{"id":1368,"date":"2018-05-07T06:11:25","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T06:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/?p=1368"},"modified":"2018-05-07T06:23:07","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T06:23:07","slug":"contemplation-on-water-mindfulness-for-a-crucial-resource","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/2018\/05\/07\/contemplation-on-water-mindfulness-for-a-crucial-resource\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemplation on Water: Mindfulness for A Crucial Resource"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For a lot of us, overlooking water as a crucial resource is commonplace and its availability to us is often taken for granted. In other places around the world, having water readily available could mean saving millions of lives and increasing productive growth for a nation\u2019s economy. As we sit comfortably in our own homes using and consuming as much water as we\u2019d like without threatening an entire nation\u2019s supply, we think to ourselves, does this problem really apply to us? Honestly, it does.<\/p>\n

The first step to change is awareness to the problems and familiarizing ourselves with the realities that people other than ourselves share. Whether influencing those ways of thinking comes from a commercial on T.V., a documentary displaying the realities of those lives, or from a published text, we become more aware at the end of the day about lives completely different from ours. Living in our own bubbles and staying there, as comfortable as it may be, does not ignite change for parts of the world that need it the most. That\u2019s why contemplative practices are so crucial for igniting the spark in tying what we learn to those realities we don\u2019t<\/em> share.<\/p>\n

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With contemplative practices on water, I\u2019ve come to understand the importance of integrating that new-found knowledge into my everyday life. I think often of the water I\u2019m drinking, where I get it from, and how much privilege I have in my own bubble compared to millions of others. While contemplative practices alone aren\u2019t enough to ignite the change, they certainly offer motivation towards the next step: action.<\/p>\n

These influences alone regardless of medium have enough power to make us influencers<\/em> in the change that needs to happen. The video below is a visual representation on the water crisis which complements the importance of information through our contemplative practices.<\/p>\n