remembering that I had made the commitment to complete these daily challenge tasks, therefore I did find the first few days more challenging. I had caught myself multiple times over the first few days forgetting about both my challenges from this week and last week at certain times. For example, I would leave my room and come back with the lights still on, eat a meal while scrolling through social media without a second thought and I would catch myself picking up my phone during the time I was supposed to be taking my screentime break However, as the days went by, remembering to complete these daily tasks became easier and easier to me as they became a part of my daily routine specifically over the past few days. I wake up and I do these things without a second thought already and I found my ability to quickly pick up these habits to be very surprising. Obviously completing the tasks themselves is very rewarding, however something that surprised me was how rewarding it felt to complete these tasks on a daily basis without having that second thought. I feel like the first time I came home from the day and realized I had turned off all the lights in the apartment and finally ate a meal without even thinking about scrolling through social media while I did so was a very important turning point of accomplishment for me in completing these small challenges. When thinking about the barriers I have faced and have continued to face in making these lifestyle changes permanent, one significant barrier that impacts me is the lack of time. Specifically now, as the lacrosse season begins to ramp up, it is going to be more difficult for me to remember to do these tasks when my routine begins to change and I face more and more time crunches. This is going to cause me to have to readjust when and how I complete these challenges over the course of my day. I am already a pretty forgetful person so ensuring I remember to complete these challenges daily while under a time crunch is something I am going to have to figure out. I think specifically I am going to face the most difficulty completing “Eating Mindfully” challenge because when my time goes down, I am usually just grabbing quick snacks and eating my meals while doing homework or another task for the sake of time management, which will leave me less of an opportunity to use this time for mindful thoughts. Despite the barriers I will face, I am very willing to work to make these lifestyle changes permanent in my life. These tasks are tiny yet very rewarding and it costs me nothing to complete other than maybe half a millisecond of my day. Completing these tasks will not only help me improve certain aspects of myself, but they will also allow me to help make a difference and do my part to support the environment we all live in. I mean, If the minimalists who were featured in the minimalist documentary can adapt the principles they adapted,which were much more drastic than mine, then I can certainly do my part by completing these less daunting tasks that are suitable for the life I am currently living.

When thinking about Eco Challenge for Unit 2 I found a lot of very interesting challenges when browsing. For this first week, I have decided to choose challenges that are going to challenge me to improve aspects of myself I have been wanting to better for a long time. Specifically, one daily challenge I am very excited about is the Eat Mindfully Challenge that challenges you to eat all meals without distractions. I am very excited about this challenge specifically because I do often scroll through social media or watch TV when I am eating my daily meals. Pushing myself to put away all distractions while eating will be very beneficial to me as I can focus on using that time to either bond with others or to practice mindful thinking without distractions. I am going to aim for around 30 minutes of eating mindfully a day in hopes to use that time in a much more beneficial way than distracting myself through technology. Additionally, I am very excited about the limit social media challenge. Limiting social media and my personal screen time has been something I have been working on improving for a very long time and I am excited to really challenge and encourage myself to do so. One one-time challenge I am very excited about is Core Values which requires determining what my top 3-5 core values are so I am better aligned with them. This is something I am very excited to do over the course of the semester. I feel like it will really benefit me and help me in my journey of personal growth, and I am excited to work on this aspect of myself.

When thinking about challenges that will help me decrease my ecological footprint, I think that the turn it off challenge and ensuring I keep lights, electronics, and appliances turned off when not using them as well as brushing my teeth without running water are two daily challenges that will have the most impact on my ecological footprint. Although these actions may be small, I believe completing them daily will significantly limit my ecological footprint because changing my daily habits and completing these little actions consistently does matter and in turn will help me to do my part in caring for the environment.