🌿🔬 Mindful Materials Basics: Everything is Alive 🌍💭

Embrace a mindful approach to consumption and unveil the hidden impacts of material objects. Let's question, connect, and make informed choices for a healthier future.

A mindful approach to consumption involves moving away from the traditional very drawn out "Should I buy it approach" and instead connecting with and questioning material objects. This shift prompts a brief pause, even just a second, to consider how the item will interact with you, your home, and the world in the long run. This small change in thinking can have significant impacts on your and your family's health and wealth outcomes.

To embrace a mindful materials approach, three key principles can guide you:

1. View materials as living entities, composed of tiny vibrating atoms.

2. Question how these materials interact with you- particularly concerning potential pathways into your body.

3. Respond to this understanding by either learning more about the material

View materials as living entities

Every material object, though we may not perceive it as living, consists of tiny atoms—the essence of life at its smallest level. These atoms combine to create all the materials that surround us. Carbon bonds form the foundation of fuels, while carbon chains and other substances compose plastics, and metals and minerals create our favorite shimmering eye shadows. Although these materials seem solid and are scientifically classified as solid, solid does not mean dead. Solids while we can’t perceive it with our human eye, have atoms vibrating and willing to leave their current bonds. Say another more attractive atom comes by or if the structure becomes weak. This is how we end up with Bisphenol A (BPA) from the plastic in our water, or aluminum from foil in our food.

Question how these materials interact with your body

There are more than 85,000 chemicals in our consumer products that are largely unregulated and we don’t usually find out that one is hazardous until a researcher at a university examines it or it has made enough people severely sick that it’s a lawsuit.

A few examples of products you might be familiar with:

• Baby Powder (Talc and Asbestos)

  • Johnson & Johnson faced multiple lawsuits alleging that their talc-based baby powder contained asbestos, which is a known carcinogen. The lawsuits claimed that long-term use of the product had contributed to ovarian cancer and other health issues in some individuals. The company has been ordered to pay substantial settlements in some cases, although they maintain that their baby powder is safe and asbestos-free.

• Roundup Weed Killer (Glyphosate)

  • Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) faced numerous lawsuits regarding their popular weed killer, Roundup, which contains the active ingredient glyphosate. Plaintiffs claimed that exposure to glyphosate had caused them to develop cancer, particularly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Several verdicts have gone against Monsanto, with juries awarding significant compensation to affected individuals.

• The Color Green: A specific group of synthetic dyes known as Azo dyes, commonly used in the textile industry to produce green colors, has been associated with health issues, including bladder cancer. Some Azo dyes contain aromatic amines that can be harmful when not adequately fixed to the fabric or when in direct contact with the skin. Studies have suggested a potential link between prolonged exposure to certain Azo dyes and an increased risk of bladder cancer and other health concerns. As a result, there are growing calls for stricter regulations and testing to ensure the safety of these dyes in consumer products. Currently there are no lawsuits or stricter regulations on this dye which is a current theme we will find with our fashion products and a key area of my research as a doctoral student.

Humility that humans can be negatively impacted

Once we acknowledge this invisible world that is alive that’s vibrating and shifting around us that it is moving at the tiniest scale we then have to accept that we are susceptible to being negatively impacted by these particles. That often it takes years for them to accumulate and to start showing signs in adults.

Researchers are making connections between the accumulation and steady exposure of these chemicals to autism in children and other developmental delays, causing infertility in men and women with reduced sperm and egg counts, to Alzheimers.

Respond to this understanding by learning more about the material.

A mindful materials approach is acknowledging that every material you bring into your home is either adding to your health or taking away from it. When you are about to one-click to order on a product that you don’t know anything about, throw cosmetics in your cart, or replace all the furniture in your home just because, take a moment for steps one and two

1. View materials as living entities, composed of tiny vibrating atoms.

2. Question how these materials interact with you- particularly concerning potential pathways into your body.

Then respond. This can be the hardest part so here are a few ways to help guide if it is safe or not

• Seeing if the product has any reputable certifications

• Search the first few ingredients and see what comes up

• Check for product or chemical recalls

*Because there are as I mentioned 85,000 chemicals in our products doing this with everything will make you feel exhausted but try to slowly integrate these thoughts in and the end result will be that you are bringing in fewer products, using what you have more, and giving less of your financial wealth to companies that are using and adding these chemicals to products and the environment. While not scientifically proven, I would say approximately 40% of your health is influenced by your product choices (which you can change), and 60% is tied to companies polluting the environment. Achieving substantial change requires legislative actions, policy changes, and voting for individuals who prioritize these issues. By sharing resources to improve ourselves, I aim to draw attention to the need for legislative and policy changes, which is a core goal during my doctoral studies.