The Art Of Attention — Cheryl Leutjen Loves Our Only Earth Right Now

Love Earth Now author Cheryl Leutjen cares deeply about the future of our planet, but like the rest of us, she often feels overwhelmed by the scope of our environmental challenges. In this conversation, Cheryl shares some of the ways she’s found to approach the challenges of "eco-madness" more mindfully — not to prescribe how others should respond, but to invite each of us to find immediately doable ways to contribute to the sustainable well--being of the earth for future generations.

Transcript

There's just so much bad news for our species.

And how do we cope?

How do I cope?

And how do I navigate all those minefields?

And along the way,

I found some tools that actually helped me.

Also,

I invite the reader to go on their own immediate introspection about their own feelings and their own calls to action,

Because at the end of the day,

It's up to each of us to honor our own personal calls of interaction.

Hey everybody,

Welcome to The Art of Attention.

I'm Darren Larson.

It's really easy to get overwhelmed by the scale of our environmental challenges,

To the point of not really even knowing where to begin.

Our attention usually goes towards the ways we disagree,

Instead of on the things we could all be doing now.

Cheryl Lujan has a refreshing take to offer.

In her book,

Love Earth Now,

The Power of Doing One Thing Every Day,

Cheryl shares ways that she redirects her anger,

Fear,

And hopelessness into doable,

Tangible action,

And even a renewed sense of hope.

She doesn't tell readers what they should do.

Instead,

She invites all of us to find ways to respond that line up with our values and the messy details of our lives.

In this conversation,

We walk through the specific ways Cheryl has found to use humor and a deep earnestness to stay engaged and to discover what she and each of us can do to affect meaningful change in the world,

Starting right now.

Cheryl Lujan,

Welcome to The Art of Attention.

Thank you.

What I'm thinking about is how the world has gotten so much more distracting,

That's one way to put it,

And there's so many things competing for our attention.

And I'm interested in people who have decided not to wait for the world to sort itself out before they're willing to kind of jump in and come up with strategies.

How do I respond to these challenges?

What can I do to strengthen my attention or decide what to notice more?

Instead of leaving it up to chance or the mercy of the skill of some of these persuading voices we're inundated with,

Right?

That make sense?

Yes,

Yes,

Absolutely.

And in fact,

If they were more persuading,

Then maybe we wouldn't have to do our own journeys.

But I haven't found one that's persuaded me yet.

Yeah,

And even if they're not persuading us,

They're provoking us,

I guess.

It's like we talk about information overload,

And I think that's actually an outdated term.

It goes way beyond information.

It's provocation,

Doing all kinds of things to hold our attention,

Right?

There's a profit being made by gripping our attention and holding it.

That's right,

And it's becoming more and more difficult to hold it because we're constantly being distracted,

So it's more difficult to pay attention to anything for very long.

Exactly,

And that's why I think that we're kind of experiencing something like when the culture changed,

People had more sedentary jobs,

And we gradually discovered we needed to exercise our bodies more,

Right?

Right.

Something's happening related to attention in a similar way where we're realizing,

Oh my gosh,

I'm gonna have to exercise my attention.

I'm gonna have to decide what I'm gonna pay attention to.

Absolutely.

So as I'm reading your book and thinking about how this applies to your work and your interests and what I see you putting out there in the world,

I see you being willing to let us have a glimpse in how you're responding to the challenges,

The things that grab your attention emotionally,

The things that reveal your values and how you're responding.

And I hear you doing that with humor.

I was actually thinking of- I was thinking maybe,

You know,

There may be times where I'm revealing too much,

More than you wanna know about what's going on in my mind about all these things,

But yes,

That's exactly what the book is about.

Well,

I think humor does,

Humor helps though,

Right?

Helps,

They are such serious issues.

Well,

It reminds me,

Does Irma Baumbach,

Do you remember Irma Baumbach?

Yes,

Absolutely.

So I hear,

I get a little bit of Irma Baumbach,

I get a little bit of John Cabot Zen recommending that we let everything become our teacher.

I get a little bit of serenity prayer,

Like what can I accept and what can I change and how do I tell the difference?

As I'm reading you,

I keep coming up against these kinds of qualities or aspects to what you're sharing.

And how would you describe your book?

The book is called Love Earth Now.

Yes,

It is.

It's a collection of essays,

My own personal struggles and stories about how I have endeavored and tried all sorts of ways to find meaning in the difficult times in which we live and especially in light of all of the news about the dire reports about our planet,

11 years left to turn things around and sixth great extinction of so many species and the garbage,

It's just,

There's just so much bad news for our species at least.

And how do we cope,

How do I cope and how do I navigate all those minefields and along the way,

I found some tools that actually helped me and so my goal is to share those with readers and also at the end of the chapter,

I invite the reader to go on their own immediate introspection about their own feelings and their own calls to action because at the end of the day,

It's up to each of us to honor our own personal calls of interaction.

That's right and I could relate to,

I'm a person who I feel my feelings strongly,

I always have and I've been working with mindfulness over the last 17 years.

I've actually tried to work on that as a skill,

Something I could do more skillfully,

Regulate my emotions,

Be aware of my emotions and I hear in you also navigating that in a similar way,

In your own way,

Right?

Noticing that the things that you're hearing about,

Reading about,

Observing yourself,

There's a heartbreaking aspect and you're kind of letting us watch and hear and feel along with you and then you're inviting us to consider how might we regulate our own emotion,

How might we consider our options for reacting and responding?

Yes,

I love that analogy,

There's a heartbreaking happening because that's exactly how I feel.

So often I have two children and that's my greatest impetus for writing and finding a way to make meaning and find purpose because I want there to be a world for them,

I want there to be fresh air and sunshine and clean water to drink.

I remember our grandparents talking about leaving the world in a way that our grandchildren could thrive.

It feels like that message is heard less,

I guess,

These days but I think it's still a very human impulse to consider longer than just my life,

Right?

Into my kids and my children's children.

I believe so,

Yes.

Yeah.

And even I know friends who don't have children of their own but they have nieces and nephews they're very close to,

I see a deep connection and deep concern across the board of people I know for the next generation.

Yeah,

That's right and then something about aiming your gaze in that direction seems to be better than just aiming it for what I can get out of my life this week or something,

Especially from the consumer aspect,

Right?

Right.

I really like the,

You call them love earth invitations.

Yes.

You might call them reflections or an invitation to meditate or contemplate something.

Would you be willing to recall maybe an example of the many you give in your book,

How you connect your own personal experience to that invitation for the reader to reflect in their own way?

Well,

I think a very simple relatable example is my experience with phone books.

I have repeatedly put in requests to opt out of the phone book and yet they still arrive on my doorstep and it just is such a flagrant reminder to me of the needlessness of so much of what we produce and put out there,

People don't want.

Right.

I haven't looked that number up in a long time and they require a lot of paper and a lot of resources and delivery and all of that and it's just sitting there on my doorstep reminding me of all of these things and I tend to lose it.

So I go through my whole process of dealing with the phone book and reading about the phone book and at the end of the day,

I just,

I have to get myself out someplace into nature and an experience happens that really takes me out of my mental processes and my triggered emotional responses because these are all things that are upwelling from prior experiences,

How furious I get seeing a simple phone book and this experience of being in nature,

Being present,

Takes me out of it,

Takes me back to what's important and what's my call to duty and what do I need to let go.

Right.

And so at the end of that chapter,

I ask readers,

Do you have an environmental hot button,

Something that makes your blood boil,

The first mention of it?

And then I offer a simple reflection,

Close your eyes,

Breathing,

Imagining kind of experience so that it goes immediately back to the reader because ultimately the goal of my book is to inspire all of us to reflect on what's important to us and how do I deal with things that I can't handle,

I can't respond to and how do I have the energy to do the work that I am here to do.

Yeah,

Thank goodness.

I'm hearing more and more voices out in the world from psychologists and experts who are encouraging people to feel their unpleasant feelings.

I feel like your voice gets added to that.

I think of Susan David who talks about how we don't wanna rush to get rid of or numb things like our fear and sadness and anger.

Right.

Right?

They reveal our values and then we can,

Those feelings are not necessarily something we have to reflexively respond to.

We can feel them and then I appreciate my unpleasant feelings because it reminds me,

Points me back to what I need and what I value and then we can start to do the work that you're talking about which is how can I decide how to respond?

Where can I put my attention that I don't feel as over?

Exactly.

Right?

Because I hear that's what I hear you saying.

It's about having that conscious choice about how to respond to something as opposed to these knee jerk reactions that we have based on years of who knows what experiences.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And then you're not in control,

You're not in charge,

You're not able to make your conscious decisions about how am I gonna respond?

How am I,

What am I gonna let go?

Right.

I'm concerned,

I don't know how sustainable outrage is as our only option.

I think it's got a place but I think there's gotta be a little more strategy and I think that pausing and mindfully deciding to incorporate some of these ideas of feeling our feelings and making a conscious decision I think can help.

There's also something I'm curious to hear what you think about this because I say this kind of a lot in my speaking and coaching.

There's this tendency we have when we see something that's either wrong in the world.

I think it applies to in ourselves as well.

We want the world to be better and we wanna be better version of ourselves and I think those are great things to help us decide how we wanna act in the world.

But there's something that I think we can also love the world,

We can also love the world in its imperfect state,

We can also accept ourselves or practice accepting ourselves as we are.

It's like simultaneously improving and accepting.

Right,

It's delicate.

That's,

We have the name in my book is Love Earth Now.

Right now,

As it is right here and now.

I mean now is where we live and coming back to our heart it's a better feeling place for me to take action because I love my community,

I love the tree outside my window,

I love my family,

I'm gonna make these choices based out of love.

Yes,

Outrage is important and it's just natural.

It's a natural response to things that are upsetting and so it's important to me to feel that feeling and give it what I call the light and air that it needs to compost because burying things without oxygen they don't.

It doesn't work,

Does it?

So give it that space and then it's important to me to reconnect with the present because the outrage is,

As I said,

It stems largely from things that have happened in the past,

It's just like the piling on that really makes it so powerful a feeling.

So I give myself the time and space to feel that feeling and then I have to reconnect with the present and be right here,

Right now,

What's happening right now.

And you talk about nature as helping you do that.

Is there any other things you suggest or that you discover in your own exploration of what allows you to reconnect with the present?

Oh,

It can be anything.

It can be something as just taking a look around and I like picking something up because it's very tangible as opposed to the tendency is looking around and you're still thinking but picking something up and really noticing it.

Right,

Engaging your senses,

I guess,

Is how I frame that too,

Right?

So what can I do to engage my senses?

The present can sound so abstract.

I think when we talk about it in kind of a certain language,

One of the things I'm critical out in the world of mindfulness is that sounds so abstract and then the reality is it's as simple as touching a paperclip or feeling the breeze or noticing the temperature of the room,

Hearing sounds of birds.

I think it doesn't have to be something necessarily beautiful to connect with the present.

We connect with some sensory detail that's available.

So then when you feel your feelings and bring your attention back to the present,

Which I think we could say that's enough.

That's a really great place to start for people who are listening.

Feel your feelings and reconnect with your senses could be a project that you just did only those two steps.

You could try that for weeks,

Months,

Years and just see how that impacts your experience.

But what do you recommend after those steps?

Well,

For me,

This is where I ask for guidance.

When I am truly present and I aired my feelings,

I am truly back to present,

Then I ask of Earth,

God,

Universe,

Divine intelligence,

Allah,

Goddess,

Insert your appellation of choice.

What,

If anything,

Am I to do about this news and why is this showing up for me right now and be still with that and trust that answers come when they come,

It's not gonna be right here right now.

There's not gonna be a lightning bolt,

Rarely.

Lightning bolt,

Okay,

I get it.

I need to go out and start a fund to save the wolves.

Just set that question out into the ethers,

Resist the temptation to think of any right answers and notice,

Just be in a state of noticing what comes in the hours or maybe months to come.

It may be drifting off to sleep or so often,

Tripping over something and it's like,

What was that,

Okay,

I get it.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Right,

Right,

Right.

Or standing in the kitchen wondering,

What did I come in here to get?

You know what I need to do about the phone book is.

Yeah,

Right,

Right,

Right.

That is how we work,

Isn't it?

I think it's how we work.

It is for me.

Well,

And I think maybe I think what I relate to,

I think every once in a while I find myself acknowledging I'm at the end of my limits or at the end of my abilities.

It feels like it at least.

And I think I phrase it in terms of help me,

Like more of a help,

Help.

It really is human to reach out in that way that you're talking about it.

And I think we do share it.

We share it,

We have different ways of talking about it.

One time I had a nightmare,

I was in an elevator and the elevator was plunging down.

And it was just without thinking about it,

Everything in my body was reaching out,

Calling out for help,

Help,

Help me.

And I think when it comes to those moments,

We all call out for help.

It's sort of a,

I think it's a doorway into what you're saying as far as not answers,

But being able to sit with not knowing or stay open to discovering and not rushing it.

Sort of like I'm not,

What if I put myself in a position of I'm not the center of the universe and I'm open to suggestions,

I guess,

Right?

Absolutely,

Because I think that we are,

We humans are so much more than our brains.

I mean,

In our society culture today,

Thinking is prized above all,

And yet we are a greater spiritual self.

In my belief,

And I believe that there's sources of information beyond what we can just think through for ourselves,

And that's why it is such an instinct,

A human instinct to ask for help.

And then I know that you have said that there's this thanking that source of help or trusting that it'll work out.

So is that the same step or that blurs,

That's the next step?

That's my next step,

Is once I put it out into the ether,

I'm asking for help.

I'm asking for answers,

I'm asking for information.

And then I absolutely entrust that this problem is,

I entrust problems that are not mine to address,

That I can't do anything about to the people whose soul work it is.

There's 7 billion,

More than 7 billion people on the planet now,

And we are each instilled with our own soul work to accomplish.

So I flood them on a daily basis with gratitude.

Everyone who is showing up to honor the callings of their own souls,

And especially those who never make the headlines.

It seems like nothing is happening and nobody cares,

And yet I know people care and people are working and people are acting.

And so it makes me feel so much more hopeful to flood them with gratitude and to think of the unsung heroes and to hold them in my thankfulness.

Well,

It's also,

You've come up with this,

You've customized this for yourself,

But you've customized this pause,

The disrupting the tendency that we have to panic when we get overwhelmed by things that really are important to us,

But we're not sure what the answer is.

Partly what you're recommending is recommending that people look for ways to build in some strategy that works for them to pause.

And like the news is never going to do this part.

This,

The gratitude for the people we don't get to see,

We don't get to hear about the police officers who deescalate someone who's having trouble.

We will only,

That doesn't go viral.

When we're operating on our best game,

That doesn't make news unfortunately now.

So this is a perfect example of what I'm thinking about with these conversations is what am I going to have to do instead of waiting?

I can't wait for the news to change.

I've got to build in a strategy or practice a strategy that becomes second nature to me where I decide to remember the bigger picture is much more complicated than what sells ads and news.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then,

Yeah.

And then,

See,

I knew we had stuff in common.

So then in your approach,

What do you do next?

I come back to focusing on my breath.

It just helps to move everything on through and if there's any residual and also just to bring me back into the present and also to think of someone,

Something I love.

It could be just a picture I have of my,

A wall of my son or my daughter or thinking of,

You know,

Of a particular tree that I love or a place in nature.

And then when I walk out of this experience and back into the world,

I feel like I'm bringing something of value,

Something important and something hopeful.

And at the end of the day,

That's ultimately what I want to bring into the world is a positive force for hopefulness and action and mindfulness and awareness and love for Earth.

It reminds me a little bit of you're describing a recharge but recharge plus or recharge infused with the humanity,

The love,

Empathy,

Warmth.

It's not just,

You know,

What I run into a lot so much is the perception of what mindfulness or contemplation.

I'm with you.

I really don't care about the terms.

I'm really interested in these deeply human things that we all have the capacity for.

Not everyone realizes that they could develop those capacities.

But whatever we want to,

That's right.

But there's something more than the perception of just breath as relaxation or mindfulness as relaxation.

It starts to look and sound to me like we're just promoting a kind of a numbing response or a checking out or taking a nap.

And what you're describing and what I'm trying to advocate in my work is so paradoxically not a nap.

It's not passive.

It's actually deeply engaged but it's complicated,

Right?

It's what- It's a sort of work.

It's work.

It is work,

Right?

And it's- Yes.

But it's like part of that work- It takes some discipline to get there and to sit with it and be with it.

It takes discipline to not just give in to the autopilot,

Whatever that is,

What instinctively the first impulse is to just rage or so many things we all do.

But I also think there's an impulse to numb.

So what I think both of us are talking about is inviting the complexity of it and somehow being willing to be part of a solution even though we're not sure what that solution even is.

But to engage in that,

Right?

To engage in that uncertainty without waiting.

I think I don't wanna wait for it to be certain or to be comfortable because I don't think that's how we get ourselves out of these messes.

I don't think certainty and comfort are how we work our way out.

And I also,

Something I love about the,

I don't know what would I call it,

A theme or a message that's woven throughout your book is a reminder to continue recognizing the humanity of the people who we see as causing some of the problems.

Right?

Is that fair?

Yes.

I kinda skipped over that,

But that's part of my interest and thinking process is to extend a word of gratitude for those that I deem responsible for the,

Whatever travesty I see going on because,

But for that person acting out in this way that is so reprehensible to me,

I might not be roused to the point of this process this and taking action.

I believe that they play an essential role in rousing us to the urgings of our souls.

Well,

It's,

Oh,

That's interesting.

Cause I'm always curious about the wise people from the dawn of time keep telling us to love our enemies.

To me,

They're not saying don't have any.

There's at this stage in my life,

What I hear is keep recognizing the humanity you share with the people who are living in a way that is in opposition to your values or making your life difficult.

When I imagine the wellbeing of someone,

It's easy for me to care about.

It feels great,

But it's not,

I don't feel it strengthening my heart or my compassion.

And when I work with the,

I guess I'm talking here about what's called loving kindness,

Like I tend to call it friendliness practice,

I have kind of my way of working with that.

But when I work with those difficult or challenging people and I remember that,

Okay,

Wait a second,

They're trying to be safe and happy and healthy.

And so am I,

And what can I do in my own imagination to reconnect with,

Even though I,

It's hard for me to understand the logic of how they're connecting their behaviors with those basic human drives,

That's really not for me to sort out.

I just have to try to recognize all of us are trying to do this.

I mean,

I'm not nailing it.

So can I soften up my expectation that everyone else should be?

And that's the difficult people,

I agree that they can then motivate me to take different risks or to be energized enough to move in the direction of trying to contribute to the solution,

I guess.

And to connect with other people who are equally outraged or incensed and say,

Okay,

What can we do in a way that we would never be inspired to do,

But for this person who is showing up,

That's why I just keep saying,

This person is showing up and playing their part as if it's a stage show.

They're playing the part,

It's an essential part for the rest of us to wake up to ours.

Right,

Yeah,

That's fascinating.

It's a messy thing,

We need each other.

We need all the parts,

I think.

We need all the parts.

Yeah.

Not just we don't like them.

Yeah,

I want to get to the point where we can incorporate everybody back in and quit having this team,

Like when your team converts to my team,

We're gonna all live happily ever after.

I think it's a new kind of place we're gonna have to figure out,

But where we're all.

Or even just remembering how to have a conversation with somebody who holds opinions that are different than ours.

Exactly.

It's become almost taboo.

I think we gotta be getting closer to that,

I feel it.

There's enough stirrings or beginning to talk about this more and more.

I think we recognize it,

We're not sure how to get there,

But I'm willing to have those conversations.

I think the numbers are growing.

We'll see what happens.

I have people still who,

Enlightened,

Thoughtful people who say,

I don't know how you can stand talking to that person.

Yeah.

I just,

I can't have people like that in my life.

I also think they're scared in that,

I don't know,

I've experienced it so many times again and again in my life where those people,

Those difficult people,

When you actually sit down to a meal,

It can be very civil.

Yeah.

I think we're just used to thinking that just because social media and Twitter and things have become so hostile,

That I don't think we've lost that ability.

I just think we have fewer opportunities to do it.

A couple of things before we sign off.

The one question I have is what gives you the most hope right now?

Is there something that's giving you hope about how the things that we can do as individuals that can kind of turn around some of these problems we've created for ourselves?

Greta Tenberg.

That young woman,

The Danish young woman,

Greta,

Just look at how much attention she is getting,

Both positive and critical as anyone in the spotlight does,

And what kind of actions she has inspired around the world.

I mean,

I think just a year ago,

She was a schoolgirl sitting outside parliament and protesting that no one's doing anything on climate and look at the change,

Look at how much,

And not just change,

But how many young people have been energized.

That's the excitement to me that to see,

That's what I feel like we've been missing is just some momentum that we're seeing now since her actions started catching the news and all the social media.

Yeah,

It's like an invigoration,

Right?

It's an energizing,

Yeah.

And I don't mean to lay the work of the world onto one person.

I mean,

You asked where do I get hopefulness?

I mean,

Just look at that and see if you're thinking,

What could I do that would make a difference or one person can't make a difference.

It's the billionaires and it's the oligarchs that are making decisions.

It's like,

It could be a schoolgirl,

So what's yours?

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah,

No,

I love it.

And then,

And I guess in line with that,

The last question I have,

Maybe it's a redundant,

Maybe I don't need this question,

But I was gonna ask you,

What do you say to people who feel that the scope of the problem is too big for an individual to have an impact?

Is there anything different besides how you've just answered?

Well,

Read my book.

That's the whole point.

That's the point of your book,

Isn't it?

And I think I wanna thank you for your willingness to share your inner workings.

Like again,

I think the emotional pain you run into when you see the suffering of the planet,

Right?

And that you're showing us at least how you found it helpful to navigate that without coming out bitter on the other end and still having some hope about that.

So I think that is a really powerful message and a powerful gift to people.

So I appreciate your willingness to do that.

I'm sure it took a lot of energy and emotion and time to put that book out into the world.

Well,

Thank you.

And I so appreciate you having me on this program.

I have enjoyed this conversation so much.

I hope we get to speak again.

All right,

All right.

Thank you so much,

Cheryl.

Take care.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for listening.

I hope you enjoyed this conversation.

And I hope you'll look for Cheryl's book,

Love Earth Now.

To find out more about her work,

You can visit loveearthnow.

Us.

There you'll find her blog,

Her newsletter,

And ways to stay in touch on Facebook and Twitter.

Check out the show notes for links to these and other related resources.

And thanks ahead of time for helping us spread the word about the art of attention.

In addition to listening on wcbe.

Org through the WCBE podcast experience,

You can also listen on iTunes,

Spotify,

Stitcher,

SoundCloud,

And even on the Insight Timer Meditation app.

Let me know what you think about the podcast so far by emailing me at darron,

D-A-R-O-N,

At attentionalfitness.

Com.

I also invite you to share your reactions and ideas on my Attentional Fitness Facebook page and on Twitter at artofattention.

That's A-R-T-O-F-A-T-T-N.

Until next time,

Let's don't wait for the world to get less distracting.

It's never going to.

I'd love to hear about the ways you're finding to exercise your attention right now.

Reviews

Thank you Daron & Cheryl for this important insightful conversation. (For the love of Gaia, everyone needs a special tree in their lives ✨ 🌲💝)

And to think I almost didn't listen to this! This was a great interview I thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us and to interview whoever it was she just interviewed that wrote that wonderful book love the earth now, thank you

Thank you, Daron and Cheryl, for this conversation. I love the natural world deeply and I, too, get outraged and heartbroken from what’s happening. Thank you for offering tools on how I can cope with this. One of the things I’m currently doing on social media, when a tragedy occurs, is share ways on how people can help. Like you both said: people care. Sometimes they just don’t know how. Spreading awareness, I find, is very powerful.

Also, I especially love the practice of flooding the unsung heroes with gratitude, and even the people who made these challenges and problems known. It’s a beautiful manifestation of shared humanity, and we all could use more of that these days.

Again, thank you very much. Love and light to you and all. Mau we respond to the work we have to do, and may this beautiful world, so worthy of rescue, be healed and at peace.