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 made small but meaningful changes. For example, to live out authenticity, I had a long-overdue honest conversation with a friend, which was difficult but ultimately deepened our relationship. On a growth-focused day, I pushed myself to attend a webinar I had been procrastinating on, and for balance, I unplugged from social media and took a long, quiet walk to clear my mind. These actions weren’t always easy to prioritize in the middle of a busy schedule, but having my values clearly defined helped me recognize what to say yes and no to. As a result, I’ve felt more grounded and energized, with a deeper sense of purpose guiding me through everyday life. For anyone still figuring theirs out, I recommend noticing what energizes or drains you throughout the week; it’s a powerful clue. I’ve included a photo from my "balance day" walk, it was a simple moment, but it reminded me that small choices aligned with our values can lead to a more joyful and intentional life.

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 on what that really means from an energy perspective. We often burn fossil fuels to save ourselves time and effort. But by choosing to take the MAX or bus, even when it’s rainy, slow, or crowded, I’m choosing to save energy for the planet, not just myself. This tradeoff became even clearer when I thought about how we treat food, burning through resources just for convenience, even if we end up wasting them. That same idea ties into the article we read on food waste and inefficiency.

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 practices have also started up this week and I've chosen to bike the 15 mile round trip to get more exercise in as a built in warmup and workout. I've noticed that having this routine has created a lot of stability in my week and the exercise has really helped my mindset and mental health. I'm feeling really grateful right now for having a healthy body and the ability to exercise and do fun, active things.

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 industrial.”

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 perspective of decluttering, I do realize it as a sustainable practice, but I mostly see this as a way to clear my mind, as well as my mental clutter. Having fewer things to see or deal with puts an ease on me, as I don't have to worry. I feel like I am able to think more clearly and can focus more on other important matters in my life. This also stems from a minimalist standpoint, which is where I mostly adopted these practices. Clothes have been the biggest issue, along with other items I have hoarded up in boxes throughout my childhood and middle school years. This has been a good practice to reflect on myself in figuring out what is most essential for my lifestyle. Though decluttering and being minimal are subjective matters, what really matters is what you have gotten rid of and being able to improve yourself as a person, both mentally and physically, within your space. This action is something that I will continue to do and is something that should become the norm in everyone's lives because it is easy to hoard and keep items, and your brain will trick you into thinking you need it for the smallest reasons, but in reality it may not be of help in the long-run.
The top image is my room, and the one below is my dorm.

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 value of their fur, but shortly after their introduction the value went down and so they were released into the wild. In one attempt to decrease their population, it was legal to eat their meat. The next species are crows, which I learned are native to Oregon and North America in general. They are one of the few animals to have their population increase since the introduction of European settlers. This is partially because of their adaptability to the industrialized spaces we have created. The thirds species is squirrels, which are actually a mix of native and invasive depending on the species. Two species in particular, the Western Grey Squirrel and the Eastern Grey Squirrel, look similar, though only the Western Grey Squirrel is native to Oregon. The invasive squirrels' populations are able to overtake native species as they are able to persevere with less habitat. According to law, you can also not purposefully move squirrels off of your property, as this risks allowing invasive squirrels to reach more areas. Eastern Grey Squirrels are native to North America, but from the Eastern states. The final animal I wanted to investigate was raccoons, and I found out they are native to Oregon.
I was definitely surprised by some of my findings, especially that raccoons are native to the region while some squirrels are not. With the squirrels in particular, it did make me sad to read about the different species as I have for sure seen more of the invasive ones than the native ones (and am not sure if I have ever seen a native squirrel before). This post was not as challenging as some of the other information I have learned, as there were some positive things that I learned like how crows are native and their population is increasing. I thought for sure that since they are so common that they would be invasive. Similar to learning about native plants for my Eco Change Project, I feel much more informed now about my surroundings and hope that the native plants I put in my garden will help create habitats for more diverse species. We have a fig tree in our yard that, when in bloom during spring and summer, usually houses a family of raccoons. Instead of seeing them as somewhat scary now (I am always afraid they might bite me), I can view them in a more grateful light for being a part of the natural ecosystem of Portland. I also want to keep an eye out for the kinds of squirrels that might be in the PSU park blocks, as that is where I see the most of them. I believe I have seen mostly Eastern Grey Squirrels there, but perhaps if I am persistent enough I can see one of the more native species either here or more outside of town. Finally, I have actually not seen many nutria in Portland. I used to live near a marshy area and saw a few of them there, which makes sense because they thrive in marshes, but maybe their population is going down, especially since I know many Portlanders who have never heard of them before.

My Sources:
1. "Nutria" by Jessica Rondema on Oregon Encyclopedia https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/nutria/
2. "Nutria, an Invasive Rodent" from the United States Department of Agriculture https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fsc-nutria-invasive-rodent.pdf
3. "Crows, Jays, and Magpies" from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/crows-jays-and-magpies
4. "Urban Crows" from the Bird Alliance of Oregon https://birdallianceoregon.org/our-work/rehabilitate-wildlife/having-a-wildlife-problem/urban-crows/
5. "Living with Wildlife: Tree Squirrels" from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife https://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/living_with/docs/TreeSquirrels.pdf
6. "Eastern grey squirrel" from Invasive Species Council of BC https://bcinvasives.ca/invasives/eastern-grey-squirrel/
7. "Raccoons" from Think Wild https://www.thinkwildco.org/raccoons/

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.
When I'm watering my small garden, I've made an effort to slow down and be present with my plants and my actions. I've also made an effort to eat mindfully and I want to learn more about where my foods come from. I want to know more about what is local, and I've been visiting farmers markets on Sundays to learn more about what grows locally. I want to continue to be mindful and connect with nature in order to live simply and improve my health.

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 walking with my dog, I find I am not so able to quieten down my thoughts of the ever lengthening list of things to do or figure out or what-have-you. So, unable to actually get to the woods every day, I figured this week I would try decluttering instead, so I focused on two areas.
One being the “incredibly useful” draws - those spaces at home where you toss just about every knick-knack, do-dad and thing-a-me-bob because you don’t know where else to put it and while it will not be useful today it will one day, surely; but eventually when you look back at this space (usually because it has become too full to actually close), you find the draw is full of outdated, broken or pair-less items that really aren’t any use any more, plus maybe one candle and a charger box. Well, I sorted out those draws and honestly it felt pretty great. One tiny little area in my life that is slightly less chaotic than it was before.
The other things I ‘decluttered’ were a few of my house plants. While I do the usual watering and feeding often, some get very long over time and eventually need either a little (or a lot of) pruning, removing of the old growth, detangling or flushing out. There is something remarkably relaxing about this process and after attending to a rather lengthy Inch plant I have, and being able to propagate a lot of its trimmings in a new pot, I felt as though I’d been on a meditation retreat.

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 just be alone with my thoughts. I think having time where you aren't entertained or occupied is really important for mental clarity, creativity, and overall mental health. This is the reason why I stopped using a smartphone, although I have noticed that since giving it up, I'll use other things to distract myself from being present. This week, I've started trying to take at least ten minutes after waking up to just lay or sit in bed and ground myself before getting up to make coffee and start my to do list. I haven't noticed much of a change yet, but my plan is to gradually increase this into a 30 minute meditation practice that I'd like to do each day. I did really enjoy the walk we did in Tryon Creek, and that was probably the closest I got to actually meditating this week.