Reconnect With Our Planet and Each Other
LaUra Schmidt, co-author of How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps To Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet shares practical steps that allow us to build momentum for healing and action in this time of climate crisis. She shares how we can embrace ‘Good Grief’ and embody the necessary actions to cool the rising temperatures in our politics, in our families, and within ourselves..
LAURA SCHMIDT is the founder (with Aimee Lewis Reau) of Good Grief Network, one of the first peer-to-peer support groups for eco-anxiety and climate grief. GGN has grown quickly in the United States and has branched out internationally, with trained facilitators in over 15 countries.
GGN has been covered in Time, NPR, USA Today, CBS, NBC News, NY Times, and The LA Times. LaUra graduated with a BS in Environmental Studies, Biology, and Religious Studies. Her MS is in Environmental Humanities. LaUra has earned certificates in “Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy” and “Climate Psychology.” She is the co-author of the newly released How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet.
WEBSITE: GOODGRIEFNETWORK.ORG
Social Media: @goodgriefnetwork, Instagram and LinkedIn: @howtoliveinachaoticclimate
#chaoticclimatebook, #heartcenteredrevolution, #kriyayoga, #meditation, #climatechange, #nonattachment
COMMENTS FROM OUR GUEST: It was a joy to be on the podcast and speak with Laurel. I’m looking forward to learning more about the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment.
THE YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENTS: This was an important conversation with LaUra Schmidt about her book, which she co-authored with Aimee Lewis Reau, How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: Ten Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities and Our Planet. The ten steps include meditation, not being attached to outcomes and embracing our feelings, even those that are painful. She says this work requires courage. I was inspired and came away hopeful after listening to this conversation. These steps can support us as individuals to participate in healing the despair, fear and overwhelm that many of us are experiencing because of what is happening in our world, especially with climate change. LaUra says that "change is happening and when we embrace the unknown and work cooperatively, we plant seeds that may grow into new ways of being for future generations". I really appreciated how Dr. Trujillo pointed out that these ten steps are in alignment with the Kriya Yoga teachings. LaUra says that only by doing the inner work of facing our fears and our emotions can we then move into right action and do whatever it is that is ours to do. I feel we can include this conversation in our list of best programs this year.
DR. TRUJILLO’S COMMENTS: I really appreciated LaUra’s focus on reconnection to ourselves, our communities, and our world, both in her book and in our conversation. Experiencing ourselves as a part of the One Reality is central to yoga philosophy. As she wrote in her book, “Reconnecting is arguably the most important thing that you can do for our planet.”
One of the 10 steps she recommend is “Do Inner Work”. I agree with LaUra’s perspective that doing inner work is so important because it can change our consciousness, which can then change the type of outer work that we feel called to do. As part of this focus on inner work I share her awareness that meditation is a valuable practice for all of the proven physical, mental, and spiritual benefits that it brings. As she wrote: “practicing meditation is one of the most radical self-care tools available to us."