Savannah Brokaw

While on my walks, I have noticed many people of all ages outside walking as well. Because of the pandemic, I believe many more people are going outside, getting fresh air and really taking in nature.  It’s the perfect anti-stress activity, an easy way to get and stay active and a good way to give yourself a mid-day reset with some fresh air. There are so many mental, emotional and physical benefits that come from incorporating walks into your daily routine. The one thing that I would say I would love to see change is the garbage all over the city. I live in the city of Poughkeepsie, and there unfortunately is trash everywhere. While I do often see people picking up the trash as a way of community service, we still need to put in MORE WORK! Our Mayor has recently put more garbage cans on Main Street and other main streets in the city. If we could all pickup a small amount of trash each day, our city would look a lot better!

When I am practicing mindful eating, I am acknowledging that there is no right or wrong way to eat, rather that limiting myself to a strict diet. I am also recognizing how I can make food choices that support a healthier lifestyle.  Instead of focusing on "restricting calories", mindful eating provides a way to improve the body’s natural ability to control our eating habits and behavior. By encouraging awareness of emotional states and physiological signals, mindfulness can increase the ability to recognize and respond to normal "fullness" cues. This ultimately leads to an increase in promoting balance, choice, wisdom and acceptance with our bodies.

Planting trees has multiple benefits for your mental, physical, and spiritual health. The most obvious benefit of trees is that they provide oxygen for us humans so planting more means, cleaner air! I believe plating trees can help with creating positivity and creativity in your life.  Mentally and spiritually, doing something good for the environment makes me feel really good. Its nice to know that I am doing something that will have an impact. Plating trees has been associated with helping reduce stress and anxiety. It has also been said that being around trees in nature can boost for your immune system.

A sustainable community to me, is a community that tries to meet the needs of everyone who lives there while still being eco-friendly. A sustainable community should acknowledge environmental and social issues around them and should understand/ be able to shift away from wasteful practices. A sustainable community should also promote improving community health and the quality of life. In a sustainable community you might see more recycling, more clean sources of transporataion such as walking, more local clean food sources, and more energy efficient local buildings. In order to make a sustainable community like this become a reality we must act now. We must start the conservation of energy in our community, reduce our waste, create more energy efficient buildings around us, promote energy efficient lighting and promote public transportation such as bikes and walking. Finally creating pollution laws or petitions to submit to local governments for a more sustainable community could help you achieve a more sustainable society.