Sustaining Humanity

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Yemi: Hi people, welcome back. I want to briefly touch on sustaining humanity. I've recently come back from a five week trip to the United States of America because I was really keen to showcase Some of my work and my vision with just a different audience, different vibration to Sydney. It was really successful, um, did come with some challenges in the setup of it, because once you go into different spaces, people behave differently.

[00:01:09] And especially if it's different from how you think people should behave, that can be activating and thankfully I was able to do the necessary work to create my boundaries but also learn and this is going to be my task and your task if you want to have global impact is what is your capacity to not assimilate but to adjust to adjust to the different ways in which people a culture An environment operates and taking my showcase to Los Angeles in particular was really interesting because as we know, different suburbs have different needs, might have different backgrounds, different privileges.

[00:01:55] But for me, it was really fascinating to see the interest in the curiosity. And so I wanted to bring it to the podcast of decolonizing trauma. Now, what do I mean by Now, I may have said this in previous podcasts, if you've listened to it, but I've really been influenced by the work of Sir David Attenborough.

[00:02:18] I, I was really amazed at my interest in watching a documentary of different animal species in their brightest, fullest of colors. And I loved the narration that Sir David Attenborough would give. But as the years and decades have gone by and watching that show, I've become even more curious of, are we giving meaning to what we are watching?

[00:02:45] So when Sir David Attenborough is talking about, and then the female species does this to the male species, and the peacock has, yeah, I know that's not his voice, but that's what I hear, and I love it. Is he's giving me an interpretation? of what they're doing. And I know science, research, data, all that good stuff that I respect, but do not believe for one second is the total sum of everything.

[00:03:13] Yes, it gives us insight to what is possible, but I don't believe it's absolute. So that was part one. The second part was, as his work continued, there was really a big focus on, our planet is not going to survive if we don't do something about it. And this is where a number of the conversations around climate change and sustaining our planet, sustainability, that conversation is hot in a number of communities, organizations, and definitely on the world stage with the United Nations.

[00:03:44] But I remember at one point thinking, why am I going to care? About sustainability of the planet when no one's caring about the people. Now that was my viewpoint from an unhealed place. And this is why I have empathy for those who think the same thing, who don't necessarily take the conversation of climate change as seriously as we would like.

[00:04:08] There are some people who don't believe it's a thing and my goodness, we could get into the debate, but I'm just not here for it right now. But with so much effort and emphasis spent into the decades of amazing work by Sir David Attenborough, I really wanted to know, well, is anyone going to put two and two together and find out that humans are the current semen custodians of this planet?

[00:04:34] And that we are potentially speaking to sick people to heal? A sick planet. Somebody make it make sense. Once again, I speak with a certain level of humility in that I don't know everything, but with the information I have, I don't understand how that is possible. I don't understand. so much for joining us today, and we hope that you will join us again next week for a new episode of the Green New Deal.

[00:05:06] so much for joining us today, and we hope that you will join us again next week for a new episode of the Green New Deal. Through the resources and the minerals that is extracted from parts of the world, especially Congo, like there is always a knock on effect. And please hear me that this isn't a blame of others because we must put ourselves in the same box.

[00:05:28] We might not create the same level of harm, but we are contributing to the very problems that a lot of us are trying to solve. So checking our own actions is the first step. But if we are talking about sustaining the planet and doing all these things, do we know who it is we're talking to? Are people even listening if they are so stuck in their trauma and that's where sustainability of humanity came in Which is if we're going to talk about sustainability Can we please include the humans real quick?

[00:06:02] Now? I'm not saying or please hear me. Do not misunderstand me Sustaining our planet is critical. I'm saying let's add the urgency of sustaining the planet to the urgency of sustaining humanity because You know, I learned back in the day, don't know if it's changed or anyone's done further research, that for humans, our competitive advantage is love.

[00:06:24] I'm sure someone could question, you know, humans, i. e. homo sapiens, are not the only ones who are capable of love. There are so many, you know, species within the animal kingdom that appear to display this very same emotion. But if I could just also add the English language, which I know is probably faster, Not becoming the most dominant languages, a number of us Westerners only have English as our language, whereas a number of other people have anywhere from two to four languages that they speak within their community, but I think language is another one of our competitive advantages and what we really want to do.

[00:07:00] is start talking and naming our traumas more than we have ever done before. And it's gonna be messy, because for every rock we overturn, we will find out that there is a link to trauma. Now I did a podcast yesterday, The Selfish Podcast, might be out in a couple of weeks from when this is released. They asked me, how would I define trauma?

[00:07:24] And I think this one definition comes from Peter Levine that I like the most. And I don't think I've ever said it in the way I'm about to say it, because I combine it with two different, two different, um, understandings of, of trauma in a way that I want the layman, the average person off the street to know.

[00:07:45] We can theorize and pathologize, All day long, but if what we are researching and sharing cannot be beneficial to the everyday public, the everyday human, then what is the point? If it takes 15 years to get your research from how you start to it being implemented in policies? What is the point? So for me, trauma is defined as a distressing or disturbing event that takes you outside of your window of tolerance.

[00:08:22] And you might say, what is your window of tolerance? May have said it in other podcasts, but if I haven't, I might do another one in the future. Window of tolerance is basically what you are capable of handling before your body. And all your mind chooses to tap into an emotion or an action that is trying to get you to survive.

[00:08:45] For some people it could be anxiety. For some people it could be, I'm just gonna fawn death, like my body just needs to go limp because this is the only way I can deal with this situation. You're outside your window of tolerance. So any distress and event that takes you outside of it is trauma. Now, if we are to agree with that definition, so many of us are experiencing that on a regular daily occurrence, especially with the way things are going on in the world at the moment.

[00:09:19] Every time there's an economic downturn, that's doing something. If we have been trained to sign up to a life and to a memo where if you do X, you will get Y, and then all of a sudden you're doing X and you don't get Y, that could be traumatizing. There's every possibility you are going to want to leave your body and your mind because you can't grasp Any way to get out of that because you were never told or you were taught.

[00:09:47] So sustaining humanity is critical not more important than sustaining the planet as Important if we want to continue to live in the way that we have the capacity to live when I got asked um by the selfish podcast crew Steph and Chloe Why it's important.

[00:10:12] It's important if you want to leave a legacy. It's important if you have children, nieces, mentees, proteges, whatever it is that you see. And if there's a possibility that you're deeply wounded, that you really couldn't give a fuck about the world. I actually really see you. I hear you, but maybe this particular podcast isn't for you, but we need to care about sustaining humanity by cleaning our trauma first.

[00:10:44] I might have the next step after you've cleaned your trauma, but it's unlikely going to be me. It probably needs to be you if you are listening to this and you are of a generation that's younger than me, because it's not going to stop with me. It's going to take time and we needn't be scared of the fact that it might happen outside of the time that we are alive.

[00:11:06] Let's leave hope for the next generation. That we can sustain humanity who can make the most of its competitive advantages, we've been told.

[00:11:17] is love.

[00:11:21] It's a big ask. I know, but I ask that as you listen to this, whether for comfort, to keep you company, to learn something new, can you just take the task of asking yourself? What is it that I can clear in my own life, whether I think it was traumatic or not, but clear something that every now and again comes back to bother me in the hope that it can make me the fullest, brightest, most compassionate person I can be.

[00:11:57] Take that as a first step because that truly is a contribution to sustaining humanity. I see you, and I love you.