Surviving the Meta Trends

I gave a presentation at the Los Angeles International Textiles Show earlier this week and the topic was Sustainable Meta Trends in Textiles.  In all honesty I didn't know what a Meta Trend was until a few weeks prior. I looked it up and basically META is something transformational.
So it is not just what is new, but what is going to change significantly.
Pretty daunting - and to boot, my presentation was pretty daunting as well, as the impact of the textile industry on the planet is significant.

Often however we hear these significant meta statements about poverty, climate change, obesity, water, land and energy shortages and we cannot comprehend how to digest that information into our daily lives. At least I find it quite difficult. So I started thinking about a way to make these huge pieces of information enter my brain with some kind of comprehension. And the way I look at it is to find some kind of transformational experience that I have already gone though and build a connection.

For instance - when I worked as a freelancer and now as a consultant and do not have the same income I was used to - you begin to adapt and start living differently, you prioritize, and alter your behaviors.  I have seen the same with friends and family who have children, your life is now different, you adapt.
Another example - our pipes broke and had to turn off the water in our home for a day, we re-looked at how we lived, what could we do without water and still live.

These maybe small items, but it shows how if we step back and look at the times in our lives that we have been able to change, and change our behaviors we usually can do it. So you can look at these Meta trends as warnings for the areas of the world that are going to change and you can start practicing now.