Community Team

Over the past week, I’ve been reflecting on the idea that we may find more meaning and joy in life when our actions are aligned with our personal values. After some deep thinking, I realized that my most important values are authenticity, growth, connection, creativity, and balance. With these in mind, I chose one value each day to focus on and...

TRANSPORTATION Living in downtown Portland, owning a car feels more like a burden than a freedom. Between parking costs, traffic, and emissions, I’ve grown to appreciate how much public transportation simplifies my life, and reduces my carbon footprint. Although I already rely on TriMet to get around, this week I started reflecting more deeply...

This week has been a week of getting back into my routine after a few weeks of being really busy with events, travel, and seeing family. In an attempt of focusing on the topic of health as a theme, I was intentional about establishing my routine again of getting in the gym to do strength training for the ultimate frisbee club season. Our team...

This week, my report topic is mindfulness and meditation. Through practicing mindfulness and meditation, I’ve started to reflect on how my lifestyle has changed recently, and I gradually realized that “Be natural” makes me healthier in body and mind, and also aligns better with the original goal of environmental protection, compared to “Be...

I have always tried to declutter my room since COVID, not realizing it doubles as a sustainable practice. I have devoted myself to cleaning up my room and getting rid of objects, clothing, and electronics I don't use frequently, and though it is not a frequent and consistent action, I always set time for whenever I need to do so. From my...

This week I researched which local urban wildlife are native to Oregon and, if they are not, where they came from. The first is the nutria, which I learned is not native to Oregon and instead is from South America. They were brought here anywhere from the late 19th century to the early 20th century (my sources were inconsistent) because of the...

For simple living and health, I tried to take care of my physical and mental well being by spending extra time outdoors and going to nature places I've never been to before. Everytime I'm outside, I take a few minutes to just breath and be present. I think about the systems and ways that nature is connected, and the ways I'm connected to...

It being near the end of term, and life just doing its thing at the moment, I wanted to bring some meditative practice into my life, while also feeling like there is far too much to do at any one moment to let myself stop for a second. When I have tried the sit-down-and-breath method of meditation, unless I’m in the woods and then I’m usually...

By allowing us to understand why the crime was committed. We might not punish a person for profit. Even if the crime is small, the debt he gets put in might actually be too much. Martha Minow in ‘How forgiveness can create a more just legal system’, Minow says “It's time for a reset, given mass incarceration, medical and consumer debt and given...

This week for my simple living challenge, I decided to focus on mindfulness and meditation. I have been trying to integrate meditation into my routine for some time now, and for some reason I've had a really hard time prioritizing it. I've noticed that I keep so busy that I can go through entire days without really having a moment to stop and...