Changing The World

Changing the world can be simple, and it starts with you! Marlee reflects on the connection between internal change and external change, and her personal shift in perspective from a scientific worldview to a spiritual worldview.

Transcript

Welcome to the Shifting with Marley podcast.

I'm Marley.

Thank you for joining me wherever you are.

All that I ask of you,

The listener,

Is to have an open mind and an open heart.

And in return,

I offer you myself.

I want to tell you how my perspective has changed over the years.

I started to learn about the environment and sustainable energy in high school a little bit and then dove in deep in college.

And what my education really was,

Was learning how the world works.

And learning about all the problems in the world.

And that was really tough for me.

I'm a pretty sensitive person.

And I would often leave classes or lectures,

Really depressed,

Really upset,

Just really like heavy,

Really,

Really sad about the state of the world.

And that went on for years.

And I really enjoyed what I was learning.

Let me tell you that again,

I really enjoyed it.

But it was tough to learn about all the things wrong,

Like to really dive deep into climate change and all the facets of that and all about pollution and contamination and you know how important the natural world is,

But then all the ways that humans are fucking it up,

For lack of a better term.

And so basically,

I started out for up until just a couple years ago.

Very pessimistic and not super hopeful.

So I took all this time and went to grad school to learn more about environmental science.

And I took all this time dedicated to my education learning about all the problems in the world.

And it made me really it was felt like a heavy weight on my shoulders.

And I would have to like not think about climate change and all the problems in the world and how our oceans are acidifying.

And I would have to not think about that.

Because if I did,

If I if I really sat with it,

It would just be such a heavy weight on my shoulders.

And I would just like,

It felt like I was like feeling the world's pain on me.

And,

You know,

No one can really no one can carry that weight.

No one person can carry that weight.

And because of that,

I was pessimistic.

I was angry at people for causing all of these problems for a really long time.

I was angry at people.

That's what it comes down to because people caused all of these problems.

And we weren't doing anywhere near enough to solve all these problems that we've created in the world.

And,

You know,

We people didn't care enough.

And I was sitting here caring so much.

And I'm like,

It was so frustrating.

Why don't people care about this?

And I was just,

If you had asked me,

Up until,

You know,

My late 20s,

If you had asked me,

Oh,

Marley,

You,

You know,

Are an environmental scientist.

So how do we save the world?

We can do it right.

I would have told you that it was too late.

And that the damage was too deep,

And too long term.

And there was no reversing it.

And all that we could do at this point was mitigate the severity of the global impacts.

And I would tell you that people are a plague on the planet.

And people are suffocating the earth and we're destroying habitat.

And I would just I would not was not very pleasant to talk to about these types of things.

And I was like that for a long time.

I remember I would have conversations with my dad and he would want me to be optimistic.

He would want me to he would want me to tell him that everything was going to be okay.

And that technology would there'd be a technology that would save us and,

You know,

And oh,

You know,

We would turn things around.

And I just I couldn't say that to him.

Because I didn't feel that way based on everything I knew and everything I learned.

And once my like spiritual awakening kind of started,

Which was around 2015 2016,

When I was like 2526 and then kind of like progressed super rapidly from there,

I started to have a shift in perspective.

And like through my spiritual awakening,

I had a scientific shift in my perspective.

And what that looks like is that today,

I'm actually really hopeful and really optimistic.

Because where I've come around to believing is that we have the capacity as humans to elevate,

Lift our consciousness and through that,

Save the earth.

And we can,

Through working on ourselves,

Usher in a new earth that doesn't look like what it did 100 years ago,

But a new earth where we can live more harmoniously with our environment instead of fighting against it,

And clawing at it and sucking it dry.

We can live harmoniously with our environment.

And that has to come with a fundamental shift in human consciousness.

And I believe we can get there.

And I believe that through learning who we each are,

And through just discovering our souls and through compassion,

And through gratitude and through love,

We can get out get on a new path,

We can save the earth,

We can deal with climate change,

We can do all of these things.

And I've just come to that it has to be in line with what I'm broadly calling spirituality.

It can't be just a scientific solution.

And that is where I've come to it,

The solution to the world's problems.

Science is part of it,

Technology is part of it.

But a huge,

Huge chunk of it is us as humans coming together,

Realizing we are all connected,

We are all as humans connected,

We are connected to the earth,

We are connected to animals,

That everything on this planet is connected.

And if we can like tap into that,

And if we can kind of get out of our ego and get out of our minds and really just love,

Love the earth,

Like,

Like it's part of us,

Like it's part of our family,

Then we have a fighting chance.

And that's going to take work from each and every one of us.

And I guess what I'm saying to you is my current perspective is that if we can change ourselves and start reaching each of our individuals highest potential in this lifetime,

If we can connect with our souls and connect with each other and come back to the basics,

Like compassion and love,

Then we can change the world,

Change ourselves,

Change the world,

Change ourselves,

Change the world,

Know ourselves,

Change the world.

And that takes effort and that takes intention and that takes time.

But we can get there.

And we can do this together.

And what that means is,

Each of you matters.

Each person on this earth has an impact.

And I think that's something that's lost in the current,

Like mainstream discussion of climate change and environmental problems and like injustices in the world and all of these problems.

What gets lost is the individual impact we all have.

And where I'm at today is that one person can change the world.

I can give you countless examples of people,

Of one person that has changed the world.

Like,

I mean,

Look at Greta Thunberg.

I mean,

She is one individual that with a pure heart and pure intentions has changed the world.

Martin Luther King Jr.

I mean,

There's just,

There's so many examples and they are each of us and each of us are them.

And every single day you wake up,

You have an impact on your environment.

You walk outside,

You have an impact.

You smile at someone,

A random stranger on the street.

That has a ripple effect.

And we can never know the true magnitude of each of our impacts.

But what I'm here to tell you is that you matter and your decisions matter and your choices matter and the way that you live,

Your life matters and the way that you feel and the way that you show up in the world matters.

And if we can,

Each of us show up in the world with a little with more connected to ourselves and more connected to our energies.

And if we can show up in the world,

Like vibrating a little higher and really elevated and just free of the mind and free of our fears,

Even a little bit,

A fraction more than we are now,

Then we then we have a chance and we cannot waste it.

And we have this one opportunity and now is the time that I can promise you,

The earth cannot wait another day for us to get our shit together.

It is time for all of us to do the work to dive in,

To sit with ourselves,

To sit with the environment,

To sit with a tree,

I don't know.

I mean,

It is time to really change.

And through our own individual consciousness,

We can together die and change the world.

And I know that sounds,

I don't know,

Maybe that sounds a little farfetched.

Maybe you still think that there's just too much bad in the world or the climate change is too severe or we're too far gone or you know,

We're too much.

There's too many,

Too many broken things.

And that's all true and it all needs our attention.

What also needs our attention is ourselves.

And they have to go,

They have to go together.

And if even a fraction of us do this,

We have a fighting chance because scientifically,

Statistically,

If you look at history,

If you look at history,

I forget the exact number,

But a lot of scientists have been quoted that if you look at the statistics,

When significant change happens,

It is not when 100% of any population is on board.

You're never going to get that,

Right?

That's never going to happen.

But significant change happens when only something like 5% of the population is on board,

Is doing that thing,

Is unified.

Only 5% of the population.

I've even seen numbers as low as 2 to 3%.

And if that's all we need to spark significant change in our world,

Which is desperately needed,

We can do that.

Only 5% of us,

I mean,

I already think we have that well beyond 5%.

It's just a matter of bringing everyone together and giving everyone kind of like a clear mission and clear,

I don't know,

Clear guidelines and a clear path forward.

And if you get nothing else from this podcast,

What I hope you get is that you matter and you can make a difference.

We can do this.

We can do this.

Join me.