Conscious People = Thriving Planet

This episode is about the current state of our world, the root cause of it all, a vision worth pursuing, and a way forward that puts the power back in our hands. Starting conversations about this topic and taking action in that direction is fundamental, not only for our personal wellbeing but also if we are serious about leaving our future generations a world they can live and thrive in.

Tune in, and enjoy!

Transcript

Hi,

Welcome to this new episode of Journey Back Into Self.

My name is Juan Ignacio Campo and I am your host in this incredible journey back into self.

I have been wanting to do this actually for a while now.

This episode I mean.

As part of my mission in life,

Knowing what we will be discussing today,

Starting conversations about it,

And taking action is fundamental if we are serious at all about leaving our future generations a world they can live and thrive in.

Have you ever noticed how some people can walk past someone that is in need,

On the street,

And do nothing about it?

It can be a homeless person begging for some money to eat,

Or an old lady who cannot cross the street,

Or someone carrying something heavy and who could use an extra pair of hands.

Personally,

I know I have been that person who simply passes by not paying attention,

Not caring.

In coaching we say that you cannot solve a problem that you don't see,

Or that you think you don't have.

So if you want to go somewhere,

You need to know first where you are.

This applies to any of our goals,

But it also applies to the world that we would like to see and live in.

If I ask you whether or not you'd like to see hunger,

Poverty,

Pollution eradicated from the face of the earth,

I am pretty convinced that you will say yes,

Just like me.

We all want to have a thriving world,

A world where we can lead happy,

Fulfilling lives,

And where all species,

And also future generations can too.

So today's episode is for all of you out there,

My friends,

Who care about the state of the planet and the species that live there.

Whether you believe we can make a difference or not is really not relevant for now.

If we want to have the old lady cross the street,

First we need to see her,

And we also need to care.

So let's for now,

Together,

Briefly look at the state of the world we live in,

And become aware of the elephant in the room that is looking right at us.

Let us allow ourselves to care for a moment,

So that we can then discover what I think to be the root cause of all the problems that we and the world face.

So let's take a brief look at the state of our world nowadays.

Let's start with poverty for example.

Do you know that more than 15% of the people in the world live in extreme poverty?

That is 1.

2 billion people.

Let's talk about hunger.

Around 10% of people,

10% suffer from chronic undernourishment.

And slavery is another example.

Today in 2020,

We have around or more than 40 million people that live in some form of slavery.

When we think of global warming for example,

Global warming is causing all kinds of problems in the world.

For example,

The rise in average temperature,

More frequent and severe weather,

More acidic oceans,

Which is a serious threat to underwater life,

Higher sea levels that threaten coastal systems and low-laying areas,

Higher death rates and dirtier air.

And if we talk about the extinction of species,

25% of mammals,

More than 40% of amphibian species,

Nearly 33% of sharks and 25% of plants groups are threatened with extinction.

At the pace that we are moving,

Experts say that by 2050,

30% of all species will have disappeared.

That is not good.

I don't know you,

It pisses me off.

So maybe the best way to summarize all this is the famous doomsday clock.

Have you heard of that?

The doomsday clock,

It's a symbol,

A metaphor that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe.

The clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as midnight.

And the experts' opinion on how close the world is to global catastrophe as a number of minutes before midnight.

And they assess this every January,

Every year,

Since 1947,

I believe.

Now the conclusion is that in 2020,

We are now 100 seconds to midnight.

That's less than two minutes from a man-made global catastrophe.

It is the closest that we've ever been to apocalypse.

That is how bad things are today.

I'm not saying that things are not okay,

That there are not good things happening in the world.

They are.

But we also need to pay attention to the consequences of the things we're doing.

So why is all of this happening?

Why the world is the state that it is today?

Well,

My friend,

There's little doubt that at the center of all this is mankind.

Yes it's us.

Not so much the overpopulation,

Which is really alarming,

But our lifestyle of excessive consumption.

Lifestyle is the way it is because of our ignorance,

Really.

We are ignorant of the consequences of our actions,

Of the consequences of our choices and decisions.

And we're also ignorant of all this because we're ignorant of who we really are.

We confuse the persona that we have built over the years with the real self.

And we identify with very limited ideas of ourselves.

This keeps our consciousness dangerously low,

Only caring about our petty needs,

Or the needs of those immediately close to us.

I think it was the famous Buddhist monk and speaker Matthew Ricard in one of his TED Talks when he said that the solution to all of our problems,

Our planet's problems,

Is altruism,

Is caring and doing things for others.

And not only him,

We also have Martin Luther King who said,

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

I mean,

Being selfish or living from ego consciousness is normal.

All of us grew up developing a persona,

A mask,

A false idea of what we are.

And very few people in the world take this personal development seriously enough to evolve and become conscious.

Until you become conscious of your true nature,

My friend,

And your role in this world,

You,

Me and everyone will make decisions out of fear,

Out of self-interest and self-preservation.

These decisions give you a feeling of happiness probably in the short term,

But happiness is really a very short-lived feeling.

It's kind of like sugar or coffee that they give you a nice kick at the beginning,

Leaving you afterwards with a dip,

Empty and craving for more.

So when you don't know who you are and what your true needs are,

Other people are happy to tell you what that is.

And just like when you are hungry,

You unconsciously buy lots of crap in the supermarket,

Which you later regret,

Don't you?

Just like that,

Guided by our feelings of emptiness,

We make all kinds of decisions that make us momentarily happy,

My friend,

But completely blind of the deep impact it has on ourselves and the world.

We are leaving a very ugly footprint in the world,

And honestly not enough people are conscious enough to know what's going on,

To care enough to stop living in a way that creates and is part of the problem and start being part of the solution instead.

Mahatma Gandhi said it right when he said,

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Now just like Martin Luther King once said in his most famous speech,

I have a dream,

Let me,

My friend,

Share with you the dream that I have,

The vision that has been presented to me during deep states of meditation.

I envision a world where all living beings can thrive,

A world where people are happy living to their full potential and in balance with nature and their peers.

And this is exactly why I am here with you today.

This is why I do everything I do.

It's my purpose,

Which is to raise humanity into a higher awareness of ourselves and our role in the creation of such a thriving world.

So let me now summarize what I think is the solution to the mess we have created.

In my opinion,

The solution to the world's and our own problems is the evolution of consciousness of human beings,

In transitioning from ego consciousness to soul consciousness,

From fear-based to love-based living,

From self-interest to interest in others,

Expanding our sense of identity so we can care about others and other species and generations.

If humankind would invest just a small fraction of their time and focus on caring for others,

On solving problems that really matter and leaving a more positive footprint,

We would undoubtedly shift the kind of impact that we are having in the world.

For most people,

Elevating their consciousness is not an easy task.

It's not even desirable,

Let's be honest.

But it is possible and it is needed.

You know what else?

It is damn important.

So let me tell you about one way to make this vision a reality.

It is just one way,

My humble proposition.

But it is based on everything that I have learned and experienced in my own journey into consciousness.

It is also based on the incredible changes that I see in the people that I work with as a personal transformation coach.

And also based on what the greatest thinkers,

Philosophies and civilizations throughout the world have been writing and talking about for millennia.

It has cost me years to realize which of all these things that I was doing with clients was making the most impact.

But I have managed to distill the essence of it all and bring it down to a handful of concepts,

Models and practices.

And truly I am amazed to keep coming across renowned authors,

Influencers,

Sages that basically confirm these findings.

People of course in their own ways,

From their own point of view and influenced by their cultural backgrounds.

And that is fine.

But I guess my problem with all of this is that they all leave important pieces of the puzzle behind,

Focusing on some aspect of the solution and therefore neglecting many people who do not resonate with their teachings or ways.

So maybe now the question is why would my way be any different,

You might ask.

I guess it is the fact that there are two sides of me.

On one hand,

The side of me that has one foot on the ground,

That's the pragmatic,

Evidence-based,

Rational side of me.

And there's also the part that has one foot on the sky,

That's the spiritual side of me,

The connected,

Intuitive side of me.

Now the first one,

The grounded part,

Dominated my life until I was around 25 years old and has brought me really great wealth and fun.

And the spiritual part has led me through the most amazing journey of truth,

Love,

Freedom,

Inner peace and even purpose.

So I basically have experienced first-hand both the benefits and the costs of both sides of the coin.

So what is then this way forward that I mentioned,

That I propose?

It basically has two main components.

On one hand,

Wisdom,

Which is knowledge about life and about yourself.

And on the other hand,

Self-mastery.

And in the coming episodes,

We will cover all of these in depth so that you can experience them and try them in your own life,

Reaping the benefits that they can bring about clarity,

Peace of mind,

Emotional freedom,

Personal power.

For now,

Let me just name them.

Name some of the components inside this way forward that I propose.

So when it comes to the first part,

Which is life and self-wisdom,

There are two main things that we need to cover.

Two main things that I teach my clients that creates incredible amount of clarity,

Motivation and meaning in their lives.

So one of them is ego-soul dynamics.

The understanding of what we are not and what we really are.

Once you get that right,

And probably you already know it at some level,

But when you get that right and you make that part of your decision-making process of your understanding of the world and yourself,

Everything is more clear.

It makes it easier to be patient with yourself,

To be compassionate,

To set the right priorities in life,

To understand where you come from and where you're going,

And to do the same thing for other people as well.

And also important for this wisdom part is what I call life-self dynamics,

Which is basically how we operate.

What are the different systems in our body and brain that play a role in our daily experiences and that affect how we behave and the impact that has on our environment,

Relationships,

Our life circumstances,

And therefore the world that we live in?

What are the effects of our thoughts on our emotions?

What are the effects of our emotions and our behavior?

And what is the effect of our behavior in the world?

That was about self-wisdom and life-wisdom.

I mentioned the other part,

Which is self-mastery.

So once you understand these ego-soul dynamics and these life-self dynamics,

It is important now that you make the work to become your own self-master.

Self-mastery is about taking this knowledge that you have of life and yourself and apply it so that you can take control of your own inner processes and therefore the actions that you then put out in the world,

And therefore the impact that we have in the world.

So I consider that this self-mastery part has three main components.

The first one is self-accountability or self-responsibility,

You might call it,

Which is basically the decision to take full responsibility for your own thoughts,

Beliefs,

Values,

Emotions,

Behaviors,

And the consequences that your behaviors bring in the world.

Without that decision of taking full responsibility,

Then I don't know what we're doing.

Maybe I do know,

Because that's exactly what we have been talking about so far in this episode.

The second part of self-mastery I consider to be self-awareness,

Or the awareness of the state of all these life-self dynamics I've been talking about.

How are your emotions?

How are your behaviors?

What are you doing?

What are you not doing?

How is this creating your reality and the reality of the world?

What is going on in your mind,

And how is that affecting you,

Your emotions?

How is that creating the reality that we're talking about?

And the last one is self-regulation.

So once you know how everything works in yourself and the interaction between you and life,

Once you take complete responsibility and accountability for your own thoughts,

Beliefs,

Emotions,

And actions,

And once you have practiced becoming aware of all this R at any given point,

Then you can engage in self-regulation,

Or what some other people call personal leadership,

In a way.

So how do you control all these things that I've mentioned so that you can determine your own personal experience and the experience that you then create in the world,

The footprint that you leave?

So once again,

For now,

I think it's enough that we just mentioned them,

That we have clarity on what is the situation of the world,

Our role in that situation,

But also our role in the answer,

In the solution.

And in the next episodes,

We will go in depth in each one of these.

So my dear friend,

We're about to end this episode,

And I would like to do that with a last reflection.

Human beings seem to be the most evolved creatures in the world.

Our brain has evolved like no other,

Which gives us power and advantages over other species.

But you know how the saying goes,

Great power comes with great responsibility.

And in Genesis,

God supposedly says,

Let us make mankind in our image,

In our likeness,

So that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky,

Over the livestock and all the wild animals,

And over all the creatures that move along the ground.

Maybe and maybe we misunderstood the kind of rulers we were supposed to become.

In the 21st century,

We are aware now of the negative consequences of rulers who consider themselves above all others,

Better than others,

More entitled than others.

And we're starting to witness leaders that,

Both in business and politics,

That have done their share of personal growth.

They're conscious leaders who involve everyone because they know that we are one and the same,

And who act in the interest of all those involved,

Including nature and including humanity.

So I propose that we stop seeing our evolved brains as a random accident from evolution that we can just use for our own pleasure and pride.

But we start seeing as a precious gift,

A gift that we are supposed to use to make sure all species thrive,

Not just us,

But all species.

It is not only a possibility,

But our responsibility to stop leading from fear,

So that we can elevate our consciousness to more loving,

Inclusive heights.

And from that place of love,

From that place of kindness,

Honour the role we have been given.

I like to believe that that's why they call it humankind.

We are called upon to be kind.

And coming back to those of you who still think that you're just one little person with no power to make a difference,

Remember this.

We may be just too little,

But drop by drop the glass is filled.

And my friend,

It only takes just one last drop to overflow the glass.

That's the impact one last drop can make.

That last drop might be you,

Might be me,

Or the friends and colleagues that you can involve in this important conversation,

Perhaps the most important conversation that there is.

And like Oc Mandino said in one of his famous books,

I think it was the greatest miracle in the world,

Which I totally recommend by the way.

He said that success might not be the result of our actions and efforts today,

But without our efforts today,

We would never be successful.

My dear brother,

My dear sister,

Friend,

And fellow humans,

Make sure you subscribe or follow this podcast.

In the next episodes,

We will explore together how to increase our consciousness.

So here's to you.

Here's to you for sticking around,

For caring,

And for being part of the solution.

With love,

Yours truly,

Juan.