Living Lighter

Marlee explores how to live a lighter life in spirit and in practice through the ideas of non-attachment and minimalism. Living lighter will benefit the Earth and our souls. The question is, are you ready to embrace change?

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.

There is a famous Aldous Huxley quote that I want to share with you today on the podcast.

And this is just part of the longer quote,

Which you can look up online.

But the quote is,

Lightly child,

Lightly,

Learn to do everything lightly.

For I heard this quote for the first time many,

Many years ago.

And at first,

I didn't understand it.

I didn't really understand this quote until recently when it popped into my head again.

And I had some realizations around this quote.

And I think now humanity needs to be reminded of this quote,

Because it has so much to teach us.

There is emotional,

Energetic and physical aspects to unpack here.

But the key,

The overarching lesson in moving through the world lightly,

Is non attachment.

This concept can be triggering for people.

And I also think non attachment is one of the hardest lessons for us to learn.

And it's a lifelong lesson.

But I ask you to stick with me and allow me to explain.

Non attachment takes many forms.

Non attachment to our past is one of the key ways in which we can start to be lighter.

Most of us walk around carrying so much baggage from our past emotional baggage.

We think we have to carry it with us when it's so much lighter and easier to just let it go.

And how do we let our emotional baggage go?

By feeling it moving through the emotion and the pain,

Getting to the other side of it and choosing to release it.

And I know that may seem really scary,

Because I think it's our inherent nature to cling to cling to these things.

But I promise you,

It's so much harder to force it down,

Avoid it and carry it with you.

Non attachment also means going with the flow,

Allowing life to happen,

Embracing the change,

Instead of clinging to people or places or objects,

And trying to control every aspect of your life.

I think we all suffer from too much control,

Too much attempt to control.

And if 2020 has taught us anything,

It's that life is unpredictable.

And the only constant is change.

And we can be so much lighter,

Move through life lighter,

If we stop fighting against it,

Stop trying to control it,

Stop fighting reality.

Instead,

Allow the current of life to carry you flow with life.

Non attachment.

Think about it.

What is is non attachment to outcomes,

Releasing your expectations.

Walking through life lightly,

Means non attachment.

And on the physical side of that,

That means minimalism.

And I want to talk about minimalism for a little bit.

And that's a minimalistic lifestyle,

Which is kind of almost the opposite of how society at least in,

You know,

Developed countries teaches us right.

Non attachment and minimalism are intimately connected.

Non attachment to stuff,

To objects,

To all the things we surround ourselves with.

That is also an energetic release an energetic detachment,

Because we tend to cling to objects because of you know,

An emotional significance or something that happened in the past.

But all of that weighs you down energetically.

While it's easier said than done,

I know,

Releasing our attachment to objects and things and stuff will come naturally be a natural progression from working on our egos and learning to move through emotions instead of clinging to emotions or avoiding them entirely.

I touched on the ego first in Episode three,

Ego and Society.

So definitely check that episode out if you want to learn more about the ego.

But working on disentangling yourself from your ego is another key to non attachment and living lighter.

And minimalism is the natural progression after that.

Your ego is the one that clings to objects and assigns them significance.

Your ego is the one that our capitalistic society speaks to.

When it programs us to constantly buy new things and tells us we need to surround ourselves with things in order to be happy to be liked even.

It's all feeding your ego.

So one of the ways to bring non attachment and minimalism into your life.

And one of the ways you can be lighter is by learning to recognize your ego.

Become aware of your thoughts.

Explore your internal reactions as you move through life with curiosity.

Get to the root of your feelings.

Allow yourself to feel your feelings,

But then move on.

Take the observer's role as you notice your own emotional connections to the things in your house.

For example,

Get curious about how you're attached to these things.

Take the observer's perch the next time you want to buy something new.

What's driving that need?

And I'm not talking here about basic necessities and talking beyond that.

Get curious about yourself and how you've been conditioned.

Awareness is the key.

Through awareness of all of these things,

You can live lighter,

You can mindfully decide what you want in your life.

You can find non attachment through awareness and being mindful of your actions and reactions.

And once you do that,

You can explore minimalism in the physical part of non attachment,

Physically living lighter with less,

Less around you,

Getting by with less.

It's society in capitalism that has taught you,

Programmed you to think we need so much that we need to consume more and more that through consumption of goods,

There will be happiness.

But today I'm coming for consumerism because the only true happiness any of us can embody is within ourselves,

Not outside of ourselves.

And we cannot consume endless resources on a planet that has fixed resources.

And once you detach yourself from your ego and detach from the societal norms that teach us to mindlessly consume,

To use all of these resources without a thought,

Once you energetically detach from all the stuff you have piled up around you,

You will realize that to survive comfortably,

We need a lot less than we think.

A minimalistic society is a society that lives lighter on the earth has less of an impact on the earth.

Let me please share with you my vision for a minimalistic society and what that could look like in your life just even a little bit.

So minimalism means less waste.

That's a that's a big part of minimalism,

Living with less,

Less stuff,

Less plastic,

A more local supply chain.

That means growing more of your own food,

Shopping at farmers markets,

Participating in community supported agriculture,

Getting your food directly from local farms,

Which use less packaging and less resources are then wasted from start to finish.

That means composting your food waste,

Reducing the plastic in every area of your life as much as possible.

It also means not always going the convenient option.

And if we had a minimalistic society,

The convenient option would be the option that is more sustainable and reusable and minimal.

It means using less and buying less and wasting less and thinking about your choices and being mindful and being intentional.

And when we have less waste,

When we have a minimalistic society,

It means less materialism,

Which is not how we live now.

Right.

And it means as a society,

We commit to using whatever we can over and over and over again to maximize the lifespan of everything,

And then repurposing that thing at the end of its life,

Which means less goes to landfills.

And you know,

I am an environmental scientist,

And if I could just touch on landfills for a minute,

You know,

Landfills are rapidly filling up and there are only so many holes in the ground on the planet for us to bury our waste,

And we won't be able to do that forever.

And through minimalism,

Not as a fringe concept,

But as the norm and as a way of life,

We can live lighter on the planet.

We can produce less waste,

Bury less.

And what I'm offering you in this podcast is a blueprint for living lighter in your own life.

But through that,

If we each do it just a little bit,

We as the collective as a species can live lighter on the planet.

And I'm talking energetically through non attachment,

Non attachment to stuff,

Releasing your emotional baggage,

Which you don't have to carry with you.

We can be in the moment be present energetically,

Because our anxiety about the past and the future weighs us down.

We can think about the way we consume in the waste that we generate.

We can get to the root of what's driving our habits,

We can change,

We can walk through life lighter in spirit.

And in practice,

We all have room for improvement.

And through non attachment through minimalism,

You can find a lighter life.

And since we each have an impact on the planet,

We can be lighter as a species to we can contribute to lightening up the collective consciousness of humanity,

A lighter existence.

And perhaps these are the keys to finding true internal happiness in yourself.

Because you'll have less distractions and less weighing you down.

We all have room for improvement.

We can all walk through this life on this earth lighter,

More in harmony with the earth,

And more in harmony with ourselves.

Lightly child lightly,

Learn to do everything lightly.

I say challenge accepted.

Reviews

excellent. Really spoke to me. Keep up the good work

Thank you, this is exactly the message the world needs in these times.