Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

A social enterprise aims to protect the future for thousands of threatened species by integrating wildlife conservation into daily life

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It’s an unfortunate reality that our planet’s biodiversity is under threat, with numerous species facing the risk of extinction. The state of endangered species today is a complex tapestry of challenges, opportunities, and ongoing conservation efforts, but the important thing to note is the work being done to secure a brighter future with new, thriving generations of our world’s most at-risk animals.

The plight of endangered species is undeniably grim.

Human activities such as deforestation, habitat destruction, climate change, bycatch, and poaching have accelerated the decline of numerous species. From iconic creatures like the elephant and sea turtle to lesser-known species, the list of those up against both environmental and human-made stressors is a long one. The loss of biodiversity not only disrupts ecosystems, but also threatens the delicate balance that sustains life on Earth.

This very challenge sparked the creation of Fahlo, a passion project fueled by our shared desire to support wildlife conservation in a way that seamlessly integrates into people’s lives, igniting their enthusiasm for making a positive impact. As co-founders, we envisioned a brand that raises awareness about the critical challenges faced by endangered species and actively engages individuals in the conservation effort, with direct funding supporting the organizations on the ground.

Since our launch in 2018, Fahlo has made significant strides in fulfilling our vision. We pair thoughtfully-designed bracelets and plush inspired by animals with the ability to track real wildlife on an interactive map, fostering curiosity for wildlife and excitement for their conservation. Over the years, we have cultivated a community of like-minded individuals who not only wear our products as symbols of commitment, but actively participate in the ongoing conservation dialogue.

One of the ugly truths we currently face is the increasing rate of species extinction. The current rate is estimated to be 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate, primarily due to human-induced factors. The consequences are far-reaching, affecting ecosystem services, food security, and the overall health of our planet.

Urgent and decisive action is needed to prevent irreversible damage to the intricate web of life.

Despite the challenges, there is hope. Conservation efforts worldwide have made meaningful progress in protecting endangered species and their habitats. Awareness campaigns, legislative measures, and international collaborations have contributed to the establishment of protected areas and the development of sustainable practices. Success stories, such as the recovery of certain bird species and the stabilization of certain marine populations, offer glimpses of what is achievable with concerted efforts.

Renowned nonprofit and research organizations like Save the Elephants (STE) work tirelessly to gather insight into their dedicated species. In this case, they prioritize the study of elephant behavior, intelligence, and long-distance movements while fostering peaceful human-elephant coexistence. Amid ongoing threats of habitat loss and ivory poaching, STE uses the tools and knowledge acquired to set elephants up for long term survival success.

Through an official partnership, STE helped us create elephant tracking bracelets that further their mission with every purchase and track endangered African elephants within an all-new Fahlo app.

We pride ourselves on partnering with several esteemed conservation nonprofits, including the Sea Turtle Conservancy, Global Penguin Society, and Polar Bears International among others to support their work protecting endangered species, preserving habitats, conducting invaluable research, and improving the relationship between these species and the humans who share their home.

Most recently, we’ve made new updates within the Fahlo app to enhance the user experience even more, including improved satellite graphics and 3D terrain views, detailed profiles for each animal with information on nonprofit partners, and regular notifications that users receive with animal updates, facts, and more. Every bracelet and plush purchase fuels change and makes wildlife conservation fun, approachable, and wider-reaching.

Looking ahead, the future of endangered and at-risk species depends on our collective commitment to conservation.

Technological advancements, such as the use of satellite tracking and DNA analysis, provide new tools for monitoring and protecting wildlife. Additionally, there is a growing recognition of the importance of preserving biodiversity for the well-being of both ecosystems and human societies.

Governments, nonprofit organizations, and communities are actively involved in conservation initiatives worldwide. Efforts include habitat restoration, captive breeding programs, anti-poaching measures, and the promotion of sustainable practices. Conservationists are also working towards creating corridors that connect fragmented habitats, allowing species to move and thrive.

The state of endangered species today is a delicate balance between the good, the bad, and the ugly. While challenges persist, the ongoing efforts to protect and conserve wildlife provide a glimmer of hope. It is imperative that we continue to raise awareness, support conservation initiatives, and enact policies that prioritize the well-being of our planet’s diverse inhabitants. Our journey at Fahlo is a testament to the power of shared passion in creating meaningful change, and only through collective action can we ensure a sustainable future for both endangered species and the ecosystems they inhabit.

You may also enjoy reading Dancing with Mother Nature: An Adventure for Change Across Antarctica, by Zita Luiten.

The post The Fahlo Effect: Combining Fashion, Technology, and Conservation to Protect Endangered Species appeared first on BEST SELF.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Living as separate from one another, separate from nature, will end humanity; it is through love and harmony with our planet that we will thrive

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Gravity and love are two aspects of a single reality. They are the organizing principles of our precious planet and our amazing universe. Gravity holds dominion over the physical, our outer world. Love holds dominion over the metaphysical, our inner world. Gravity sustains our material existence, while love nourishes our spiritual existence. Gravity is to the body what love is to the heart, soul, and consciousness. Gravity relates to what can be measured, while love relates to what can be imagined. Gravity sustains matter; love gives it meaning. In the end, everything is held together by love.

Love is difficult to define but each of us has a sense, deep in our hearts, what it means. For me, love is the source of all positive and creative relationships. Love provides a solid foundation for family, friendship, fellowship, community, and camaraderie. Love gives birth to compassion, kindness, caring, courtesy, and cooperation. Out of love grows humanity, humility, hospitality, and harmony.

A lack of love leads to war, conflict, competition, exploitation, domination, and subjugation of people and of Nature. Militarism, the arms race, insecurity, and rivalry of all kinds arise wherever there is no love. When there is no love, then there is poverty, inequality, injustice, racial segregation, and caste or class discrimination. The dark clouds of narrow nationalism, wretched racism, and demeaning sexism are all dispelled by the light of love.

In love, we find the end of separation and isolation. In love, there is the beginning of connection and communication. Love creates union and communion.

I have found that whatever the problem, love is the only solution. Whatever the question, love is the perfect answer. The pathologies of pride, greed, anger, and fear can be treated with the healing power of love. Love is the medicine for an excess of ego and anxiety, for the disease of depression and despair. Life without love is like a well without the water, a body without the soul, or words without meaning. The true purpose of life is to love. When I exist in love, I move from greed to gratitude, from ownership to relationship, from glamour to grace, and from attachment to engagement.

I have personally been blessed and graced with unconditional, unlimited love from countless people throughout my life. All parts of my body, mind, and spirit have been nurtured by this abundance of love. My beloved life companion, June, has been a fountain of love these past fifty years. We met in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square in London, in 1971. I fell in love at the very first sight. I was on a short visit to Europe with a return ticket in my bag. After meeting June, I canceled the ticket, gave up my life in India, and settled with June in London. We read poetry together, edited together, gardened together, cooked together, and walked together. Together with June, love in my life became a living reality.

All great teachers and social reformers from ancient times to our own age have one common theme, the theme of love. From the Buddha to Jesus Christ, from Mahavira to Mohammed, from Lao Tzu to the Dalai Lama, from Mother Theresa to Martin Luther King, from Mahatma Gandhi to Nelson Mandela, and from Joan Baez to John Lennon, they all have encapsulated their teachings in one word: Love.

Love is more than a religious or a spiritual ideal. Love is a source of nourishment to the human imagination.

Great poets and painters have always been inspired by the common narrative that is love. Shakespeare explored his passion in 154 sonnets, not to mention the countless ways he articulated the enduring power of love in his plays. From Tolstoy to Tagore, from Goethe to Goya, from Pushkin to Picasso, from Blake to Botticelli, from Rumi to Ruskin, the list of writers, poets, and artists who have been inspired and fueled by love is endless. Be it love of nature, love of a humanity, or love of God, love itself is the seed out of which the trees of literature and art have grown. It is love that feeds us at the best of times and the worst of times. And humanity is facing a time in which our very existence is under threat, a time in which love can make all the difference.

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year of COVID-19 — the year of social distancing, lockdowns, and staying indoors even when the sun was shining, the flowers were flourishing, and the birds were singing their sweet songs. I took that time of quarantine, or self-isolation, as a blessing: a time for spiritual retreat and for reflection. I read Rumi and Ha.z. I read Shakespeare’s sonnets. I read Rabindranath Tagore. I meditated upon the word quarantine, and its association with Lent. I learned that, originally, quarantine referred to the period of forty days Jesus Christ spent fasting in the desert.

Despite the opportunity for quiet reflection, I was overwhelmed to see so much suffering in the world, engulfed in an unprecedented crisis. In 2020 I was eighty-three years old, and I had never experienced such a drastic and dreadful situation in my entire life. Being in this crisis was worse than being in a state of war, which I have experienced. Wars are initiated by humans and can be controlled or ended by humans. But COVID-19 was a show of Nature’s power, far beyond human control. Many people believe that through science and technology we can conquer Nature. But through a novel coronavirus, Nature has made abundantly clear that any talk of humans conquering her is sheer human arrogance. COVID-19 reminded us in no uncertain terms about the reality of human vulnerability.

Human desire to conquer Nature comes from the belief that humans are separate from Nature, that, in fact, we enjoy a superior power.

This dualistic thinking is at the root of our inability to deal with many of the natural upheavals we face currently, such as forest fires, floods, global warming, and pandemics. We seem to believe that one way or the other we will find technological solutions to subjugate Nature and make her subservient. Rather than looking at the root causes of the virus, governments, industrialists, and scientists have taken refuge in looking for vaccines to avoid the disease. However, we need to think and act intelligently, and with greater wisdom. Rather than simply vaccinating to lessen the symptoms, we need to address the causes of the disease.

If we were to address the causes of COVID-19, rather than simply the symptoms, we would need to return to ecologically regenerative agriculture; to human-scale, local, low-carbon, and organic methods of farming. Food is not a commodity. Farming should not be motivated by financial profits. The purpose of farming is to feed people with healthy food. The end goal of agriculture is to produce nutritious food without depleting the health of the soil. Farming for profit directly or indirectly causes coronavirus!

To address the causes of COVID-19, we need to learn to live in harmony with Nature and within the laws of Nature.

Humans are as much a part of Nature as any other form of life. Therefore, living in harmony with Nature is the urgent imperative of our time and the very first lesson humans, collectively, need to learn from the COVID-19 crisis.

The second lesson is that all human actions have consequences. In the past hundred years, human activities have caused both diminishing biodiversity and increasing greenhouse gas emissions, producing climate change. Due to human activities the oceans are polluted by plastic, the soil is poisoned with artificial chemicals, and the rainforests are disappearing at an unprecedented speed. All these negative human activities are bound to result in disastrous consequences, such as floods, forest fires, and pandemics. Modern civilization has inflicted untold suffering and damage in Nature. Now we are harvesting the consequences. We must change. We must move on to build a new paradigm. To restore health to the people, we must restore health to our precious planet Earth. Healing people and healing Nature is one and the same.

With COVID-19, Nature sent us a strong message. We need to do everything we can to heal the Earth. Only positive actions will bring positive outcomes; this is the law of Karma. The trinity of Market, Money, and Materialism has ruled the modern mind for far too long. Now is the time to slow down and, with humility, listen to the voice of Nature, the voice of the Earth.

We need to replace this old trinity with a new one: the trinity of Soil, Soul, and Society. We need to welcome an Age of Ecology, an ecology of love.

Humanity needs to respond to this crisis positively and use it as an opportunity to redesign our agricultural, economic, and political systems, and our way of life. We need to learn to respect the place of wilderness. We need to learn to celebrate the abundant beauty and diversity of life. We need to realize that humans are an integral part of Nature. That what we do to Nature we do to ourselves. We are all interconnected and interrelated. We depend on each other. We are members of one Earth community and one Earthly family.

If this worldview becomes an integral part of our collective consciousness, and our love for the Earth becomes an organizing principle of mainstream society, then we will have different priorities and different values. Instead of economic growth at all costs, we will pursue the growth in the wellbeing of people and health of our planet. Poet and novelist Ben Okri wrote that “the real tragedy would be if we came through this pandemic without changing for the better. It would be as if all those deaths, all that suffering would mean nothing.”

I am aware of the obstacles. There are corporations and companies, governments and businesses who have vested interests in the status quo. Social and environmental activists have been working for many years, warning of impending crises, but it seems too often as if no one is listening.

For more than forty years I edited Resurgence & Ecologist, a British bimonthly magazine covering environmental issues, engaged activism, philosophy, arts, and ethical living. The message of Resurgence is to love: love yourself, love people, love planet, love nature. Its articles are underpinned by the spirit of love, urging social and environmental activists to shed their fear of doom and gloom and, instead, to act out of love. Act to uphold beauty and integrity.

Activism is a journey and not a destination. Love is an expression of our spirituality, our imagination, and our way of life. But love is also a practical and ecological imperative. My friend Deepak Chopra once said to me that the environment and nature are our extended bodies. The air is our breath, and the rivers and waters our circulation; if we don’t pay attention to our ecological self then we risk extinction. So it follows, apart from anything else, that love of our natural environment is a survival imperative.

[Special excerpt adapted from Radical Love, by Satish Kumar, Parallax Press 2023.]

You may also enjoy reading Emergence of a New World Order, by Barbara Ann Briggs.

The post Radical Love: Rethinking Our Relationship to Nature and Each Other appeared first on BEST SELF.

Revealing the ugly underbelly of human trafficking, one woman answers the question: What can we do?

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‘Human trafficking’? That can’t possibly be a real thing happening around me…

Or could it? 

Those were the questions running through my mind as I sat on my friend’s couch in Sydney, Australia back in 2008 listening to her tell me about a new nonprofit where she was volunteering in the fight against human trafficking. She told me how thousands of young women and men were being lured away from their families into false jobs or false relationships and sold as sex slaves or forced labor — never to see their families again. She also said there were organizations starting to do something about it in many countries, and the need was tremendous. 

I left her house that day with a heavy heart and a scrambled mind, wondering if what she had said was really true. My first impression was likely not uncommon to most when they first hear of it — How could this really be happening in the year 2008… let alone 2020? It just didn’t seem possible. I was 26 years old at the time with two babies and a husband, barely scraping by because we had foregone our budding careers back in the States to live abroad for a few years.

I’m embarrassed to say the story I told myself that day was that I couldn’t do a thing about human trafficking even if it were true…

So I tried my best to forget about all of the emotions I was having in response to the conversation with my friend, and I carried on with my life. But I couldn’t shake it.

A few months later, my family moved back to the States, and there it was again — human trafficking. By this time, awareness had gained momentum and I knew this tragedy was a reality all over the globe. I also knew that this time, I wasn’t going to pretend otherwise… not now, and never again. 

I didn’t have to look far. I would learn that this was, in fact, something not only happening in my home state, but in every state across the U.S. — to women just like me and to kids just like my own, a sobering reality. Initially I tried to contact nonprofits that had formed around the issue to see if I could volunteer, but my efforts were not very fruitful. I wrote a few articles and raised awareness in a very small circle of community leaders, but I could never figure out how to do something as big as I wanted to do. I grew frustrated, but I kept looking for opportunities, praying that modern-day slavery, human trafficking, and child exploitation would end, and I tried to stay ready to join the anti-trafficking movement in a big way if the opportunity presented itself.

But waiting didn’t make it go away… or create any impact.

Tragically, all these years later, human trafficking is still a growing global reality. Modern-day slavery is still being perpetrated around the world and in every state in the U.S., and it continues to surge with over 40.3 million victims of human trafficking on the planet (Polaris Project) and an average of 150 reports per day in the United States alone (National Human Trafficking Hotline).

Today, I know in my bones that we have the power to stop it. Human trafficking and exploitation can stop in our generation if each one of us takes a few simple steps right now.

It took 12 years too long for me to realize it. Twelve years of working in the nonprofit field. Twelve years of sitting on my hands and writing in my closet until this past summer when I sat at my favorite coffee spot one morning telling a writer friend about the issue and why I’m so passionate about it, and she leaned forward and spoke a question that prompted this article and fuels many more to come:

“What can I, we, all of us, do about it?” 

And that’s what we all want to know, right? It’s big. It’s ugly. It’s like a horror story from a movie, but what can be done? 

A lot can be done in five simple steps. 

In fact, if every single person who reads this article takes these five steps and shares this article with five people who also take these five steps, and that pattern repeats itself over and over again, human trafficking can be stopped all over the globe in a matter of months. And that’s a beautiful reality. Let’s not turn away. Let’s not pretend it’s bigger than us. Instead, let’s do this together.

Step 1: Refuse to buy sex or any type of pornography and shift your awareness about those who sell it. 

This one may seem easy for most of us, but I think we would be surprised to find out that buying sex and pornography happens more than we know by people that we may know, and it causes more human trafficking and exploitation than we probably realize. Instead of thinking that people who sell sex are the problem, start seeing the issue a different way. What if the person selling sex is the victim and the people buying it and forcing them to sell it are the criminals? In fact, that is the reality.

To read a true story about this issue, get yourself a copy of Rescuing Hope: A Story of Sex Trafficking in America — it rocked my world just a few months ago. And I can’t tell you how many times I ran across the idea of supply and demand during my research, which this book puts into clear perspective. The fact is simple – when we all stop buying sex and pornography everywhere — even in movies, games, Internet searches, magazines, photographs, and yes, in motels, backrooms and brothels, too — there will be zero sex trafficking in the world. When demand goes to zero, so does supply. The math is really that simple.

Step 2: Refuse to purchase foods or clothes created by ethically questionable businesses. 

To do this, buy more food and clothing locally rather than shopping in large chain stores, and purchase fair trade as often as you can. It’s true — making purchases from ethically-sourced, local producers makes a huge impact. 

If everyone stopped buying clothing from those big box stores that have been repeatedly cited for unethical practices that lead to child labor and exploitation, if everyone stopped buying meat raised and packaged by trafficked labor workers, if everyone stopped buying items made in countries like China that have been repeatedly called out for forced labor — and everyone started buying from small, ethical businesses instead, the impact would change the entire globe. 

It may seem big, but actually, it’s not — just start with one thing and then another and another. And then it’s done. To find out how you score in this area, take the quiz at slaveryfootprint.org. I was appalled at my own results revealing that 41 slaves work for me based on the purchases I make for my household — 41! And I thought I was a minimalist. If you can’t find things you like that are fair trade or ethically sourced, start with these slave-free companies or start your own brand like these makers I love: Mercy House Global, Bead for Life, Whispers of Love Uganda, and my own tiny start-up handmade Uganda bead shop at my website Togetherness Redefined. 

Step 3: Educate yourself. 

Don’t be afraid to search the Internet for human trafficking prevention organizations in your state. Visit anti-trafficking websites to learn how to recognize a trafficking victim. Save the hotline number in your phone (1-888-373-7888) so that you have it when someone needs it. Become familiar with myths and facts surrounding the issue. Print a copy of the warning signs of a trafficking victim so that you can read it often and recognize a victimized person and reach out when you see him or her. Learn where it happens most and how to report labor or sex trafficking when you see it. Read survivor stories and immerse yourself in their world for a few hours.

Knowing the facts will make a huge difference. Responsible companies like UPS are even educating their drivers to be aware of the signs of human trafficking victims.

Step 4: Talk about the issue with people you know. 

You don’t have to shout from a rooftop or scream at a street corner to even join the awareness train. You only need to look for small, appropriate opportunities to bring up the subject with your family and friends. If every single one of us talked about this with just one person even a few days out of the year, the impact on the world’s awareness would increase exponentially, eventually reaching every customer of the trade and every profiteer too, letting them know that the world is not going to stand for human trafficking any longer. 

As I said to a friend on the phone recently, we have to stop being embarrassed to talk about this issue. We might be parents who don’t feel comfortable talking about sex or prostitution in our normal, everyday conversations, especially around our teenage sons and daughters, but we have to. Not talking about it doesn’t make it go away. In fact, it’s part of the problem. We all have to let people know that we know what’s going on so that the people buying and selling these children will realize they can’t hide anymore. When everyday people start speaking out every day, the universe will shift. 

Step 5: Open your eyes. 

Chances are every person reading this article has crossed paths with someone currently being trafficked (isn’t that terrifying?). Look for someone who needs help, walk over to them, ask them how they are, where they’re from, what they love to do, and see where it goes. Many times, the person you’ve approached is just fine, but it’s that one time when s/he’s not and now has someone who cares… that can potentially make a huge difference.

And that’s it. If we all do those five things and share what we know with others who will also do those five things, the tragedy of human trafficking will end with our generation. While activism and changing the world as it relates to something as horrific as human trafficking may seem like something out of reach for regular everyday people, it isn’t. As Margaret Mead famously said, 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Who will you share these steps with today? 

January is Human Trafficking Awareness month… but until this horrible practice is eradicated, it is every month. Will you join me in being the change you want to see in the world?

If you want to know more about this issue and how you can help, visit polarisproject.org. And for more information, here are some links to non-profit organizations to check out: 

The Abolitionist Movement and Agnes Scott College
Just 1
Sacred Roots Farm
Georgia Cares
Victoria’s Lighthouse
Gigi’s House
Street Grace

You may also be interested in reading Mother Nature’s Hourglass: A Biologist Reminds Us That Time Is Running Out by Dave Cannon

The post Not In My Backyard: The Reality of Human Trafficking and 5 Steps to End It appeared first on BEST SELF.

27-year old founder of Rockay, an environmentally responsible enterprise, explores the problem and solutions of the growing ocean pollution crisis

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You might have read about the statistics of 12.7 million tons of plastic waste that’s dumped into our oceans every year. To break this down, a new study compares this to “five grocery bags per every foot of shoreline” around the world.

Human behavior has led the way to microplastic contamination in the marine ecosystem. It’s not uncommon that studies find examples of microplastics in fish served on our plates.

While this information might be disturbing and difficult to comprehend, there’s a powerful way we can individually scale down this global problem of ocean pollution and contribute to a more sustainable world: conscious enterprise.

When I was about to start my own company Rockay, a premium running apparel brand, I didn’t want it to be just another label on the market that’s chasing after sales, minimizing the manufacturing costs, using the cheapest fabrics, and putting crazy amounts of dollars into promotions and commercials to hide behind the poor product quality. I had a different mission in mind.

Being aware of the environmental crisis we’re facing, I was determined to establish a brand that will make a meaningful contribution to solving this global threat. Fast forward almost two years, we launched a collection of performance socks made from 100% recycled materials and ocean waste.

If I could do it, so can you. Now, let us first understand the scope of the problem, before we get to solutions.

Daily Habits That Pollute Our Oceans

In the extremely busy world we live in, where time is the most precious asset, we often opt for quick and easy solutions to our needs. To name a few: eating fast food, purchasing cheap clothes and chasing deals on all-new, must-have collections (fast fashion vs. slow fashion), buying a plastic bag every time we shop for groceries (as no one remembered to bring and reuse an existing shopping bag), getting a new car every time your brand releases a new model. You get the idea. Much of this falls into the instant gratification category.

All these actions seem harmless and usual, but such behavior causes a lot of damage to our ecosystem. Companies need to keep up with high demands of our consumerist society, to produce more and more, thus, using more water, energy, and materials. On the other side, users also do the same on the individual level. Over-consumption leads us to a highly polluted environment across all levels.

Most of this waste, liquids, chemicals and plastics end up in our oceans. Very little, if any of it is biodegradable, which poses a threat of lingering waste for years and for generations to come.

Though plastic deposited in landfills contaminates the soil and groundwater with harmful chemicals and microorganisms, the effects of marine pollution caused by plastic, abandoned fishing nets, industrial chemicals, and trash — are immeasurable.

Understanding Marine Pollution

People often forget about the significance of ocean water for our existence on Earth. It is common knowledge that ocean water takes up more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. Only in the recent few decades have scientists begun to analyze and warn us about the harmful effects of human-produced pollution.

According to National Geographic, until 1972, humans purposely threw trash, sewage sludge, all kinds of industrial chemicals, and even containers of radioactive wastes into the ocean. This is where the problem actually starts — a lot of these contaminants sank to the ocean’s depths and spread from the original source. Inevitably, these pollutants enter our food chain as they are consumed by small marine organisms.

Another huge threat is abandoned fishing nets, also known as ‘ghost nets’. They often get deliberately thrown in the oceans, as the fishermen no longer need them. However, their purpose still remains the same, trapping everything that comes in their way, including fish, sea turtles, sharks, birds, dolphins, and porpoises, among others. This is how the health of our marine life is seriously endangered, as hundreds of animals get caught in a single net. 

Furthermore, ghost nets also harm coral reefs. Out of all marine ecosystems, coral reefs are the most diverse. Their main role is to provide about one-quarter of all ocean species with food and shelter. According to the Smithsonian, this becomes extremely important if we take into consideration that they cover less than one percent of the Earth’s surface and less than two percent of the ocean bottom. Due to their diversity, they’re often called the rainforests of the sea. Therefore, when the fishing nets block, break, and expose these coral reefs to disease, it’s a direct threat to marine life, as well as humans.

Luckily, many organizations around the world work intensively on ocean conservation. A good example is the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).Its main mission is to remove ghost nets from the sea. The teams collaborate closely with local fishers and governments to identify the most polluted areas and remove as many nets as possible. In 2015 alone, a single WWF-led project retrieved 168 tons of nets, ropes, and other materials from the Baltic Sea.

The Role of Businesses in Sustainable Development

As much as it is important for individuals to be aware of the global environmental crisis and contribute with responsible and sustainable behavior, it is equally important for businesses.

Especially those that operate on a large scale, internationally and globally. These businesses tend to use a lot of resources to produce their final product and place it on the market. Their involvement in this movement is vital.

Another term worth knowing is ‘pollution prevention’ — the idea of not creating pollution and waste in the first place, rather than trying to clean it up after the damage is already done. In my opinion, this is a forward-thinking principle that could be a good indicator that we’re making progress as a society of conscious businesses. It includes simple actions such as conserving water and energy, as well as improving efficiencies in the manufacturing process.

This could be a win-win situation for your business and the environment. You would benefit from reduced operating costs, saving time in manufacturing with increased efficiencies and maximize your employees’ safety and health…not to mention the benefit of feeling good about what you are doing.

To give you a brief example, instead of fixing the damage (i.e. the environmental aftermath) as a result of the production of new packaging, we proactively use 100 percent recycled materials for our packaging to begin with. That’s cutting a problem off at the pass.

Simple Ways Business Can Reduce Pollution & Ocean Waste

While there are all kinds of pollutions, Rockay decided to combat one of the most threatening ones — ocean pollution. I see value in connecting your true passion, whatever that is, with a broader or global issue, something outside your comfort zone. If you can make a societal impact, I think that’s the right business path to take.

I ran my first marathon at the age of 16. Ever since, running and active lifestyle have remained a big part of my life. Having a close experience with fitness apparel, and all the gadgets a runner needs, I knew exactly what I was missing when it comes to perfect running: socks.

One thought led to another, an idea became a concept, a concept turned into a sustainable mission: producing high-quality socks that are environmentally friendly and help clean up our oceans. 

After careful planning, testing, and tireless improvements, a new collection of Rockay Performance socks was born — made from 100 percent recycled ocean waste, abandoned fishing nets, and other materials. We switched from Merino Wool, which wasn’t durable enough in combination with nylon, to first-class regenerated nylon yarn, called ECONYL®.

Additionally, we added new features to fit athletes’ high-performance demands, adding extra softness and durability. Using the advanced Swedish technology Polygiene, which is an anti-odor coating, our consumers can now wear the socks more often and wash less. This not only extends the life of the clothing, but also saves water, energy, time, and money.

All kinds of pollution-reducing strategies are welcome and encouraged. Below are a few best practices to help you get started, which take into consideration the complete lifecycle of a product.

Incorporate and Evaluate Substituting Materials

• Carefully review how much material you really need and cut the unnecessary, in regards to both production and packaging
• Ensure your packaging is made from used or recycled material
• Reduce the amounts of hazardous substances in your products and assure responsible disposal of waste
• Consult with experts to find materials that will increase durability, longevity, and recyclability of your product

Think of Alternative Options for Equipment or Processes

• Evaluate how much energy you’re spending and how much you’re wasting
• Adjust the processes to use more energy-efficient lighting
• Opt for mechanical cleaning devices instead of toxic solvents
• Consult with experts on the efficiency of the production, as well as the appropriate motors for your particular needs

Utilize Environmental Standards with Your Supply Chain and Inventory

• Research manufacturers that have been certified to meet environmental standards and start collaborating with the ones that meets your business’ needs
• Whenever you can, choose recyclable or materials that are made from recycled materials
• Spread the word among your suppliers and urge for more environmentally-friendly practices

To Conclude

There is a solution to every problem. It’s just a matter of your perspective and your awareness. Once we’re conscious and care enough about a problem, only then can we actually do something about it.

When it comes to such enormous issues like ocean pollution and climate change (that affect all of us), we shouldn’t get discouraged or remain ignorant. Starting from our own households — by making simple changes in our lifestyles — we can significantly contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution and minimize our carbon footprint. Also, engaging with various social activist groups and supporting responsible businesses and start-up initiatives are good ways to increase awareness and act upon this global issue.

• Look to create a conscious enterprise of your own, perhaps seeking funds from like-minded investors (this is a growing trend in the venture capital industry)
• Turn your passion into a sustainable project
• Make a difference through your personal practices and choices
• Support businesses aligned with your social and environmental values

Incorporate any one of these things into your life and watch it grow. I bet you’ll even begin to enjoy life and business even more…and let’s not forget, the planet and her future generations will be thankful.

You may also enjoy reading Sustainability & Purpose: Living in Concert with Ecology and Humanity, by Bill Miles

The post To Sea or Not to Sea: An Entrepreneur’s Vision For Environmental Change appeared first on BEST SELF.

Breaking from the rat race of a materialistic society, one young couple explores doing life differently in the tiny house they built (and now build for others)

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Our story is quite simple and is all too familiar for some. We started out just like most newly married couples, racing to get ahead and begin our life together. We found ourselves slowly becoming caught in the ‘rat race’ of society.

The concept of owning things, slowly turned into things owning us and it became all too real — we needed a release.

We found ourselves working too many hours and losing touch with the things that brought us together in the first place. Our passion for adventure slowly turned into a passion for money. Our weekends went from climbing and mountain biking, to over-exhaustion and lack of sleep.

That is, until the tiny home concept caught our attention. Although it took a lot of thought and foresight —we were hooked. 

My husband Oliver had been in the construction business for many years but he was looking for a change and wanted to feel inspired by his work again. I was teaching dance fulltime and had suffered a disk injury in my back. This injury pushed me in a new direction as a career in dance wasn’t any longer possible. With both of us ready for a change we got the crazy idea to build a tiny house (ourselves)!

Combining Oliver’s building experience with my design experience, we got to work. What started as a personal project, blossomed into a passion-filled business. We started the process of our tiny house build and simultaneously started creating a business of building tiny homes for others.

We wanted to use our tiny house as a show home to launch our new venture (and adventure) — which definitely prompted a mixed reaction from friends and family when we shared our exciting news. People thought we were crazy and other people were really excited for us. Many people could not understand the concept, but that didn’t stop us.

We knew this was what we wanted to do. Yes, we were definitely nervous as there is no handbook on ‘How to start a tiny house company, how to ditch convention, leave your big house and downsize’, but we were excited by the challenge. There were only a couple tiny house companies that we knew of when we started, but we didn’t care, we would rather be one of the first ones than wait till too many people were doing it. We were inspired to blaze our own trail.

Oliver and I loved nature and the outdoors and we knew we wanted to be the best at what we do, thus the name Summit Tiny Homes was born.  

We were so excited about being able to design our own tiny house from scratch, exactly the way we wanted it. It was a lot of work and countless hours of research making sure everything was just right.

The biggest challenge about designing our home was finding a balance between functional and aesthetic.

I didn’t want it to look like a square box, rather a home with shape and character to it. I have always had a love for old homes with character, which was a big inspiration in the design process.

The design of our home is predominantly white mixed with light wood accents. The white really makes the space feel bigger and brighter. Windows were also on the top of my priority list as we are all about the natural light and seeing the nature around us. Once we finished our home we had to give it a name, so we called it ‘The Heritage’.

We have been living ‘tiny’ for over two years now without regrets.

The number one question we get asked is “Do you ever see yourself moving into a big house again?” The answer is no.

The small space of our home is so comfortable to us that the thought of a larger house just seems like a lot of wasted space, excess stuff and hours of cleaning and maintenance. If anything, maybe we would build another a bigger ‘tiny’, but we will see what the future brings.

Naturally we get a lot of questions:

“How do you entertain?” Well, Oliver and I never had people over much to begin with, living in our big house. When we do have people over everyone hangs outside around our fire pit. In a way it’s actually been a positive not being able to entertain in the house as we spend most of our time outside. And who knows, maybe it’s a reprieve for our guests as well…more time spent in nature.

“Is a tiny house easier to clean?” Yes and no. We used to spend a whole day of our weekend cleaning our big house and keeping up with maintenance, but now it’s only an hour or so. There is a compromise though. Yes, it may be quick to clean but the tiny house can also get messy fast. The biggest thing we had to learn is put every little thing away in its place otherwise things get cluttered quickly. It required us to be more intentional with what we surrounded ourselves with.

“What changes have you made in your lifestyle?” One of the biggest changes has been buying clothing. In the past we used to buy anything we liked without giving it much mind time. I mean, hey we had a big closet there was always room for more. Now we have a rule of one in one out, if we see something we want we have to simultaneously contemplate what item we are going to give away. 

Quality over quantity has also been a big thing for us. We’ve come to realize that we definitely want  fewer items that are quality, then a ton that aren’t. Home decor was my biggest weakness for purchases, but when you have a home that’s only 225 Square feet, you really don’t have any room for extra decor.

Another change for us was to contemplate our carbon footprint — our impact on the environment. Tiny living has certainly inspired many changes that we feel good about. Our garbage can is definitely small and it can get full fast, so we had to think about reducing our waste. Cutting down on buying food in packaging and plastic has been a huge step. Bringing our own containers to the bulk store has made a big difference in the amount of waste we produce. We also had to start thinking about the products we use by switching to natural cleaning products and personal items. 

Some may call it down-sizing — we call it up-scaling the quality of our lives and our awareness of this beautiful planet we are leasing space upon.

This has moved from passion project to successfully building a business that fabricates quality homes that enable others to contemplate doing life differently. Please check out our Summit Tiny Homes website to learn more about our designs. If you’re a Best Selfer, I know that passion, purpose and planet matter to you. Who hasn’t daydreamed of a bit more simplicity and freedom?

You may also enjoy reading The Art of De-Cluttering: A Tiny House Creates a Surprising Catalyst for Expansion, by Kerri Richardson

The post Is Bigger Better? A Couple Breaks From Convention In a Tiny House appeared first on BEST SELF.

Inspired by fair trade and eco-conscious businesses, Best Self celebrates a call for a ‘Plastic Free July’ and a global shift one action at a time

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I’m a little late in the game because I wasn’t aware of a movement calling for a ‘Plastic Free July’. First off, how awesome is that? On the other hand, if you are anything like me, you like a little lead time, a list of suggestions, a roadmap outlining what you are supposed to be doing like following a well-crafted diet plan. 

But what if we all simply committed to starting somewhere…anywhere? Don’t get overwhelmed by the 1-month challenge. Don’t get derailed by the date on the calendar. What about 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week — 1 choice? Just start with one conscious decision to make a difference. Could you do that for Mother Nature?

The science is irrefutable: We are drowning in plastics and its adverse effects.

Simply stroll any beach to witness shores lined with the evidence of our convenience-of-plastic consumption. 

Reducing plastic is all the rage in environmentally conscious circles…and it’s gaining traction for good reason: we need it and we can do something about it. Now. It’s not really an option any longer, yet the tides are not turning fast enough and we need to do better. 

So what can you do? 

Start.

Each small action taken can create large rippling effects. One less plastic bag, cup, container, water bottle, etc. — can dramatically restore our environment, save our beaches and marine life. There’s no denying it (and even one does matter). 

It’s why learning about companies like Ten Thousand Villages that has a mission to create fair trade with ethical treatment to support artisans around the globe — combined with environmentally conscious initiatives like a call for ‘Plastic Free July’ — is music to my ears. And they are certainly have an agenda to create a ripple effect for good. 

As their CEO, Llenay Ferretti says:

“Ten Thousand Villages has been pioneering the world of fair trade and putting people and planet first since 1946. We believe, and so do our artisan partners, that it is our responsibility to be good stewards of our precious planet. Together, we focus on the use of locally sourced, recycled and renewable materials in our products, and we work to promote creative re-use and energy efficiency in workshops. We’ve also been making strides to reduce our reliance on single-use plastic and have committed to using 100% recycled paper bags and tags in our stores, found innovative ways to use recycled newspaper for shipping, and have started the process of replacing plastic packaging with sustainable materials.“

Not only are they walking the global maker-to-market walk, they are talking the talk and promoting beautiful products to support this movement. A simple move from using bottled soap to using bar soap is a step in the plastic-free direction. Check out this piece they published on their website: 18 Easy Ways to Take Waste Out of Your Daily Routine for some hands-on inspiration. 

And just imagine if every bottle you currently had in your house in this moment was the last you would ever purchase. In our bathrooms alone we are surrounded by shampoo and cosmetic bottles that we routinely toss out (and hopefully recycle). Imagine refilling them all: soaps, detergents, lotions — from the kitchen to the bathroom and laundry room, etc. And imagine if all of your favorite brands and companies got onboard to support these initiatives. Landfill be gone.

I’ve written about this before, but I’m blessed to have a ‘re-filling’ station in the form of a bright, stylish and eco-chic shop in my small town called Woodstock Bring Your Own. It’s all about conservation with style and convenience. Maybe there’s a similar resource near you (or maybe you want to create one!).

I know it’s not always easy, but when we do good, we feel good. It’s literally about rethinking routines, igniting awareness and taking action.

A few years ago, when I met the one-and-only Captain Charles Moore, Founder and Research Director of Algalita and author of Plastic Ocean— it was hard not to be distracted by his seemingly whimsical, colorful necklace. Upon closer inspection I realized, there was nothing whimsical about it. It was constructed of plastic remnants from everyday objects found in the ocean. Message received. They were the same kinds of things that wash up on shore and get lodged in marine life. 

Algalita has a clear vision: To lead the world to a plastic pollution-free future. And Captain Charles knows a thing or two about this. After discovering the ‘island’ of garbage in the Pacific Ocean that is the size of Texas — he decided to do something about it. Today he embraces complex problems by empowering future leaders through research and education. 

So all of this inspiration and good works by individuals and organizations leads me full circle back to this notion of a ‘Plastic Free July’ — a campaign led by the Plastic Free Foundation. Each year, millions of people around the globe take the challenge and choose to refuse single-use plastics. Theirs is a vision we can all embrace — to see a world without plastic waste.

To learn more about Plastic Free July and what you can do, check out this LIST on their website of suggestions about how you can get started; things that can be done at home, in schools, offices, community and local government. 

Together, we can change the world one straw, one bag, one plastic container at a time. And you never know — perhaps your ‘July challenge’ will turn into your new routine…music to my Best Self ears and those of Mother Nature. And as a matter of fact, whenever I visit beaches I bring along a bag to collect trash. I took this lead picture a few years ago in Tulum after a morning walk. 

Remember, we vote with our dollars, so be conscious where you spend them. Let’s request more from the businesses we support. Let’s get them all onboard.

Our planet is calling and connecting us to our humanity — are you ready to show up? Together we thrive. 

We must work towards a world where plastic pollution is unthinkable.

~Captain Charles Moore

The post Conscious Consumption: Reducing Plastic Pollution, A Ripple Effect For Good appeared first on BEST SELF.

An environmental activist fights to save the salmon of the Pacific Northwest — and dares us all to answer the call to action against climate change

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In a world of more than seven billion people, each of us is a drop in the bucket. 
But with enough drops, we can fill any bucket

~ David Suzuki

I wish that for Earth Day, I could pen an uplifting story that shines a spotlight on all that is good with the environment… I really do. But I’ve learned there comes a time when we must face reality.  

Our planet is wheezing from air pollution; it’s choking on plastics; our climate altering CO2 emissions are only increasing; amphibians and insects are dropping like flies (pun intended); wildfires and floods are now common much of the year.

On a worldwide scale, biological diversity is rapidly declining. 

The United States is in a political divide not seen for over one-hundred years — and environmental concerns are a part of that division.    

Don’t get me wrong, I used to be the world’s biggest optimist… and, contrary to what some friends think — I still might be! It’s that optimism that lifted me out of the depths of despair when, back in 1996, my depression — brought on by a concern for the future of Pacific Northwest salmon — hit its zenith, and my life and mental state hit rock bottom.  

It’s optimism now that allows me to accept the continual ecological stressors, while working towards possible solutions to the growing existential threat confronting mankind. At a minimum, I try to help people struggling with depression and other cognitive impairments brought on by such threats.

Call it optimism or intestinal fortitude, but I believe that had I not survived a taxing, tumultuous period in my life, I wouldn’t be able to help people who are suffering a similar psychological meltdown… something called solastalgia (you’ll read about this below).

As a biologist, I’ve learned that there is a fine line between optimism and misguided optimism.

I definitely don’t want to fall into the trap of misguided optimism like M.C. James did back in 1937. He made the following statement at a fisheries conference: “That part of the industry dependent on the Columbia River salmon run has expressed alarm at the possibility of disastrous effects upon the fish through the erection of the tremendous dams at Grand Coulee and Bonneville… Aside from the fish ladders and elevators contemplated, there is a program for artificial propagation set up which may be put into effect if the fish passing devices fail to meet expectations. No possibilities, either biological or engineering, have been overlooked in devising a means to assure perpetuation of the Columbia River salmon.”

Before James’ time, it’s estimated that roughly 16 million salmon and steelhead — fishes that mature in the ocean, but return to fresh water to spawn in one of nature’s most amazing cycle-of-life spectacles — annually ascended the mighty Columbia River as far upstream as British Columbia and the high mountains of Central Idaho.     

Today, less than 500,000 wild salmon and steelhead make the epic journey; a big part of the reason are those tremendous dams in which James had such misguided confidence.  

I lived in remote Elk City, Idaho between 1993 and 1996 when the salmon controversy made the spotted owl issue look like a stroll in the park. Fellow biologists were getting death threats over attempts to save those few wild ones. In 1991, only four sockeye salmon successfully negotiated the eight dams on their 900-mile journey back to Redfish Lake in Idaho’s rugged Sawtooth Mountains. In 1992, Lonesome Larry was the lone sockeye to return.  

Redfish Lake got its name from the fact that sockeye salmon turn vibrant crimson after they leave the ocean and approach their spawning grounds. The river that drains Redfish Lake is called the Salmon River, another of many places throughout the world that don’t live up to their names. 

I’m not ashamed to say that I fell into a deep funk over the loss of the salmon and other fishes I care so much about.

Eventually, I read an article that didn’t help my state of mind — it was written by a fisheries guru titled Defending Reality. In the article, the author — Dr. Robert Lackey — concluded that by the year 2100 wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest would only consist of ‘mere remnants of pre-1850 runs’.

Here’s how he summed up the general sentiment of the colleagues he asked to review a draft: 

“Most of the several dozen fisheries scientists who reviewed the manuscript accepted the conclusion as realistic, even intuitively obvious, but the following were typical reactions to the overall message: The message is correct, but it is too pessimistic. You need to look for a way to tell the story more optimistically.”

Others said, “You have to give those of us trying to restore wild salmon some hope of success.”and, “Such a pessimistic message is not fair to all those fisheries biologists in the trenches trying to do their best to save salmon.”

I was one of those biologists in the trenches valiantly trying to “save the salmon.”  

I’ve learned that you can run, but you can’t hide from the reality of ever-present and mounting pressures on our aquatic resources.

Today, there are increasing threats to salmon even in Alaska where I now live. A controversial copper and gold mine is being considered in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the world’s most productive sockeye salmon fishery. Another gold mine, possibly the world’s largest, is slated for my home waters and could impact a unique and culturally important rainbow smelt population (they’re available only for a very short period just after ice-out and are heavily relied upon as a subsistence food).

Both of those projects, if developed, will need to treat the water leaving the mine site forever. In other words — for eternity, which I have a hard time wrapping my head around.    

I’m hesitant to bring politics into the mix, but the Trump administration seems hell-bent on reversing many of the environmental regulations that are intended to protect you and I… and the animals that can’t speak for themselves. His administration is fast-tracking approval of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay.

The stark reality is, however, that reality is reality and there comes a time when we must face it head on, because not facing it only makes tough decisions that much tougher and forecloses possible options and/or solutions; it also makes the distasteful pill that much tougher to swallow. Dr. Lackey posits: “Is adopting unfounded professional optimism a harmless adaptive behavior of little import? After all, ‘think positive’ slogans are a hallmark of many self-improvement programs. What is wrong is that optimism does not convey what is happening with wild salmon and it allows the public, elected officials, and fisheries managers to escape the torment of confronting triage.” 

Let’s look beyond the fishes I care so much about, to something that will affect not only them, but ecosystems around the world — climate change. If you’ve been following the news, you’ll know that the world’s leading climate scientists warned that…

We have a little over a decade to act in order to fend off unimaginable consequences like extreme droughts, catastrophic floods, and massively destructive forest fires, and other weather-related calamities.  

As I’m writing this from Southwest Alaska, we’re experiencing the warmest winter on record and our rivers are opening up a month ahead of normal. Just last week, five residents fell through the ice on the Kuskokwim River and two drowned near the village of Bethel. There is widespread flooding in Nebraska, S. Dakota, and Iowa. Cyclone Idai recently caused catastrophic flooding in Mozambique and Zimbabwe in Africa. Iran has also experienced disastrous flooding.    

And who can forget the devastating forest fires of California last summer?

Here’s what is most disconcerting to me, and this may sound outlandish to some — but the more concerned I am over these impending environmental/ecological conundrums, the more the naysayers think me, and my kind, have bought into the alarmist propaganda. I even see that with some of my ‘friends’ on social media.

If that’s not bad enough, there are still those on the opposite end of the spectrum who have influence with the Trump administration that claim that more CO2 is a good thing! The environmental politics are not only getting more contentious… but downright ugly and frightening.

Even David Attenborough confesses that he has trouble maintaining his optimism:

“The question is, are we going to be in time, and are we going to do enough?

And the answer to both of those is no. We won’t be able to do enough to mend everything. But we can make it a darn sight better than it would be if we didn’t do anything at all.” 

Consequently, those of us concerned for the fate of mankind must be mentally prepared for what is to come. But what is to come — environmental triage? The bigger question is, what can you or I do about it… if anything?    

This all brings me to ‘solastalgia’, something I’m familiar with since I experienced it in Idaho long before there was a name for it. The term was coined by Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003 to describe the feeling of distress associated with adverse environmental change in our surroundings; it helps explain the anguish one feels over the threat to an individual’s identity and well-being. The formal definition is:

“Solastalgia — the pain or sickness caused by the loss or lack of solace and the sense of isolation connected to the present state of one’s home or territory.”   

I worked through my solastalgia by gaining some semblance of psychic stability after successfully completing a self-help program. However, the journey wasn’t easy because I had to overcome my anxiety, depression, and feelings of inadequacy since I was unable to ‘save’ my beloved salmon. That journey took years, and I didn’t do it alone… I also needed some anti-depressants.

One self-help resource that aided my recovery was a book by Dr. Terrence Real, a psychotherapist, titled I Don’t Want To Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression. Surprisingly, out of the blue, this excerpt is from his closing chapter: “The dynamic of dominance and submission which has been at the heart of traditional masculinity can play itself out inside the psyche of man as depression, in his interpersonal relationships, as irresponsibility and abuse, in one races’ contempt for other people, or in humanity’s relationship to the earth itself. We have abused the environment we live in as if it were an all giving and all forgiving mother… an endless resource.”   

Given those ubiquitous abuses, what can you do about such hopeless feelings about your place in the environment? You can be your Best Self by taking care of yourself and heeding the words from what I’m calling The Solastalgiast’s Serenity Prayer: 

Grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change, the COURAGE to change the things I can, and the WISDOM to know the difference.

More importantly would be to follow the sage advice of Joseph Campbell, 

“We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world.”

I’ve learned the hard way that we can’t take care of others unless we take care of ourselves mentally… and Mother Nature and all of her inhabitants fall into the ‘other’ category.  But, we must do what we can where and when we can. These actions suggested by David Suzuki can minimize our impacts on the environment: 

1. Get charged up with renewables
2. Green your commute
3. Use energy wisely
4. Eat for a climate-stable planet
5. Consume & waste less
6. Divest from fossil fuels
7. Invest in renewables
8. Help put a price on pollution
9. Vote for those with similar concerns
10. Tell your story, and listen to others     

I’ll wrap up on an optimistic note from the most unlikely of sources — Greta Thunberg, a sixteen-year-young woman who has taken the climate change crowd by storm. At fifteen and a ninth grader in Sweden in 2018, Greta began skipping school each Friday and protesting, in front of Sweden’s parliamentary building, her country’s lack of action on climate change issues. On March 15 of this year, tens of thousands of students from 1,700 communities in over 100 different countries joined Greta in a world-wide protest of my generation’s inability to take meaningful steps to address climate change.

Let’s hope her efforts lead to not only a greater awareness of the impending crisis among the masses, but actual measures taken that reduce mankind’s footprint on this beautiful planet of ours.     

Although she’s been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, she’s already addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland and the World Economic Forum in Davos, among other impressive venues. In addition, she’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!  

Interestingly enough, she attributes her unique perspective to those disorders. Here’s what she posted on Facebook for Autism Awareness Day: 

“Proud to be on the spectrum! And no, autism (as well as ADHD, ADD, Tourette’s, OCD, ODD etc) is not a ‘gift’; for most it is an endless fight against schools, workplaces and bullies. But under the right circumstances, given the right adjustments it CAN be a superpower.

I’ve had my fair share of depressions, alienation, anxiety and disorders. But without my diagnosis, I would never have started school striking. Because then I would have been like everyone else.

Our societies need to change, and we need people who think outside the box and we need to start taking care of each other. And embrace our differences.”

Isn’t it amazing that a young woman with such cognitive difficulties can see our societal ills so clearly? 

How clearly does Greta see the climate crisis? This, succinctly, illuminates her perspective:

“We live in a strange world where children must sacrifice their own education in order to protest against the destruction of their future.

Where the people who have contributed the least to this crisis are the ones who are going to be affected the most.

Where politicians say it’s too expensive to save the world, while spending trillions of euros subsidizing fossil fuels.

We live in a strange world where no one dares to look beyond our current political systems even though it’s clear that the answers we seek will not be found within the politics of today.

Where some people seem to be more concerned about the presence in school of some children than the future of humankind.”

I, myself, have ADD; and through all of my life’s trials and tribulations, I’ve come to the conclusion that life is, indeed crazy… and the realization that Homo sapiens (i.e., ‘the wise ones’) must get in charge of ourselves psychologically — individually and collectively — in order to avert widespread ecological and social calamity.

The ultimate question is — are we, as a species, up to the task? 

In closing, here’s an article on the increasing rate of extinction of species on our planet from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

And also, a poignant Time article from Robert Redford to commemorate Earth Day 2019. In addition to his call to vote in officials who care about the environment, I would add that the real hurdle is to convince the climate change naysayers to shift their position and acknowledge that we all share the same dream — a healthy planet that will allow us all to thrive.

You may also enjoy reading Dancing With Mother Nature: An Adventure For Change Across Antarctica by Zita Luiten

The post Mother Nature’s Hourglass: A Biologist Reminds Us That Time Is Running Out appeared first on BEST SELF.

Potential in plastic: A team travels to Antarctica in a vehicle made mostly of recycled plastic to pave a new environmental (and life) path for us all.

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I’ve always believed that a lack of comfort is needed before change happens. It’s like they say, “Life happens outside of your comfort zone.” Well… so does change. I took that to heart and joined Clean2Antarctica on an expedition in Antarctica as part of the media team. We ventured on towards the South Pole for 30 days, without any fossil fuel, in a car made primarily from recycled plastic. 

THE BEGINNING

It all started where most times, it ends: with trash. The creators of Clean2Antarctica, Edwin & Liesbeth ter Velde, are a normal, married couple living in Zaandam, The Netherlands. One day, as they threw away yet another piece of plastic in their kitchen, they asked themselves: 

“Why does this plastic lose its value after you take out what was in it? There is nothing in its essence that has changed, so why does our way of perceiving it change?” 

It is only our minds that make something ‘trash.’

It got them thinking. That plastic that normally ends in the (recycle) bin served its purpose of holding our food, but what other purpose could it serve? Could we use it to do something else? Why did it have to end here?

If plastic could be considered a building material, and not trash, what could be made of it?  “Why not a car?” Edwin imagined. He devised ideas for a car made predominantly from recycled plastic, with solar panels that make it completely emission-free. And thus, the idea of the Solar Voyager was born. 

If you do something, do it BIG. “No guts, no glory (or no story),” Edwin & Liesbeth kept saying. 

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest and highest continent in the world, and therefore one of the most dangerous — the least likely place for success for a car that is made out of plastic, running on solar power. “If we can drive a plastic car fueled by solar power there, we can do it anywhere. If we can do what everyone keeps telling us is impossible, then we can all do something.” The purpose was born. In the process of 3 years, there were many people who told them it wouldn’t be possible, it couldn’t be done. But they persisted. They continued on —  and now, it’s done.

We’re recently back from Antarctica… back from an expedition that proved to be challenging on many fronts. 

I was part of the media team invited to document the expedition. I followed Edwin & Liesbeth, in a different car, as they drove on. There are many stories to be told about an expedition like this but allow me to share a bit of what I experienced and what I have learned. 

THE JOURNEY

We spent 30 days on the ice, setting out to travel 1200km to and from the geographical South Pole. Antarctica, in summer periods, has 24 hours of daylight and normally, 24 hours of sun. In our 30 days, unfortunately we did not see much of that sun, something that certainly changed the way we perceived the expedition (and not so great for our solar panels). But first, let me explain to you what a day looked like during our adventure. 

Every day feels a bit the same. You get up from your tent: it’s cold, and surprise — it’s still light. There’s not much on your mind except for the weather and survival. You’re completely disconnected from the outside world, both physically and mentally.

All of that excess stuff that typically fills your mind, doesn’t really matter. You’re here in the now…

In this world of ice and whiteness — surrounded by nothing, without any life around you, completely dependent on yourself and your senses. It is an odd and exhilarating sensory experience.

There are a few essentials: warmth, water, toilet, food, travel and sleep. That’s your day, and meeting those needs will consume all of it, and all of your energy. 

You’ve got to keep warm, wear many layers, and make sure nothing gets wet. On average, it’s about minus 20 degrees Celsius. With added wind it can feel a lot colder. Wearing the right clothes is critical. I always wore at least 3 base layers, one thermal, one normal, and one fleece. Over that, I’d wear something that would protect me from the wind. If needed, I’d also wear a duck-feathered coat on extremely cold days. Gloves and very thick socks were a necessity. You had to keep them dry, because if they got wet, they’d freeze. 

Making water is the most important task of the day. This is essential for preparing food, and as your body deals with the cold you need to feed it properly and consume lots of water. The Solar Voyager had heat pipes that would melt the ice and boil it into water, powered by the sun. 

We ate out of bags. Just add water and enjoy your meal. While there was diversity in the choices of food, eating out of a bag for 30 days can get boring very quickly. Back home in The Netherlands, I enjoy nutritious cooking and actually think about food throughout the day. But in Antarctica, food is just fuel for your body, which is incredibly important in these conditions. 

Antarctica is a waste-free continent — which means when going to the toilet, you have to carry out whatever you leave behind. You can’t leave any waste, not even natural feces. 

Every day, we tried to travel, but due to weather, we couldn’t always. We got stuck in many storms, where we had to put up our tents in very difficult situations and stay for days on end. The Solar Voyager required sun to charge and be able to drive, so we waited it out. 

And even when focusing on the same tasks each day, every day was completely different. Every day, you can’t help but be mesmerized by the awesome beauty of nature.

Every whiteout we experienced was different, as was every sunny day. It’s amazing how small the world can feel during a whiteout, when you feel like you can see nothing further than 2 meters — where every step you take, feels like you will fall into the ground. In reality, you can see a lot further than imagined. It’s only because both earth and sky are white, that your eyes have nothing to focus on — no contrast on the horizon. On a sunny day, you feel like the world doesn’t end. You can see the horizon round, and it feels like you can see for thousands of miles. So, in a single day, your world can go from endless to incredibly small. 

An experience like this expands everything. It makes you reshape concepts and thoughts.

Just like Edwin & Liesbeth reshaped their thoughts about ‘trash,’ we all had our own kinds of thought transformations in Antarctica. There are 4 main constructs I reshaped during the expedition: time, turbulence, traces and targets.

TIME

In a surrounding that’s so white, especially in a whiteout storm like we often experienced, you feel like there’s nothing besides your crew and nature, and everything else becomes obsolete. You come to live smaller, and time becomes less of a thing. You don’t look to the clock to guide you through your day. It’s light all 24 hours, so you eat and sleep when your body tells you to. Special moments are just moments. We spent Christmas Eve eating out of a bag. But it’s only a moment in time, and in such a small world, that doesn’t really matter. Time fades away.

And yet, time also gained importance because time has many meanings. Time is a certain arrangement of the clock, a specific moment in someone’s life, or in history. Time is the future, and time is the past. But time, as a word, can also be used to signify a need. 

Time is a reference for a turning point of action. And that’s the kind of time that becomes really important. 

Antarctica showed us that nature is stronger than we are, and we’re merely surviving in it. So instead of fighting it, we embraced it. It might not be comfortable initially, but there’s comfort in embracing what’s stronger than we are. It’s time for us to see things differently. 

TURBULENCE

We were only about 80 km away from where we started, and already we were stuck. Our plastic car was doing amazingly: all systems worked perfectly, everything inside of our control worked great, but Mother Nature decided against it. We put up our tents while it was still sunny, and then literally one minute later, everything was white. It was snowing, and with a windspeed of about 40 knots, the snow flew horizontally instead of falling straight down.

Walking outside, it felt like a two-faced world, ebony or ivory, heaven or hell, the polarity of mankind vs. nature. Facing against the wind, you could hardly even breathe. But with your back against the wind, there was almost a calming feeling — like a gentle press on your back.

This went on for a day and a half. And then it happened again a day later, slowing us down another couple of days. When we woke up in the morning, we were almost completely snowed in. The wind created these amazing dunes, in line with our tents and the Solar Voyager. Extraordinary shapes came to existence. The sunlight returned and shed a bright and shining light on these new creations.

There are so many things in life that we can control. Especially in the century we are living in — we want to be able to control everything. But this one thing, we just can’t. Nature will reign supreme whether we like it or not. She will storm when she wants to storm, and she will show us sun if she wants to.

Nature will reign supreme whether we like it or not. She will storm when she wants to storm, and she will show us sun if she wants to.

Nature can create turbulence in a situation that felt calm mere moments before. But just like nature, so can we. And even if we don’t always like turbulence, sometimes we need it, if only just a little bit. 

Turbulence can set into motion a new state of things. Sometimes, we need a little revolution to stir things up. 

We need to raise our voices in order to recreate what we had before. We need to do things that might seem crazy, like driving across Antarctica in a plastic car, to change some minds and inspire others. We need a little bit of turbulence to see the sun again, and to see what was created in the process.

TRACES

After about two weeks, we felt a bit hopeless. We were not on track and had already encountered many storms and blizzards. In our efforts to preserve nature, it was also nature that was showing her might, and keeping us from traveling miles. That’s ok, because the South Pole is just a place, it never really was the goal. The goal was to drive across Antarctica in a plastic car powered by the sun, inspire people and leave a trace of our path, of our mission. But visibly, we’re weren’t able to. The wind washed our beautiful tracks away, immediately. We loved seeing these tracks, so soft, and high on the ground. But the fact they got swept away, also made us realize something.

After the initial disappointment, we actually felt empowered. 

At the same time that the goal of the expedition was to inspire and leave a trace, it was also to leave no trace at all. It was to lower our carbon footprint on nature, to try and not stamp our feet so deep into what nature has created that it’s unable to recover. And most importantly, to inspire others to do the same.

That’s the kind of trace we want to be leaving. Not a trace that nature needs to restore from, but a trace that helps restore nature. That’s precisely the kind of trace that we hope to be leaving upon the world through our expedition. 

In our efforts to leave no footprint, we have to leave a trace. Not in nature, but in people.

And this is a trace we have to create, together.

TARGETS

We didn’t reach our target of the geographical South Pole. In our journey in Antarctica, through blizzards, storms, snowfall and amazing sunshine, we learned that what was important was our way of approaching it. It’s about the means and not the end — the journey, not the destination. 

It’s human nature to envision a target that you are working towards. And so, we did. We thought about that pole constantly and visualized ourselves standing on it. In many ways that can be a great motivation, but it can also be limiting because often if you don’t reach that target, it can feel as if you’ve failed. If you look at it differently though, you will often see that the target isn’t the end game. In ways it’s only the prompt because you’ve come such a long way and changed so many things in your life. And isn’t that truly the goal?

You get back up and continue. You set new targets for yourself and continue to fight for them.

When you fail to reach a target you take that disappointment, face it, turn it around, and continue. Use it, don’t be used by it. It might be uncomfortable, and it will take some courage, but you can do it. One step at a time. Take small steps and start now. We never know the hidden gift it has in store for us. 

Of course, we were disappointed we didn’t reach the pole, but at the same time we felt incredible pride just the same. Every second, we were proudly looking at the vehicle and all its capabilities, of the journey it took from ‘trash’ to ‘truck’ — we were also recognizing what had changed in our own lives and perhaps even in the lives of people we inspired to think differently — all because we started, failed and got back up again. 

And really, in this expedition, that felt like the only important target.

THE RETURN

When we returned home, we all felt a little bit strange. We went from a completely different world, back into the familiar one — yet changed forever. It all felt different from how I knew it. I’m changed, but for some reason, I can’t yet figure out what exactly is different about me. Integration is a process and it’s still unfolding. 

We did this for a purpose: a purpose of inspiring others to rethink their own waste. To rethink what it is they produce, and what they can do with that.

To create some turbulence in our own lives, and in society, to get uncomfortable and embrace it.

But mostly, we did it to initiate something — to start small and start now. The beginning is the hardest. With Clean2Antarctica, we proved that it’s possible. Everything is possible, if you just dream it, believe in it and go for it. 

We continue on, as there’s lots more to do, and many more people to inspire. We leave Antarctica behind us, but will always take it with us wherever we go. We are a part of each other. This expedition now feels like a crazy, incredibly uncomfortable journey. But there is a shift. In us personally, and also in the people we’ve already inspired, and hopefully in you too just by reading this.

Sometimes you have to get uncomfortable to create a change. And in essence, that is also like an expedition. Embark upon your own expedition towards a more conscious and sustainable life. However you choose to do it, whatever journey you decide to take is up to you. Just go! It’s worth it, I know.

You may also enjoy reading Architecture and Humanity | The Conscious Urbanism of Kunlé Adeyemi by Bill Miles

The post Dancing With Mother Nature: An Adventure For Change Across Antarctica appeared first on BEST SELF.

An Interview with Leif Skogberg

By Bill Miles

—

“The journey to create a sustainable world actually starts with individuals.“

—Leif Skogberg

Bill:                 I first met Leif Skogberg during an event this last year and was so impressed by his resounding commitment to sustainability — I had to sit down to chat with him for Best Self Magazine.

Leif is a whole systems designer, sustainability consultant, and a life purpose coach. He has nearly 20 years of experience in holistic living, leadership, and design. He helps his clients save money and achieve greater health, alignment, and resilience through integrated design.

Welcome Leif.

Leif:                Thank you, Bill, for having me!

Bill:                 I’d like to start out with exploring how you first connected to sustainability. What does that term even mean to you?

Leif:                Sustainability has become a loaded term today. It’s often used in different ways: to be sustainable financially or sustainable environmentally. But for me, I see sustainability as a holistic framework for how we create a better world in the future.

A lot of people talk about sustainability as not really being the goal anymore, because the thinking is that if we are ‘sustaining’ what we have right now, we’re still going down a bad path. We’ve already done so much destruction to the planet that we actually need to regenerate nature, we need to restore things, and then we can be sustainable once we’ve repaired the damage.

I think it’s important to understand that sustainability is a balance where we have to restore things to a point at which they’re worth sustaining. We’ve gone to the other end of the spectrum of really disrupting things. So there’s this degenerative and regenerative spectrum. Sustainability is in the middle. It’s that balance point.

Bill:                 You have an interesting story from your youth of how you got connected to this profound interest of yours. Can you share a little bit about that?

Leif:                I grew up as a child in a beekeeping family. So I was actually out in nature a lot, very connected with natural systems. But at the same time, I had a very rough childhood. My adolescent years were pretty challenging. I actually thought that the end of the world was coming before I even would graduate high school. My dad was one of the ‘end-of-days’ preppers, apocalypse-is-coming kind of people.

In my early teens, I was a bit self-destructive because I was being told we were self-destructing our planet. I participated in extreme sports. I partied a lot, did drugs and ultimately, that led me to a place of deep suffering and a profound rock-bottom.

I was considering committing suicide — in a very difficult emotional and physical place. Lots of physical injuries, lots of physical pain, as well as emotional and family pain from parents getting divorced and just seeing a lot of really challenging things as a child.

The turning point came whenI had this experience where I realized that I couldn’t blame anyone anymore for my pain and my suffering, because I was just giving away my power when I did that. I couldn’t get control of my life if I blamed anyone. So, I had this realization that if I wanted to have a future that was positive and healthy and wasn’t riddled with suffering — then I really had to choose wisely. And I had to find truth and understanding if I wanted to live a better life.

That awakening was the catalyst for me heading down a path of seeking and asking: How do I create a better world for myself? How do I become my best self and reduce suffering for myself in the future? And how do I bring that to the world?

Bill:                 I love that you realized that the world is not going to fix your problems; you have to fix your problems.

Leif:                Exactly.

Bill:                 So it’s a story of personal accountability.

Leif:                Yes. I was really angry with my dad and with what I had been told was this God who was going to end the world. I took out that anger on myself. I became self-destructive, because I felt powerless against these big authority figures that were destroying my life before I could even graduate high school.

So yes, it was this self-responsibility, and this threshold that I crossed of letting go of blame, forgiving my dad, forgiving whatever God there may be — forgiving myself for what I had done to my body and my life. That’s really what sparked a curiosity and an interest in sustainability a few years later.

Bill:                 You came to that realization at a pretty young age. I think that you had a certain calling to bring your talent forth and spend as much of your life going forward, influencing for good.

Leif:                It definitely happened for a reason. Ever since that time, I’ve felt very purposeful. As I inspire others from my journey, I become more inspired — and there’s many who continue to inspire me in a very deep way to live even more deeply into my truth.

Bill:                 Amen. As I understand it, your work is split — you have a personal side, where you help as a life-purpose coach for individuals, and then you have a business side, where you’re a sustainability consultant, helping businesses leave a better mark on the planet.

Leif:                That’s right. It is a split in the sense of how we see business in modern times. It’s been hard for people, even myself, to frame it and understand how it all fits together. Because if you are a healer or a life coach, that’s one niche and industry. And then if you’re an environmental and a sustainability activist, that’s a whole other direction. And then there’s a vast area in between. That’s my sweet spot bridging the two.

What I’ve realized is that the journey to create a sustainable world actually starts with individuals. We each need to understand how to be empowered, how to transform our own lives, how to grow, how to design our future, and how to create an innovative design for our life. And to believe in that vision, to believe in a positive future self or a positive future planet. And then to strategically take action to manifest that, to build and implement that design that we want for our life.

The patterns and principles of how to heal and become whole in one’s self are actually very similar to sustainability. Very related, and relevant, and connected to the garden of life.

In my own personal journey towards healing and truth, I started to see the patterns of how we become whole, how we integrate the various aspects of duality, of what people often talk about as the four or five elements — these different quadrants of our life and our existence.

I was seeing these patterns, as I started to study permaculture, sustainability, natural building, ecology, and horticulture — my degree is in Environmental Horticulture Science. I realized: It’s all the same. They’re connected.

And then a few spiritual teachers that came into my life were saying the same thing, that the water of our planet is polluted because the consciousness and the psyche and the emotions of humanity are polluted. And the minds of the collective conscious of humanity are influencing our environment and our world, and our culture is influencing our outer world. There is a symbiotic relationship.

Bill:                 It’s more than a metaphor. It’s actually an energetic synergy.

Leif:                That’s exactly right. As I started to see all these patterns, I wanted to create a model and understanding for myself that maybe I could even share with others about how they all connect. That’s what I created a few years ago. I call it ‘Appreculture Design’.

Bill:                 You say that, “Appreculture Design is a concept of designing and building an appropriate and appreciation-based world and culture. Henceforth ‘Appreculture’. It uses a simple garden-based framework for creating a sustainable world from the inside out.”

Leif:                Yes. There are these patterns of inner and outer landscapes. I couldn’t ignore the interdependence and the interconnection. As I started to explore them further, I realized there are many other people who have taught and spoken about this.

Rudolf Steiner was one of them. He taught widely on holistic healing, pedagogy and farming — and revealed all these different aspects of how we create balance and harmony in our reality.

The ecology of nature is made up of multiple systems: mineral, water, gas elements and energy — with cycles that flow through and drive the whole system.

The human body is very similar. You have the water, the liquids, both in the vascular system, as well as the lymphatic system that circulate and move nutrients around. And you have the gases and oxygenation — and it’s so important for all the cells to work properly. Then you also have the energy, that spark in our eyes that drives the whole system. We get that from directly absorbing the sun, and also from our food energy.

I’m not the first one to come up with these connections, but I’ve been starting to put them all together to create this easily understood, garden-based, nature-based framework for how we can systematically heal nature, culture, society, economic systems and the individual self that is at the center of it all.

Bill:                 While the idea is not new, perhaps it’s become more prevalent. People tend to live in the moment. They’re not necessarily future-tripping about how their activities are going to affect the world for our children and generations to come. But we’re now at a critical point where we need to think that way.

What can people, as individuals, do in a very tactical way to become more sustainable?

Leif:                To reiterate, they really can address these four spheres in their life. Focus on their personal self-care and their own health, by getting proper food intake, diet, and regular sleep — something I often find challenging, being married with two kids, demands of work, etc.

Getting enough sleep is vital and preferably synched with the cycles of nature. There’s a lot of science to back up that. And then getting exercise, meditating, not being too fiery and busy in the head, and keeping the energy systems in our body balanced and circulating properly.

Self-care is a critical part of creating a sustainable world. When people do that for themselves, not in a selfish or egoic materialistic way, but in a way where people are taking responsibility for themselves — it improves the collective.

And then from there, we can start to look at our financial sustainability, our economic health, and our personal life, which I really see as: What’s the outer purpose of our own individual life? How do we make a positive influence in the world? How do we follow our passion, live our dreams, and then monetize that so that we are reimbursed for what we’re giving in service to the betterment of people and the planet?

Bill:                 Ultimately if we can elevate our consciousness about our self-care, we’re better positioned to be aware of our greater impact. We can also be mindful of our more external practices, like where we spend our money, the businesses we choose to work with and purchase from.

Leif:                Very true. And ask ourselves, What are we investing in? Not only our own time and energy, but our finances as well. Everyone’s probably heard this now, but every time you buy something, you’re casting a vote.

I don’t buy non-organic dairy, or non-organic non-free-range meat, because I don’t think it’s good for my body, but I also don’t like voting for the opposite of my values. I like voting for healthy and responsible treatment of animals.

Bill:                 I also believe there’s an energy associated with food. Healthy plants and happy animals make for energetically positive food for us.

Leif:                There are systematic approaches that we can take with self-care practice, economic investments and sustainability — and by supporting companies that are responsible, and making it known. If you’re leaving a bank because of their practices, make it known why you’re leaving.

And then there are all the social, and cultural aspects of sustainability, where we have to get along. We have to be able to create peace between our loved ones and in our neighborhoods. We need skills to be able to speak with non-violent communication, to have compassion for people — to have empathy for them and their situation, to make room for their perspective.

It’s important to create peace and harmony and connection between humans, even if we totally disagree on something — to respect that perspective and opinion and to see it as something that you might learn from.

Bill:                 In general, when clients approach you, is this new for them? Or are they already of the framework, and what you’re providing is tactical direction?

Leif:                It’s a little bit of both. Usually they align with the vision, and they have a heartfelt intention to live in this kind of way — a desire to be the change they wish to see in the world. They’re interested in going green and taking care of the planet.

They want to understand how to facilitate a better relationship in a community or an eco-village. When people bring me in to help facilitate dialogs, team-building, difficult conversations, integrative design, there’s usually a direct need associated with it. Sometimes it’s diversifying their revenue streams on their property or their farm, or reducing their environmental impact and being more efficient with their utility costs.

I don’t try and dump this whole ‘big earth’ framework on them if that’s not their need. I just meet them where they’re at and help them address the issues at hand. And then I start to evolve the conversation. Have you considered doing some reflection and analysis of the culture in your organization? How do you create synergy and coherence and build a team of trust, and a team of people who are stoked to come to work because they’re working for this amazing organization? Usually there’s a specific gateway to start, and then it becomes a bigger conversation once that relationship evolves.

Bill:                 Do you get involved with school systems? Schools are not known for having a great carbon footprint. Some schools now have their own gardens, and they actually prepare school meals from their harvest, which is extraordinary. Others are still stuck with vending machines filled by Coca-Cola.

Leif:                It can be challenging with some schools. I started as an activist in Santa Barbara, California. I was attending university there and was a student organizer and activist at the Santa Barbara Community College. That direct, hands-on, organizing of teams across many different campaigns, and marketing different classes and initiatives was one of the greatest experiences and best teachers I ever had. I was working with a statewide group of students across California, and our goal was to transform the higher educational institutions to become the largest green enterprise in the state.

Bill:                 Very ambitious!

Leif:                And we were actually quite successful.

It was huge because we had students working at city colleges and California state universities. Combined, those systems had a tremendous buying power, a tremendous influence on policy, and of course, educating the future generations. We passed a number of policies on everything from zero-waste and transportation alternatives, to renewable energy, green buildings, and organic foods in the cafeterias. It was pretty comprehensive.

That was where I got lit up and really engaged in this greater conversation: Not only can we make change, but we can make change on a huge scale.

Bill:                 Any change that’s ever been made at a grand scale started with one person.

Leif:                That’s the essence of Appreculture. A lot of the sustainability models talk about ecology and society and economics. But where’s the individual in that whole model? They’re the ones making everything happen.

So, anyone working in sustainability in any way, whether it’s about personal health and awakening, or social or environmental issues — they’re making a choice to be a leader and to have a ripple effect on their surroundings. That’s what Gandhi and so many other amazing teachers did, and that’s what’s happened for me.

Bill:                 And anybody can do that just by starting with their own backyard. If you can be a change-maker for yourself and for your family, then you’ve done a heroic deed for the world.

Leif:                Exactly. We don’t have to take on the weight of changing all the spheres of our reality. We can pick one and focus on it.

And just because someone is working on a specific issue to make economics more sustainable, it doesn’t mean that they’re any more or less important than another who may be working on environmental sustainability or social issues.

They’re all a part of a whole — it’s important for us to understand that, support people to follow their passion, and connect it with this bigger world framework.

Bill:                 It’s worth noting, however, that economics is what really drives the whole machine. So, if you can tackle the problem through economics, you have the greatest chance of sustaining progress.

I happen to be a big believer in the power of business to impact social change. And I know that you are as well. In Best Self Magazine, we’re always uncovering new businesses and business models that have sustainability as a thread.

There’s a poignant line that you wrote: “Nature is our teacher, and our mirror for our collective consciousness.” I wanted you to touch on our connection to the natural world, something we often lose track of.

Leif:                It’s a big topic. There are many angles to look at it from — but ultimately, the natural world has always been a metaphor for our culture, our lives, and our religions. We were thrown from the Garden of Eden because of this original sin, doing something wrong. And then we have had this relationship for many thousands of years where we are no longer part and parcel of the Garden of Eden; we’re not stewards of it anymore.

This new story that’s emerging is referring to that as a time period in human evolution, a period of adolescence — where we had to psychologically separate ourselves from our creator. We had to separate ourselves from our parents, from Father Sky and Mother Earth and rebel — be a bit disruptive. Sort of like a teenage boy, in some ways. Not always the case, but I know I was that way (and I’m seeing it in my eleven-year-old now).

This new story is actually about being caretakers of the earth. We’re stewards of the garden, and we can have a regenerative impact. Our impact doesn’t have to be negative and destructive.

When we go out into nature it’s a healing experience in and of itself — the exercise, the sunshine, the fresh air. But if we walk in nature with intention and with question, we can be reflected some powerful teachings, whether it’s the patterns from a leaf, or an animal that has some deeper connection with us.

There’s much medicine in nature. I love taking groups on medicine walks in nature, little solo fasts on the land, where we just go out and we sit in ceremony and connect with the elements and the animals, and the plants. For some people it’s a bit too ‘woo-woo’, and for others it’s a wonderful, basic thing.

Bill:                 We’re not different from nature. We’re not intended to dominate it. We are inextricably part of it.

Leif:                When we go out and we connect with these elements, it awakens an ancient language within us — a way of connecting and communicating. It is us.

But as I was saying earlier, as we begin to awaken and blossom as a species, that is being simultaneously reflected in how we build buildings, how we design our infrastructure and our roads — and how well we care for the natural systems that are the foundation of all life.

Bill:                 I hope that the trend continues.

You did mention at one point that the future of business is about social responsibility, and that the profits will become secondary.

I would like to believe that. Yet, I’m a little too jaded to believe that the profits becoming secondary is actually going to happen. I think being profitable, while having a sustainable model is going to be the hybrid. A business must be profitable and must seek profits to continue to do what they do, however sustainably conscious it is.

Leif:                I agree and yet, from all I’ve heard from corporate directors, sustainability is smart business.

If you don’t have a sustainability department you’re declining. There’s been a huge awakening of how supply chains are dependent on natural systems. How the quality of our products is dependent upon people. How carbon emissions are creating an insecure environment for crops and foods, and materials and fibers — all the elements that big corporations rely on for production.

Bill:                 And that philosophy doesn’t always serve short-term profits, which is what shareholders in public companies are driven by.

Leif:                Yes, and that is the model that is going to have to shift.

Bill:                 All the new, hot emerging companies you hear about — Warby Parker and so forth — they’re all built on a sustainable model.

Leif:                Exactly. Consumers are now demanding it, just like with organic food and healthy products and healthy homes. More and more people — such as you and me and all of those listening to this — are demanding this kind of awareness in corporations. Corporations that don’t have sustainability programs are having a hard time recruiting millennials. They’re having a hard time getting people to fill their labor force.

People want to work for companies that do good. That’s what I mean about this shift to a purpose-driven economy, as opposed to solely profit-driven. People are wanting to work for and buy from companies that are having a meaningful impact, and not just, “Yeah, we donate to this charity,” but rather, it’s a part of their organizing principles.

Bill:                 I want to touch on B corporations, or ‘benefit corporations’. Would you explain briefly what that is, and why that’s a useful insignia, or certification for a customer to look for in a company they might purchase from?

Leif:                The B Corp model is great. I think it’s been around officially for five or six years. Several hundred companies have signed on. It’s basically a way of organizing your corporation and the bylaws of the company, to explicitly say that we are in business to benefit the planet and people.

There’s a systematic review process that everyone who holds the B Corp certification has to go through. Many classic, sustainability-minded companies jumped on the bandwagon right away.

Bill:                 Patagonia was the first one.

Leif:                Yes. They’re based out of Ventura, California; I worked with them a while back. Companies that are jumping on that bandwagon are seeing it increase their growth. Patagonia once created an ad for a holiday magazine that had the headline, “Don’t buy this jacket.”

Bill:                 It was a famous ad. The idea was, Do not buy this if you don’t need it. Because we don’t need another jacket going into landfill.

Leif:                And it worked. “Don’t buy this because you probably have enough.” Turns out, more people bought it than if they would have said, “You should really buy this because of x, y, and z.”

Bill:                 It also had a subliminal message that their products are built to last and not wind up in landfill. It was a brilliant ad.

Another example is when REI, an outdoor retailer, a few years ago on the day after Thanksgiving (the biggest shopping day of the year in the U.S), initiated their ‘opt-outside’ campaign. They actually closed every store — even online. When everybody else was flocking to the mall for their special Black Friday deals, REI said, “We’re going to shut the door. We want you guys to go outside instead.”

Leif:                That’s great.

Bill:                 They obviously lost some business in the short run on that, but they drew a whole lot of fans in the long-run…and we’re still talking about it.

Leif:                Absolutely. And it’s all about taking responsibility — responsibility for their self, for their organization and it’s trickledown. Again, it’s that individual entity making a decision that is then influencing economy and culture and the environment.

Bill:                 That’s the full circle of this conversation.

For me, this dialog gives me even greater hope for the world, because, although I see the problems, I also see a lot of possibility for solutions. And this planet is amazingly powerful at restoring itself when given an opportunity.

Leif:                Absolutely.

Bill:                 Where can people find you if they want to connect with you?

Leif:                To find out about all the different things that I offer, visit my main webpage. They can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram

The last thing I’ll say is, we all have to start on the journey of understanding sustainability — somewhere. Just start.

For me, it’s important that we don’t judge people for being ‘bad’ or un-sustainable. They just might not be educated. They might not be aware of the impact that they’re having. I think we need to be honest with people — and at the same time, compassionate and loving with them, and not be self-righteous, super-eco arrogant people.

Bill:                 That’s a great point. You want to inspire without judgment.

Leif:                Exactly. A big part of this Appreculture design framework — the appreciation piece — is appreciating everyone for who they are, where they’re at, and then coming to a conversation about sustainability and creating a better world by first appreciating them as a human being, as someone who has family and friends, and a product of their environment, whoever they are.

And then from that place, having curiosity around whether or not they are interested in becoming more integrated, aligned, coherent and sustainable with the direction that the future is going.

I found that in my activism work, as a student in college and then later as a consultant over the years, it’s especially important to approach people with a non-judgmental, compassionate mindset.

We all need to be educated about something. I may do something on occasions where someone who’s very eco-savvy might think, “How dare he use that straw at this restaurant?” I usually don’t use straws, but I might forget sometimes. We just need to see the humanity in each other.

Bill:                 …and always be a student.

Leif:                Absolutely. Always maintain that curiosity. If we lose curiosity in our fellow human beings, in our loved ones, and in how we can become a better person — then I think we lose a vitality and an innocence that is divine. It’s like a child’s light that we all hold onto as we grow older.

Bill:                 Thank you very much for joining in this conversation.

Leif:                Thank you and your whole team at Best Self Magazine for reaching out to people and having conversations like this one — and sharing knowledge and information.

The post Sustainability & Purpose: Living in Concert With Our Ecology and Humanity appeared first on BEST SELF.

How women of war-torn lands — and lipstick — helped a feminist reclaim the beautiful pieces of herself

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I did not grow up thinking I was beautiful. My Iraqi mother had fed this belief, telling me that my cousin Nadia was much better looking than I was. Whenever she came to visit and we were all invited out somewhere, my mother would insist that I give Nadia my best clothes to wear. At ten years of age, I finally protested. “Why did you give Nadia my orange shirt, Mama? You know it’s my favorite.”

“But honey,” my mother responded. “Nadia is the beautiful one.” It was as if beauty itself was reason enough.

My mother didn’t think of me as ugly, just not as beautiful as other girls.

But the judgment stayed with me. As I grew up, I couldn’t see anything pretty or attractive about me. I could see only my prominent twisted nose and unattractive legs. I took to wearing clothes a size bigger than I needed so that they would hide my imperfections. They ended up hiding all of me.

As I started studying women’s rights in college and took on a feminist identity, I also made a statement out of rejecting fashion and beauty. If women around me wore the latest fashionable colors, I wore only black and gray. If they permed their hair or straightened it, I refused to do anything with mine.

Rejection became part of my identity, and this continued after college.

At important life events, including giving a speech or receiving major awards for my humanitarian work at the White House, I’d wear a simple black and white suit. I wanted to be treated the same as men. I thought that by denying any sense of beauty, I would guarantee that my intellect was noticed, not my looks. I thought this was the higher choice.

But the truth was that whenever I went out with female friends, regardless of their sizes, shapes, and looks, I always felt less beautiful than them. If we entered a restaurant or an event together, I assumed that I was invisible. If we encountered a group of male friends, I never expected any attention from them. I didn’t feel jealous; I just felt small.

Still, I kept pushing against that idea that, as a woman, I needed to be beautiful. I focused on developing my charisma, my personality, my thoughts, and my adventures.

I thought it was better for people to love me for my mind.

If other women seduced with beauty, I tried to seduce with words and intellect. My unique work in war zones gave me my confidence. But a confident person acts out of fullness, not out of scarcity. I used my activist identity to cover up for my insecurity about my looks. I couldn’t appreciate beauty, so I rejected it. That rejection insulted the essence of beauty itself.

It was the women whom I had been helping in war zones who taught me to see beauty in a different way. I was in Sarajevo in 1994, bringing money and clothes to Bosnian women in the besieged city. Their homes — and streets, schools, churches, hospitals, and way of life — were being destroyed by snipers and artillery fire, and they were blockaded inside the city while food and basic supplies dwindled. The only way to enter Sarajevo was on a United Nations plane, and even the UN could not guarantee anyone’s safety. I was the only woman in a plane full of French UN troops, crossing Serbian check lines to get into the city. At that time, I had heard all about the rape camps and concentration camps in the country. Traveling to Sarajevo was very risky.

With the help of the UN, I made it to the city center without harm, but everywhere the walls were full of shrapnel. People ran from alley to alley to get around, often in a rain of bullets. Everything was scarce — food, water, heat. Many burned their shoes, books, and furniture in the winter for heat. The dead had to be buried in backyards because it was too dangerous to go to cemeteries.

In spite of the danger, I was able to meet with several women’s organizations to distribute the funds I had raised for them. It was exciting to meet and hear about their needs and realities and to think about how to help them better. I asked them what else I could bring besides clothes and money. I had in mind vitamins, tampons, bandages, and other practical items.

“Lipstick!” the first woman said. “We want lipstick.”

“Lipstick? What?” I was taken aback. Why would they want lipstick? They had so many more urgent needs.

“Lipstick is the smallest thing I can put on and feel beautiful,” the woman told me. “I want that sniper to know that he is killing a beautiful woman.”

Resistance comes in different ways. Some fight back with guns. Some fight back by keeping the music playing, like the Bosnian cellist who played in the middle of an open square where snipers could easily shoot him. Some fight back with art, like the artists who turned empty bullet casings into pieces of art. This woman was fighting back by keeping beauty alive. Putting on lipstick was the simplest way to feel beautiful and connected to life itself. It’s how she could triumph over the humiliation of being starved and possibly killed by an unseen gunman.

It suddenly hit me: to deny women their sense of beauty would be to violate their dignity and integrity. 

Even if they were suffering shortages of food and water, even if they lacked basic hygiene, even if they were cold and afraid, they had every right to ask for cosmetics. These women were not just desperate victims. They wanted to live and die in dignity and to choose their circumstances.

On my following visits to Bosnia, I brought boxes of lipsticks, as well as blush, eye shadow, and all the other makeup I could collect, along with the basics of money, clothes, and food. I also paid attention to how I carried myself and what I wore. I had thought that being a humanitarian activist meant ignoring any sense of beauty, so normally I had just worn my normal jeans and sneakers and pulled my hair back. Once I realized that beauty is part of keeping our spirits alive, I got myself a nice skirt and a matching shirt and a good haircut as well. I wanted to show respect to the women I was working with. They were carrying themselves so elegantly, in spite of the war, in spite of their fatigue. They were coming to meetings in nicely pressed blouses and skirts, even when everything they had — even life itself — was in peril. I wanted to be as presentable as they were trying to be.

Over the years, I have encountered thousands of women in many war zones who carried themselves with this kind of beauty, integrity and dignity. They would strive for the smallest hint of it even when they were destitute. Behind their head-to-toe burqas, Afghan women wore vibrantly colored clothes — old pieces of silver or patterns of red, orange, and green woven into the belts they had embroidered. Their faces were immaculate — perfect eyebrows, no hair out of place, dark kohl lining their eyes. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, women who had been utterly violated and abused danced fiercely and sang with all their hearts whenever they could. It was their way of keeping their spirits alive.

If these women who had lost everything could celebrate whatever beauty they had by wearing bright red lipstick, putting on nice dresses, smiling big smiles, and dancing with their full hearts, then who was I to reject beauty? Who was I to take myself so seriously and not dance, sing, or join in what had kept so many spirits alive?

Beauty is not to be denied, not in myself and not in any other woman or man. It is to be celebrated, encouraged, and protected. It is like hope.

When all is lost, when material comfort is gone and loved ones are departed, we can hold onto our spirits by cultivating even small gestures of beauty.

Freedom is an inside job. No one can do it for us, and no one can sell it to us. Only when we see ourselves — truly see ourselves — do we see that beauty is all around us. It is on the inward journey that we find the lasting satisfaction we’re looking for. When we align with it, it can be like the butterfly effect. One small change in our lives, like the air displaced by a butterfly’s wing, can have an enormous ripple effect on our entire complex system of interconnected lives. It can change the whole world.

You may also enjoy reading Interview: Regena Thomashauer | The Power of Pleasure & Reclaiming Radiance with Kristen Noel

The post The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty: Tragedy, Humanity… and Lipstick appeared first on BEST SELF.

One woman’s journey exploring the miraculous power of music and community to connect to her purpose and free her soul

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In 2009, I was living the dream.

Girl from Wisconsin makes big move to NYC, finds love and along with it an amazing apartment in an impressive, and historically notorious, East Village building. She hosts delightful culinary dinners and all-night dance parties, jet-sets to South America for epic adventures, and weekends in her cabin in the Catskills. I’d also given up my mundane and acrimonious job as a lawyer and was living the fast-paced and highly lucrative life of a sales director for an international software company.

Cherry on top: my fiancé and I were set to marry in July and shortly thereafter, I expected us to begin creating our family. I was 35 and my clock was ticking. In May, however, as if by divine intervention, my fiancé had a dream, which led to a conversation about postponing things, which led to confusion, lots of tears, and the immediate end of our cohabitation and relationship. Needless to say, the wedding never happened.

My carefully orchestrated dream had imploded. Amidst the shock and the tears, a light bulb went off inside my clouded mind: I was living a dream, but it wasn’t my dream.

I’d somehow been duped, kidnapped, hijacked by parental and societal ideals which told me that money was king; that if I had a lot of it, I could have the American dream of a husband and a family and that I would be happy and life would be full of adventure.

The real story was that while my fiancé was a good person and a good friend, the romance had long since faded. My longing to have a baby was pushing me into something that wasn’t right. My outright fear of not being wealthy was keeping me in a painfully unfulfilling job. To make matters worse, the entire time I’d been living this ‘dream’ of a lifestyle, I’d been consuming large quantities of alcohol on a very regular basis and slowly, despite running two marathons, putting on more and more weight.

I found myself numb and in tremendous pain — a suffocating pain that felt oppressive and overwhelming and seemed to gnaw at my soul. I was beginning to suspect that this pain had always been there. The alcohol had prevented me from feeling it. The sudden disruption to my perfectly plotted plans woke me from my slumber. None of this was supposed to be in my dream.

Divine intervention, if you believe in that sort of stuff, can take many forms.

I am one who believes there is something bigger than us, something that we are all a part of, and that it is through this interconnectedness that we experience the divine. Something out there in the vastness intervened to throw things off my course, something that would end up being a miracle. It wasn’t clear at first, as this miracle was not accompanied by the sights and sounds of angels. I wasn’t immediately lifted out of a place of darkness and into the light. No, my miracle took on a much different appearance, but in the end it was still divine.

I’d come into this world a very different person than the one I’d become. The words that make up songs like, “All You Need is Love,” “Let Love Rule,” and “Love is the Seventh Wave” had been my mantras growing up. I was voted most likely to join the Peace Corps; I went to law school to “make the world a better place” despite my father’s suggestion that business school would be a more lucrative option.

The person I’d become, who’d been lured into someone else’s dream, had been revealed to me as soon as that dream imploded.

Turns out I’d been suffocating my soul and needed this person to die if my soul were to survive. This was not going to be an easy task.

Instinctively I threw myself back into a world filled with music. It had always been my beacon, the thing that got me through every rough patch I’d ever faced. Music inspires and heals. I gravitated to musicians who were singing about the things that I was feeling, to songs that fueled me with hope for my future.

I am coming back
I’m coming back again.
I had lost everything and then I got it back again.
I dug myself so deep, deep into a hole
That getting out was so far beyond my control.

Hold Your Head High by Heartless Bastards.

In the year following my miracle, I traveled around the country and attended a truly ridiculous number of shows and festivals soaking up lyrics, rhythms, all the while searching for something that was still out of sight. What did my soul desire?

My spiritual journey had begun, and I yearned to dig deeper into ‘the meaning of it all’. I began to pore through Buddhist and other spiritual texts. I struggled daily, minute by minute, to stay present in a meaningless job that felt pushed upon me. The pain of an empty profession was starting to take its toll, on my soul.

I kept searching; I began practicing yoga regularly, reading self-improvement books, listening to podcasts, and attending retreats. I wanted to know the answer to what was next, afraid that it wouldn’t reveal itself.

It wasn’t until I began to communicate with my soul through my own creativity that the light finally began to shine through. I began work on a novel and had become friendly enough with my guitar and my voice to write some simple songs.

By creating, I was able to open up a dialogue with my soul and reconnect with myself.

I knew that I had to give up my unhealthy relationship to alcohol and money, my fear of not having enough, and to allow myself to be guided by my desire to help and uplift others. The question was: How?

While I was busy soul-searching, a small local art, music and wellness festival was beginning to blossom in the nearby upstate city of Kingston, NY. It was called the O+ Festival (pronounced O Positive) and its mission was centered on these words: “The Art of Medicine for the Medicine of Art.” Given my belief in the healing power of music, I was intrigued.

When a friend who knew about my quest for fulfillment suggested I get involved as a volunteer, I did. I was quickly immersed in a community of creative and like-minded souls who wanted to make the world a better, healthier and happier place by taking care of artists and musicians. This was accomplished through a pop-up wellness clinic filled with volunteer doctors, nurses, acupuncturists, massage therapists, chiropractors and more. In exchange for this free care, the artists and musicians donated their talent to the three-day festival for the entire community to enjoy.

I threw my whole self into my volunteer role. I offered to help as much as was needed and when it was done, I couldn’t wait for the opportunity to return again the following year. My soul thanked me. I dove deeper into my yoga practice, wanting to reveal more and be more, and I completed my teaching certification in mid-2013.

That same year when the O+ Festival organizers were in need of a Volunteer Coordinator, I jumped at the opportunity. I knew that it would be hard to balance my full-time job with a demanding volunteer role, but my soul said yes. Now I was listening.

As the Volunteer Coordinator, I saw the best in humanity as I worked with over 100 beautiful volunteers — hands down one of the hardest, yet most fulfilling roles I’d ever taken on. I was blown away by the generosity of people. Businesses donating items when we didn’t have the means to pay for them. Volunteers working extra shifts to cover gaps in the schedule. Strangers stumbling upon the festivities and wanting to lend a hand wherever it was needed.

I realized that I wasn’t alone in wanting to feel a part of something greater, of wanting to connect with others, of wanting meaning in my life.

When the Festival was done that year, I was exhausted, we were exhausted, but we felt lifted knowing that we had accomplished something special as a community.

My soul was a flame now, and my life was starting to take on a new shape. I was in a flow. I felt supported by that thing that is bigger than us all. It felt divine. When the Executive Director asked me to take on the role of Festival Director for the following year, it was as if my dreams had really come true. Of course, the tricky issue still existed of how to balance all of this with my full-time job and the new yoga studio I had opened with a dear friend, but there was no stopping this uncontrollable drive to work together with my community (and new friends) to make sure the Festival happened another year.

By 2014, the festival had expanded to California with dozens of other communities reaching out to learn how to bring O+ to their hometown. With an ever-expanding list of responsibilities, we were in a state of perpetual volunteer recruitment to support the organization’s growing activities.

Admittedly, there were times when we thought things might fall apart or at least start to crumble, but as if through divine intervention, things always had a way of working out.

Whether it was some creative new way to solve a problem, a last-minute offer of help or money from someone in the community, or just old-fashioned teamwork, we began to call these occurrences “O+ miracles.” Not quite the same kind of miracle that appeared in my life many years ago, but an example of the divine nonetheless.

Fast forward a few years and a lot of community building later, O+ is now 8 years old. In addition to its annual Kingston Festival, O+ has taken place in San Francisco, Petaluma, Chicago, and the Bronx. This year we’ll see the launch of festivals in Haverhill, MA, and Poughkeepsie, NY. Once a 100% volunteer-run organization, O+ is now proud to have hired its first full-time Operations Director, as well as several part-time staff members. We’ve come a long way, but we still rely on the support of a community that is seeking connection — and the occasional O+ miracle.

As for me, I finally quit that software job and am still working on that novel. Now the President of the O+ Board, I am involved with building the organization in new and exciting ways. I spend my time trying to heal our community through yoga and sound healing, as well as working to empower women and survivors of domestic violence.

I often reflect upon my time as Volunteer Coordinator. The images of people’s generosity will forever be imprinted in my heart. They give me hope at a time when it feels like we’re forgetting the importance of taking care of one another. I don’t think my soul’s journey is unique. I think we all want connection and a higher purpose. I am grateful to O+ for helping me to see and feel that.

Learn more at OPositiveFestival.org

You may also enjoy reading Maggie Wheeler: The Yoga of Song, by Peter Occhiogrosso

The post The Sacred Power of Connection: How the O+ Festival Freed My Soul appeared first on BEST SELF.

A childhood of being bullied leads to a life based upon kindness, compassion and service

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When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky.

You’ll Never Walk Alone, by Gerry and the Pacemakers

On a cold day in London a child sat in the shadow of a school building wiping away tears before heading home. He had endured yet another day of torment and hiding his emotions had become normal. He didn’t dare stand-up to his tormentors, but the shame of having to tell his father he was being bullied was even more frightening. So for years he would wipe the tears away, along with any chance that someone would help him with his suffering.

The emotional tug-of-war that comes with being profoundly hurt, day in day out, takes its toll on the strongest of people. But on a child’s psyche, it creates damaging emotional rocks that can drag him back into a dark well of sadness, anger and fear. Many never fully recover. But what if they chose to redirect all of their traumatic energy toward making the world a better place?

As you may have guessed, I was the boy in the story.

I lived in fear most of my adolescent life, being relentlessly bullied by not only children, but by my teachers as well.

I have always wondered why I was picked out for such emotional mistreatment. Was it because I was sensitive and thus easier to intimidate? Maybe I will never know…

It all started with adults shaming me and that opened the floodgates for my peers to join in. Why would children think it is wrong when a person of authority is doing the exact same thing? A simple class question like, “What do you want to be when you grow-up?” would garner an emotional blow from my teacher: “We all know that Logothetis is a bit thick, and he’ll end up living off his father for the rest of his life.”

As the classroom filled with laughter, my inner world crumbled.

Disempowering people can be a powerful tool, but why would anyone ever want to use it? My young mind couldn’t comprehend why people would want to make others feel so meaningless, so unseen.

As I grew older I pushed forward, burying the emotional damage deep down. It began to manifest itself in self-harming ways; I knew it was only a matter of time before I couldn’t take it anymore. But then something happened — I watched a film that would change my life forever: The Motorcycle Diaries — a romanticized version of Che Guevara’s travels in South America, a journey noted by his willingness to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Suddenly I was hit with a sense of purpose that was clearer than it had ever been before. I wanted to travel and connect with others. I wanted to be Kerouac.

I wanted to meet people and share my experiences with the world.

So I made the decision to quit my job and do what any sane person would do… I decided to cross America surviving on only 5 dollars a day and the kindness of strangers.

But why? Why did I want to leave my successful job, my home, my comfortable life? The only answer that made sense was that I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be heard, and along the way I wanted others to feel the same way. For what is the point of life without the intense joy of human connection flowing between each and every one of us?

I wanted to prove (maybe to myself) that the humanity within us existed and thrived and that if a shy, emotionally-scarred man like myself could reach for the stars, then anyone could.

Including you.

I wanted to inspire an army of the ‘unseen’ to rise up and take back their hope and self-worth.

When you have to figure out what you’re going to eat or where you’re going to stay on a cold night, you tend to get talkative very quickly. I had found my niche; I wanted to hear others’ stories and create some of my own along the way.

After an arduous and equally inspiring month on the road I made it from Times Square to the Hollywood sign. As time went on and the accomplishment of my trip wore off, I could feel those old feelings creeping back, making me question every decision. I was becoming that boy hiding his tears behind the school building again. That’s the thing with emotional abuse: you never really get rid of it. You just work day in and day out to live above it. Trying to create positive energy in the world is one way I choose to battle back from my past.

So again, in an act of pure insanity, I decided to ride a motorcycle with a sidecar around the world relying on the kindness of strangers. This time the difference was that those who helped me by opening up their hearts would receive a life-changing gift in return. I would be the stranger offering them kindness like so many others had helped me.

When I look back at my trip it feels like a distant dream. I was able to help a homeless man in Pittsburgh get an apartment and go back to school. I helped an Indian man buy a rickshaw and pull his family out of poverty. I was able to build a house for a Cambodian woman with HIV.

Life had bullied these people for so long and I felt honored to be able to bring some hope back to them, to help them to feel seen. Seeing the empowerment that kindness brought to their lives empowered me in ways I could never repay. And still cannot.

There is power in bullying, but it’s a power that can be harnessed for good. I used that power to help others feel empowered and seen — to help offset those misguided among us who choose to emotionally abuse others. This passion has fueled my drive to spread kindness all over the world.

When people ask me, “Leon what if I don’t have the means to travel like you?” I tell them it all starts from within. The greatest journey is the one from our head to our heart. We can all make choices in our lives to start living a life based around kindness, compassion and empathy. It can be something small like smiling to strangers on your way to work.

You see, you never know what that smile means to someone who feels unseen.

Go be kind ­— people need you…

You may also enjoy reading Wake Up, Smarten Up, Rise UP: How a Genetic Disability Inspired a Life of Service, by Cara Yar Khan

The post An Empowered Life | Channeling Bullying Into Service to Others appeared first on BEST SELF.

Photographer Lou Jones describes an ambitious project to create a contemporary, visual portrait of modern Africa.

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Folded under me, my knees were about to explode. My heavy camera bag was in my lap. The compass pointed due north to my destination in Ghana — a clinic in the epicenter of Asante territory, 250 kilometers from Accra. For two days I had bumped over red clay dirt roads, stuffed into the rumble seat of an American vintage pickup truck. My body was no longer capable of absorbing this kind of abuse. So began my ambitious quest to photograph the continent of Africa…country by country.

A number of years before, I read a newspaper article that reported the African Union was contemplating censoring western access to the continent because of their negative, biased coverage of only poverty, pestilence or conflict. At first I was appalled at such a kneejerk reaction, but eventually I came around to their way of thinking. In an effort to stem this craven indifference, I contemplated how my profession might help ameliorate the problem by depicting Africa in a realistic, yet more positive way.

My career as a freelance photographer and Road WaRRioR (a long-term project sharing my experiences as a social documentary photographer) prepared me for the rigors of travel. While on assignment, I have visited 55 countries, 48 of 50 United States, covered 13 Olympic Games, published books on 27 death row inmates, been captured by guerilla rebels, visited opium dens in southeast Asia, acquired a lot of frequent flyer miles, and born witness to many of the globe’s flora and fauna. Africa is the latest in a long list of my travel obsessions.

The idea to photograph every African country has been percolating in my mind ever since I first went to Africa in the 1970s. Since then, I’ve been dreaming and conceptualizing, meeting and calling people to develop the concept. I explored several potential strategies, but all were rejected. It was not until social media and crowdsourcing matured that the full scope of my vision became a reality in August 2013 with the creation of the panAFRICAproject — a contemporary, visual portrait of modern Africa.

Photography is a universal language — one especially well suited for this kind of almanac.

Although approximately 2000 languages are spoken in Africa, photography is the premier means of communication the world over. One does not have to be able to understand the lingua franca. In newspapers, magazines, the Internet, social media, stories can be told best when people experience the evidence in pictures. We can transmit the vast landscapes, deserts, jungles and sunsets across the Atlantic, as well as colors, textures, weather, mores, parent’s love for their children, and hate for one’s neighbors in the cradle of civilization.

The panAFRICAproject is designed to dispel the myriad misconceptions that plague the minds of people who have never been to Africa. Despite the problems of colonialism and exploitation lasting so many generations, Africa is lockstep with the advances being played out on every other continent. Besides progress in economy, agriculture, natural resources and technology, many countries are consciously trying to preserve the ancient, traditional ways of life that make their history unique.

Ghana was our first destination. Since then, my team and I have been to nine African countries and are working to go to number ten at the time of this writing. My studio conducts extensive research before choosing which country to visit. The algorithm is complex. It takes into account weather, location, accessibility, time of year, and the country’s relative “position” on the pecking order of nations. We utilize all types of modern analysis, but the most important technique is “six degrees of separation” (i.e., a friend tells us about a friend or relative who has an associate in a country who puts us in contact with an organization or individual who has close ties to something indigenous). Grassroots relationships are key.

There are a billion people on the continent of Africa who go to work everyday, raise their children, get educations, preserve cultural traditions, conduct business, and mastermind brilliant innovations.

To expose a more realistic portrait of the continent, we point our camera towards contemporary, modern subjects that inhabit towering high rises and multi-story industrial buildings that silhouette new skylines that make Africa the fastest growing continent in the world.

Over 600,000 tourists visit Ngorongoro Crater annually, considered to be one of the last footholds of majestic wildlife on earth. There, one can see lions, giraffes, elephants, wildebeests, and hyenas in abundance. Scores of foreigners purchase safaris to experience firsthand this ecological phenomenon. Coexisting right beside these animals is a tribe called Maasai. They are a proud nomadic culture that dates back hundreds of years. Split by a colonial border between present-day Tanzania and Kenya, they are being pressured to uproot their homelands to accommodate the growing tourist trade. Animals pay well — better than people.

How a culture cares for its citizens is a good indicator of how deeply concerned it is in other endeavors. For this project, we delved into all types of medical/healthcare aspects: hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and elderly care. Refreshingly, many people hold fast to their upbringing and still prefer traditional healers, rather than more modern advances. We have spent time on both sides of the subject. There is much to be gained from each.

In Lesotho, we photographed a woman whose mysterious practices baffle doctors and nurses, but her holistic approach gets results. Up north in Tanzania, after extensive negotiations, I photographed a female who had been burned over 30 percent of her body. In a state-of-the-art operating room, the patient was in excruciating pain. I felt a tremendous ambivalence about the graphic nature of the scene and invasion of privacy, but the medical staff understood the importance of my mission as well as theirs.

Historians concede that much modern music originated in Africa. It came over with the slave trade, was distilled, refined and now has been reabsorbed back into the homeland. Gospel, blues, and jazz have all been rooted in the African diaspora. So much culture, whether it is ancient tribal rhythms or the latest rock and roll, is being produced in the towns and villages. It spawns a whole new dynamic where Africans have never ceased expressing their joys, rituals, and lifestyles through performances, the radio, CDs, videos and mobile devices. Sound abounds.

In Swaziland I was able to photograph a minuscule popup recording studio where wannabe hip-hop artists are expressing their rebellion against today’s inequities.

Between the Sahara Desert and Cape of Good Hope is the highest concentration of religions in the world, from mainstream to little worships passed orally from father to son and mother to daughter. Despite its most recent difficulties, the antiquarian Ethiopia boasts of how well Christianity, Islam and Judaism coexist amicably side-by-side. On Sunday in Swaziland, the entire country dons primary colored robes and parades to their respective churches. We were welcomed into a small church that practices a unique form of Zionism. They prayed, spoke in tongues, danced, chanted and hallucinated for hours in front of my cameras.

Namibia offered some of the most extreme contrasts — the rural areas are an anthropologist’s dream. An intrepid traveler falls through the looking glass of time. Herero, Himba and San tribes exist unchanged for millennia and at the same time, in the cosmopolitan cities, urban life vies for space next to bare-breasted women, plying their trades and suckling their infants on the streets and in the department stores.

It took several days to gain permission to photograph a native airline pilot in the cockpit of his huge, passenger Boeing 737, flown between major cities in southern Africa. I also had the unbelievable opportunity to photograph the pressroom of the major newspaper. The publisher had been exiled for activities during the revolution. Now he was shaping political policy and opinions. They were printing the 25th anniversary of independence issue and used some of my photographs in the commemorative centerfold.

The good tourist photography that comes out of Africa is mainly of things that are otherworldly to western eyes and alien to our own environments.

It is only natural that the exotic differences in life be documented, but since the bigger-than-life panoramas are so enticing and compelling, these images are largely of exterior spaces, photographed outside in nature. The interiors of homes, commerce and politics are still mysterious. We attempt to take the neophyte inside and reveal the inner sanctums of Africa as well.

The algorithm we use to select each new country is designed to take us to diverse extremes within the continent so there is little homogeneity. In Ghana, the citizenry are very leery of you taking their picture; Namibia, not so much. In Swaziland there is a widespread paranoia about all sorts of dealings, whereas Ethiopia is very open about their history and contemporary machinations. Tanzania emphasizes their animal background because it attracts tourists and revenue, but there is little tourism in Lesotho, so your presence is a curiosity.

When you get off the plane you have to decipher a lot of the personalities. In some urban areas, it is important to be cognizant of the military/police presence. Corruption is rampant and obvious in some places, but extremely quiet in others. The challenge is to figure out each area’s unique protocol and what is possible to photograph on the street. In some places, street photography is okay and in others, it is very hard. Making the mistake can cost dearly in many ways.

Gaining access to the interiors is another problem. Even though we have had good success into manufacturing, hospitals and some industry, people want to be paid. In health care, there are confidentiality problems. The reason I undertook this project was because, in my career, I have encountered all of these situations. Usually not all at once, but we have the skills to organize from afar, insinuate ourselves into different organizations, quell and negotiate difficult situations when there are ‘boots on the ground’.

We navigate diverse cultures and think on our feet to convince a large company owner that his establishment is of interest to the rest to the world and the next day argue politics in the bars with downtown locals. This makes the four+ weeks of each trip extremely labor intensive and exhausting; however overall, we have discovered that Africans are generous, accommodating and really understand how they are being maligned in western press. They also realize how important our project and tasks are.

My team and I have traveled tens of thousands of miles. We have slept in dung huts, under tents, and in nameless motels. We have eaten unidentifiable foods, enjoyed the hospitality of smokestack industries and hapless individuals who see the value in displaying their wares as a metaphor for a whole way of life.

For the first few visits, my advertising and corporate photography paid for my indulgences. More recently, we mounted a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to raise the money to continue. It has afforded us the opportunity to expand our outreach, research and most importantly, the ability to more widely move around and investigate the many facets of each country. We utilize social media to promote each visit to our precious constituency. Facebook and Twitter allow our ‘friends’ to travel right along with us through our daily postings of photographs and diaries of our exploits.

I find that I miss being there. I have been seduced by Africa. ALL my senses, skills and talents are coaxed while I am there, solving the complexities as to why we became photographers. 

Not only do we have to solve visual problems, but cultural ones as well. That is exciting, but the aggregate of all the photographs is intended to give any interested party a more realistic view inside a part of the world we hardly ever see in the correct light. School kids, researchers, teachers, and entrepreneurs can potentially use the imagery. We have also been exhibiting. We are small, but we are trying to lay a foundation to expand the project exponentially, to publish an almanac of images that reach far beyond our ambitions.

From the beginning of this ambitious undertaking, savvy curators have been paying attention. We have been asked to exhibit the work in galleries, schools and publications. In March 2017, Mount Ida College in Newton, MA is hosting a huge show of hundreds of panAFRICAproject pieces. Concerned franchises have also asked me to lecture about my experiences.

At no point in my wildest imagination could I have envisioned where we are today. In fact, that’s the whole point. We cannot possibly foresee the vast picture that is Africa.

This project is far from over. Actually, we are just beginning.

View the portfolio: tap to enlarge images:

For more information: panAFRICAproject.org | Facebook | Kickstarter

You may also enjoy reading Architecture and Humanity | The Conscious Urbanism of Kunlé Adeyemi by Bill Miles

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African architect Kunlé Adeyemi expresses a deep passion for social progress through his ground-breaking designs and urban planning

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NLÉ is an architecture, design, and urbanism practice for developing cities and communities.

Such is the elevator pitch on the website homepage of Amsterdam-based NLÉ, founded by Kunlé Adeyemi, a native African architect who’s work reveals a deep mission to serve communities in need, and humanity as a whole, through conscious architecture and design.

I am neither an architect, nor an architecture critic. But I am moved by exceptional design on all scales, and especially interested in those elements of urban planning that have the power to elevate and coalesce a community.

Adeyemi is one of those rare visionaries that focuses on the impact of a project first, and then goes about the work of creating it.

His story is one of perseverance in the pursuit of his vision, despite setbacks, occasional condemnations, and other forms of external resistance. His passion rides a line between conviction and ego; brilliance and audacity.

I first became aware of Adeyemi when I learned of an innovative floating school (pictured above) built in the aquatic community of Makoko in the lagoon heart of Africa’s second most populated city, Lagos, Nigeria. The unconventional, sustainably-crafted design addressed the shifting tidal and flooding conditions that rendered basic education a near impossible challenge for the existing land-based primary school. An estimated 100,000 people reside in Makoko in housing units built on stilts. Lacking roads, land, and any formal infrastructure, Adeyemi’s design would provide an adaptable hub not only for education, but also events and other community uses.

The Makoko Floating School, which was nominated for numerous awards, was actually more of a beta test — or so it would seem in hindsight. After three years of vibrant service to the community, the school was de-commissioned in the spring of 2016 for structural repairs and upgrades. As fate would have it, the building collapsed a few months later during a strong breeze and rainfall (there were no casualties). This event, as critics were quick to point out, called into question the architectural integrity of the school from the get-go. During its brief lifespan, however, the school fulfilled its promise; its legacy is revealed in an improved, pre-fabricated, multi-purpose, floating prototype called the MFS II, now on display in Venice, Italy.

The structure, according to NLÉ, “aims to identify, gather and cultivate the intelligence of communities and cities by water with a motivation to bridge inequality by improving social, economic and environmental conditions worldwide. It is an opportunity for us to think, build, and live differently, by facing challenges in this age of rapid urbanization and climate change.” If ever there was a project with a sweeping, bold social mission, this is it!

Another example of Adeyemi’s ingenuity in the face of coastal challenges is the forthcoming Chicoco Radio project — another floating structure that will house a media center anchored by a radio station. In the community of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, nearly 500,000 people live in waterfront settlements along the creeks that fringe the city. As the Nigerian government prepares to demolish these settlements, Chicoco Radio is the voice of the community during this tumultuous period. The new floating building will augment the capacity of the radio station, as well as provide much needed space for public congregation and expression.

There are numerous other remarkable, socially-conscious urban projects from NLÉ (which, incidentally, means ‘at home’ in Yoruba), both completed and in-progress, including the CDL Microfinance Bank, which provides financing to low and medium income earners. Diverse as they are, the thread that informs each NLÉ design is the social impact it will have on the heart of a community — the common folk who live and work there. In an interview with the Tennessee chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Adeyemi remarks, “Think about challenges the people have if you address them from a point of authenticity. When [projects] are driven by real needs and real resources, you create a lot more impact.”

Adeyemi certainly earned his chops prior to opening NLÉ. Influenced by his father, an early modernist architect in Nigeria, he studied at the University of Lagos and then Princeton University followed by nearly a decade working at the Office of Metropolitan Architecture alongside its famed co-founder, Rem Koolhaas, among others. So how does Adeyemi describe the work of his company? He continues in the AIA interview, “We’re essentially a young, agile firm, growing… defining a path with the right projects that add value to places and people we serve. We are setting new standards with the people we work with. Bridging the gap — gaps of inequality. Gaps of access. Access to resources. Social access. That’s important to us.”

By that standard, there is no shortage of global projects worthy of Adeyemi’s attention. I hope that his mission will encourage the world’s most influential urban planners and community leaders to support — and fund — sustainable, environmentally responsible and socially conscious architecture. Adeyemi’s work certainly takes us one step closer to this ideal, and reminds me that when we work with authenticity, empathy, and passion, we are capable of attracting forces far beyond our own — forces which conspire on our behalf to manifest our visions, for ourselves and the greater good of all.

You may also enjoy reading Krash | Co-Living Space for Networkers by Bill Miles

The post Architecture and Humanity | The Conscious Urbanism of Kunlé Adeyemi appeared first on BEST SELF.

A Conversation with Nancy Pelosi about what it will really take to make a woman president

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Four years ago, when I first began writing my book, What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? Conversations About Women, Leadership & Power, there were no female candidates running for president and that benchmark seemed distant and out of reach.  So it was incredibly exciting a few months ago to be able to witness Hillary Clinton mark the milestone of becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major political party.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, this is a symbolic breakthrough we can and should all celebrate together, just as we did with Barack Obama’s historic win, as a positive sign that we are moving towards greater diversity and a reflective democracy.

In the interviews I conducted for my book, many interviewees reflected on what having a woman president would mean for our country, culture, and collective women’s leadership.

The consensus was that having a woman break the presidential barrier would have an undeniable positive impact on women and girls in this country. The symbolism alone would be incredibly powerful, especially for young women and girls who would see first-hand that it is possible for women to be successful, respected leaders — especially the highest leadership position of them all.

That’s the reason I decided to write my book in the first place: my daughter.

The book was inspired by my eight-year-old’s seemingly innocent question after we were celebrating Barack Obama’s historic win: “Why haven’t we ever had a woman president?”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House, shared that sentiment in this interview, below, excerpted from the book.

I look forward to the day when our daughters don’t have to wonder why there have been no women presidents, but when there have been several for them to look up to and learn from — and when they too can easily imagine that they might very well be the next.

NANCY PELOSI

“It’s about equality, but it’s not just about equality. And the reason it’s necessary to have more voices is because that strengthens the debate and it strengthens the decisions. It isn’t that women coming in are better than men; they’re different from men. And I always say the beauty is in the mix. To have diversity of opinion in the debate strengthens the outcome and you   get a better result.”

 Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives for the 113th Congress, is focused on strengthening America’s middle class and creating jobs, reforming the political system to create clean campaigns and fair elections, enacting comprehensive immigration reform, and ensuring safety in America’s communities, neigh- borhoods, and schools. From 2007 to 2011, Pelosi served as Speaker of the House, the first woman to do so in American history.

For twenty-five years, Pelosi has represented San Francisco, California’s 12th District, in Congress. She first made history when House Democrats elected her the first woman to lead a major political party. She has led House Democrats for a decade and previously served as House Democratic Whip.

Under the leadership of Pelosi, the 111th Congress was heralded as “one of the most productive Congresses in history” by congressional scholar Norman Ornstein. President Barack Obama called Speaker   Pelosi “an extraordinary leader for the American people,” and the Christian Science Monitor wrote: “Make no mistake: Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful woman in American politics and the most powerful House Speaker since Sam Rayburn a half century ago.”

Pelosi brings to her leadership position a distinguished record of legislative accomplishment. She led Congress in passing historic health insurance reform, key investments in college aid, clean energy and innovation, and initiatives to help small businesses and veterans. She has been a powerful voice for civil rights and human rights around the world for decades. Pelosi comes from strong family tradition of public service in Baltimore. Married   to Paul Pelosi, she is a mother of five and grandmother of nine.

MARIANNE SCHNALL: Why do you think we’ve not yet had a woman president? What do you think it will take to make that happen?

NANCY PELOSI: Well, [there are] two reasons why we will, and one is there are plenty of talented women — one in particular, Hillary Clinton, who I think would go into the White House as one of the most well-prepared leaders in modern history. She has the full package of having served in the White House and as a senator and secretary of state. She knows the issues in depth and she has great values, a good political sense, and is highly respected by the American people. So… how long will it take? Just as soon as she makes her decision! [laughs] That would be the shortcut — it isn’t a shortcut, it’s over two hundred years due. Why I think it will also happen is the American people are very, very ready for a woman president. They’re far ahead of the politicians, and that may be why we haven’t had a woman president.

I always thought it would be much easier to elect a woman president of the United States than Speaker of the House, because the people are far ahead, as I say, of the electeds, on the subject of a woman being president.

And in Congress, you know, as I said on the day I was sworn in, you have to break the marble ceiling — forget glass, the marble ceiling that is there of just a very male-oriented society where they had a pecking order and they thought that would be the way it always was and they would always be in charge, and, “Let me know how I can help you, but don’t expect to take the reins of power.” So it was interesting to me that we were able to elect a woman Speaker, and it wasn’t because I was a woman. That’s the last thing I could ask my members: to vote for   me because I was a woman. But I just had to get there in the way that  a woman would get to be president; not because she’s a woman — says  she immodestly — but because she has the talent and the know-how and inspires confidence that she can do the job, whatever that job happens to be. In this case we’re talking about president of the United States.

MS: Looking at the bigger picture, because sometimes this gets framed as equality for equality’s sake, but why is this important to have more women represented and women’s voices — not just ultimately in the presidency, but in Congress and in Washington?

NP: Well, I think you’re right — it’s about equality, but it’s not just about equality. And the reason it’s necessary to have more voices is because that strengthens the debate and it strengthens the decisions. It isn’t that women coming in are better than men; they’re different from men. And I always say the beauty is in the mix. To have diversity of opinion in the debate strengthens the outcome and you get a better result. I do think that women bring a tendency, an inclination, toward consensus building that is stronger among women than men, as I have seen it so far.

MS: Women have made progress, and certainly it was history-making in terms of the number of women in Congress from this last election, but it’s still very far from parity. As women have seemed to make strides in so many other areas, why do you think progress for women in Washington has been so slow?

NP: Well, we’ve had a woman Speaker of the House. I don’t think enough appreciation was given to that, because I think a lot of people didn’t know what the Speaker of the House was. Now they do because they see an obstructionist one. Not to toot my own horn, but that’s a very big deal. President, vice president, Speaker of the House — you’re not there because the president chose you, you are there with your power derived from the membership of the Congress of the United States, so you go to the table as a full partner in the balance of power. And our checks and balances… the legislative branch is the first branch, the executive branch is second, and then the others. But more fundamental, what we have in our House — and it was a decision we made to make it so, and we want to do more — is our caucus is a majority of women, minorities, and LGBT. That is, 54 percent of the House Democratic caucus is not white male. In the history of civilization, you have never seen a representative body for a leading party that was so diverse. And the majority not being the so-called majority, as previously conceived.

Also, our committees will lead — should we win — but even in the minority, our top Democrats on these committees are a majority of women and minorities. Now, getting just to women and why aren’t there more… I’m drawing some conclusions the last few years when we’ve pushed and pushed and we’ve gained more, but in order for us to really kick open the door, we have to change the environment we’re in. The environment I would like to see is one where the role of money is reduced and the level of civility is heightened. If you have less money and more civility, you will have more women. And that’s one of the reasons — not the only reason, but to protect our democracy — that we are pushing for campaign finance reform to reduce the role of money in politics.

If you bring more women, more young people, more minorities, more diversity, more of a face of America to public office and to public service, just speaking in terms of women, I can guarantee you: if you lower money and increase civility, you will have many more women.

And that’s what we have to do: create our own environment. We’ve been operating in an environment that has not been friendly to the advancement of women, especially now that it’s become so harsh and so money-driven.

MS: Looking at the landscape right now, it does look very daunting to run, and even when you get to Washington, very challenging. What advice or encouragement would you want to offer to a woman who is considering pursuing elected office but feels discouraged?

NP: Well, one of the things that was very disappointing when they went after me in such a major way, is women would come say to me, “I’m not subjecting my family to that.” And I say, you have to know what you believe and how important it is to you, how urgent it is for the country, and then that doesn’t matter. You’ve stepped into the arena, you’re in the fight, you throw a punch, you’re going to get one thrown at you, and vice versa. They throw one at you, you’ve got to be ready to throw one at them [laughs], because it’s a rough terrain. It shouldn’t be that way, but that’s what it is now.

So what I tell women is, “This is not for the faint of heart, but you have to have a commitment as to why you want to engage in public service.” We want people who have plenty of options in life to engage in public service — not anybody where this is the only job they could get. So we’re competing for their time, and their time, their priority decision will be made as to how important it is for them to make their mark, whether it’s on issues that relate to the economy, national security, family issues, education, healthcare, and those kinds of things. But I consider every issue a women’s issue. So you have to believe in who you are and what difference you can make. You have to care about the urgency and the difference it will make to your community, and you have to, again, have confidence in the contribution that you can make. You believe, you care, you have confidence in the difference that you can make. And that’s not to be egotistical, it’s just to be confident.

I tell women… “If you have a vision about what you believe about America, about our country and our families, you have to have knowledge about the situation. You don’t want to be a notion monger, you want to be an idea creator. So you have a vision, you know your subject— you don’t have to know every subject — you can focus, whether it’s foreign policy or whatever. Vision, knowledge, judgment springing from that knowledge, confidence, a plan, thinking strategically about how you would get this accomplished. When you tell the story of your vision with your knowledge and how you plan to get it done, you will be so eloquent, you will attract support. You will be lifted up and you will lift others up.”

MS: You have written a whole book about knowing your power. Do you think part of the problem is that women and girls today don’t know their power? And what can we do to change that, for even women to know that they have a vision worth pursuing?

NP: Well, here’s the thing: I wrote that book — it’s like just a little puff — because people were saying I always wanted to be Speaker since I was five years old; I had no interest in running for office when I was five years old, nor when I was a teenager, nor when I was forty years old. I had an interest in politics, but not in running for office. So I thought I sort of had to keep the record straight. But for that reason, I was able to say to people, “Be ready. Just be ready. Take inventory of what your skills are. And if that means being a mom and all the diplomacy, interpersonal skills, management of time — all the rest that is involved in that — value that.” How many times do you ask somebody, “What do you do?” “I’m just a housewife.” Just a housewife? No, proudly a housewife, or a homemaker, or whatever the term is these days. But that’s what women used to say when I was young, and I’d say, “Don’t say that! I’m a stay-at-home mom, too, but I don’t think I’m just a housewife!” So in any event, take inventory of what your possibilities are and have confidence in that…. And what you have — as I say with the vision, knowledge, et cetera — you have your own authenticity that is very sincere and very convincing. So be proud of the unique contribution that only you can make. That really is what I want people to think — to enjoy why they’re attracted to a certain issue, to savor learning more about it, that they can have opinions that are respected, they have standing on the issue, a plan for how they can implement something to make progress for our country and our families… and that argument will always win the day.

MS: You were the first female Speaker of the House, which is a huge mile- stone. What advice or perspective can you offer on breaking through glass ceilings, or as you say, “marble ceilings” and being the first or one of very few women in the room and the pressure that comes with that?

NP: The only time I’m the only woman in the room is when I go to the lead- ership meeting. But by and large I have made sure that women were chair- ing our committees when I was Speaker, or the senior Democrat on each of the committees, where I had the jurisdiction, because I think it’s really important for people to know: it’s not just about one woman, it’s about women. And it’s about the issues that we care about and the reinforcement of a message, not just one person saying it. The Speaker has awesome power, there’s no question about it. That role, number three — president, vice president, Speaker of the House — they are the highest positions in the country.

But the fact is that, again, it’s not about one woman, it’s about what this means in the lives of women.

So the interaction of women on these issues was [more] important for the members than the reinforcement on how we see our role. We’re there for our country, we’re there for our districts, but women in America see us partially as their own, even if we don’t represent them officially.

MS: Did you feel the magnitude of being in that position? Because being the first is something that’s significant, even thinking about what the pressure’s going to be on the first woman president. Did you feel that you could be there and be your authentic self, or did you feel the weight of people’s expectations?

NP: Marianne, I want to tell you something, and as I think back on it, I was so busy. I was so busy. We had an agenda to get done for the American people. And while I never set out to be Speaker and I never even envisioned it, one thing led to another and there I was, but I just knew I had a responsibility. As I look back on it, maybe I should have taken time to just sit there and say, “Wow,” but I didn’t even have a second to do that. I’m looking at President Bush’s library, and he used to say, “You’re number three.” He’d point to himself, one, point to Cheney, two, [point to me], three. Yes, it would be driven home to me that I was in this very exalted position, but it was only important to the extent that I could involve other women at the proper level, so that it wasn’t just about one person. It’s pretty thrilling to be Speaker, no question about that. But, again, right away we had sent the president the Lilly Ledbetter [Fair Pay Act], and one week and one day after his inaugural address we sent him the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. I mean, that’s when we had President Obama, but when we won, President Bush was president and we had a 100-hour agenda — the first 100 hours we raised the minimum wage; it hadn’t been raised in eleven years. We had our “Six for ’06” [agenda], most of which became the law of the land. So we were on a schedule. There wasn’t really too much time to think of how important I was. It was really more important for our members and our women to take ownership of the issues that build consensus around where we would go from here.

MS: Well, you did a wonderful job. And actually, I have heard your name come up many times, not only just being such an admired woman leader, but also as somebody who could potentially run for president or would make a great president. Is that something that you would ever consider?

NP: No. Here’s the thing: I didn’t even focus on becoming Speaker, but I knew — as whip, and as leader, and then as Speaker and then leader again — that the cooperation you get from members, which is everything — how you build consensus — has to have no doubt associated with it that it’s anything but for the good of the country. That there isn’t even a slight tinge that there might be some other political agenda at work. This is not for the faint of heart, any of it. You take a vote, you make friends and foes, and everybody has to know that this is a consensus that we build together. I think that’s really important. And nothing could be more of a thrill to me than to represent the people of San Francisco in Congress. To be speaker and have that recognition from my colleagues, and to be the first woman — I’m honored by that. I thought it would be not in furtherance of reaching all of our goals if there was any doubt that I wanted to run for any other office. And I didn’t, so that was easy [laughs]. There was no contrivance there; it was like, “Make no mistake: I’ve reached my height” [laughs].

MS: When you were talking about the importance of a consensus — and certainly in this current climate, that seems really important — what advice do you have on working with people across the aisle whose opinions you may disagree with but who you have to interact with?

NP: We come to Congress representing our own district. And so does everybody else, so even if you disagree with the manner in which some people present their views and how negative they may be, the fact is, you respect the people who sent them there. They are there, a House of Representatives, and so it’s unimportant what you think of somebody; what is important is that you respect their constituents and the right of that person to represent them. Now, having said that, you know you’re in the marketplace of ideas; that’s how our founders had intended. You depend on the strength of the power of your ideas, the strength of your argument, to compete in this marketplace of ideas to prevail. You know that if you’re going to do something that’s going to have sustainability that you’re going to have to try to build consensus across the aisle, if possible. Go to find common ground; where you can’t, you stand your ground, as I always say. But you always try.

MS: Looking at Washington right now, it can seem very daunting and it looks like a lot of work to people. What would you say are the positives? What drives you and fuels your work and motivates you every day? What are the joys of doing the work that you’re doing?

NP: Well, again, there are 435 members in the House, only one from my district, from each of our districts, so that’s a great honor — that is a tremendous honor to be able to speak for the people of your district. So that’s always a joy, and when it isn’t, it’s time to go home. To represent your district in the people’s House — how thrilling, how thrilling.

I think that people have some thought that this gridlock has been there for a long time. It really hasn’t. It’s largely something that has obstructed progress from when President Obama came in and the Republicans declared that they would stop his success, and they did that in a way that I think was harmful to the American people.

So it’s not about the niceties of debate; it’s about what are we here to do? If they’re standing in the way of jobs for the American people, then we have to make that fight. And we have differences of opinion on the role of government in whatever it is — the education of our children, the safety and good health of our neighborhoods and of our people, you know, all of that. We believe what we believe, and we respect that other people have different beliefs, but we don’t just roll over and say, “Okay, we all sign up for obstruction.” We just can’t. We can’t govern… we’re called the legislative branch; we came to legislate and that’s what we should do. So when people say this and that, I say, “You know what, understand this: the House has always been a competitive arena for the battle of ideas. Anybody who’s here to obstruct progress for our country really should be held accountable for that.” And that’s what we’re dealing with right now.

MS: Women and young girls can feel very hesitant to speak out or stand out too much. It seems like you’ve always had the courage to speak out for what you believe in. You don’t hold anything back. Where does that come from? How did you develop your inner leader?

NP: Well, I think a couple of things. I went to all-girls’ schools my whole life, so every model of leadership that I saw was a young girl or a woman, and so there was never any hesitation that women could lead. I know what I believe. And I really think — says she immodestly — one quality that I bring to my role is that I’ve been in Congress awhile, I know the issues, so I think I have good judgment as to what works or what doesn’t and an institutional memory of what has worked and what hasn’t. It’s also that I have a clear view of what I think our purpose is and that is to make the future better for all of our children, in every way, and that involves national security, our economy, every subject you can name, including those that are directly related, like health and education and environment.

MS: Are there concrete changes that you would like to see that you think would help foster more women leaders, not just in Washington, but in general? Are there things that you think we can do to increase the numbers?

NP: Well, I think that really lies inside of every woman. They have to really have confidence in themselves. If women have confidence in themselves, they will have confidence in other women. Sometimes we wonder, what is the support of women, for women? It’s by and large, very large, I think, but sometimes it’s not always there. And sometimes I think it’s because, “Well, I can do that. Why is she doing it?”

You know, it’s not a zero-sum game — there’s plenty of opportunity for everyone, so there’s no reason to worry about somebody else’s success, either saying you couldn’t do this so she’s better than you, or she’s doing it so you can’t. No, she’s doing it so you can.

Every piece of advice I give to people is, “Be yourself, know your power, have confidence in what you have to contribute.” If you have all of that, you will respect that in other women and we can just advance this. Now I’ve said to you before: reduce the role of money, increase the level of civility, and women will take these responsibilities. And many more women will say, “Okay, I’ll run. I’m not afraid of needing the money or being…” shall we say, “smeared.” A little girl interviewed me this morn- ing, she said, “How did your family deal with all the negative things that the Republicans said about you?” I said, “Well, they didn’t really care that much, because I didn’t really care that much.” What I do care about is that it’s an obstacle to other women entering politics, because they’ll say, “Why would I do that? I have plenty of options.” And women with plenty of options are just the women that we want to be in politics and government.

MS: It’s been brought up how remarkable it is that it was not that long ago that women didn’t even have the right to vote. It’s almost surreal to think about that. Where do you see the current status of women in the United States and around the world right now? What do you see is the current call to action for women today?

NP: I think that women have to know how important they are. Not that women are better than men, but the mix is a beautiful thing and you get a better result. I think that we will have a woman president soon. I hope that Hillary Clinton will decide to run, because I think that will bring that day closer to us… I do think that we will be required to be taken into a direc- tion where the American people are so far ahead of the Congress. And as I said to you before, I always thought we would have a woman president before we would have a woman speaker of the House, because of the way this system has been so male-dominated and the American people are far ahead on that score. So I see us on a path. I think it will be very important to our country, to women and little girls in our country, and to everyone in our country and the world, to see our country join the ranks of those who have women leaders.

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The post Nancy Pelosi: What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? appeared first on BEST SELF.

Nadia Lopez transforms her life — and that of a struggling neighborhood — through the school she founded

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Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville, Brooklyn was born from the journey of my self-discovery and desire to create a learning institution that would honor children. Considered amongst the most disadvantaged and violent of communities in New York City, hopelessness resonated from those who live here. I saw beyond the despair and found that in fact there was a sense of unwavering resilience. Ultimately, despite the circumstances that these children and their families faced — they wanted to be acknowledged and respected — and I wanted to work towards giving them what they deserved.

My students face adversities that most adults would never want to endure.

Whether it is being raised by a crack addict, having no food in their home, being sexually abused, or dealing with a number of other post-traumatic stress related issues, my work has been to provide a safe, loving, and nurturing learning environment. My experiences of being raised in a single-family household to becoming a single mother, allowed me to empathize with my students on a level that many would not be able to relate to.

When I was in my early twenties, I firmly believed that the measure of success was based upon what society hailed as the ‘American Dream’. By the time I was twenty-four, I finished college, owned a home, had my first child, and worked for a company that offered lucrative pay and benefits. From the outside everything looked perfect, but in reality I was living an absolute nightmare.

I was subjected to mental and physical abuse in my marriage, along with numerous acts of adultery. For those who knew me well, it was hard to believe that I would allow myself to endure such a toxic relationship. And yet, I never wanted to have my daughter experience growing up in a single-parent household. I knew all too well the feeling of hurt and disappointment when my parents separated when I was only in seventh grade. I kept up a good face, but on the inside I was ashamed and slowly spiraling into depression, which led me to be hospitalized briefly.

I knew in that moment I was not living my best self and I needed to be in a space where I would just think, breathe and learn to love myself without the fear of judgment from others.

I found the solitude I needed visiting friends in Georgia. For nearly three months I stayed with them and their family, overcoming emotional pain and rebuilding my faith.

When I returned to New York, I returned to my corporate job, but I missed the time spent with my daughter. I wondered about her school-age years and whether she would experience a teacher whose classroom encouraged a love for learning and inspired greatness? The question came across my mind almost every day, until I finally made the decision to pursue a career in education through an alternative teaching program, which allowed me to teach while earning a degree in Special Education. Finally, I was pursuing my passion and my marriage seemed to be improving, until a year later when my then husband woke up one morning to tell me he was no longer in love and decided he needed to be happy. I felt betrayed and unable to face my students who I needed to teach that day. It took all of the energy and courage for me to drive to work, only to sit in my car for nearly an hour crying because I felt like a failure. It was in that moment I saw the school’s principal. She looked me in the eyes and asked, “What’s wrong?” With a heavy heart, I responded, “He says he doesn’t love me anymore and that he’s leaving to be happy.”

Without hesitation, she reminded me of all the children who showed up every day, seeking my love and guidance.

So, even if one person didn’t care to value who I am, the children in the school will remind me and never let me forget. That day, those words and the children in my classroom saved my life. I realized then and there that my happiness was not contingent upon one man, but actually living in my purpose.

Over time, my personal experience led me to design and implement programs that would focus on the social-emotional aspect of learning. I created a club for girls that would allow them the opportunity to receive mentorship, while giving them a safe space to share and work through their struggles. For the first time, I realized how much pain existed within our classrooms and that these children had no guidance or support to deal with it.

Three years later, I became the founding teacher at an all-girls school where my mission became to empower girls of color through education and mold them into leaders who would impact their communities. It was one of the most rewarding experiences and profound moments in my life. The girls, who ranged from eleven to thirteen years of age, were inquisitive, impressionable, and remarkable.

I saw myself in each of those beautiful girls and decided that they would learn the power of self-love, forgiveness, and not worrying about the judgment of others.

Twice a week I conducted a leadership workshop, then managed an after-school club that taught life skills. On any given day more than thirty girls would attend.

Being with my girls all day gave me great joy, but I longed for a co-ed setting because I knew that our young men needed just as much support as our young women — we needed to heal our communities as a whole. Reflecting on my relationship, I wondered how many missed opportunities there were for so many of our young men to receive mentorship and the guidance to manage their own personal issues. In many ways I knew that education would be the platform for me to offer hope and the love that so many children needed in their most formidable years.

It’s been six years since Mott Hall Bridges Academy opened its doors and has become a beacon of hope for the community of Brownsville. I have created She Is Me for our girls, and also I Matter, to provide our boys with positive models through mentoring and the opportunity to engage in dialogue about issues that impact their community.

My first graduation class is now headed to their senior year of high school, preparing for college, while I make room for our new incoming sixth graders.

Imagine, out of the pain of one man walking away — doors have opened for so many children to walk in — and fill my heart.

Isn’t life curiously divine that way? When we are willing to see things differently — we make room for endless opportunity. Every action matters. What thing could you do in your community? When we heal one person, we heal us all.

*Editor’s Note:

Little did I know, but Nadia Lopez was already in my house — here on my coffee table, featured in the iconic Humans of New York Stories. ~ Kristen Noel

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Michelle Long champions localism, local economies and values-driven enterprise as keys to a strong economy

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It’s the second time in a month that I have the pleasure of being in the audience as Michelle Long, Executive Director of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), delivers the Keynote Speech. It is the second time that she closes her address with raw, unrehearsed emotion and real, honest tears as she implores us to keep love and humanity in our business practices. Before her, is a sea of entrepreneurs, small-business owners, innovators, artists, farmers, alternative healers, artisans, community activists and notable movers and shakers in the worlds of localism, slow money and slow food. It is clear she is moved by her ability to engage and influence a group of people who have the potential to enact positive change. Her gratitude and slight surprise, as if she’s caught off guard by her own power, is charming. Every pair of eyeballs is riveted at the podium, where a petite, brown-haired, bright-faced woman with a wide smile has just brought her audience to their feet.

How does she do it? Michelle possesses a rare combination of passion and humility that is endearing to everyone she meets. She comes from a place of authenticity that projects a deep and profound understanding of the inner workings of humanity — a place at which the rest of us can only strive to arrive.

She does this magical thing where she asks “What if…” questions to get your imagination going, and instantly you are with her as you envision a better world together.

Asking such questions is a tried and true practice for Michelle Long. By asking “What if…” and then imagining the possibilities, Michelle has been able to create and follow a professional path that aligns with her mission to make a difference. A mission that has been the driving force behind her life’s work.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Michelle. A day earlier, she had received a standing ovation (and countless hugs) for her keynote speech at a fundraising event for ReThink Local, the BALLE network in New York’s Hudson Valley, for which I was the start-up Outreach Director, and now serve on the Advisory Board. After spending 5 years working in the realm of localism, I view Michelle Long as a personal hero; she’s a true rock star of the new economy, with legions of loyal followers. I felt honored to spend quality time with her, and started my interview by asking her how she got involved with localism.

When Michelle was an MBA student in the ‘90s, she co-founded World2Market, a values-based ecommerce enterprise as a way to enable folks to meet the people behind the products they purchased online. She asked herself, “What if you could see and have a relationship with the people that created the products you bought, enabling you to fully understand how that company’s decisions and policies impacted women/children/the planet? You could then make purchasing choices based on that information, and support those products that had favorable practices aligned with your values.” What is now commonly known as social enterprise — organizations that apply commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being — was not on most people’s radar when Michelle was starting her company.

She was quite ahead of the times, and her innovative approach to business garnered high praise and significant investment from the venture capital world. As Michelle explains, “It didn’t lead to lots of sales, but we did get lots of attention.” Her company was rewarded with splashy covers on The Wall Street Journal, features on CNN and other news outlets, as well as the notable honor of having then President Bill Clinton make his first ecommerce purchase on her site. However, Michelle quickly saw that her efforts were slow to make significant change with the world issues that she valued.

It became clear to her that local commerce, vs. a global internet company, would be better positioned to connect with customers, and would make for more engaged relationships that ultimately would affect more of the mission-based change Michelle was seeking.

So she closed up shop and started asking more “What if” questions.

At first, Michelle thought she would move somewhere in the world to a small community and make a difference there, but quickly changed her mind. In her modest, self-deprecating style, Michelle asked herself, “Wait, who do I think I am? I don’t even know any other languages!” So she shifted gears and took a look around her community in Washington State, and decided to make a difference in her own backyard. She asked, “What if businesses came together to address what’s happening here at home and focused on what our own community cared about? What if our values could be baked into our businesses and we’d help each other do this?” Michelle hit a nerve. Better, she hit the nail on the head, and found there was a hunger for just such a thing. So she started an organization called Sustainable Connections in Bellingham WA, and set about creating what NPR would eventually dub, the “epicenter of a new economic model.”

At the same time, the first national coalition of values-led businesses called the Social Venture Network was struggling with a common dilemma. Young, socially conscious businesses would take investment dollars they thought they needed to grow bigger to compete head on with business as usual. But in order to pay the investment back, they would potentially have to go public, or even sell their company, often losing the original mission in the process. To combat this, some business leaders within SVN began to identify a need for businesses to stay rooted in a place, be committed to that place, and to be supported by other businesses in that place, all trying to do the same thing. They asked their own “What if…” question:

“What if we had a network of local networks, connected all across the nation, working together, sharing best practices and focusing on local growth and prosperity?”

When Michelle Long was introduced to members of the SVN Board, including Judy Wicks (known as the Mother of Localism), she knew just how to help them with their big vision to create a global network of community networks, and Michelle was put in place as Executive Director of BALLE. She has been in that position for the past 15 years, except for a six-year period when she gave birth to and began to raise her daughter, focusing on making her local network a model during that time. Recently, Michelle helped usher in a leadership shift at BALLE to become a Trio, and Michelle is now one of three leaders. From their website, “The Trio model ensures that our leaders are in distinct and complementary right roles, while operating from consensus to hold the whole, together.” Pam Chaloult runs Operations from the Oakland, CA based headquarters where she heads up the staff, Christine Ageton directs Programming and Strategy, and Michelle is the Vision–Keeper with focus on Outreach.

When I interviewed Michelle, she was in the process of touring individual communities of businesses that share BALLE values (there are now hundreds in north America), and pitching in any way that would best serve the needs of each organization. This includes giving keynote speeches, sitting on expert panels, doing meet-and-greets, and hosting fundraisers. Wherever she goes, she brings along a positive message that includes disseminating hard data (Spoiler alert – Localism is proven effective!), introducing useful parables and spreading stories that matter, and basically serving as a vocal, upbeat ambassador for the localism movement.

Localism is defined on the BALLE website as being “about building communities that are more healthy and sustainable — backed by local economies that are stronger and more resilient. It means we use regional resources to meet our needs – reconnecting eaters with farmers, investors with entrepreneurs, and business owners with the communities and natural places on which they depend. It recognizes that not one of us can do it alone and that we’re all better off, when we’re all better off.” The demonstrated benefits of a vibrant local economy include more wealth and jobs per capita, and greater personal accountability for the health and well-being of the natural and human communities of which we are a part. In her role as BALLE spokesperson, Michelle aims to spread the word on the benefits of taking this place-based approach in the New Economy.

The ‘Taking it to the People’ tour (I called it that in our interview and Michelle liked the ring of it) marks a significant shift from many years of having an Annual BALLE Conference where one or two members of each network would come together for a few days, meet representatives from other networks, and then go back home to share what they learned. “Instead of focusing our energy on one event in one place, this year we’ll be exploring new ways of reaching, connecting, and nourishing local economy leaders and allies in their places.” Although Michelle admits that she always had a “game-changing blast” at the conferences, she values the opportunity to meet so many more people involved in the networks and to immerse herself in the culture and practices that make each network unique.

There has been another significant shift in the BALLE organization, and this one is near and dear to Michelle’s heart. Originally BALLE was set up with a Membership model, or a “pay-to-play” construct. Together, members hoisted the flag of localism and raised awareness about the struggling economy and the challenges facing local businesses. As Michelle tells it, “We were saying, ‘Hey, there’s a problem, but imagine what we can accomplish if we all worked together.’” However, as BALLE grew, their members, like the founders, were mainly white, middle-class businesses whose owners came together to localize their purchasing, to collaborate to make more of what their communities needed, and to use their businesses as a force for community good.

This, Michelle says, was “not the fullness of what needed to happen in order for BALLE to enact significant change toward healthy, equitable local economies.”

We are told by Maggie Anderson, author of Our Black Year, that in her community, ‘buying local’ would be buying from business owners who pulled bars over their shop windows at night and then drove home to their own communities. Without prioritizing a level playing field and expanding ownership and wealth creation in communities of color and places of persistent poverty, we would never see real change. She and the other BALLE leaders decided to identify and follow those who were innovating most in places where the economy had worked the least. These measures included changing the core role of BALLE itself. Michelle describes it as, “We changed from being ‘Consultants’ who guided one form of network along the same path of start-up to development, to becoming more ‘Connectors and Conduits of Information’. We are not the ‘experts’ on everything that works – but we do see the patterns and can align people and communities with resources, tools, and connections.” So, in order to gain broader and deeper engagement, BALLE has shifted their model to one of all-access, and created initiatives which support their goal of creating local economies that work for all.

Two initiatives of which Michelle is most proud are the Local Economy Fellowship Program and the new Well-Being in Business Lab. When asked what the significant takeaways were from each program, Michelle says,

Through the Local Economy Fellowship Program, we learned that there are lots of models that can advance localism, in addition to the network model on which BALLE was originally set up to teach. Examples include micro-enterprise, technical assistance groups, food hubs, social justice organizations, local investment clubs, place-based impact investing and more. We have identified ‘Fellows’ who represent the direction we believe we need to go as a nation and a planet. Each are connecting community networks and working to bring more accountability, personal relationships and compassion to business. We have now identified, connected and nourished leaders from more than 100 communities, and we are telling their stories so that others can see a path forward.

When asked about the purpose behind the Well-Being in Business Lab, Michelle says, “We swim in an invisible sea — we are all a part of a history of oppression and extractive economies – and it is basically embodied in each of us as unconscious behavior. We have to purposefully build awareness of, and transform these habits, if we are actually going to move past our fear, past scarcity, and past the impulse to build bigger walls between each other.” The Well-Being in Business Lab is a profound initiative focused on cultivating connection in business leaders. It is based on the latest in scientific research from the Greater Good Science Center, which finds that regardless of demographics, humans’ well-being derives primarily from four scenarios:

1. When we feel connected to our self and our purpose.
2. When we feel connected to each other.
3. When we feel connected in reverence to the larger natural world.
4. When we are being generous.

When asked about the takeaways from this program, Michelle shares that it is just getting started, but a growing number of communities and organizations are joining with BALLE to start their meetings, workdays, retreats, etc., with connection exercises and ‘parables’ — real business stories that are meant to light up our imagination. BALLE provides these and increasingly, communities are coming up with their own. Michelle says, “The world is facing unprecedented challenge — in many ways it is going to get harder. With that knowledge, we see it as our right and even our responsibility to practice and imagine the world that we want so we are better able to innovate from this place in our work, and in our society.” She explains that companies such as Eileen Fisher, and organizations like Etsy.org and Social Venture Institute have already adopted this practice into their culture. “It’s about doing business in a different way — one that takes into account our common humanity,” Michelle explains.

For some, this new way of thinking shatters time-honored, traditional business tenets. Michelle riffs off a list of these as she makes her voice sound deeper and more restricted: “’Business as Usual’, ‘Bigger is better’, ‘Every man for himself’, ’Top of the Pile’, ‘Compete at all costs’, ‘Single bottom line’, ‘What’s in it for me?’” Michelle believes that these old ways of thinking destroy what’s precious on this planet. Naysayers of the localist movement come from a place of fear, and believe that you need to have a cutthroat mentality to succeed and be profitable. But the good news, as Michelle is touring the country to share, is that there is now real, hard data to support just the opposite.

Michelle explains, “After 10-15 years of localist practices in the new economy, there is now research that offers the proof — localism works.

Harvard Business Review, Economic Development Quarterly and other publications are spreading the word that there is indeed a direct correlation between the most jobs and the most wealth for the most people, and the density and diversity of local ownership per place. So, if you want more jobs and more wealth for more people, focus on local ownership. It’s that simple.”

Another critical data point has to do with job creation. Michelle refers to a Small Business Administration study that has researched job creation over the past decade and found that “all net job creation came from businesses with fewer than 20 employees. We are talking about microbusinesses! Despite all the economic development dollars and tax breaks going to big corporations, it is the small businesses that are doing the work of actually growing the economy.”

Finally, Michelle reveals that there is now evidence that when a community welcomes immigrants, their economy grows. “It’s true,” she says, “when a community brings in immigrants, more businesses are started and average incomes rises for everyone.“ For many folks, this information flies in the face of what they think they know to be the case.

As our interview comes to a close, I ask Michelle if she believes it’s our “civic duty” to engage in and support our local communities. I offer to her that I bring house guests out to the shops and restaurants in my town (Woodstock, NY) whenever they visit, infusing my local economy with outside dollars. I also volunteer for local nonprofits, and do my best to support local, independent enterprises over the big box stores, because I want to live where my neighbors share in prosperity. (Clearly I think it is one’s duty.) In a way that is very endearing, she answers me by quoting Abe Lincoln: “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ” Closing with a parable — true Michelle Long style.

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Despite our best efforts at conscious ecological responsibility, we are, in fact, each an environmental liability

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I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.

Henry David Thoreau in Walden, Or Life in the Woods 1854

In my article in the anniversary issue of this magazine I questioned if anyone could make a difference in saving our ailing planet. Well, I do think there are a few rare breeds that can kick-start a mass movement that can begin to make that difference. Unfortunately, one of the most capable individuals, Dr. Wayne Dyer, is no longer with us. Call me a dreamer, but I envisioned that one day he would lead the charge.

Why would Dr. Dyer be that catalyst? Other than the fact that he was such an inspirational figure, it was he that turned me on to a gratifyingly clever poem that sheds light on the source of our most pressing environmental conundrums.

But in order to explain how that poem fits into a potential paradigm-shifting plan that could stem the tide of ecological disruption, I’ll first discuss a chapter in Dr. Dyer’s book, Wisdom of the Ages, that he fittingly titled, Reverence for Nature. In that, he quotes several sage native elders who often wrote about an innate ecological awareness that life, and everything in it, is part of a cycle or sacred loop.

We humans exchange the same breath (i.e., oxygen and carbon dioxide) as the plants and animals we share the planet with.

It was his belief that we are one with our surroundings, our environment. He noted how we are not separate from it, and that the majority of us have lost “much of our grace and naturalness in the name of civilization,” frenzied by the hustle and bustle of city life.

As a biologist focused on environmental concerns, human attitudes and human nature, I wholeheartedly concur!

And in this astute poem that Dr. Dyer frequently recited, Valerie Cox hits the nail on the head as far as how even some of us well-intentioned environmentally-minded folks are not the solution we think we are… but part of the problem.

Cox couldn’t have put it more simply, yet it speaks volumes as to who exactly is contributing to many of our environmental woes.

The Cookie Thief

by Valerie Cox

A woman was waiting at an airport one night,

With several long hours before her flight.

She hunted for a book in the airport shops,

Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,

That the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be,

Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between,

Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.

So she munched the cookies and watched the clock,

As the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.

She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,

Thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye.”

With each cookie she took, he took one too,

When only one was left, she wondered what he would do.

With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,

He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other;

She snatched it from him and thought… oooh, brother.

This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude,

Why he didn’t even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled,

And sighed with relief when her flight was called.

She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,

Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.

She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat,

Then she sought her book, which was almost complete.

As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise,

There was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.

If mine are here, she moaned in despair,

The others were his, and he tried to share.

Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,

That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

The environmental significance of the Cookie Thief poem comes from the fact that, in one way or another, we all contribute to environmental stressors — we are all environmental cookie thieves. And somewhat sheepishly, I must readily admit that there are times that I, too, am part of the problem!

Case in point: just by living in remote Alaska, my carbon footprint is substantial — most everything has to be flown into my tiny village by large cargo planes.

Much of my travel involves flying somewhere, or sitting atop a pollution-emitting 2-cycle snow machine. (It’s estimated that aviation contributes five percent of all human related CO2 emissions, and the shipping industry generates another three percent.)

Also, the fresh romaine lettuce I eat often comes from California’s San Joaquin Valley, where agricultural interests extract large quantities of water from the Sacramento River. There, Chinook salmon numbers have recently plummeted to the point where some stocks are listed as threatened, while others have dipped so low that they are classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Likewise, the delta smelt found in San Francisco Bay are on the verge of extinction. Normally, the perfusion of cold river water entering the bay helps maintain optimal estuarine water temperatures and enriches the oxygen content. Without that influx of water, smelt are forced to live under suboptimal conditions. The drought also results in increased salinity levels, exacerbates impacts from pollution, and allows predators easier access to the smelt.

What, then, would the solution be to many of mankind’s environmental quandaries? The answer could lay in the wise words of of Henry David Thoreau, who wrote often about living more simply and in harmony with nature. His advice to “Simplify, simplify” was often quoted by Dr. Dyer.

I believe we could truly make a difference by simplifying our lives, by getting back to our lost contact with nature and the basics.

What that means is not only getting away from the ubiquitous throwaway consumer culture, but also ridding ourselves of our opulent tendencies and becoming more frugal in our desires; in other words, we must understand the difference between a want and a need.

In comparing the human race with the other organisms with which we share this planet with, a high proportion of the energy that we expend is purely for pleasurable activities that produce unnecessary CO2 and other harmful byproducts.

In dramatic contrast, every other organism wastes little, if any, energy while simply striving to exist.

Homo sapiens, i.e., the wise ones, must fully understand that the quality of life of future generations depends on the actions of this generation and recognize that the pursuit of unlimited economic growth will ultimately contribute to our demise.

But simplifying our lives will do more than help the environment. It can reduce the stress and anxiety that the fast pace of life heaps upon every one of us, thereby fostering better health, higher consciousness and a deeper inner peace. Face it, if you can’t take care of yourself, you’re not going to be able to take care of your surroundings.

Dr. Dyer concludes Reverence for Nature with several recommendations: Promote ecological awareness, make a conscious effort to reduce pollution, live by example and most importantly, know that

“individual actions can re-create respect and reverence for earth and the universe, our sacred web of life.”

I expect that Dr. Dyer would have readily admitted that he was an environmental cookie thief, as we all are. In his wake, I hope that others as influential as he will step forth and admit that they, too, are environmental cookie thieves and persuade a critical number of us that we all must do our part to leave our planet in a healthier state for future generations.

Photographs of Alaska by Dave Cannon

You may also enjoy reading An Awakening of the Soul, of Humanity, of our Relationship with Earth by Nejoud Al-Yagout

The post The Environmental Cookie Thief | Our Environmental Liability appeared first on BEST SELF.

The best prescription is often right outside

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Nowadays everything has a brand and marketing campaign. What about nature?

Justin Bogardus, writer/director of Nature Rx

What is at the root of all life’s ills? As a filmmaker, I was inspired to explore this question that is at the heart of our life/health/well-being struggles. What I found is that for many of us, we feel a profound sense of disconnection from ourselves and the world around us. We all understand on an intuitive level that getting outside in nature is good for us (and now there’s been an explosion of scientific research to support that position). What we are learning is that beyond nature’s purely curative effects is a sense of mindfulness — a sense of being present — that we experience that makes us more connected to our true selves and the world at large. The more connected we feel, the better we feel.

Going outside is one of the best ways I’ve found to expand my field of awareness and perspective. A simple act of wandering in the woods may not seem at first glance like a vital activity, but the benefits to our physical and mental wellbeing are immense. As my satirical commercial Nature Rx  declares:

 “Side effects of nature may cause you to slow down, be in a good mood for no apparent reason, and reduce anal-retentiveness.

It may even lead to spontaneous euphoria (for euphoria lasting more than 4 hours you can check your work email or consult your doctor).” 

Many of us consciously and unconsciously look to commercials for solutions to what ails us in our lives. By portraying nature as a medication in a spoof of a prescription drug commercial, Nature Rx humorously conveys what we forget so easily: our healing and enriching need to connect to ourselves and the natural world around us. We all know laughter and getting outside are two timeless prescriptions for whatever ails us — especially now when statistics reveal that chickens and prisoners spend more time outdoors than the average American child.

I think we are just scratching the surface of using satire to sell an important message. I’m very excited about our next project, Nature Rx Kids — a series of fun, cheeky short videos in an ad campaign to highlight the disconnection and health concerns for children and families today. In a time when kids on average spend 7.5 hours a day in front of screens, there’s a great need to bring some prescription doses of laughter and encouragement to this disturbing childhood development issue.

Humans need nature; we are in fact an integral part of it — incontrovertibly intertwined. In ways we are only beginning to fully grasp, being outside grounds us, balances us and cures us. We have an obligation to both appreciate and protect nature – so go ahead and ask your doctor if being outdoors is right for you. Or better yet… head on out and check it out for yourself. Take a walk on the wild side.

Learn more at NatureRx

You may also enjoy reading Forest Bathing: How Immersing in Nature Can Help You Reconnect, by Tess DiNapoli

The post Nature Rx | The Healing Power Of Nature appeared first on BEST SELF.

Learning from youth activism: 3 case studies to guide us forward

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Who do you consult for guidance or confirmation to determine that you are on the best path? We may often look inside ourselves, up to a higher power, or to an experienced guru. Have you considered actively listening to the generation coming along behind us?

Are we listening?

Young people need to be, want to be, and are already involved in creating solutions to many of our most pressing and complicated challenges. Yet even I, as an advocate and career coach for teens and young adults for over 15 years, sometimes forget to pause and learn from those I am guiding.

Recently, I decided to delve behind the news headlines of several inspiring high school students to learn more about their remarkable personal journeys. The three stories address some of today’s most intense, hot-bed social issues that young people are caught smack in the middle of — natural disasters, racism, and gay rights. The life lessons that evolved out of our conversations demonstrate the sparkling reciprocity that can occur when we take the time to hear what the youth of today are trying to tell us.

Lesson #1: Reach as far as you can (and then a bit further)

April 25, 2015: Nepal experiences the worst natural disaster in its history. Do you know where your high school-aged son is? For the parents of seventeen-year-old Matt Moniz, the answer is on Mt. Everest, struggling through an avalanche.

The majority of cell towers across Nepal were destroyed after the catastrophic earthquake, which claimed over 9,000 lives, including at least 19 who were on Mt. Everest. When the boulders of snow ceased pounding down the mountain, Matt Moniz was still shaking as he glanced at his phone and realized that he had one bar of cell service. He immediately texted his father a message that he hoped would reach him at their home in Colorado.

“Are you there?”

That text would be the only message that Matt could get through for several days after surviving the avalanche and aftershocks that followed. Those three words, when received by his father, were a huge relief in their confirmation that his son was alive.

Matt has been an experienced alpinist and humanitarian since a very young age. In fact, he received recognition as “Adventurer of the Year” by National Geographic around age 13 and has raised funding for a number of causes including the prevention of girl trafficking in the Himalaya. He also maintains a captivating blog about his age-defying climbing accomplishments on treacherous mountains, including setting a speed record for completing all 50 of the United States High Points. Even so, no one could have predicted that his struggles on Mt. Everest this time would trigger such a personal transformation and awaken a calling.

When reunited with his father, Matt was presented with two airplane tickets and a choice. One would take him back to the comforts of his family, friends, and stable ground in Colorado. The other ticket would take him to Kathmandu, where major aftershocks persisted, thousands were injured, and many more survivors were suffering without homes, electricity, food, and medicine. “It was a really challenging decision,” Matt recalls, “I had already been gone for three weeks and had experienced so much…

“I was so stressed out with everything. But ultimately I needed to see this entire thing through. So I gave the ticket home back to my dad.”

Matt returned to areas that the Nepal earthquake left in total destruction. Along with his climbing partner, he assisted the relief efforts of the U.N. World Food Program and the International Organization for Migration. After several intense weeks, Matt traveled home and began rallying his community and others to send donations to nepalrising.org.

In retrospect, one of Matt’s biggest frustrations during the aftermath of the earthquake was that he was limited in how he could help survivors. He had no professional medical skills. As a result, Matt will soon be taking paramedical courses and plans to return to Nepal in the spring to follow up on the relief initiative that he helped found. His entire climbing team has also put their expeditions on hold for the rest of the year. Instead, they are dedicating their resources to raising funds for the survivors that need support and doing what they can to help people remember the needs of Nepal.

Matt went way beyond his comfort zone and continues to push himself.

The Nepalese people have literally lost every single thing they own, every single one of their worldly possessions, and they are still so thankful and grateful. That is what helped me realize that this is way bigger than me.  

~ Matt Moniz

 Lesson #2: Heed the call: believe fiercely in your vision

Only a few days following Nepal’s devastating earthquake, there was a different type of turmoil unfolding across the globe in Baltimore, Maryland. After the arrest and funeral of Freddie Gray, the city was experiencing a catastrophic breakdown of public trust that led to streets brimming with violence. Fortunately, there was another bright light, 17- year-old Darius Craig, bringing inspiration to an overwhelming situation.

The urge to take action started to escalate for Darius when he realized he was only three blocks away from a burning building. As a student leader at Digital Harbor High School, many students were turning to him during the crisis. While the media was filled with images of young black men, reacting to the shooting by throwing rocks, setting fires, looting, and rioting, Darius maintained a different vision.

A powerful idea came to him that would serve as a constructive outlet for many who wanted to get involved but did not know how to proceed.

“I decided, you know what were going to do? We’re going to march!”

He then urged his fellow high school students and peers to use peaceful actions that would show others that young people in Baltimore are “positive citizens.” He contacted several of his friends and told them about his idea for a nonviolent march from their school to city hall. From there, a groundswell of support started to rise from teachers, public workers, and other community members.

All the signs used at the march were made by students. Messages that promoted an Us vs. Them mentality were absent. Instead, they conveyed unity and peace, proclaiming “One Baltimore,” “We Love Baltimore,” and “Voice Not Violence.”

It was one hour before the planned march when Darius took pen to paper as more inspiration kicked in. When it came to deliver the speech, a connection to something greater than himself took over. Darius realized, “It was more than words. This was my vision. This is what I knew we needed to do at this time. This is what I knew about my city. I love Baltimore and I knew that I had to give the speech in the best way possible.”

Hundreds participated in the march that day. Afterwards, it surprised Darius that people were coming up to him requesting copies of his speech. When he looks back, he remembers…

“As I was delivering it, I noticed that more and more people who didn’t even start out with us became part of the crowd. It was so humbling to me that these people, who didn’t know anything about me and had no prior knowledge about the march, stood there and listened.”

“People from all different spectrums came out. Black. White. Christian. Muslim. Gay. Straight. It was such a unifying moment.”

Darius’ dream is to be a public worker and create a nonprofit to help the under-represented urban youth in Baltimore rise above the stereotypes.

I use my leadership and my voice to help others, and I think that, more than anything else, has pushed me. My voice has gotten me this far and I want to use it to help people go further.  

~ Darius Craig

Lesson #3: Be who you are meant to be and allow others to do the same

At about the same time as the Baltimore events last spring, a pair of best friends in Las Vegas, Nevada, also ignited a new conversation between Jacob Lescenski and Anthony Martinez, two high school students whose strong friendship and absolute acceptance of each other was captured on a video that went viral on the Internet. Jacob, who is straight, asked Anthony, who is gay, to be his prom date. The sign Jacob created for his best friend read, “You’re hella gay, I’m hella str8, but you’re like my brother, so be my date?” The manner in which Jacob surprised his best friend, and the authentic hug the two shared, created a media sensation.

Jacob and Anthony unexpectedly found themselves invited to appear on Ellen and highlighted in the Huffington Post, on CNN, and by Teen Vogue. Shout-outs to them from other celebrities were posted on social media and they were also honored at a Human Rights Campaign Gala for “opening hearts and minds around the world.”

With a gleam of enthusiasm in his eyes, Anthony noted that “It’s been a warm welcoming to see all the open minds and how affected so many people are by it. When this thing first blew up we would get tons of messages such as ‘Thank you so much, I just came out to my family,’ ‘My friends are now accepting me for who I am because they saw this promposal’ and ‘You helped me see how easy it is to be a friend to someone in the LGTB community.’” Jacob grins in agreement but also admits:

 Until I hit sophomore year when I met Anthony, I wasn’t for or against gay rights. It wasn’t something I bothered to think about or deal with and I just let people be who they want to be. Then Anthony became my best friend. I learned about the hate he received growing up and the issues he had to go through to get to this point.  

~ Jacob Lescenski

Both teens have been astonished by the support from the public at large. But as Jacob explains about the “promposal” moment…

“We didn’t know people were taking pictures or that it would be that impactful.”

Anthony elaborates further, “It was genuine. We weren’t trying to get popular. I knew Jacob just cared. That hug he gave me — it was a real hug. It wasn’t for a picture. I couldn’t have cared less about that.”

While the widespread attention (and over 2 million YouTube views) has been overwhelming, Jacob and Anthony are determined to stay grounded, true to themselves, and focused on helping others. They are continuing to stay highly involved in leadership opportunities at their school, including the student council, debate team, sports, and other roles where their service focuses on making everyone feel welcome and accepted. They are also dedicating more time to several organizations including aMasongraceproject, Zero Teen Fatalities, and Straight But Not Narrow.

Jacob envisions the possibility of a future where people “accept everyone for who they are.” Anthony is now even more assured that “genuine acts of kindness, whether they are big or small, matter.”

I treasure the life lessons reinforced from sharing time and talking with these four giving, brave, and resilient students. Each reminded me that young people aspire to be included in the current conversations about our society’s best path forward. The voice of youth can help activate others to rise up during an intense time when so many are stuck in fear or other forms of darkness.

All we have to do is be willing to engage and listen.

Are you there?

You may also enjoy reading 4 reasons we need youth as the leaders of today by Steven Culbertson

The post Youth Activism | Are You There? Messages From Our Future appeared first on BEST SELF.

Dave Cannon, a fish biologist in Alaska, shares the devasting state of fish and the fishing industry, and urgent need for environmental action

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One doesn’t have to delve too deeply to see that, as a whole, fish biologists haven’t done a stellar job of sustaining fish populations… and I’m not just talking the U.S., but worldwide. It’s not necessarily our fault, however; it has a lot to do with psychology. Fish, for the most part, are out of sight and therefore out of mind. They also tend to be cold-blooded, which is not an endearing quality to the average person, and they definitely don’t have engaging eyelashes like Bambi or the majority of their other more alluring terrestrial counterparts. The fact is that people, because of human nature and inherent biases, just treat aquatic species differently.

As a consequence, it’s estimated that approximately two-thirds of the predatory fish in the marine environment have drastically declined in the past 40 years — mostly from overfishing (don’t get me going about the annual senseless slaughter of over 30 million sharks, just for their fins!). Unfortunately, there are implications throughout the food chain beyond the desirable species that consumers like to eat; cascading effects can disrupt entire ecosystems.

At one time it’s estimated that between 10 and 16 million salmon and steelhead annually traversed the mighty Columbia River to their ancestral spawning grounds — some as far upstream as 900 miles to headwater streams like the Salmon River in Idaho or 1,200 miles to Southwest British Columbia. The endangered sockeye salmon of Redfish Lake, Idaho, that travel that 900 miles are hanging on by a thread, while the Canadian-bound salmon have been totally wiped out by numerous hydroelectric dams. A colleague, Robert Lackey, wrote an article titled Defending Reality regarding the salmon of the Pacific Northwest, in which he concluded:

Given the predicted human population increase, the overall, long-term, downward trend in wild salmon abundance is nearly certain unless there are spectacular changes in the lifestyles of the region’s inhabitants.  

Other marine concerns include pollution, especially estuarial “dead zones” (e.g., the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River and Chesapeake Bay; however, there are over 140 worldwide), and possibly the most significant, the all-expansive threat of ocean acidification brought on by the increase of human-generated levels of CO2.

If that’s not bad enough, fishes of the fresh water environs are actually doing worse — all because of a multitude of anthropogenic stressors (anthropos is Greek for man); some of those causes include the introduction of exotic species and habitat degradation or alteration, which includes water withdrawals, pollution, and dam construction (hydroelectric power is not the clean energy source it’s touted to be).

Although fishes and other aquatic species and their ecosystems have always captivated my interests, environmental concerns don’t end at the water’s edge. Overall, biological diversity is declining at an alarming rate; so much so that conservation biologists estimate that the current extinction rate is over 1,000 times greater than if humans weren’t part of the equation. Subsequently, some scientists contend that we have left the Holocene epoch and entered the “Anthropocene” (in geologic parlance, Holocene means “wholly recent” and is used to designate the last 12,000 years of existence on our planet).

It’s a little ironic because the Latin interpretation of our species name — Homo sapiens — means “man who knows” or “the wise ones.” Not to sound arrogant, but as a biologist, I firmly believe that, in general, we all need to wise up and realize that all of us, in one way or another, are irrevocably fouling our life-sustaining nest in a number of ways.

And for those who contend that nature is resilient…you’re right, but it’s not infinitely resilient!

Ever since returning to college a quarter century ago while in my mid-thirties to be a fish biologist with the naïve intent to “save the fishes”, most of my efforts have been focused on heightening people’s awareness of environmental issues. Unfortunately, in the big scheme of things, I’ve come up empty-handed and have wondered if anyone can make the difference that’s needed.

If you’ve been paying attention, you should have deduced that I’m not alone. As noted by that escalating extinction rate, a similar fate has befallen the entire scientific community. According to Randy Olson, a marine biologist turned filmmaker, we scientists are partly to blame. He notes that as a group, we tend to be way too cerebral — often lacking humor, emotion, and passion. (Oscar Wilde once said, “If you’re going to tell people the truth, make them laugh – otherwise they’ll kill you.”)

It also doesn’t help that the average person has enough stress in their lives that they often tend to avoid bad news. Jon Franklin, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, had this to say in his book Writing for Story: Successful stories generally have happy endings because the public has a maudlin craving to believe that everything is quite all right when the world is obviously going to hell in a hand basket.

Given that the extinction rate won’t be leveling off anytime soon, I’ve been on a personal crusade to make a game-changing difference regarding mankind’s attitude toward the environment.

I started out by trying to write a book about my experiences and insights over the past decade… one that incorporates the humor that Mr. Wilde referred to. The plan was to take a critical and irreverent look at the human race and human nature from a fish’s perspective; this piscis’s appellation was to be Cyprinid Cynicalis (Cyprinidae is the taxonomic grouping for the minnow family — hopefully you get the drift of his last name).

After numerous unsuccessful attempts to follow Mr. Franklin’s sage advice by climaxing with a cheerful ending, I asked myself if any book could actually succeed in turning the environmental tide these days… especially one based on the dire reality of the situation. I found myself asking, if Rachel Carson were alive today, would she have the influence that she did 50 years ago when she wrote her seminal book, Silent Spring, which launched modern environmentalism?

Not possessing a strong propensity for prose, I pursued help in the form of someone either mentoring me or telling my story for me! After countless failed attempts, I came upon a gifted writer (Joe McGinniss) who had written a “vivid memoir” about his time in Alaska nearly 35 years ago that turned out to be a best-seller.

Although willing to help, he didn’t see a literary relationship becoming a reality. Here’s a condensed version of the two email correspondences I had with Joe:

Dave —

Given the sorry state of publishing today, I see no possibility of getting a contract that would let me work with you on this.

I regret that, because I’d like to. But if I presented a proposal today for what became Going to Extremes, I wouldn’t even be rejected — I’d be ignored.  Likewise, a proposal for a book about “fishes and the environment.”  

Reading is on the way out.  The visual image is replacing the written word as the basic unit of communication.

Let me put it this way, and I mean no disrespect: in the current publishing environment (and it will only worsen, not improve), even I can’t get a book deal.  That’s after 12 books, six of which were NY Times best-sellers.  

I’m rooting for you, but there’s no way I can help you.

I would advise you to apply your considerable and valuable energies elsewhere.  

And I wish you the best,

~Joe

So it was back to the drawing board as far as trying to make a real difference

And back to Robert Lackey’s contention that “spectacular changes in the lifestyles” are needed to restore salmon of the Pacific Northwest.

Unfortunately, most things are a matter of scale, and the fish concerns are only a small part of bigger environmental quandaries, such as the loss of biological diversity and impending climate change.

What, realistically, could reach a lot of people? I’ve heard it said that the only two forces that can change the way people think and behave are religion and the arts. I’m a fan of the late Stephen Covey — author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — who professed, “Begin with the end in mind.” Subsequently, the only thing that I believe that has the potential to reach the masses with the right message is a full-length motion picture.

At the expense of sounding presumptuous, I think that my personal narrative, if told correctly, can get the average person to reflect on their place in the environment and never see themselves or the environment the same way again.

In a nutshell, it’s a (partially autobiographical) story about an unknown, unassuming, and possibly delusional biologist, living in the middle of nowhere, driven to make a difference by changing mankind’s behaviors:

Instead of having a mentor in the Forest Service, a fledgling fish biologist had a tormentor that set him up to fail at every possible juncture, both personally and professionally. His oppression — because of his insecurities brought on by a Napoleon complex — set our biologist on a 20-year path of misfortune and angst that ultimately ended in several debilitating bouts of anxiety and depression. However, it was a path that led to unique insights into why Homo sapiens — if we don’t take charge of ourselves psychologically — are incapable of averting widespread calamitous ecological and social disruption.        

I envision an amalgamation of A River Runs Through It, Patch Adams, Mr. Holland’s Opus, A Beautiful Mind, and Temple Grandin, with some Northern Exposure thrown in for humor so that you won’t kill me for telling you the truth… as per Mr. Wilde.

It’s only when you understand my personal paradigm will you see that “my story” is not really mine per se — it’s the environment’s story — it’s the story of us all.

If you are interested in helping to get this film produced or in learning more about my work, please visit my website.

[Editor’s Note: The author shared this video of Robert Redford addressing the UN regarding the urgency for environmental action]

You may also enjoy reading Mother Nature’s Hourglass: A Biologist Reminds Us That Time Is Running Out by Dave Cannon

The post A Fish Story: One Biologist’s Call To Environmental Action appeared first on BEST SELF.

Steven Culbertson, president and CEO of Youth Service America, explains why youth leadership is essential social change and global transformation

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The world has to offer today’s youth something better.
 –President Barack Obama

Whether you are considering the recent events in America’s cities, or those across the globe in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, young people’s voices are crying out to be heard.
A youth development “reformation” has been unfolding quietly under our noses for years, giving a proper burial to the Victorian concept that children are to be seen and not heard.

Today, more youth programs treat young people as assets and resources, as opposed to recipients, victims, or problems to be fixed. More youth are now at the leadership tables, just as we began to include women in previous generations, sharing their concerns and their suggestions for a better world. And they are volunteering at record rates, more than any generation in history.

But the world’s current events, especially poverty and terrorism, are shining a big spotlight on our slow pace of reform.

Every organization is taught to know its competition, and YSA (Youth Service America, of which the author is CEO) knows of several of ours: ISIS, al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Shining Path, Real Irish Republican Army, FARC, and more than 50 other terrorist organizations on the State Department list.

These groups recognize what kings and conquerors have known for millennia: young people make very effective warriors for achieving their ends.

YSA’s beliefs are the same worldwide: Children and youth, ages 5-25, are making their communities and the world healthier, smarter, safer, cleaner, greener, fairer, and kinder.

At YSA, we constantly say, “If you don’t have a youth strategy, you don’t have a strategy at all.” Fifteen years into the new century, many people still don’t understand why.

4 critical reasons why we must engage young people as soon as possible:

1. There are more young people on the planet than at any time in human history. Half the world’s population is under 25 years old; 40 percent is under 19. In a nutshell, we are outnumbered, but this gives me hope, since young people are always at the center of social progress. Yes, the youth bubble is on our side.
2. Young people are biologically wired for the three critical assets that lead to social improvement: novelty, risk, and peer authority. It’s no coincidence that UPS, Microsoft, Apple, HP, Bristol-Myers, and Dell were all started by teenagers on bicycles and in garages and dormitories. Brain science confirms the unique power of young people to see new things and then take the risks to bring them to the rest of us. Because young people listen to each other more than they listen to adults, they also bring their entire generation along with them. Yes, biology is on our side.
3. Every parent knows the intrinsic value of starting early, whether it’s reading, computation, music, sports, or the arts. What you learn and do in childhood will stay with you the rest of your life. In the same way, there is a deep connection between youth service and lifelong service and even philanthropy. Yes, childhood is on our side.
4. The world’s problems today are extremely complex and interrelated, driven by competing political, social, and economic forces. Climate change and humanity’s role are now backed by irrefutable science, and clean water, the essence of all life, is in scarce supply in many parts of the world. Simply put, we cannot afford for young people to grow up before they learn about and help solve our biggest challenges. No, time is not on our side.

At YSA, we believe in youth changing the world. Working with partners around the globe, we help young people find their voice, take action, and make an impact on vital community issues. Young people have always been at the center of social change, and we ignore their potential to reshape the world at our peril. If we in the civilized, law-abiding society do not engage them, someone else certainly will.

You may also enjoy this article on Youth Activism | Are You There? Messages From Our Future by Shea Ki

The post Youth Leadership | 4 Reasons We Need Youth as the Leaders of Today appeared first on BEST SELF.

Surviving the Hillsborough tragedy at the FA Cup in England as a boy of 16, Chris Arnold founded World Merit to develop and empower young global leaders

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April 15^th 1989 ended the lives of 96 people at a stadium in the UK; it also irreversibly influenced the lives of thousands, including me. I was at the semifinal of the FA Cup, a huge football (soccer) match in England. A series of errors by officials led to a tragedy inside the stadium, leaving so many people dead in the enclosure I was in. We were crushed because fans had been let into the stadium through the ”exit” gates and subsequently allowed into a tunnel leading to the already full terrace where I stood. It was a day that simply became known as ”Hillsborough.“ Ninety-six people between the ages of 10 and 67 died; brothers and sisters, friends and fathers. This is the day I first understood that life is short.

Like all those involved, my flashbacks and memories are many. For me the hardest memory, the one that often comes back to shake me, is that of a man who pleaded with me to give him space before he fell unconscious, pressed into my side, sliding slowly down beneath the mass of merging bodies.

We were trapped in a cage built to keep people from gaining access to a soccer pitch. As the crushing crowd moved me to just three or four bodies back from the fence at the front, a place where I thought everyone would be dead, I am still struck with shock and anger at what I saw.

Looking past the heads, past the pain, and past the vomit in the hair of people pressed against that front fence, I could see photographers snapping us, clicking away as we fought for breath and survival. Whatever they might say about their professional need to do their job, there was an essential need and room for them to help; rather, they took photos of us dying. There is no doubt that those people on the other side of a fence could have tried to save us, could have tried to get the emergency gates open, tried to pull on the fence to tear it down, but providing content for the following days newspapers was their focus. They simply had to choose — drop the camera and save a life or turn their backs on those in need for a “shot.” This is the day I understood that priorities aren’t as obvious as they should be — people and the planet, and then profit, should be the order.

The stewards did not immediately respond by opening the inadequate gates in the front fence. Instead they meekly waited for an order and followed bureaucracy while people’s breathing had stopped. There was a loss of basic common sense. Police were reluctant to help any of those who, with sheer survival instinct, had scrambled to the top of the molten crowd; when the first wave of people crawled on their knees across shoulders and heads to escape over the spiked fence, they were pushed back in.

I learnt about survival instinct and self-preservation that day.

A father, who had lost his son comforted me, a 16-year-old stranger, and I learnt about true kindness. My dad thought he had lost me in that crush — his face and shock showed me what losing a child might mean to someone, something I only fully appreciate years later now that I have my own sons.

Hillsborough also taught me that people, even senior officials, will lie to deflect blame and responsibility.

I learned that when trapped in a lie, these same people will allow it to escalate and perpetuate to such an extent that thousands of lives are destroyed, a city’s good name is smeared, and that justice is something that bereaved families are forced to fight for over a quarter of a century. The lie was told by Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, the senior police officer in charge at the stadium: he said that fans had forced the exit gates open when it had actually been a police directive. That lie snowballed and suddenly, three days later, on the front page of Britain’s biggest tabloid newspaper, the fans were suddenly being deemed a drunken mob. Under the headline, “THE TRUTH,” we were accused of pickpocketing the dead (our brothers and sisters), of urinating on the police, of beating up the police while they tried to resuscitate people (our brothers and sisters). I was there and this was a terrible lie that upset me even more than the events of the day itself. This was an attack.

It took over 20 years for the British government to order the release of the documents from the disaster. Although I knew the truth, it was still a devastating shock to find that hundreds of police and witness statements had been materially altered to remove any criticisms of officials. The coverup has led to the longest public inquiry in British legal history, something that is still ongoing and difficult to bear.

So is this day my inspiration? In many ways yes — with the accelerated learning I accrued on that day, I was left with an insight that would stay with me as I work to make a positive impact.

The vigour, resolve and dignity that the families of the deceased have shown while fighting for the truth, makes me feel incredibly proud and determined to more consistently be the best version of myself.

The ‘Justice For The 96’ campaign is a source of great inspiration to me, and I feel a real gratitude to those who devoted decades to it. However, the energy from Hillsborough was entirely destructive for me until another truly pivotal day of my life happened six months after the disaster.

I was late for school, again — showing up on time just didn’t seem important. I was attended a poorly performing school and my city was filled with unemployment and suffering, as it was in the harsh recession of the late ‘80s. My cynicism and mistrust of authority was high, my confidence for a good future low. I walked up the stairs into the student room of the college, with no real thought or care. Mary Wilson, my English teacher, was waiting for me. After pushing me into an office she proceeded to redirect me and as far as I’m concerned, save my life.

In this most pivotal day she made sure I understood my responsibility to reach my full potential. She sharply pointed out that I knew many others who did not have that opportunity.

She forced me to think how to make the most of a life I was lucky to have.

She wrote a life plan alongside me that I actually did stick to for 25 years. A plan that led to my building a global perspective through travel and through finding incredible role models; a plan that led me to the founding of a group of youth-centric businesses, and ultimately, to the building of the most fulfilling and beautiful undertaking I’ve ever known and been part of — World Merit.

World Merit is an organization which connects young citizens around the world, each of whom is looking to fight collaboratively for positive change. We are addressing low social mobility, low confidence, and low aspirations in youth. Behind the scenes, I would tell you that my personal aim is for World Merit to be a ”Mary Wilson” on a vast scale — to make sure that as many people as possible reach their potential and that they connect to use their talents for the betterment of the world. We are a growing movement of 100,000 and have a target of one million members by the end of 2016. Malala Yousafzai, Sir Ken Robinson, and other astonishingly brilliant people are supporting World Merit and our mission to empower, uplift, and revitalize global youth, the inheritors of our world.

I would never have had the chance to become my ”best self” without Hillsborough and the insights drawn from terrible days. I would never have had the chance to become my ”best self” without an attentive and strong teacher and the plan we crafted all those years ago. Life is short, life can be unfair, so start fighting for it to be better, fight for justice and equity, and continue that fight every day. Take your inspiration from every single moment. You are lucky to breathe, so go on, take a deep breath, and start moving purposefully toward reaching your potential. Start fighting with every breath for people and the planet. Oh, and if you can, be a “Mary Wilson” for somebody.

World Merit Manifesto

It is not for us to relax or slow, nor stop nor drop to weakened knee, when faced by odious inequality. Not for us the mourning of dated dreams that mock and rebuke the last nights of life. Nor for us a cowering retreat from menacing medieval traditions or simplistic mistaken doctrines that render many unable. No, no, my friends, for us it is the opportunity to strive for goals, to meet aspiration with full and unhindered determination. It is for us to see all potential unshackled, to ensure those with ambition are released from inequity or insecurity. It is for us to lead those of merit to others and see that together they reach their fullest height. We will fight those who dare challenge our right to endeavor. We will rise as a community of citizens to meet global issues, including those that grow to daunt others. We will work for a world of merit, and we will achieve.

~Chris Arnold, founder of World Merit

Learn more at worldmerit.org

You may also enjoy At War…With Myself: A Soldier’s Story of Spiritual Survival by Stacy Bare

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Reflecting on the joys of inspiring youth, schoolteacher Rebekah Stoll realizes that her students have equally inspired her

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Twenty students gathered around five working kitchens, aprons in place, recipes set before them with excitement in the air and the warmth from the ovens heating the chilly classroom. Enthusiastic chatter from students can be heard as they are preparing their feast. Later in the day, there are 24 young men and women eager to begin their first sewing project, each needing my immediate assistance. The sounds of scissors cutting fabric and sewing machines humming is in the background. These are the sounds of students learning through creativity.

Inspiring youth is an important and challenging job. There are many pressures on high school students that stem from social expectations, familial obligations, and academic overload. Creating a safe, creative outlet for students helps them master the necessary skills to cope with their daily struggles. One field of study that can help students with these challenges is Family and Consumer Science (FACS), the modern-day version of home economics. While these courses are required at the middle school level in New York State, most people do not realize that this field still exists. Districts are quick to eliminate these programs even though there is an initiative in education for College- & Career-Ready skills and Career & Technology education — right where FACS teachers fit in. Yes, we still enjoy baking cookies, but more important, we offer courses on parenting, child development, nutrition, fashion, life skills, culinary skills, career success, and money management.

In an environment where students can be themselves, where they can be creative, comfortable, successful, and safe, they are likely to transfer those assets to other areas of their lives.

After an unexpected layoff, I was lucky enough to obtain a new position quickly. Shortly thereafter, I realized that starting my new job was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had become stagnant in my former one. I had not been taking risks, I had been too quick to fall in line with the status quo, and I had not pushing myself hard enough. I had to reinvent myself, as I was teaching different courses at new grade levels. It was overwhelming but eye-opening, and I was reminded of how amazing students could really be.

A wonderful sophomore student named Stephanie* enrolled in my Basic Foods class. Stephanie is a very quiet, shy student who is also very intelligent. In class she was engaged, asked great questions, would do additional work at home, and shared some of her successes with me. Her mother communicated how much Stephanie loved my class and was so grateful to have the opportunity to learn from me. Stephanie and I are both vegetarians and I was granted permission to expose my students to alternative nutritional venues. Because of this, my students were able to explore different cooking techniques, consume a variety of vegetables, explore food ethics, and learn about nutrition in ways they had not been previously exposed to. This shared experience allowed Stephanie to feel more comfortable in my classroom and so she was able to be herself and open up a little bit.

Partway through the year I asked students to write a few words on their own time about the class so we could add it to the course catalogue the next year. Stephanie said:

“My experience so far in cooking class is amazing. When I get older I plan on going into the Family and Consumer Science field. I want to be able to continue classes like this throughout my high school years so I can get as much knowledge on cooking as I can. My favorite topic so far in this class is the baking unit because I love to bake cupcakes.”

Recently I discovered that Stephanie is an entrepreneur, running a successful cupcake business as a high school junior. Her customers rave about her culinary skills and her attention to detail.

As an educator, seeing a student use the skills learned in class in the real world is both inspiring and amazing.

Other students may not enter with Stephanie’s sense of purpose and direction. Maria’s* direction is less certain; she is less sure of what she wants to do with her life. Under tremendous stress in terms of her academic work, she fears the possibility of falling behind, but all of that disappears when she hears the hum of the sewing machine in her Advanced Fashion class. She is able to be creative, express herself, and get lost in the moment when she is sewing. Some days she comes to class upset over her difficult trigonometry class, feeling like she is going to fail at life because she is struggling academically. Once she gets to work in the fashion class, however, she finds her groove and creates beautiful pieces of art. She may not always like or appreciate the work she does, but she pushes herself to try new things and improve her skills.

Maria’s class was assigned a project where they had to choose a famous artist’s work and recreate it in fabric. Some of the students complained at first because they were not making clothes. Maria dove into the project immediately, diligently working during class and spending countless hours of her free time perfecting her work. Her finished product is absolutely beautiful! The students all remark when they come into my classroom how much it looks like the original piece. It would have been easy to dismiss the project when the students began complaining, but Maria’s excitement encouraged me and the other students to continue. Eventually, the assignment was a success with the class. It is often difficult for teachers to break out of their comfort zone and try a lesson that is somewhat unorthodox, but students like Maria help revitalize our enthusiasm for thinking outside of the box.

Although I was devastated at being laid off when it first happened, it really was the best thing that happened to me professionally.

I met many amazing students, faculty, and staff that will stay with me forever. New opportunities arose which made me a better, stronger, more flexible teacher, while exposing me to new challenges. Students like Stephanie and Maria are what make teaching so rewarding. They are what make all the difficulties and moments of self-doubt worth it. I may not be the reason that Stephanie has a baking business, and Maria may have found a love for sewing without me, but I am proud to have assisted in their journey. They motivate me to strive for connection with all of my students; you can never predict your effect on them. Although my goal as a teacher is to give students a safe, comfortable environment in which to learn and be influenced, I often find that I am the one being inspired by their creativity, lust for life, excitement, and sense of possibility.

*Names have been changed to protect the students’ identities.

You may also enjoy reading Youth Activism | Are You There? Messages From Our Future by Shea Ki

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Actress Maggie Wheeler finds a deeper calling in leading communal singing

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“I used to say, ‘I act for my supper and I sing for my soul.'”

Maggie Wheeler is describing her bifurcated career as a successful actor (most notably in long-running roles in the sitcoms Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond), and as co-leader of The Golden Bridge Community Choir-an inclusive singing group open to all comers. “For many years I was vigilant about not turning my singing work into work. That changed nine years ago.”

Wheeler hasn’t quit her day job exactly, it’s just that running the choir and giving workshops in community singing have taken up an increasing amount of her time over those nine years. Both passions had grown side by side from childhood. At the same time Wheeler’s aspirations to act were first percolating around the age of seven or eight; she spent summers at a camp in Vermont run by Pete Seeger’s brother John and his wife Eleanor, that was a kind of haven for the folk musicians who worked there as counselors. Guitars, banjos, and dulcimers hung from hooks in the hallways.

“So there I was,” Wheeler says by phone from her home in Los Angeles, “a New York City kid, surrounded by music-and the campfire, and people getting up and leading the community in song. It became a touchstone for me. And as I moved out into the world beyond Camp Killooleet” (she spells it for me by lilting the song they were all taught: “K-I-double-L…”), “I found that I was always searching for that campfire wherever I went. And if I couldn’t find it, I would find a way to create it.”

In the meantime, Wheeler pursued her desire to entertain and to make people laugh through acting. “I’ve always loved the sound of the human voice,” she says, “and stretching it to imitate the sounds of different people from different places. As an actress I often make the journey to the character through the music of speech, and the song that exists within every character’s cadence.”

In pursuing this thread of her life’s desires, Wheeler had the good fortune to study and work with the actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith (perhaps most widely known for her role as hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie). The training served Wheeler well as she not only acted in Smith’s first play but also landed a slew of television roles. Yet her childhood passion for communal singing was not to be submerged.

“There’s a mysterious component of what music moves a person. I can’t explain — I think it’s mystical — that I am so deeply moved by African music and gospel music.”

Her fascination led her to visit Africa at age 16, and later to study with Ysaye Maria Barnwell, who sang bass and wrote many of the songs for Sweet Honey in the Rock, the renowned a cappella choral group. Working with Barnwell, among other teachers, Wheeler says she had the extraordinary experience of learning “how you can take a roomful of people who don’t know what’s possible, and you can set the bar way up in the air and you can get everyone to rise to it before they’ve had the chance to think, ‘I can’t do that.’ In our culture, if you don’t belong to a church, or you’re not a sanctioned ‘singer,’ or you don’t read music and you’re not in a band, there are only so many opportunities to sing-and for the rest of the population it’s off the table. I am passionately committed and motivated to putting it back on the table for the rest of humanity.”

Her passion for communal singing is grounded in what she has learned about the role that sharing vocal music has traditionally played around the world. “In so many cultures, singing is something that runs through the course of every day,” she says. “There’s music for celebration, music for sorrow, music for work, music for rest. Nothing is done without song. No meeting takes place before singing has taken place and no meeting is closed without singing. The work I’ve been doing for the past 20 years —and for the past nine years under the umbrella of conducting a choir-is to reintroduce music into everyday life.”

After taking that workshop with Ysaye Barnwell, Wheeler came away with “a vocabulary of song running through” her, and she has continued expanding her vocabulary to include traditional songs from Asia, Africa, Australia, and Russia, along with spirituals and gospel music. “I found that I was able to give myself permission to create song in a different way,” she says. “That set me on a path. I realized that was my work.” The catalyst for her decision to give communal singing equal weight with her acting work was a Community Choir Leadership Training in Victoria, British Columbia, in 2006, where she learned how to work with a non-auditioned choir-meaning that anyone who wants to sing in the choir can join, regardless of training or skill level. In her years of running singing workshops she had been approached by the more experienced singers asking her to start an exclusive group, but her heart was pushing her to open the door for people who might have no other opportunity to follow their own passion. While attending a workshop with Barnwell at Hollyhock, she was urged to take the choir training in Victoria by Gloria Hanson, a long-time member of the Getting Higher Choir in Victoria, who cited a quote from Balzac for inspiration:

“Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn’t, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence.”

“Those words tapped on my head like a woodpecker until I decided I had to go to Canada,” Maggie says. “I’d been teaching vocal workshops for 15 years, but it was always the ‘excellent’ people who were asking me to start some form of choral group.” She wanted to do something that was “inclusive instead of exclusive” and, because she had a young family, to make it family-centered, and in Victoria the pieces fell into place.

“Then, just before I left for Canada, Gloria called me again and said I should meet a man named Emile Hassan Dyer, a vocal improviser who had taken the same training a couple of years earlier.” Also a percussionist, dancer, and storyteller raised in France and Senegal, Dyer draws on his multiethnic background to add a rich array of rhythms to the mix, including various forms of vocal percussion. Joining forces after she returned from Canada, they were able to create a shared vision of a family-centered community choir based in the Los Angeles area that meets for a series of 14 Sundays at a time. Wheeler had recreated the campfire she’d been looking for since Camp Killooleet.

Much of Wheeler’s motivation to create her inclusive choir derives from her awareness that many people have had experiences that she calls “musical wounding,” like being singled out when your elementary school class is rehearsing a song and the teacher tells you to just “move your lips” without actually singing (I speak from experience). I ask Maggie if she has encountered people in her workshops who absolutely cannot carry a tune.

“One gentleman came to choir who was having trouble finding the pitch,” she says in response. “When I was in Canada during the training, they told us that they firmly don’t believe in people being tone-deaf. A very small percentage of people suffer from something clinical that stops them from being able to reproduce a note-for the rest it is usually something emotional, or traumatic that gets in the way of hearing the note. I’d had tentative singers and scared singers, but there’s safety in numbers and we never point to anybody or ask them to sing alone…

“It’s a loving and patient and safe environment in which everybody gets a chance to get where they need to go.”

When she noticed that this man was having trouble finding the pitch, though, she asked if he would be willing to work with her privately, and he agreed. “So I took a deep breath and said to myself, ‘Okay, now I have to walk this talk.’ He came to my house and we sat down at the piano. I used humor to lighten the moment so he could be a little bit less uptight about the whole idea, because he was scared. I could see that his thought process was telling him that he needed to reproduce the note immediately. So first we slowed everything down and I gave him permission to take his time, until he could find the note. Sometimes he would start below the note or above the note and I would motion for him to come down or come up. And when he found it he could feel that we were vibrating together and he knew something was happening. We did this for quite a while and when he hit the note I would say, ‘That’s it! You’ve got it!’

“And he cried and said, ‘Don’t lie to me.’ I said, ‘This is not my opinion. This is the note and you’re singing the note.’ And in fact he had a beautiful voice-such a beautiful tenor voice and such a range that he was confused about which register to sing in, and finally he confessed that he had been in an a cappella group when he was very young. He was such a perfect example of what is possible and the pain around not trusting himself because someone had told him to stop.”

The Golden Bridge Community Choir is part of the Ubuntu Choir movement, a national network of local non-auditioned choirs that accept people who initially sing timidly or off-key.

Wheeler eschews even the use of sheet music. “The first thing is to remove the idea that help is needed,” she says. “We’re all so profoundly attached to the idea of perfection and I have no interest in perfection. I have an interest in harmony and in giving people the best experience possible. But I don’t have an interest in arriving at that perfect destination. That is one of the things that stops people from being able to freely vocalize. Everybody has a song. We may not have the song that’s winning American Idol this week, but everybody has a voice. I don’t mean that there isn’t room to get better at what we do. But that comes with doing it. I do think that many people are paralyzed around the idea of singing because they think that if they are not excellent they are not allowed. My goal is to get people to stop thinking. The gift of doing the work the way we do it is that there’s no time to think. Before you can let your story or your fear get in the way, suddenly there’s music. The music supplants everything else, and then you’re just filled with joy.

“The list of positive results of this kind of music is endless. It heals loneliness; it heals isolation. It lifts you when you’re sad; it lifts you higher when you’re happy. I’m fortunate in that I’ve doggedly followed my passions in this life and they’ve led me to some incredible places. This passion for connecting through music I’ve been able to take up and embrace because it lives through me. It doesn’t require permission from another. My acting work requires permission. That’s the nature of the business. But this music work I can carry on my back.” (Translation: She and Dyer will travel anywhere to work with groups who want the experience of making music together in this way.)

A big part of the healing she describes comes from the mere fact that when we sing we’re breathing deeply out of necessity. “You’ve expelled all the air you have in the service of the song, and your body needs to fill up again,” she says. “All that oxygen is invigorating. That automatic, unconscious intake of air transports you. That’s the yoga of song.

“People of the World” audiocast: Words and music by Maggie Wheeler; vocals by Maggie Wheeler and Emile Hassan Dyer

Another aspect of the restorative power of song comes from the fact that when people sing together, their heartbeats are in sync. “There’s something that’s healing in the vibration of the song as it’s running through us and the person next to us. I say that it causes a kind of cellular rearrangement. I have gone out to teach when I’m sick and by the time I’m done with choir, I’m healed. And the same can be said for bringing emotional pain into that setting-it transmutes.”

Maggie Wheeler pauses and extracts one final, perhaps unanticipated byproduct of communal singing: forgiveness. “I wouldn’t say I’m setting out to [teach forgiveness], but it’s embedded in the process of creating song. You have to love that song, you have to forgive its failings, and you have to keep lifting it up until it takes flight. And that reflects back to the individuals in the room. We begin to understand that we all long for that same forgiveness of self. The creation of song becomes a metaphor for the forgiveness of fallibility and imperfection. We all walk away with a little more forgiveness of the people around us and of ourselves, and that ripples out into people’s lives, which is a sort of unexpected, quiet gift.

“Until you’ve forgiven yourself for those things that you think are shameful or unforgivable, or that separate you from others, it’s difficult to do the work we have to do in the world. It’s part of the human experience and you have to do it over and over again. One of the things I say about this weekly singing experience is that we sing together on a Sunday, and it keeps you high until about Wednesday. On Thursday it starts to wane, by Friday you know you need more, and then you come back again.”

Learn more about Maggie’s work at maggiewheeler.net, goldenbridgechoir.com

You may also enjoy reading Jazz & Spirituality | The Mindful Music of Jack DeJohnette by Peter Occhiogrosso

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School nutrition is an increasingly important issue facing our children — here’s the reality and a vision for change

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School nutrition has taken a turn, albeit a slow turn, for the better over the course of the last four years. With the signing of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA), students have seen an increase in the amount of real food being served in schools and a decrease in junk food. While on the surface this change seems great, it is also very challenging for school nutrition programs with tight budgets to serve students increased servings of fresh fruits and vegetables and whole-grain foods. REAL food costs more money and with only a $.06 increase in funding signed into law with the HHFKA, this has become troublesome for many schools districts.

As a former Chef and Executive Director of School Nutrition Programs in Connecticut, I would like to see less red tape and bureaucracy in school nutrition programs and an increase in funding toward recruiting experienced culinary professionals and registered dietitians to lead these programs to a healthy future. No two school nutrition programs are alike.

There are school districts with a population of students from households who can afford to shop at health food stores and buy organic, but I would say the majority of the school nutrition programs throughout the country feed children from households that are food-insecure.

School nutrition programs, for some, provide the only nutrition of the day for these children. By employing a team of chefs and RDs, along with a School Nutrition Director to feed these kids REAL food, we can overcome some big hunger barriers and see meaningful results in the classrooms and overall long-term health costs.

The overarching goal of the HHFKA is to provide students with healthier foods in schools, incorporate nutrition education into curriculums, and increase access to food for all students through the Community Eligibility Program. This program is designed to reduce paperwork and provide free meals to all children in school districts with a large population of students in high-poverty areas. While this is a step in the right direction, there is always room for increased improvement: elevate food quality, reduce paperwork, and provide more nutrition education.

In many ways the system is antiquated, with roots that stem back to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) that was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman in 1945, and that is overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Originally designed to bulk up boys to serve in the military, the program hasn’t kept up with our current food reality.

Today, feeding kids in schools involves as much and perhaps even more paperwork than is required to educate them.

The problem is that while the paperwork is mounting, the funding is not. It’s time for a shake-up, some fresh thinking, innovative ideas, and new ways of approaching our overall food system.

While not dismissing the realities of budgets and other practical considerations when it comes to providing a higher quality of fresh fruits and vegetables, there are many great ways to increase flavor and nutrition in the foods that schools (and parents) serve to kids. In 2012, while a chef and School Nutrition Director, I attended a School Nutrition Association Conference and came face to face with one of those great ideas — vegetable purees. In fact, I was so excited by the prospects of this product that in 2014 I decided to leave my job and accept a position as the VP of Brand Development for Hooray Puree, an innovative company dedicated to a plant-pick-puree-package philosophy. Non-GMO vegetables are picked at peak freshness, cooked for less then three minutes, pureed, and packaged in BPA-free pouches. From the moment I first came in contact with this company, my head was spinning with recipe ideas and the bigger picture — making nutrition available to the masses.

There’s only one issue: The USDA does not currently recognize a vegetable unless it is visible. Hmmm. I’m not quite sure how those highly processed and breaded “chicken nuggets” that do not resemble a piece of chicken are making the cut. Clearly, nothing trumps the value of a fresh vegetable or salad; however, incorporating healthy purees into recipes to enhance nutritional content is a no-brainer. What do we risk — developing palates for nutritious consumption? What’s additionally exciting is that the Hooray Puree products are shelf-stable for two years, making them economically viable and available to organizations and institutions. We handle the entire process from farm to fork. We not only encourage healthy food choices, we inspire healthy change – for young adults to enter the arena of agriculture research and innovative thinking.

With enhanced nutrition education, we can show this generation of kids how to shop for healthy foods at the grocery store, how to cook and prepare healthy meals and snacks, and how to reap the benefits of overall healthy living. By empowering our kids to make the changes themselves, we are teaching them where their food comes from and what to do with it when they have it in their hands. We inspire them to think outside of the box.

Kids who get their hands dirty in the garden will eat what they sow and harvest, simply out of curiosity.

If this curiosity leads to kids sampling foods they may have never eaten before, then we are all in for a very cool future.

Bottom line — we need leaders. We need office staff and man/womanpower to staff our school nutrition programs. We need policy modifications at the federal level to recognize these developments and we need funding allocated to incorporate healthy food and education into programming. As parents (I am a dad to four amazing children), we can work with our school districts to make a difference: join the wellness committee, talk to the principal about reading food-related books to the students, and ask teachers for time to do a healthy cooking demo. Let’s put to use the strengths we all possess and share with others to make a difference in the life of a child. Together we can end childhood hunger, decrease childhood obesity and disease, increase awareness, and most importantly, live as a society knowing that we are a TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More.

You may also enjoy Interview: Congressman Tim Ryan | A Mindful Revolution with Kristen Noel

The post The School Nutrition Dilemma: An Insider Speaks Out appeared first on BEST SELF.

The fight for equality in our immigrant nation requires a new, mindful paradigm regarding the rights, values and citizenship of  immigrants — and ourselves

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Every evening, I resolve to wake up early and have 20 minutes to myself before my daughter and husband awake and the daily rush begins. Most mornings since December, I have instead stayed in bed, sometimes in deep sleep, and at other times, in a half-awake state, guiltily enjoying the warmth of the covers and, if my daughter has snuck in at night, her peaceful breathing. In this way, I’m not much different than most other Americans, well intentioned about our health and well-being yet thwarted by the mundane but real stresses of our daily lives. Overcome with exhaustion, or a hangover from too much wine or too much television the night before, we relish that extra 20 minutes in bed — a blissful treat in advance of what will likely be a hectic day of appointments, errands, and deadlines. The challenge inherent in those days is juggling the must-dos and the should-dos, with little time for the precious want-to-dos.

Like others, I could benefit from 20 minutes a day of me-time — quiet, unencumbered by responsibility, and free from demands. But year after year, I find those 20 minutes to be elusive. This year, I am trying to make peace with that, mostly because I’m accepting that my mindful practice is engaging in meaningful and transformative work. Without my work, I could have all the minutes in the world and be restless.

What is this work that brings me the same peace and satisfaction of 20 minutes of quiet time? It’s ensuring that the playing field of American democracy is more level and equitable.

At the New American Leaders Project, we’re mindful of the glaring gap between the American public and its leaders. The 114^th Congress is 80 percent white and 80 percent male; the country is only 72 percent white, and is more than 50 percent female. There are further divisions – in income and religion, for example. We are working to close the gap by training people to run for office at the local and state levels, and eventually move to Congress. Why does this matter? Well, for one, leaders who come from diverse backgrounds are more likely to be mindful of engaging their community members in the political process. They understand the challenges facing a first-time voter in this country, or someone for whom English is not a first language. Leaders who really reflect the diversity of the American experience can do something else — they can create policies that respond to that diversity. Assuring that immigrants can drive to work, benefit from in-state tuition, or have translated materials about government programs are some examples of what immigrant legislators do.

As an immigrant, I value American individualism. It’s one of the reasons I came to this country, and stayed.

Often, we think of mindfulness as a practice that’s individualistic. But it doesn’t have to be. We are mindful of the earth, for example, and we should be mindful of the people around us. Not just in ways that serve our interests and make us feel that we are caring and committed human beings, but in ways that explicitly honor the connections between us. We can teach immigrants how to exercise their right to vote, or we can see immigrants as the leaders of our country, for whom we can vote. We can see immigrants as people willing to come to America for a better life, or we can see America as a better place because immigrants continue to come here. This is the mindfulness I practice — of human interconnectedness, of improving others’ human conditions while also working on my own. If 20 minutes a day of meditation and yoga could get me closer to a more inclusive America, I’d be getting out of bed much faster on these winter mornings. For now, I’m taking those 20 minutes of sleep instead, mindfully and purposefully, to refuel for the workday ahead.

You may also enjoy reading Life as a Refugee: The Struggle to Create a Better Life by Noor Ghazi

The post Crossroads of the Immigrant Nation appeared first on BEST SELF.

Engagement with nature, and specifically, physical connection to water, yields profound cognitive, emotional, psychological and social benefits

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[The following essay is adapted from Blue Mind, Wallace J. Nichols’ New York Times bestselling book]

We need the sun, the moon, the stars, the rivers and the mountains and birds, the fish in the sea, to evoke a world of mystery, to evoke the sacred.

— Thomas Berry, The Great Work

When scientist (and agnostic) T. H. Huxley was asked to write the opening article for the very first edition of Nature, in 1869, he declared there could be “no more fitting preface” than a “rhapsody” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. “We are surrounded and embraced by her: powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her,” Goethe wrote, and Huxley concludes, “It may be, that long after the theories of the philosophers whose achievements are recorded in these pages, are obsolete, the vision of the poet will remain as a truthful and efficient symbol of the wonder and the mystery of Nature.”

In study after study, those who choose to spend time in nature speak about its ability to make us feel more connected to something outside of ourselves—something bigger, more transcendent, and universal. Some of my favorite recent studies include a 2011 survey of 452 students in Edmonton, Alberta, which showed that feeling connected to nature led to greater feelings of awe, vitality, purpose, and more positive emotions overall. In another study, people who viewed nature scenes and imagined themselves fully immersed in nature were more concerned with prosocial goals and more willing to give to others.

What is it about nature that inspires this feeling of connection?

First, the most frequently mentioned “transcendent” aspect of the natural world is its sheer beauty. “Even the person whose sole experience with nature consists of lying on a beach and watching the waves will not be surprised that those who visit the wilderness list aesthetics as one of their main objectives,” writes Winifred Gallagher in The Power of Place. Perhaps because our ancient ancestors saw beauty in the shapes and colors of the natural world, our response to nature’s aesthetics is deep — and often poetic. And the experience goes well beyond the visual: we come across unfamiliar (read: novel) sounds, smells, flora, and tastes that we would not encounter back home. This is the way author and wilderness guide Sigurd F. Olson described one of his most memorable and beautiful moments in nature:

A school of perch darted in and out of the rocks. They were green and gold and black, and I was fascinated by their beauty. Seagulls wheeled and cried above me. Waves crashed against the pier. I was alone in a wild and lovely place, part at last of the wind and the water, part of the dark forest through which I had come, and of all the wild sounds and colors and feelings of the place I had found. That day I entered into a life of indescribable beauty and delight. There I believe I heard the singing wilderness for the first time.

Nature generously bestows a grandeur that puts us in our place.

When he was a teenager, neuroscientist Dan Siegel would ride his bike to the beach, walk along the ocean edge, and think deep thoughts. “I’d watch the waves and be filled with wonder — about life, the tides, the sea,” he recalled. “The force of the moon beckoning the water, raising it up toward the cliffs, then pulling it back down beyond the rocky pools, back out to sea… These tides, I thought, would continue their eternal cycle long after I was gone from this earth.” Trees, grass, water, sand — all are familiar to us, yet the size and scale of nature can make us catch our breath and marvel at its power. In its age, majesty, and complexity, nature dwarfs us — and yet we are drawn there because it puts our humanity into proper perspective. We encounter nature in a very physical sense when we walk, hike, climb, sail, paddle, swim, run, ski, or snowshoe through it; as hiker Adrian Juric says, these elemental forces “resist the sense of self we have worked so hard to establish” and cut us down to size.

A 2007 study asked participants to describe a time when they saw a beautiful natural scene and to rate the level at which they felt ten different emotions. Words like awe, rapture, love, and contentment were ranked highest; people tended to agree with statements like, “I felt small or insignificant,” “I felt the presence of something greater than myself,” “I felt connected with the world around me,” “I was unaware of my day-to-day concerns,” and “I did not want the experience to end.” When participants in wilderness expeditions in the United States were surveyed in 1998, fully 80 percent said they had a greater spiritual connection with nature as a result of their trips. We realize what I like to think of as a positive lack of control, as opposed to the lack of control we feel in our overstressed, overwhelmed lives. Our inability to have power over our inboxes and bank accounts and waistlines (not to mention the economy and international conflicts) simply makes us feel worse about ourselves.

But in nature we realize there is something so immeasurable, so magnificent, that it exists both with us and without us. That recognition can transform our sense of responsibility and renovate our list of priorities.

Recent studies have focused on the different neural networks that we use when focusing on things outside ourselves (the extrinsic network) and when focusing on self-reflection and emotion (the intrinsic, or default network). The brain usually switches between the two, but cognitive neuroscience researcher Zoran Josipovic discovered that experienced meditators could keep both networks active at the same time while they meditated. Doing so lowered the wall between self and environment, possibly with the effect of inspiring feelings of harmony with the world. That ability to simultaneously hold awareness of self and other is called nonduality, or oneness in both Eastern and Western philosophies. There’s a sense of connection with everything, of no separation, of being part of something infinitely large and wonderful. Senses are sharpened; you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell more fully. Feelings of happiness, contentment, bliss, awe, and gratitude arise for no reason — some spiritual masters refer to this as “causeless joy.” There’s a sense of timelessness, or time seems to slow to a crawl. There’s a sense of wanting or needing nothing else.

Some would call it communion with the natural world; some would call it the experience of God. Perhaps most people wouldn’t even know to put words of any sort to it.

Meditation can bring us to this state, as can prayer and other spiritual practices. But many of us feel moments or even hours of that sense of oneness and spirituality when we interact with nature, especially with water and the creatures we find there. “One cannot help but develop some form of attachment to the various social and natural landscapes that one encounters and moves through in one’s lifetime, and frequently the feelings one forms in response to a particular place can be especially strong and overwhelming,” state Laura Fredrickson and Dorothy Anderson. We become attached to our particular “piece” of nature and treasure it for the experiences we have had there: it becomes our “sacred space.” Your sacred space may be an inaccessible bit of wilderness reached only by foot or canoe; or it may be amidst the waters themselves, as you fished, sailed, or slipped in and felt the power of the water beneath or around you. But whenever or however you enter it, you feel connected to something greater than yourself.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow believed that because man’s “higher and transcendent nature” is “part of his essence,” occasionally we can access the mystical consciousness William James described. Maslow called these moments peak experiences, and described them as “non-striving, non-self-centered, purposeless, self-validating, end-experiences and states of perfection and of goal attainment.” Psychologists studying these peak moments believe that they share certain characteristics: a complete focus of attention; an absence of fear; a perception that the world is good; a feeling of connection and even merging with the environment; feeling humbled by the experience and fortunate to have participated in it; a sense that time and space have altered and one is immersed in the present moment; a feeling that the experience is real, true, and valuable; flashes of insight and emotions not experienced in daily life; and a realization of the meaningfulness of the experience and the significance for one’s future life. When we access these states, we see ourselves not as separate but as “embedded” in our relationships with everything in the world; we are part of everything, and everything is part of us.

Many times such peak experiences involve pushing yourself past perceived limitations. Neuroscientist Catherine Franssen saw this with skydivers and rock climbers; Jaimal Yogis and other big-wave surfers describe moments in the ocean when “the wave demanded such hyper-focus… there wasn’t even time to differentiate between one’s body and the wave.” On the South Fork of the American River in California, a white-water rafter described the experience like this:

The top of the mountain finally gives up at the end of the peninsula that creates the S turn I admire so much. The velocity of the water increases dramatically, the negative ions in the air from the rapids changes everyone’s attitude. As I approach the thunder, my muscles throughout my entire body come to attention — as always, I go through the rocks 100 yards upstream, I call the goal posts, knowing that if I can float my boat through them, I’ll be OK in Troublemaker. Approaching the final turn . . . I tense as I grip my oars, I totally relax my mind and go for the flow—punch the hole and slip by the rock. And like magic, another peel off the layers of life, off the old onion, exposing fresh flesh and a new perspective on life.

This sort of expansive awareness — “a new perspective on life” — is almost inevitably common in such circumstances that combine the natural world and water.

Indeed, as a spiritual element of the natural world, there seems to be something particular about water that permeates humanity’s consciousness. When seeking to describe the experience of wholeness, limitlessness, and eternity, Freud drew on his correspondence with French writer (and student of Eastern religions) Romain Rolland and called it the “oceanic feeling.” Many of our spiritual and religious traditions feature water. In the Tao Te Ching (written somewhere between the sixth and fourth century B.C.E.), Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “Of all the elements in the cosmological construct of the world, Fire, Water, Earth, Mineral and Nature, the Sage takes Water as his preceptor.” The Buddha likened life to a river that is always flowing, changing from moment to moment.

Water is integral to the creation myths of ancient civilizations from Egypt to Japan. “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2, King James Bible). “We [God] made from water every living thing,” (The Quran, su ̄rat l-anbiya ̄a [The Prophets] 21:30). Hindus consider it sacred to bathe in the Ganga, “Mother Ganges;” Christian pilgrims flock to the river Jordan and Lourdes; Islamic pilgrims visit the Zamzam well in Mecca while performing the hajj. Humans ritually use water to cleanse themselves of metaphysical pollution and as a means of consecrating the living (baptism with holy water) and the dead (bathing the body before burial). For many indigenous peoples around the world, water represents humanity’s connection to all living things. Elizabeth Woody, a member of the Yakima Nation in Oregon, says, “Water is a sacrament in our religious practices and overarching medicine. It is the central symbol of our cycle of ceremonies. Along the ‘Big River,’ the Columbia, we wake with a drink of water, and close out the day with a sip and prayer… water equals all life.”

In 2010, Ian Foster of the University of Montana did a study of the spiritual connection felt by people on canoe trips through the Minnesota Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA), which consists of approximately 1.3 million acres with 1,175 lakes and hundreds of miles of streams. Much of the BWCA is accessible only by canoe, yet every year more than 250,000 people visit it to hike, canoe, kayak, fish, hunt, or camp. Foster conducted his research by canoeing to different campsites in the area and asking people to describe their experience of the wilderness. “Rather than standing at the trailhead after taking my morning shower and asking them about their trip and experiences, I was there, in a wild landscape,” Foster wrote. “[I] had bathed in the lakes, caught fish for dinner (albeit twice in thirty days), paddled into the winds, and combated the same swarms of mosquitoes.” He discovered that it was in the beauty and quiet of “plateau-experiences” that people felt the closest to spirit. One man, “Tom,” talked of soaking in “everything — the water, the trees, the sky the breeze… I just turn off everything else and just soak in what is around me and take time to be thankful for it.” Being immersed in the natural experience, with limited social contact and cultural input, and required to interact with nature in much the same way that people native to the area had done for thousands of years — in such conditions, Foster commented, people’s connection to something greater than themselves and to their surroundings was “kindled, stoked, and/or sustained.”

In descriptions of their spiritual connection to their environment, Foster discovered that water consistently played a significant part. The natural beauty of water and sky (in the Dakota language, Minnesota means “where the water reflects the heavens”) touched many people. “Mary” described one such encounter:

Yesterday we stayed at a campsite on Hudson Lake and the sky was this bright pink and purple, and it looked water colored — so amazing, like it couldn’t even be real… As the night gradually came on, the sky was getting darker and the water took that on, and I was just watching these two mediums entirely change all the time… In that moment you are like, “Why am I here? What put me here in the spot so that I can feel this?”

Peak and plateau experiences in nature are remarkable not just for their momentary impact, but, more important, for the effects they have when we return to our regular lives.

In the middle of a busy day, on the streets of a large city, or in an office, with our eyes locked on the screen of our smartphone or tablet or laptop, taking a moment to remember a transcendent moment when the mind calmed and the heart opened to the beauty and wonder of nature can transport us back to the experience of feeling connected with nature, spirit, the divine, or whatever inadequate name we give it. “Nancy” summed up her own return experience: “I grasped something out there… It’s like everything is all right. This kind of deep sense of happiness, just by thinking back on it, is so powerful.”

I call it Blue Mind.

You may also enjoy reading Mother Nature’s Hourglass: A Biologist Reminds Us That Time Is Running Out by Dave Cannon

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On women, equality, and a process for finding your passion

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I grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas in a working class, African-American neighborhood, literally on the wrong side of the tracks.

I was raised to say “yes ma’am” and “yes sir,” respect my elders, and speak only when spoken to. I knew at an early age that I didn’t want to stay in Arkansas and that I would have to work hard to “get out” and experience all the world had to offer. So, when many of my friends and neighbors hung out, I studied.

When my father died just before my 17th birthday, I focused even more on striving for academic excellence. I hustled to support myself through college and managed to graduate with a degree in finance and a ticket to New York City.

Today I am a Harvard MBA, run my own consulting firm and sit on the board of the Lean In Foundation.

Throughout my journey, I found my voice and learned how to advocate for myself. Many of my lessons came the hard way and what I have learned is that everyone has a story. Whether you grew up in an affluent neighborhood or just in the hood. Whether you had a “normal” childhood, or you had to negotiate an environment that included drugs, crime, and violence, you can live an authentic and empowered life. It starts with knowing your worth and the value you bring to the world.

My story is unique but the challenges of living an empowered life are universal.

Make no mistake. Living an authentic and empowered life is hard.

We are trained early to stand down, and as we get older, “stand by our man.” I was told that my feelings, desires, and thoughts were not as important as those of my father/brother/husband.

I know now that many women experience similar double standards. I was led to believe that men make the decisions and essentially rule the world. Well — if you look at the state of things — Ferguson, our economy, world politics, and horrific violence — it’s not working so well. We have been taking a back seat for far too long. The statistics are staggering:

• Women in the first year out of college are paid 82% of what their male colleagues earn
• Women do the majority of the world’s work, but earn a small percentage of the world’s income, and own even less of the world’s property
• For every dollar white men are paid, white women earn 77 cents. African-American women earn 64 cents and Hispanic women 54 cents
• Women would have $11,600 more a year if we were paid equally
• Women comprise only 19% of U.S. congressional seats
• There are less than 30 female Fortune 500 CEOs. Women hold about 15% of the executive officer positions and 17% of the board seats
• Women have less than 6% of top CEO jobs in almost every country in the world
• According to the Shriver Report, if women working fulltime, year round, were paid the same for their work as comparable men, we would cut the poverty rate for working women and their families in half.

There are many reasons that women’s wages lag behind those of men. Societal issues such as gender stereotyping, gender segregation in occupations, discrimination, and inadequate family-leave policies are contributing factors.

The problem is systemic, interrelated, and complex.

But there is hope. Knowing your worth is about understanding exactly what you deserve out of life and what has already been promised to you. I grew up as a “nice” little Southern girl and leveraged my desire for “a different life” to bust out of my comfort zone. I found my voice amid the wolves of Wall Street and then eventually used that voice to step out on my own.

Knowing your worth starts with finding your passion.

If you want to transform your life, I highly recommend figuring out what you are passionate about, then choose to do it for a living.

Now, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, but it’s well worth the effort. If you dread going to your job, or find yourself constantly lacking motivation, you are never going to get what you want out of life.

I learned this firsthand coming out of college. I graduated with a degree in finance and set my sights on Wall Street. I arrived at a top investment bank with a number of other college graduates, and we joined an analyst “class.” Almost immediately, I stood out like a sore thumb. Most of the people in my analyst class were Ivy League graduates who were savvy to the ways of Wall Street.

I was a fish out of water — a girl from Arkansas with a southern accent and flowered dresses. And if the culture wasn’t bad enough, I found the job to be unfulfilling and the hours exhausting. I was miserable. I had worked for years to get this job, yet I decided to quit, and began working for a start-up nonprofit for half my salary.

Even though I am a compensation consultant, I know that money isn’t the most important thing for lasting happiness and career satisfaction. Too often, I see people get caught up in the “salary-race,” and personal contentment goes by the wayside.

If you want true professional fulfillment, choose a field or a job because it is your passion. And then, work to be paid equitably. Unless you are born into a wealthy family or marry rich, you will spend the majority of your life working. The average fulltime employee spends 65-75% of each year working, and that is far too much time to be doing something you don’t love. I am a firm believer that if you follow your passion, the money will come. The ideal balance, of course, is a job that is fulfilling AND pays a competitive wage.

How can you find what you’re passionate about? Here are some suggestions:

• Is there something you already love doing? Do you have a hobby, or something you loved doing as a child, but never considered it as a career possibility? If there’s already something you love doing, you’re ahead of the game. Now you just need to research the possibilities of making money from it.
• What do you spend hours reading about? For myself, when I get passionate about something, I’ll read about it for hours on end. I’ll buy books and magazines. I’ll spend days on the Internet finding out more. There may be a few possibilities here for you… and all of them are plausible career paths. Don’t close your mind to these topics. Investigate them.
• Take a self-assessment. The Strong Interest Inventory® assessment is one of the world’s most widely respected and frequently used career planning tools. It has helped both academic and business organizations develop the brightest talent and has guided thousands of individuals – from high school and college students to midcareer workers – seeking a change in their search for a rich and fulfilling career.
• Never quit trying. Can’t find your passion at first? Give up after a few days and you’re sure to come up empty. Keep trying, for months on end if necessary, and you’ll find it eventually. Thought you found your passion but then you got tired of it? No problem! Start over again and find a new one. There may be more than one passion in your lifetime, so explore all the possibilities. Found your passion but haven’t been successful making a living at it? Don’t give up. Keep trying, and try again, until you succeed. Success doesn’t come easy, so giving up early is a sure way to fail. Keep trying, and you’ll get there.

When you are pursuing your passion, it makes it so much easier to ask for what you want.

Whether you are just out of college or in the middle of your career, you probably have a vision about what your ideal career looks like. I know that for myself, I had it all planned out when I graduated. But, as we all learn, even the best-laid plans can’t prevent life’s unexpected twists and turns.

You may covet a prime position, only to realize you are miserable in it. Or, you may settle down where you’re happy, yet not make enough to pay the rent. Career ups and downs, such as these, are inevitable, but as long as you stay focused, you will keep moving in the right direction. Set professional immediate and long-term goals so that when life throws you the inevitable curve ball, you can refocus on them and get right back on track.

My hope is that Best Self will give you a few more tools for your personal toolkit to help you ask for, and receive, what you seek and deserve in life. The rewards of knowing your worth will help you have healthy relationships, pursue your dreams, and reach new heights in all areas of your life.

You may also enjoy Podcast: Brendon Burchard Interview | Live, Love, Matter with Kristen Noel

The post Women, Equality, and the Pursuit of Passion appeared first on BEST SELF.