Episode 42: About sustainability, with Elissa

Now more than ever a conversation about sustainability is crucial. But what truly does it mean to be sustainable? Current economic models would have us believe that never-ending upward growth is the name of the game. 📈 But nature teaches us something different: that there is an endless cycle of creation, maintenance, and destruction. ♻️

How can we embrace the way nature sustains itself - through cycles - in order to envision a new way of being? How can we envision a new approach to our bodies, our material belongings, our financial resources, and planet Earth? In today’s episode, I share my deepest thoughts about what it really means to embrace sustainability... 

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Show Notes:   

Recap

• 0:00 - 2:36 - Taking a deep breath in to arrive where we are. Just like our breath comes in and out, sustainability is about ebb and flow.
• 2:36 - 3:35 - In this episode we’ll focus on sustainability through the lens of our body and our voice.
• 03:35 - 7:45 - Vedic philosophy: instead of good and bad, we can consider evaluating of existence using the ideas of creation, maintenance, and destruction. Ironically, we are out of balance because we prefer maintenance (the status quo). But that’s not actually sustainable!
• 7:45 - 13:52 - About Kate Raworth’s research of what makes a healthy economy… it should be designed to thrive, not unendingly grow 
• 13:52 - 18:42 - I would argue that Kate’s economic model is feminine. And our current model is masculine. Revisting Vedic philosophy, we talk about the concepts of Shiva and Shakti. It’s time to embrace the feminine!
• 18:42 - 20:45 - Other dualities we need to integrate: abundance vs. scarcity, love vs. fear
• 20:45 - 27:27 - The system/organ in our body that represents sustainability really well: our adrenals. A meditation to tap into our adrenal glands. 
• 27:27 - 30:43 - Speak Your Truth check in
• 30:43 - 31:14 - Our sustainability practices must be intelligent enough to help us re-organize when we inherently go out of balance in any of many possible directions
• 31:14 - 34:48 - Real talk: I’ve had conflicts with multiple people who are close to me lately because my overextensions and people-pleasing are no longer sustainable. And I’ve gotten angry. In fact I’m angry about a lot of things! (I’ll give you a list)
• 34:48 - 37:04 - A working definition of sustainability: Sustainability is trusting the natural process that sometimes things are created, sometimes they need to be maintained, and sometimes they become irrelevant and go away. It is accepting the ebb and flow of nature.
• 37:04 - 39:38 - Kate Raworth describes it brilliantly: if you went to the doctor and they told you you had a growth, that would be bad. Never ending growth is unsustainable.
• 39:38 - 43:22 - Wrapping up with another round of breathing.

Resources

Previous episodes of this podcast about Vedic philosophy and meditation: Episode 9 with Jeff Kober and Episode 28 with Emily Fletcher

Here’s Kate Raworth’s TED talk, “A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow” and here’s her book, Doughnut Economics.

Another incredible economic sustainability advocate is Lynne Twist. Here’s her book The Soul of Money and I have listened to her podcast episode with Oprah about 18 times.

Here’s a bit more information about Shiva and Shakti, the masculine and the feminine.

Here’s a nice guide to your adrenals, from my friends at Healthline.

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Production Credits:

Our Editor is Sean Brennan

Our Graphic Designer is Laura Sills

Our Photography is by Sophie Mathewson

And our theme song is “Waters of Body” by Strange Weather

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