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Slowing Down to Celebrate Earth Day with Jerry Yudelson · Authentic Living

• 0:01
  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
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  things that really matter in our lives.
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  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
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  Hi, everyone.
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  It's Roxanne Duraj of the authentic living with Roxanne.
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  Thanks so much for tuning in again this week.
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  Today, I have a special guest, Jerry Eudelson, And I hope I'm pronouncing that property,
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  Jerry.
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  We did.
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  Okay.
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  So Jerry is out in, Calsbad, California, and he's joining us today.
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  To share some of his wisdom about, he's a leader in green buildings, building movement.
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  He's the author of 12 professional books on green building, sustain sustainability,
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  development, water conservation, green homes, building performance in green marketing.
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  His book, the godfather of green, an eco spiritual memo will be published on Earth Day,
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  April 22nd.
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  That's so that's coming up.
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  And as a young and environmentalist, he meets a a powerful Indian spiritual master who shows
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  him a serious practice of meditation, and mindfulness that can work hand in hand with
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  protecting the planet, something that we're dearly in need of, obviously, Jerry.
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  What a timely time to be talking to you today?
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  The master's masters are simple.
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  Change yourself before you're trying to change the wool.
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  And because oftentimes, when do we think that, you know, we can't make a lot of a difference
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  small things matter.
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  Jerry takes his message on to heart and strives to incorporate this into his busy life as an
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  environmental activist teacher and business leader.
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  Again, welcome, Jerry.
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  So so this path so I'm gonna assume that you started on this path a very long time ago
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  before people started to look at, the ecosystem or the green movements today and today's day
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  and age, it's something that people think about law.
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  When did you start in that movement?
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  And what got you started in this movement?
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  Well, it's funny.
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  The original environmental movement had a spiritual component, and it it really in the US
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  traced us back a 100 years.
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  Or more, to John Muir and some of the early conservationists who treated nature as a
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  cathedral.
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  And their experience of being in nature was spiritual for them.
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  And so that kind of an undercurrent was always part of the environmental movement.
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  And then so when that burst onto seen 50 years ago as in the 1st earth day, there was,
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  obviously, a group of people who were very political in their orientation, but there was
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  also this subculture of spiritual activity.
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  And a realization that we had treated the earth, not like a mother, but like a garbage
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  dump.
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  And that realization has always been there.
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  It's been there with indigenous people, forever.
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  But at the same time, and particularly where I was living then in Northern California, there
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  was a very strong consciousness raising movement that, came about through the work of
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  people like Ramdas who died recently.
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  The s training was a big deal in the seventies, training you to somehow get beyond your normal
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  awareness into something deeper.
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  And so I began to imbibe that.
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  I I like to say I I snacked at the spiritual smorgasbord in the Bay Area.
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  Mhmm.
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  But it didn't take any of it.
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  In for me.
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  Yeah.
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  I was still searching.
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  And then about 4 years after earth day, somebody told me, well, you should go see this
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  visiting guru.
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  It was in the Bay Area then.
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  He has good energy.
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  So, well, that's a that sounds okay.
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  I got nothing to lose.
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  So I went to see him Name was Swami, Moktunanda, Baba, Moktunanda, and I was
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  immediately drawn to him.
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  Mesmerized.
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  Couldn't take my eyes off of him.
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  There was somebody I had met who all of a sudden was completely natural.
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  Completely spontaneous and yet enormously powerful.
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  And so at that time, I was thirty years old.
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  I began to follow him.
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  And he used to always say, you know, see if something happens for you.
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  Don't follow me.
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  See if something happens for you, and then you can decide what you wanna do.
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  And so after a year or so, I decided, well, this is the right path for me.
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  This is the right practice.
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  I was having intense meditation experiences.
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  Lots of inter revelations really starting to unwind that ball of yarn that we all carry that
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  we've been working on ever since we were born.
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  Right.
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  And to get something to make something new, you have to undo that whole pattern that's been
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  created, put the yarn back in a ball, and start again.
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  And so I think this practice of unwinding, is is the same for all of us, but with his help, I
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  was able, let's say, to start attenuating things that weren't working for me and start
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  building new practices that were more in tune with the idea of seeing everyone with love.
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  That was his core message, you know, everything.
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  As as Ram Das used to say, the whole world is just god in drag.
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  God in drag.
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  I love that.
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  So everywhere you look.
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  Why not see the highest?
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  Mhmm.
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  Why see somebody else other as other than yourself?
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  Why see them as not the highest awareness because after all, it's coming from you.
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  So I began to and then I I'm working this whole time, and I realized that I had to I couldn't
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  have, like, a work life that was based on, competition and differentiation and always
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  striving to get on top of somebody else And it's what I would call an old samsara, right,
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  an old tendency, which is to compete, because that's what I had learned my whole life.
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  And so at some point, I had to face up to bringing this inner practice and inner
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  awareness into my outer world.
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  And so that's what the book is about.
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  It's about, struggles to come clean, so to speak, with myself.
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  Which is what I think of most people.
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  Think of the time that we're in right now, Jerry.
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  And, you know, people are struggling with the very thing you're talking about.
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  So, you know, we think of we hear about people in this, you know, COVID 19.
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  People are afraid to slow because we are so we are, mesmerized by busyness because that's all
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  we know because that, to your point, keeps us that keeps that yarn really, really tangled,
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  something that familiarity around, busyness and craziness is something that we strive off.
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  In today's society.
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  Sure.
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  And and as as I like to say, the most important thing right now is to share your love and not
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  your fear, with others.
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  And you don't have to go out and and you can't embrace everybody.
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  You know, we now we now have to have a six foot embrace distance.
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  But it's just the way you are that people will pick up on.
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  And I think that's the essence of any spiritual path, any spiritual practice, is life is a come
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  as you are party.
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  Mhmm.
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  We used to have these when I was a kid, a teenager, people would call you on the phone
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  all of a sudden and say, we're having a party.
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  Come as you
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  are.
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  And so
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  you would just show up.
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  And if you were in jeans, you were in jeans.
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  And if you were in pajamas, you'd put on an overcoat and come to your pajamas.
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  So That was the come as you are a party, and that's really what life is.
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  And so how you are is what people get.
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  In fact, I think in Malcolm Gladwell's book, I think it was blank.
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  He talks about how most people size up everybody in 8 seconds or less.
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  He did.
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  Yes.
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  And you realize that that's what you do too.
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  And you get a sense of somebody just seeing, how they walk.
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  And how they look at the world and how much wonderment is in their gaze.
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  Mhmm.
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  And so That's what you have to offer, your love, and not your fear in a time when so many
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  are fearful.
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  Absolutely.
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  And it's laden.
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  Right?
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  Because you see the fear, like, you know, the overshopping and and, like, what am I gonna do
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  once, you know, I'm I'm gonna be stuck in my home with my children and my partner, and
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  people are freaking out about what are they gonna do?
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  Right?
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  So that whole concept that everybody's kind of buying into the fear versus saying, what an
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  opportunity?
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  Like, if you think about it, to some degree, okay, unfortunately, we none of us wanna be
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  going through what we're going through right now, but the opportunity to be able to slow
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  down or to maybe read that book that you maybe wanted to for a long time or maybe spend some
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  time with your children because everybody's always so busy versus looking at it as a gift
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  to be able to explore, most people are freaking out because they're thinking, oh my goodness.
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  What am I what am I supposed to do with this all this downtime, which in my opinion, as a
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  mental health, specialist, I think, what a gift that you're that you're giving yourself, you're
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  giving your kids, or maybe you're giving your partner, even though I know you're juggling a
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  lot of things at home.
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  Well, you know, the essence of a meditation practice is learning to be with yourself.
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  And so if you've done this over time, you begin to realize how to be with yourself no matter
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  what you're doing, how active you are, but in this time, it's an interesting exercise to
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  think about, well, what do I do now?
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  Mhmm.
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  And, I have a friend in Los Angeles, And he he said, I I went to a course you taught once.
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  I said, really?
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  And he says, yes.
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  It was in the mid eighties.
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  And it was called live each day as if your it will be your last.
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  Mhmm.
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  Because one day, it surely will.
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  And he said, I always remember that title.
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  And I said, I don't even remember the course, but It it is the truth of our lives is you
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  never know what tomorrow will bring.
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  And in fact, you can only live in the present moment.
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  You can only live right now.
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  The rest, the past is gone.
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  The future is yet to arrive.
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  It's just a projection anyway.
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  So why not just do what you have to do today?
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  And, you know, there's a, this is what I learned from my teacher, and There's a famous,
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  rabbi in the in the Hasidic tradition, the Boschom Tov.
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  Was a teacher in, I think, 17th century Poland.
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  And a a great being, and if you ever wanna read great stories, about a spiritual master,
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  Balchem Top.
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  So people used to say about him, I don't go there to listen to what he has to say.
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  I go there to watch how he ties his shoes.
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  Because in the most ordinary activity, you can find everything.
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  And so that, to me, is if you wanna do something fun, have a hummingbird feeder.
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  And just watch how a bird approaches a feeder.
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  That will slow you down.
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  And I think the key of the time we have now is while you can't go to bars and restaurants,
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  you're still allowed to be out in nature.
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  It's not amazing because surely, we can go out.
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  We can go out and walk every day.
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  Like, I back onto the woods here, those types of things, but I would begin given the
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  opportunity to be able to do this through a time that you know, less than ideal, but we
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  have this time now, but most people aren't thinking of that as the option to be able to
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  get outside.
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  Well, I think even in Canada, it's spring officially spring on Thursday or something.
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  Right.
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  You know, it's, you know, you know, that you should do that.
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  I take a long walk every day.
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  It's just nature's times table is different than ours.
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  And so you begin to learn how to listen begin to learn how to see differently.
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  And if you can really slow yourself down enough, You might learn something.
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  So let's talk a little bit about meditation and mindfulness and how to use it in your busy life
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  because I I can tell you as a psychotherapist, as a coach, but most people find it difficult.
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  Right?
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  They they find it difficult you're talking about mindfulness, you know, having a cup of
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  tea and sitting there or watching a hummingbird, and most people are so
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  hypervigilant that they're not able to slow their mind, like even though 5 will say to
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  someone, okay, let's take a little couple of minutes.
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  I'm gonna, you know, let's go through a guided meditation.
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  Most people will say, like I have a hamster running around in my head.
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  So what kind of tips would you say?
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  Like, for the average person that's maybe listening and say, okay, Jerry, this is a nice
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  concept.
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  I'd like to try this, but I've tried this many times, and, I can't slow my mind.
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  What what little steps would you suggest that people start to try?
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  You know, one of my favorite slogans is don't just do something.
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  Sit there.
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  Is the opposite of what your mother probably used to tell you
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  or
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  your father.
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  You know, the easiest thing to do is just to watch the breath.
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  You know, Bobby used to say we we breathe 21,600 times a day.
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  So if there's all of these opportunities to just watch your own breath.
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  And then the meditation technique is you begin to as you start to do that, things do slow
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  down.
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  And then you start to look for the space between each in breath and each out breath.
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  And in that space, you can find perfect rest.
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  So that is that essential meditation technique.
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  It's been taught since forever.
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  The hard part is How do I get there?
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  And I think for some people, it's music.
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  Some people might be more visual and some images of nature can take you to that place
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  even if you're not outdoors.
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  And you can't be outdoors for whatever reason.
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  Being with something that moves you which which might be, a cup of tea if you're Japanese.
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  So that whole idea is watching the mind.
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  Now I was fortunate because I spent 2 years with all of the different techniques trying to
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  do that.
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  And then when I met my teacher, he just lived in that state And all you had to do was just to
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  be around him, and you would get into that state.
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  So gradually, I began to learn.
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  And then there's all kinds of techniques.
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  I mean, there's many techniques for meditation as there are for anything else.
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  So I think the essence is you are your own coach in this enterprise.
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  So you for, you find what works for you.
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  You go deeper.
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  And ultimately, what Pablo Moktineni used to say is, This is it.
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  You know, I'll give you something to get you started.
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  Mhmm.
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  But it's your life creation, if you will.
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  And you have to decide that that's what you wanna do because we can look around at our
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  political leadership.
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  We can look around at our business leadership, and we don't see, for the most part, at least
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  on the outside, these kind of understandings manifest.
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  Now it doesn't mean they aren't that way at home or they aren't that way truly, but we
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  don't see it.
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  And that's why we go to meditation teachers and spiritual teachers because you can see more
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  clearly what it is that you need to do.
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  So to me, it's like in the this times that you do have a little downtime, in between all of
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  the video conferences and virtual meetings and, virtual climate strikes.
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  You do have the downtime.
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  You don't have to spend time in traffic
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  Mhmm.
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  To and from an office.
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  And plenty of people are still working, of course.
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  They're delivering our food.
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  They're making sure the water supply works.
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  They're making sure the electricity and gas works.
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  There are all kinds of people working.
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  The garbage pickup here was this morning.
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  I'm very pleased and happy that the landscapers were here.
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  Yes.
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  Today for our development.
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  So lots of people are still working, but if you're not, you do have this golden
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  opportunity.
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  So tell me when you started, you know, with your busy life, at that point, you started to
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  apply the practice and figure out, like you said, your internal world, how did it shift
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  your busy life?
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  How did it make you look?
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  You said you went from, achieve achieve achieve an eye perspective to now an internal space.
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  Well, it wasn't overnight.
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  Okay.
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  But I think one thing is that you get a little distance and perspective on what your own
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  motivations are.
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  And what your own fears are, particularly at the beginning of the practice.
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  And I have in the book a realization that I found and it came over and over again over a
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  period of several years of how I was still competing with people.
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  Competing to be noticed, competing to, be the one that was chosen for this or that activity.
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  Feeling a little still a little disjointed with people that, you know, the way I saw it,
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  weren't as realized as I was.
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  Mhmm.
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  Until I finally realized one day that maybe they were okay.
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  And it was my outlook outlook that was flawed.
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  And I think that that came from this internal practice because, again, it's What what you get
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  is an attenuation of tendencies that you had built your whole life on, and then you start to
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  substitute them with the idea.
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  Well, instead of competing with somebody, why don't I just try to do my best?
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  And let the chips fall where they may.
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  Maybe people will notice.
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  Maybe they won't.
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  So I would think that that create a lot more alignment for you for the right kind of
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  projects that you must have taken on because I'm thinking, you know, I've I've sat in rooms
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  I speak.
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  I train sometimes, and I look at people and you can see the egos.
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  Sometimes when you've adopted that kind of the watching mentality where you can see people
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  just kind of trying to be noticed, and it's almost like mentally or or psychologically.
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  They're climb over each other with their words so they wanna be recognized.
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  So I'm gonna see with this practice, you're just kinda stepping back and whoever needs to
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  be aligned with you just becomes aligned with you.
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  And the things that don't align just aren't meant to be, is that the perspective that you
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  start to take?
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  Well, we're sure because there is a a sense in meditation of watching.
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  In fact, I used to gave a name for the whole practice is watching and waiting.
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  You're just watching what happens.
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  With the mind, with the emotions, etcetera.
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  And you're waiting for the grace of your practice to reveal things to you.
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  We're watching and waiting.
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  And and then taking that out into your busy life as it were.
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  You begin to see, as you said, suggested people's motivations, etcetera, So there's a
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  willingness to let people be who they are.
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  Yep.
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  A letting go of having to be the best in the room and then seeing where you can make a
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  contribution.
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  I used to have this mental exercise when I was working, in engineering firms in the green
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  building area.
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  I would go into a work day thinking, well, what can what value can I bring today?
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  And at the end of the work day, I would do a a quick little assessment, what value have I
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  created today?
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  And I think if you bring the sense of offering, if you bring the sense of being willing to do
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  whatever it takes to help other people do what they need to do, then people naturally begin to
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  see you as somebody they can trust as somebody they can rely on.
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  And maybe as somebody who has a different enough perspective that they can bring some
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  clarity to a situation.
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  And so anyway, Alright.
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  And I and I would think that certain people would be drawn to that because clearly, at what
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  I hear, Jared, it's about service.
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  If I am able to delay.
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  I I think from a new of crimes perspective as a as with what I do, it's almost like people get
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  caught up in the whole you know, spring of things and they get, you know, either
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  catapulted to the past or they're worrying about the future and that presence they don't
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  stay there very long.
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  And on that space, they get caught up to the moments and ego gets involved But when you're
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  able to be the watcher, what you're able to do is be more of service, which is clearly what
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  you're saying.
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  If you're in a room where people could just experience you for what you bring.
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  Eventually, the people that need to be drawn to you will and the people that aren't meant to be
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  aligned with you just kind of feed off.
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  Would you say that that has happened to you in your on your career path?
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  Yeah.
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  I have a friend who's who, does a lot of work with leaders of organizations.
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  And she wrote a nice little book called The Lead is to serve And this concept of servant
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  leadership, obviously, is out there.
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  Yes.
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  It's hard to remove your ego from the situation no matter who you are, but the idea of offering
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  what Bobby used to call selfless service is the essence of any spiritual path, and it's the
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  essence of your domestic life?
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  I mean, how far will you get as a husband?
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  If you sit around all the time waiting for the spouse to serve you.
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  And I think I think we all learn in our family life and in our, outside the workplace life
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  about service, then to bring it into the workplace life is more challenging because not
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  everybody recognizes it, and you have to be okay with that.
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  Right.
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  But the idea of servant leadership is probably one of the biggest innovations in thinking in
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  the last 50 years.
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  It's it's never been absent but it certainly got, submerged in our culture, particularly our
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  North American culture, Western culture, with the idea of the dominant entrepreneur, the the
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  dominant personality the winner takes all, idea.
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  And we were forgetting that in life.
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  It's a different game.
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  And there is no one keeping score.
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  And there's no one deciding who's a winner or a loser because ultimately as actors in this
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  play, we all have to exit stage left.
• 26:20
  And so at that point, it's too late to figure it out.
• 26:25
  This time around, so to speak.
• 26:28
  So why not get started now?
• 26:31
  So let's talk a little bit about, you know, Our relationship to the planet.
• 26:36
  And for leaders, or just like you're talking about, whether you're leaving, leading at home,
• 26:41
  you're leading a corporation, or you're leading community kind of, movements, that alignment
• 26:48
  between us being connected to nature and leadership, there's there's a link there that
• 26:54
  we may need to make more often to be able to serve better.
• 26:57
  So how do we make that link And what kind of things do you think we should be doing in our
• 27:02
  lives to be able to be more connected to the planet?
• 27:07
  You know, one of the, aspects of the environmental movement was the wilderness
• 27:15
  movement.
• 27:16
  And the idea that something should just be left alone.
• 27:22
  Very hard for human beings to understand or to grasp because we are the dominant species.
• 27:31
  We're in the process of changing the climate of the whole planet.
• 27:34
  Think about that.
• 27:36
  No other species that we know of has ever done this, and we're then responsible for results.
• 27:43
  But the idea well, every time I see a advertisement for a cruise ship to Antarctica,
• 27:48
  I cringe.
• 27:50
  Because You're gonna leave pollution behind.
• 27:54
  Right.
• 27:55
  There's gonna be a ship that gets in distress.
• 27:59
  There's gonna be a ship that goes to ground on an iceberg and spells oil.
• 28:03
  There's all of that activity And so the idea that we should leave some things alone is
• 28:10
  essential to the thinking.
• 28:13
  And so we have this movement now rewilding North America.
• 28:18
  Mhmm.
• 28:18
  I mean, we're re we're depopulating our prairies, and I suspect when the oil boom ends,
• 28:24
  Canada will depopulate its prairies.
• 28:27
  Mhmm.
• 28:28
  And we'll just take down the fences and let the buffalo roam, so to speak.
• 28:33
  That's a 100 years out, maybe 50 years out.
• 28:38
  But the idea of being willing to respect your home and having a a broader sense of home.
• 28:47
  And so the science of ecology developed in the last 50 to 75 years as the study of our broader
• 28:57
  household And if you think about it, Gary Snyder, the poet, if you would surprise winning
• 29:04
  poet, wrote a a a book once called Earth Household, or earth household.
• 29:11
  Right.
• 29:12
  And the whole idea was to really reconceive our whole idea of relationship to the earth house.
• 29:19
  Well, the first thing you wanna do, if you in your own house, is you can't leave the garbage
• 29:24
  all around.
• 29:26
  Mhmm.
• 29:26
  You have to keep it clean.
• 29:28
  Right?
• 29:29
  And we're not even that far along yet.
• 29:32
  So I I just wrote a blog post about, you know, what we can learn from Earth Day and apply to
• 29:40
  the climate crisis.
• 29:43
  And one of the things that we can learn is that we have to stop doing certain things.
• 29:50
  And the old saying that it takes five miles for an oil tanker to stop before you can turn it
• 29:54
  around.
• 29:55
  Mhmm.
• 29:57
  And it probably does.
• 29:58
  That's 25,000 feet, 8000 meters.
• 30:02
  It does take a while to stop a big ship.
• 30:05
  So to stop this forward momentum towards planetary destruction, and destruction of our
• 30:12
  own livelihoods is really the 1st step in the environmental movement.
• 30:18
  And the first step in the climate change movement is to stop doing some things And as
• 30:24
  one of the, leading proponents, Bill McKebben says it's okay to leave it in the ground.
• 30:32
  Just because it's a resource and it's there, it doesn't mean that we have to encourage people
• 30:39
  to take it.
• 30:41
  So this whole notion of being willing to live within limits, being willing to live.
• 30:46
  And and the limits are only, like, physical.
• 30:50
  There's no limit on our imagination.
• 30:53
  There's no limit on our ability to communicate with ourselves, with the planet, with higher
• 30:59
  higher cells.
• 31:01
  None of that's limited.
• 31:02
  We just have to somehow figure out how to say, well, we're not gonna do this anymore.
• 31:09
  Mhmm.
• 31:09
  And then it comes down to something really basic like combustion I mean, the entire
• 31:14
  industrial revolution was built on the steam engine, which is built on combustion.
• 31:21
  Right?
• 31:22
  Taking coal and burning it and making hot steam and using that to drive a motor.
• 31:29
  Right?
• 31:29
  That's the the essence.
• 31:31
  And and then my god, we got enough left over that we can drain the mine so that we can mine
• 31:37
  more of this stuff.
• 31:39
  So the minute they got engines and pumps that could pump water out of deeper and deeper
• 31:44
  mines, they were able to go further down.
• 31:46
  And so that's the history of the last 250 years encapsulated has been combustion.
• 31:53
  Well, When you move to a renewable energy economy, you make electricity directly from the
• 32:00
  sun, from the wind, from falling water, Like, where you live, it's almost all based on
• 32:06
  hydropower.
• 32:07
  It is.
• 32:07
  Yes.
• 32:08
  Nature is gifted Canada with a lot of snow and rain.
• 32:11
  Yep.
• 32:11
  And and enough elevation changes to make dams and hydro power.
• 32:17
  All of a sudden, we begin to say, well, gee, this was pretty crude.
• 32:22
  I'm an engineer by training.
• 32:24
  And if you actually look at an automobile, it gets about 10% of the energy in the fuel
• 32:31
  converted to going forward.
• 32:34
  Okay.
• 32:35
  The rest is wasted as heat.
• 32:38
  That's pretty primitive, don't you think?
• 32:40
  Well, for sure.
• 32:42
  And our electric power system is maybe 20% efficient by the time you go from burning
• 32:49
  something to where you're using something like a coffee maker.
• 32:52
  Mhmm.
• 32:53
  Mhmm.
• 32:53
  And 80% is wasted.
• 32:55
  So We really haven't been very good at this.
• 33:00
  And so I think psychologically, the the the the real issue now is Well, can we take a path
• 33:07
  that's different that isn't on the surface as easy, but which has all of these longer term
• 33:13
  benefits?
• 33:15
  Like, not flooding everywhere along the coast.
• 33:19
  Right.
• 33:20
  I mean, 40% of US population lives in coastal counties.
• 33:25
  Which are gonna be inundated, at least at the edges, with rising seas.
• 33:30
  We already know that.
• 33:31
  It's already baked in for the next 300 years.
• 33:33
  There's nothing we can do at this point other than somehow magically figure out how to take
• 33:39
  carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
• 33:43
  We're gonna have to live with that.
• 33:45
  And it's not we, not you and me.
• 33:47
  It's those who come after us.
• 33:49
  Right.
• 33:50
  So then when you come back to this sort of basic spiritual wisdom of indigenous people,
• 33:56
  the 7th generation philosophy, Right?
• 34:00
  Live as if what you were creating was gonna benefit people 7 generations in the future.
• 34:07
  Right.
• 34:07
  And then would you do things differently?
• 34:09
  And the answer is, of course.
• 34:12
  So we're beginning to get that.
• 34:16
  We're beginning to see, well, why did I buy stuff that's sustainably sourced?
• 34:22
  Whatever that might mean.
• 34:24
  That doesn't degrade the planet.
• 34:27
  And then why don't I figure out a way to reuse it or repurpose it so it doesn't just get
• 34:33
  tossed away.
• 34:34
  Or has plastic wind up in the ocean killing all kinds of creatures?
• 34:39
  Of course.
• 34:40
  Of course.
• 34:41
  So this sort of coming into awareness is humanity wide.
• 34:46
  It's difficult because So many people are just beginning to enjoy the fruits, so to speak, a
• 34:54
  modern life, 2 thirds of us now live in cities.
• 34:58
  Mhmm.
• 34:59
  Or we will shortly.
• 35:02
  And that's a bigger issue because we are in essence, disconnected from nature by the virtue
• 35:07
  of living in cities.
• 35:09
  We don't see the rhythms and the cycles.
• 35:12
  If we read about it, we wouldn't even understand it.
• 35:15
  Mhmm.
• 35:16
  If you haven't experienced that, it would be hard to it would be hard to to know what it
• 35:20
  would be like.
• 35:22
  Now for and the average person out there that's thinking about, you know, how do we wrap this
• 35:26
  all together?
• 35:27
  How do I make how do I make a difference?
• 35:29
  Right?
• 35:29
  We talk about, you know, being centered, get to your point, and going out there and thinking of
• 35:37
  my actions, how I could help the planet.
• 35:41
  So what what is the, you know, the average person says, how am I gonna make a difference?
• 35:47
  I think the essence is start with something.
• 35:52
  Something that's clearly doable.
• 35:54
  You know, if you don't recycle, well, start recycling.
• 35:58
  I know Canada was very successful with the the the blue bin
• 36:02
  Mhmm.
• 36:03
  For recycling.
• 36:04
  Right?
• 36:04
  So there was peer pressure.
• 36:06
  If you didn't see a blue bin in front of your
• 36:08
  neighbor's house, you and
• 36:09
  they weren't being a good citizen.
• 36:13
  Yeah.
• 36:13
  Or once you got to a certain critical mass, everybody, everyone said, well, I guess they
• 36:18
  better put out a blue bin even if there's nothing in it.
• 36:23
  And then and then your children would start to tell you, well, why are you being so,
• 36:27
  hypocritical?
• 36:28
  What's something in it?
• 36:29
  So there are all kinds.
• 36:31
  I mean, I still, even though I live in a small townhouse, I still grow tomatoes cucumbers and
• 36:39
  lettuce, every year in perils.
• 36:44
  Yes.
• 36:44
  Yes.
• 36:44
  You could do that.
• 36:45
  You can you can grow, kitchen herbs in an apartment balcony.
• 36:49
  Right?
• 36:51
  So everyone has their own way of doing things.
• 36:55
  And I think it's it's important that we don't share our guilt with people, but to share our
• 37:03
  our best side.
• 37:05
  And I think so I think the essence of any environmental response is first become aware
• 37:12
  and then do what you can do where you are with what you've got.
• 37:18
  And, you know, it's and it's the poorest people in the world we do the most sharing.
• 37:23
  Mhmm.
• 37:24
  And I think that's a great lesson.
• 37:26
  And there's people everywhere who can learn from nothing.
• 37:31
  Mhmm.
• 37:31
  One of the great books I read recently was a short book called the boy who harnessed the
• 37:37
  wind.
• 37:38
  Mhmm.
• 37:38
  About a young boy in Malawi who didn't even have enough money to go to school that he could
• 37:44
  read and he found an old book in a library on electricity, and he taught himself electricity.
• 37:51
  And then he decided because he wanted to read at night, and he didn't have electricity that
• 37:56
  he would make a wind turbine.
• 37:59
  Wow.
• 38:00
  To make a long story short, He eventually became the subject of a TED Talk and was
• 38:07
  offered a scholarship at a US Ivy League School and was smart enough to do all this stuff.
• 38:17
  So we have wisdom every one of us, just by virtue of being human beings, that we can apply
• 38:25
  to situations Once we decide, it's something we want to do.
• 38:30
  And that wisdom deepens when you spend time with yourself in a practice like meditation,
• 38:40
  mindfulness.
• 38:41
  And with that deeper wisdom, you can then offer more to other people So if you wanna do
• 38:46
  selfless service, start with the self, the big self, get acquainted with it, Right.
• 38:54
  And then get rid of that little self in the selfless service, and do what you can.
• 39:00
  I mean, for some people, it might just be what people are doing right now on our little, we
• 39:09
  have a kind of a neighborhood internet.
• 39:11
  Maybe there's 3000 people.
• 39:14
  It's a a website called Nextdoor.
• 39:17
  Mhmm.
• 39:17
  And it's all around.
• 39:19
  And people just say, well, if anyone needs someone to go shopping for them.
• 39:24
  I'm available.
• 39:25
  Right.
• 39:26
  Right.
• 39:26
  That that's simple.
• 39:29
  You don't know if anyone does, but you're offering.
• 39:32
  Right.
• 39:33
  And you're sincere about it.
• 39:34
  And if you get called by 10 people, you're gonna not say, well, I can't do ten people.
• 39:39
  You're gonna recruit 9 friends to do the same.
• 39:43
  So since we're all at home, we can all be at service now to those around us who need
• 39:49
  something.
• 39:50
  So it make the difference now.
• 39:52
  Now I I know we could probably talk a whole lot more about this, and this has been very
• 39:56
  You're a psychotherapist.
• 39:59
  You're You you've got me talking.
• 40:02
  I did.
• 40:02
  And I love it.
• 40:03
  A couch.
• 40:05
  I would love for you to tell people about.
• 40:07
  So the book is, godfather of green and echo spiritual memoir, and that's coming down on a
• 40:14
  earth day on April 22nd.
• 40:17
  Tell people where they can get ahold of the book.
• 40:19
  And if they wanted to chat further with you, how they can connect with you, just for more of
• 40:24
  this information, Jerry.
• 40:26
  So I have a website for the book.
• 40:28
  It's called jerryutelson.net.
• 40:32
  The book is available now for pre order.
• 40:35
  On any online source.
• 40:39
  There are some nice ones out there, one that called indie books, that allows you to order
• 40:44
  from your local bookstore if they're subscribed to that service.
• 40:48
  So you don't have to order from Amazon.
• 40:50
  Or Barnes And Noble.
• 40:52
  But, yeah, and there's an ebook and a paperback.
• 40:56
  And if you've got all of these long nights at home, what better than to read?
• 41:02
  Get Jerry's get Jerry's book and start reading it.
• 41:05
  So Jerry
• 41:05
  wouldn't say that, you know, a lot of people have told me, they couldn't stop reading it,
• 41:11
  and I don't know what that might indicate about their mental state but, it's it's a story of
• 41:18
  how I struggle to bring these 2 worlds together.
• 41:23
  Okay.
• 41:24
  And that's the essence of it.
• 41:26
  And then how that became a springboard to doing other things.
• 41:31
  It has poems, contemplations, meditation experience is not really opened up.
• 41:37
  And for me, it was a process truly of opening up and remembering things that I had not
• 41:44
  thought about, in a long, long time.
• 41:48
  So I had to dig deep to be able to tell a story that I thought would interest other people.
• 41:55
  And so far, the feedback has been very nice.
• 41:58
  That's awesome.
• 41:58
  Well, thank you so much for your time.
• 42:00
  What what's my takeaway?
• 42:01
  My takeaway is in order to get connected to the bigger me, to take the time and to get out side
• 42:11
  as much as I can because I I like everybody else, Jared, a time is guilty, and I'm looking
• 42:16
  outside, and I have a lot of green But sometimes what happens is I get up and I start
• 42:21
  working at 8, and sometimes I take little breaks, but I don't get outside.
• 42:25
  So I think just to be able to go in, go out, breathe, get connected, even if it's a short
• 42:30
  walk around the block to try to do that as much as possible, or even just to go back to that
• 42:34
  basic breath which we oftentimes don't take those small snippets of time through her day to
• 42:40
  be able to to kind of rejuvenate herself and get re grounded.
• 42:44
  So thank you so much again.
• 42:47
  All the information on Jerry's website and where you can get the book will be in the show
• 42:51
  notes for everyone, thanks again for listening in.
• 42:54
  This is Roxanne Derhodge of authentic living with Roxanne.
• 42:57
  As you know, I'm a mental health and wellness specialist.
• 43:00
  I speak and train and consultants.
• 43:01
  So if you're needing any further information on me, you can go to my website at Roxanne.
• 43:06
  Derhodge care, and we'll talk to you soon.
• 43:10
  Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
• 43:15
  healthy change.
• 43:17
  Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach, to work with Roxanne.
• 43:22
  Visit Roxanne Durgesh dotcom/blueprint.
• 43:27
  We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.