[The Market] of responsible lifestyle

One of the most effective ways to achieve impact is when you’re in a community working together towards the same goal – because, admit it, we tend to become too balloon-headed and think we can do everything on our own. Well, you can’t – only God can – but you certainly can become better when you’re working with others. After all, we were meant not to be islands, but to live in harmony with each other.

That said, I’m happy I stumbled upon this community – a community I strongly feel I’d love to be part of (I just signed up as I write this). Although I never imagined doing – for TDA – the activities that it does, what it stands for is almost exactly in line with mine own and that of TDA’s. This is MUNI.

In a nutshell, MUNI is a community that believes in mindful living – living where we give more thought to (and live out), essentially, our daily living. Where lifestyle becomes happier, healthier, and most importantly sustainable. It does so primarily through events, as well as creative communication. Its flagship event is MUNI Market Day, where entrepreneurs, advocates, and musicians alike gather together to showcase “mindfully created goods and services”, educate the people on such, and simply create an opportunity to bring all these people together. This event has already been held thrice (in June, October-November 2014, and March 2015), and a fourth one is being organized for October 2015 – click here to sign up as a merchant if you’re interested!

It just screams The Daily Aloy – as it is perfectly in line with my advocating a responsible – or conscious – lifestyle, through the products we consume, the services we avail of, even down to the actions we do. And of course, one that is sustainable – for both the planet and for us.

What I like about MUNI is that it doesn’t attempt to cash in on the current movement of social enterprise and related – or, at least, not keep bragging about itself (intentionally or not) while not achieving the results it calls for. For starters, it has a simple, replicable goal: to raise awareness on conscious lifestyle through its activities, which involve bringing together the leaders of this philosophy across various fields who would then teach others about it. Nothing about enforcing your own ideals on others, nothing about meaning to help others but not actually getting there: it is pure freedom, freedom to make the choice – and that applies to all of us.

Although what MUNI teaches is important and crucial for us to follow, it does so in a fresh, gentle, and fun manner – through a “marketplace”, through networking, and through the arts. Hence, its members being called “Cultural Creatives”. It uses creativity and collaboration to keep the community vibrant and thriving – and constant collaboration, or constant interdependence, is what makes us most effective, according to Stephen Covey. That is how we can achieve better impact.

So, I invite you, dear readers, to join me and Jen (the founder of MUNI), and all the other people like us, to live conscious and responsible lives – for a brighter future for us, our children, and our Sister, Mother Earth – ad majorem Dei gloriam.

---

Edit: Thanks for the clarification, MUNI! Market Day has already been held three times, with the October 2015 event being the fourth one.