The Dr. Hyman Show - The Power Of Finding A Purpose Bigger Than Yourself with Lynne Twist

Episode Date: November 30, 2022

This episode is brought to you by Cozy Earth, InsideTracker, and Essentia. Have you ever wondered what makes some people extraordinary? Is it something special some people just have at birth? Or are we all born the same only to evolve into greater things? I’m learning that no matter what age or phase of life we are in, we have the ability to make choices that change our lives and the lives of others for the better. Finding a purpose greater than ourselves is a catalyst for that change. Today’s conversation with Lynne Twist is an inspiring one. We take a deep dive into creating a life of meaning and commitment, what that means for our identity, and the ripple effect it has throughout the world. Over the past 40 years, Lynne has worked with over 100,000 people in 50 countries in the arenas of fundraising with integrity, conscious philanthropy, strategic visioning, and having a healthy relationship with money. An author and speaker, she has presented for the United Nations Beijing Women’s Conference, State of the World Forum, Synthesis Dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the Governor’s Conference on California Women, among others. A recognized global visionary, Ms. Twist has been an advisor to the Desmond Tutu Foundation, and The Nobel Women’s Initiative.  This episode is brought to you by Cozy Earth, InsideTracker, and Essentia. Cozy Earth makes the most comfortable, temperature-regulating, and nontoxic sheets on the market. Right now, get 40% off your Cozy Earth sheets. Just head over to cozyearth.com and use code MARK40. InsideTracker is a personalized health and wellness platform like no other. Right now they’re offering my community $200 off their Ultimate Plan, or 34% off any other plan, at insidetracker.com/drhyman until the end of the month. Right now you can get an extra $100 off your mattress purchase, on top of Essentia’s holiday sale, which will also take 25% off, plus receive two FREE organic pillows (a $330 value), when you visit myessentia.com/drmarkhyman. Here are more details from our interview (audio version / Apple Subscriber version): Having a purpose larger than ourselves (6:32 / 4:27) How Lynne’s father’s death informed her inner life (9:51 / 7:40)  Lynne’s journey to becoming an activist and philanthropist (14:01 / 12:15)  Lynne’s work and learning about money and wealth from Mother Teresa (19:13 / 16:58)  The biology of altruism (34:34 / 30:35)  What makes ordinary people extraordinary? (35:40 / 31:58)  Learning from indigenous people (38:26 / 34:30)  Why living a committed life is crucial to our human future (46:55 / 43:00)  Why we can’t sacrifice ourselves for others (58:02 / 53:40)  How to find your calling (1:02:34 / 58:33)  Get a copy of Lynne’s book, Living a Committed Life: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself, here. 

Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. What calls to you? What makes your heart sing? What makes you feel worthy? What makes you feel useful? Go and do that and look all the way through your life at what you've been called to do. I always tell my patients that sleep is the most underrated yet important part of health. And that's why creating a bed that you can't wait to lie down on works wonders for sleep hygiene. That's why this holiday season, I plan on giving my loved ones Cozy Earth. Cozy Earth's loungewear, pajamas, and bed sheets are made from ethically sourced bamboo viscose, a super lightweight, breathable, machine washable fabric. Who wouldn't be excited to jump into something soft and comfy like that for the holidays? And you can't go wrong giving the gift a better sleep.

Plus, Cozy Earth has a 10-year warranty. Right now, Cozy Earth is offering my community their highest discount ever of 40% off. Just go to CozyEarth.com with the discount code MARK40. That's CozyEarth.com, C-O-Z-Y-E-A-R-T-H.com. And use the code M-A-R-K-40. That's 4-0. I'm excited to share with you a brand that I trust whose product I've seen value in firsthand inside tracker inside tracker is a wellness tracker that uses

science and technology to deliver ultra personalized healthcare guidance. They're cutting edge algorithmic engine analyzes your blood, your DNA, your lifestyle habits, and then gives you an actionable set of recommendations to help you meet your health and wellness goals. Since 2009, InsideTracker's science team from Harvard, Tufts, MIT have been bringing personalized nutrition and wellness to the world with a powerful evidence-based digital platform. Their guiding principle is that your body is unique, so your nutrition, exercise, wellness plans should be too. And that's why InsideTracker gives you optimal biomarker zones and a customized

dashboard to help you change your body for the better. My team tried InsideTracker and they loved it. They discovered some important things about their health that led them to adopt improvements like taking a vitamin D supplement after seeing they were deficient or eating more iron-rich foods due to low ferritin and hemoglobin and making an effort to embrace stress reduction techniques after seeing high cortisol levels. And not for me, Of course, I promise that. If you're curious about getting your own health program that's tailored to your unique needs, I highly recommend checking out InsideTracker. Right now, they're offering my community 34% off until the end of the month. Go to InsideTracker.com forward slash Dr. Hyman. That's D-R Hyman. That's InsideTracker, I-N-S-I-D-E-T-R-A-C-K-E-R.com slash Dr. Hyman, and you'll see the discount code in

your cart. And now let's get back to this week's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. Welcome to The Doctor's Pharmacy. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman. That's pharmacy with an F, a place for conversations that matter. And today, if you've ever wondered about what your life is about, how to have meaning, how to be happy, how to live a life that's fulfilled, this is going to be a very important conversation because it's with an extraordinary woman, somebody I've known for many years, Lynn Twist. She's the founder of the Soul of Money Institute, and she's the author of the best-selling award-winning book called The Soul of Money, Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life.

And over the last 40 years, she's had almost a storybook life from the looks of it. She's worked with over 100,000 people in 50 countries and doing all sorts of amazing things looking at how we can live with integrity through conscious philanthropy, strategic visioning, and having a healthy relationship with money. Her clients have ranged from Procter & Gamble and Microsoft and the International Uni Church, Charles Schwab, United Way, the Black Theater of Harlem, Harvard University, and many more you'd be surprised to hear, including working with groups like the United Nations Beijing's Women's Conference, the State of the

World Forum, Synthesis Dialogue for this Holiness of Dalai Lama, the Governor's Conference on California Women, and lots of other things. She's a visionary leader. She's been an advisor to the Desmond Tutu Foundation, the Noble Women's Initiative, and the recipient of many, many awards. She's the co-founder also of the Pachamama Alliance, a nonprofit whose mission is to empower the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and their culture. She serves on a number of nonprofit boards. And she's gone from working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta to refugee camps in Ethiopia to the threatened rainforest of Amazon and being on the ground, getting your hands dirty and being in the real thick of it has brought Lynn a deep sense of understanding of the social tapestry of the world and the

historical landscape of the times we're living in. And her new book, a living a committed life, finding freedom and fulfillment in a purpose larger than yourself is out. And if you want to learn how to be really fulfilled and happy, I think the first thing you need to do is go get this book. So welcome, Lynn. Thank you. Wow. This made me tired listening to all that. I know, right? I hate it when people do me too. It's long miles. But I know. Well, you've had a pretty amazing life. I mean, from working with Microsoft to the

indigenous peoples of the Amazon to the Dalai Lama to Desmond Tutu. I mean, it's pretty amazing what you've done and where you've been and what you've seen. And I think most of us live lives that somehow are grasping for more and knowing there's more, longing for more, wanting more, craving more, and not knowing quite how to get there. And, you know, I really found that in my own life, and I think the more that I do this, the happier I am, the more that I serve, the more that I give, the more that I don't just think about myself and what I want and what I need, the happier I am. You know, I remember just a think about myself and what I want and what I need, the happier I am. You know, I remember just a quick story to kind of illustrate a little bit about what

you talked about in your book was I went to Haiti after the earthquake and it was just a scene of absolute devastation with 300,000 people killed, 300,000 people wounded. We were the first medical team in the hospital, in the main hospital in Port-au-Prince. And it was just a scene of utter devastation and suffering. And I worked 20 hours a day, barely ate. It was so grueling. But I don't remember a time when I felt more fulfilled. I wouldn't say happy, but in a sense, I was kind of full of happiness and joy in a weird

way being in that situation. It's hard to describe. It's a paradox. But the more I helped others, the more I felt better. And I think there's a quote in the book from Howard Thurman that says, don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. So tell us from that context, what does it mean to have a purpose larger than yourself? Well, I think we get a little bit bamboozled by this wanting more of everything, more, more, more, more, more. We kind of translate that into consumerism when what we want is more fulfillment in our heart and soul. And it just

doesn't get filled up by buying more stuff or having a bigger house or making more money or trying to, you know, raise your status, even though that's kind of what the culture we live in points us toward. But what we actually, you know, what Howard Thurman's quote is so great, because really what we want is we want our hearts to sing. We want to feel great about ourselves. We want to be filled with joy. And that comes from making a big difference with your life. It comes from living the way you live. that this opportunity of the life we've been given, that if you think about life as given to you, like a gift you received,

then you want to give that life as a gift to something that's bigger than yourself. And when we do that, it's so amazing because we think that's sacrificial and, you know, giving things up. It's kind of the opposite. I found that when you make a commitment that's larger than and, you know, giving things up. It's kind of the opposite. I found that when you make a commitment that's larger than your own life, it gets you out of this life-starring me. And the life-starring me is never fulfilling because you're always worried about, am I too young or too old or too fat or too, am I pretty enough? Am I smart enough?

A life-starring me is all about, you know, measuring up or trying to fit in. But when you realize that you can dedicate your life to something larger than yourself, something you probably can't even accomplish in your own lifetime, it starts to shape you into the person you need to be to fulfill that. And so an ordinary person, you know, people ask me, Gandhi was so extraordinary probably when he was born. Mother Teresa was probably extraordinary when she was born. Jane Goodall was probably extraordinary when she was born. Mark Hyman was probably extraordinary when he was born. I can't live up to that. But the truth is, I think we're all

born the way we're born with gifts and treasures and talents, of course. But what made those people, including you, extraordinary is creating a purpose larger than themselves, which reaches back into your life and shapes you into someone capable of fulfilling it. So when you were in Haiti, for example, the situation, the circumstances being so dire shaped you into someone who could move quickly and respond accurately and be of service rather than try to fix or help, but really be of service to the people that were there and use the wholeness of yourself to make a difference. So it's incredible how it's sort of backwards from what we think, but it really works. It's totally true. And I think, you know,

we all come to who we are in different ways. And, uh, you share a story about how when you were 14, your, your, um, the night before your 14th birthday, actually, your father died of a heart attack in the middle of the night. And when that, that death happened, it was, it was like something stopped in your life. The music stopped and you thought your life was over, but in a sense, it, it catalyzed something in you. It, it, it, you know, it changed the way you viewed your life and,

and how did it inform the rest of your life? What did it do to inspire you to live differently than you would have as a normal 14 year old kid, just being a teenager? Well, the circumstances of my dad's death, first of all, he died very suddenly with no warning. So he died in his sleep with a heart attack, but he was age 50. So he was really young. And he was a musician and he was a band leader. And our life was filled with music. He had an orchestra of 36 pieces, 36 men and a girl singer. And it was in the big band days. And when my dad died, my mother, there were four of us, four children, she was overwhelmed because she was 46.

There was no warning. Suddenly her 50-year-old husband was dead with four kids. She had press and she didn't know where the insurance papers were. She didn't know where the trust was and the safe deposit box. She was just completely overwhelmed. So she couldn't really do a lot of caring for us because she was overwhelmed with the public persona of my dad. And so I turned to my Sunday school teacher, a nun named Sister Benjamin. And it was so incredible because she was like a container for me to realize that I could go within, that I had an inner life. Because at age 14, young girls are often kind of in love with their dad.

I mean, you know, that's when you're starting to, you know, feel those changes in your body. And your dad is your be all, end all. And it was like my world ended. And I was also coming into high school and I was a popular kid. I was a cheerleader. I was on all the different teams and stuff. So I had a very rich and kind of visible outer life, but very little inner life. And when my father died, I kind of thought it was my fault, as children do often when a parent dies. So I went into a kind of, I was, at that time, we were Catholic. So I would call it, I thought it

was religious. I thought it was being religious, which maybe I was, that was the context I lived in. But I think what I was doing was developing my inner life, my inner strength, my inner self, my inner knowing my soul. And that has served me so well that I, you know, as much as I love my father, and the loss of him was this huge trauma in my life. The outcome, the way that breakdown turned into what I'll call a breakthrough was, I became aware of the inner life, I became aware of the deepest part of who I was. And in that way, it was a gift. And then I wanted to succeed in his name almost. It was almost in tribute to him.

So it gave me a kind of a motivation, a catalytic moment that I don't know if I would have had. It ignited me. Where high school sometimes can take you off into all kinds of directions, I was really in high school. I was, I continue to be, you know, I was homecoming queen. I was president of everything. I was that kind of a kid. But at the same time, I wasn't doing it, it wasn't about me.

It was about earning the right to have a life that was worthy of my dad. And so I think that's where it all kind of started. And I was so fortunate with the counseling of this wonderful nun, Sister Benjamin. I loved her so much, I thought, oh, maybe I should be a nun, except that it didn't work out. Because my boyfriend was the high school football star, and I was homecoming queen. Being a nun didn't fit. But she gave me a lot of the gifts that that world has. Yeah. It's amazing.

It's like an anchor in a very tough time. But it seems to have sort of led you to live a life that's quite unusual and has led you to be in the inner circles of people like Buckminster Fuller, who was a revolutionary thinker about how we live in the world quite differently. Mother Teresa, who was, you know, many think was a saint. Oprah Winfrey, who, you know, is a real cultural leader. And you have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for all kinds of causes, environmental, social causes. You're full of wisdom and you do all sorts of things to make the world a better place. So can you just talk about a little bit about your experience as an activist from ending world hunger to protecting Amazon, to empowering women, to trying to make the world a better place? And how did you find

your way on that path? Well, I was very fortunate as a young woman, a young mother. I had three little kids. And my husband, Bill, was very involved. He went to business school, and then he started working for a big company. So he was all about succeeding. And I was kind of caught in being the wife that looked good and wore the right stuff and tried to learn about wine and art because he was starting to be successful and i thought i gotta know about these things and then i took the est training the old s training which is now it's um antecedent or what what do you call it the

ancestor yeah it's now landmark and it the s training was a little bit more um uh harsh well probably a lot harsher than landmark is. But I guess we all needed it. That was in the 70s. It was like being hit by a two by four of your head. It woke me up to living a different kind of life. Because I was all about what I looked like and what I, whether people like me,

I was all caught in all that. And the S training really, you know, people, a lot of people have their thing. It's either meditation or it's a religious experience or something happens like the death of a person or divorce. But for me, the S training was a huge wake up call that I could actually take this life and make a difference with it. And then I met Buckminster Fuller and Buckminster Fuller was like the be all end all. I mean, maybe you say like who he was in context, as many people listening may not know who he was.

He was an influential figure for me, but he's been dead a long time. Some people forget. Yeah. A lot of people don't even know he was younger people than me. So Buckminster Fuller lived in the 20th century. He was he was trained as an architect and an engineer. And when he was 27, he contemplated suicide because he thought he was a failure as a father, as a producer of financial resources for his family. And instead of taking his life, he made a commitment to make his life an experiment.

He said, if this is a throwaway life, if I can throw this away, maybe I can take it, this throwaway life, and see if one little ordinary human being can make a difference with their life that will impact all humanity. And that commitment he made, instead of killing himself, he made that commitment to have his life make a difference. And he coined the phrase, a little individual can make a difference that impacts all humanity by living that way. And Bucky became just an extraordinary, he was often called the grandfather of the future. He invented the geodesic dome, he invented an electric car in 1949. He saw the end of fossil fuels. He was just way ahead of his time. And I heard about Bucky and I couldn't really understand his books. They were way over my head. But I went to see him speak.

And when I saw him standing on the stage, he was in his 80s. He did a tour of the world called the Integrity Days when he's 80 years old. And I saw him standing on the stage. He was bald, thick glasses, little short man, like kind of a grandpa type. I just, I just loved him. And I remember there's a wonderful quote from Emerson that says, who you are speaks so loudly, I can't hear the words you're saying. And that was my experience of Buckminster Fuller. I did not understand anything he was talking about. But who he was spoke so loudly, his love

for the universe. The talk he was giving was how to tap into the intellectual integrity of the universe, which is grounded in love. And I just love this guy. And I ended up being able to know him and have him come to our home and meet my kids. And he was a mentor to me. So he coined the phrase, a little individual can make a difference that impacts all humanity. And that's when it really kicked in for me. I'm going to make a difference with my life. And then the kind of key thing that happened next is that I was instrumental in introducing Buckminster Fuller

to Werner Erhard, who was the founder of AST and the Landmark Movement. And when these two characters met, I knew a miracle would occur, and it did. That was the founding of The Hunger Project, a commitment to end world hunger. And then I got totally engaged and involved in that. So that's kind of the background story. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. And you also work with Mother Teresa. How did that happen? Well, when you work on hunger and poverty,

and you end up, you end up in India. And I spent a lot of time, 25 years, going back and forth to sub-Saharan Africa and India, Bangladesh, places like that. And when I was first in India in 1981, a long time ago, I remember thinking, my God, I'm in India. And as a race, as a Catholic, I wasn't Catholic anymore, exactly. But, you know, that kind of deep Catholic upbringing, I'd always really admired her and loved her like anybody. You know, she was so extraordinary. I thought to myself, I'm working on hunger. I'm in India. Maybe I'll meet Mother Teresa.

And I mentioned to a friend, her name is Indira Koitra. I owe her so much. And I mentioned that to her. And she said, oh, I know Mother Teresa. I said, you do? My God. You know Mother Teresa? She said, I'd love to introduce you.

She'd love to meet you. I thought, you're kidding. And then it was two years before I was back in Delhi where that conversation took place. And I called Indira and said, I'm back in Delhi. I was working in other parts of the country at the time. And she said, perfect. Mother Teresa's here at her orphanage in Delhi. And so I was immediately, I went to confession. I practically bathed myself in holy water. I had been to church in like 20 years. I thought I'm going to see Mother Teresa, my God. So I had to recover my Catholicism, at least for the moment, canceled everything and got myself ready and went to see her.

And it was an extraordinary first meeting. I'll never, ever, ever, ever forget it. And I cried the whole time. I just, I had no agenda. It was just to be in her presence, which was life changing for me. And then I became engaged with her. I went to visit her whenever I could. I went to with her to the leprosy center. I would accompany her to at Caligot, where the home of the death and dying. I just couldn't get enough of her. And she was everything you would want her to be.

She she was a humble servant of God. And she never talked you would want her to be. She was a humble servant of God. And she never talked about herself and she didn't talk much. But she was her work. And that really, really impacted my life. I'm so privileged to have known her. Hey, everybody, it's Dr. Mark here. We all know how critical getting good quality sleep is to our overall well-being and optimizing our health. But if your mattress is not holding up to its end of the bargain, getting a good night's sleep can be almost impossible.

And that's where Essentia comes in. It's handmade in Canada. These organic, non-toxic latex mattresses are packed with technology to promote sleep. And Essentia mattress is the perfect environment for you to experience unmatched REM sleep and deep sleep and benefit from all the amazing outcomes quality sleep provides. Essentia's certified organic performance mattresses feature brand new organic foam formulas to help you experience truly rejuvenating sleep. Plus, there are no springs or fiber batting

to harbor dust mites and no proteins to cause latex allergies. Essentia believes there's nothing more powerful than the body's own ability to heal itself physically and mentally, and these harbor dust mites and no proteins to cause latex allergies. Essentia believes there's nothing more powerful than the body's own ability to heal itself physically and mentally, and these performance mattresses are proven to help you do just that. In fact, I have one and I would not sleep on any other mattress. In fact, I even bought my daughter one so I can go have one when I go visit her in medical school. Essentia has made a special offer available to my doctor's pharmacy listeners. Right now, you can get an extra $100 off your mattress purchase on top of Essentia's Black Friday sale, the biggest sale of the year, which will also take 25% off plus get you two free

organic pillows, $330 value with your mattress purchase. This is really an amazing deal. So be sure to use the code Hyman in your cart. Learn more at myascensia.com forward slash drmarkhyman. That's Dr. Mark Hyman. That's M-Y-E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A.com forward slash Dr. Mark Hyman. D-R-M-A-R-K-H-Y-M-A-N. And now let's get back to this week's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. And then how was your life different afterwards? What are the things that you changed about and how you lived and how you thought about the world and yourself?

Well, can I tell you a story about that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course. Well, when I first went to see her, I, oh God, probably cry here. So I went to her orphanage in Delhi, which was a home for girls under two. And in India at that time, many girls, baby girls were given up just because they were girls. But often if they had a missing finger or they were blind or there's something wrong with them, they were for sure given up. And when I arrived at the orphanage in Old Delhi, I was walking up the steps to the door and there was a crumpled newspaper on the step.

And I picked it up, you know, because I'm a sort of a trash picker-upper. And when I picked it up to throw it away, there was a baby inside. And the baby was a little girl the size, this is the size of my hand. She was so, so small. She was like a puppy. She was so tiny. She was very, very premature. And she was like a puppy she was so tiny she was very very premature and she was alive and breathing and so i wrapped her up in a shawl and uh knocked on the door and uh a nun opened the door and i i presented this this little little being and they took her right away and i said

she was on the doorstep and i said i'm here for my appointment with Mother Teresa. And the woman who answered the door, she said, well, Mother Teresa is not here. She's at the jail bailing out prostitutes because we need so much help. We have so many children. And so she said, can you help us while you're waiting? I said, okay. So they put me to work. I put on an apron. There were 39 little girls under two little babies. And they put me to work. I put on an apron. There were 39 little girls under two, little babies. And they put me to work in a series of sinks, bathing, deformed little girls, blind little girls, little babies. And I don't remember. I know this is impossible to believe, but I do not remember anybody crying, any child crying. And that's impossible.

But it was so beautiful. And I remember thinking thinking this is my meeting with mother theresa if she never comes back this is it i was in absolute bliss with these little babies and the nuns and the and the scene and the love and then someone tapped me on the shoulder and said she's here and i went went and met with her in a in a in a dark little hall a wooden table and two chairs. And, you know, I cried all the way through. But here's the thing I want to tell you.

In a certain moment in the meeting, there was a scuffle behind me and a loud series of voices, sort of angry, loud, demanding voices and a strong aroma. And then this huge, I mean, huge Indian couple arrived in our hallway, in our meeting. The woman was very large, very tall, and also very, very wide. And she had a very opulent sari on, lots of bangles and a diamond in her nose and diamonds that went all the way to her ear. They were extremely opulent looking and kind of over the top people and over perfumed, over made up, overweight, over everything. And her husband was even bigger. He was this giant Sikh and he had a big topaz on his, what do you call those things?

Turban. He had rings on every finger, including his thumb. And they came bursting in and they said to Mother Teresa, we didn't get a picture. We didn't get the picture. And I didn't understand what they were doing, but she stood up and they handed me an Instamatic camera. If you remember those little Instamatic cameras. And they stood on the other side of the wall and they put her in the middle and demanded in a kind of boisterous and bullyish way, take the picture, take the picture. So I took a picture and then the woman did.

They were huge. So this man over here and this woman over here and little Mother Teresa in the middle. And she had osteoporosis. She was all bent over. Then the woman did this what I thought was unforgivable thing. She went like this. Mother Teresa put your chin up. And she went and pulled up her chin and held it up for the picture.

And then she demanded I take another picture. And I did. And then they grabbed the camera and they left. They didn't thank us. They didn't kiss her. They didn't do anything. They just left. And they were awful, rich, ugly, entitled people.

And I sat down again. Mother Teresa sat down. We continued our meeting. But my blood was boiling. I hated these people. How could they treat her that way? How could they interrupt my meeting? But I tried to calm myself down.

And Mother Teresa was totally fine. But I was not. We completed our meeting. And then I rode back to my hotel and deli, which took 45 minutes. And during the time, I realized, oh, my God, I felt the most profound love I've ever felt in my life sitting with her. And then this enormous surge of hate for these wealthy, entitled, boisterous, rude people. And she was fine. I was not fine.

Yeah. So when I got back to the hotel, I wrote a letter to her thanking her for this profound teaching. And here's what she told me. And this is what changed my life. She wrote me back. And she said, you will always be drawn, you will always be drawn, Lynn, to the underprivileged, the less fortunate, the people who are marginalized and need your support and your love.

But you need to expand your circle of love and compassion to include the rich, the entitled, the wealthy, the righteous. And she said this incredible thing. She said the vicious cycle of wealth can be as intractable and as painful as the vicious cycle of poverty. And your karma is to open your heart to the wealthy and expand your circle of compassion to include them and after that i i really my fundraising which i was doing anyway came became completely transformed and i started to see people caught in the climbing of the ladder

the trying to accumulate more another plane plane, another helicopter, another island, as people that were part of what my dharma was, my karma was. And it has been incredible ever since then. And that's really how I could write the book, The Soul of Money, because I started to see we're all suffering and many of us in our relationship with money whether we have it or we don't have it we we it's a it's a place where we're not ourselves all often where we're where we become somebody we don't want to be where we become greedy where we become entitled where we become righteous where we victims. And so that's when I really started to work with people with money. And that was that meeting with Mother Teresa. So that's the answer.

That's an incredible story. That's a beautiful story. And I think it's true. We create judgments around people who don't fit our idea of who we should be loving or serving or be kind to. And it's created increasing divisiveness in the world and righteousness and separation and disconnection. And we're seeing it increasingly in America. We're seeing it globally. And it breaks my heart because, you know, often it's interesting to me. I even noticed on Instagram, for example, people, when I, you know, meet with a Republican or a Democrat, like, I mean, whoever I'm meeting with, it's like, I'm first meeting with a human being. And I'm first meeting with a person who has a soul and a heart and who underneath whatever their beliefs or ideas

or ideology or pain or suffering is, there's a beautiful soul under there. And it's just, it really hurts me to see how much we've gone away from being human beings together to being our identity. And I think that that's something that has to shift and change. And I think your book, your new book is really about how do we break that down? How do we actually live a life that is not just all about our identities and our personal beliefs and needs and wants, but actually dedicated to helping each other. And that's where, you know, really the magic comes.

You know, the teachings can be complicated and there's all these esoteric religions and ideologies and philosophies. But, you know, I think the most poignant and the simplest and the most beautiful rendition of, I think, what it is to be human and how to live a good life was Neem Karoli Baba's philosophy, which he was the guru of Ram Dass and the author of Emotional Intelligence. Daniel Goleman is a good friend and Larry Brilliant who helped and smallpox and just all these incredible people. And Krishna Das, the musician we like to listen to. And his philosophy was really simple. and smallpox and you know just all these incredible people and uh and krishna das the musician we like to listen to and his philosophy was really simple it's love everybody serve

everybody feed everybody and that's like it's pretty much all you need to know right when it comes right down to it is simple you know we put these labels on each other even the label poor and rich i realized this it's so devastating to nobody's poor you know there's no such thing people are whole and complete people living in poor circumstances they're not poor the circumstances are poor but they're whole and complete people with dreams and hopes and people who are rich live in in sometimes the tyranny of wealthy circumstances but they're human beings and we're all kind of strong and when and i just i i really appreciate what you said because when i watch the news and it says under somebody's name that they're a

democrat or republican right away i have to undo that i don't want to know that yet i don't want to know that yet. I don't want to know that ever, maybe. I just want to know, this is Mark. This is Lynn. Once we label people, then we can't hear them anymore. We hear only the point of views that we don't agree with or the point of view we do. And the algorithms that are now deepening and deepening and deepening and deepening our ideology by feeding us our own stuff over and over and over again in a deeper and deeper way are making it, you know, hard to get out of your own swim lane and see that there's other points of view. There's other ways to see the world. It's really, ah, yeah, it breaks my heart too. It's pretty true. And America's weird because, you know, I think, I don't know exactly the number, but it's somewhere around half or more. All Americans don't even have a passport.

And so we don't get out of our little worlds to meet other people, see other ways of thinking and being and living. We get so locked in our worldview. And I think, you know, part of the beauty of living a life of service is you get to see things through other people's eyes, through other people's perspectives to understand their world a little bit better. And I think it makes us happier. It's kind of a trick. I think the thing that most people don't realize is that altruism is medicine. It actually is good for us, not just good for the people we're serving or caring for. And the biology of altruism is fascinating because it actually activates the same pleasure centers as most of the addictive drugs like heroin or cocaine or nicotine. And so the dopamine we get

from giving and serving, and it's strange to say this, Lynn, but I actually felt high when I was in Haiti. I often feel high when I'm doing the work I do because I feel like I'm doing something to just help others and make the world a better place and not focus on myself. There's something in that. I don't know what that is. I think E.O. Wilson wrote about it. He called it The Social Conquest of the Earth. This is a book he wrote not too long ago about the way we've evolved to help each other, whether we're ants or whether we're humans, through the whole almost world of

nature and evolution, we've evolved to be in community to serve and help each other as a way of surviving. You put a human being in the woods by herself. I mean, they don't have this chance, right? So I think we forget that. So Lynn, I know you've heard so many stories. You've been all over the world. You've heard so many wise. You've been all over the world. You've heard so many wise people share about who they are and what they do. You work with incredible humans who are doing things to bring so much peace and goodness and healing and miracles to the world. So what have you learned about what makes ordinary people extraordinary? And what are the tools and teachings that help people

create transformation and cause these miracles? Well, it is this exactly the title of the book, really. Living a Committed Life, Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself. When you were in Haiti or when, you know, just your whole career, you could say. But being with like Jane Goodall, for example, I mean, Jane, obviously everybody loves Jane Goodall. How could you not love her?

She's so incredible. And I've known her for years and years and years. But when she went to Gombe Stream, you know, when she was a teenager before she even was a scientist, something called to her and she paid attention to it. And it was larger than her life. And so, she put her life in service of that. And as you say, you know, this thing about altruism, I love hearing that. I know that to be true in my own body, you know, when I'm really serving, when I'm really truly serving. You get high. I mean, it's really, it's weird to say it, but it's true.

You can't do it for that reason. That's the thing. It's sort of a trap. You can't do it to be happy. You need to do it because you really want to serve. You know, there's a wonderful quote from Rachel Remen, who I know, you know, she says, when you're helping, you're really acknowledging that someone or something is weak. When you're fixing, you're acknowledging or saying that something's broken. When you're

serving, you're acknowledging and affirming that what you're serving is whole. And that's the experience of service, which is different than fixing or helping. It's really from your own wholeness to the wholeness of those that are in your path. And I feel like I've been so blessed, my God, you know, holy moly, I can't even believe my life sometimes. And it came that I even know Jane Goodall or Desmond Tutu or know you comes from the commitments I've made, not from my personality or not from any of that that I used to think was so important. It comes from that I've made commitments larger than myself that have given me a life I could never planned or dreamed of. And now working in the Amazon with indigenous people who, you know, they don't need to get a passport and see the world to understand their

responsibility for the next, you know, seven generations or the next 500 years. They are living not on the earth and they're not fighting for the earth. They are of the earth. It's almost like the earth is speaking through them and through us really. And if we realize that and we surrender to that, then we become the instrument of something greater than ourselves. And it moves through us rather than we determine, I'm going to end world hunger, I'm going to save the Amazon or I'm going to heal the people in Haiti. No, it comes from something other than us.

And we become the instruments of something. And there's a surrender there. There's a courage in surrendering. But there's also a relief. I don't have to worry whether I'm going to do this or that or what I'm going to wear. My commitments wake me up in the morning. My commitments tell me where to go, what to do. So it's a liberation.

It's strange. Making a commitment that's larger than yourself liberates you rather than traps you. And trying to keep your options open, that traps you. You're kind of lateral. You can't move forward. But once you choose, or it chooses you, which is sometimes really what happens, you're free. You're free. And there's a sense of enormous fulfillment and joy.

Yeah, that's true. It's incredible. We always think that fulfillment, happiness, and joy come from things that don't usually bring them. And we ignore the things that actually are available to all of us all the time. And I think in your story in India with those little children and those little babies and what an ecstatic experience that was for you and how it really shaped your view. And the juxtaposition of that with sort of the rage and hatred you felt at the same time. It sort of seems like a little bit of a crucible that formed who you were and helped shape how you have lived your whole life and led you to the amazing work you've done. I think, yeah, I remember

Jane Goodall. I had the privilege to meet her and I was sort of struck by her. And I asked if I could have a picture with her and, and she said, let's look in each other's eyes. I was like, Whoa, okay. What an unusual woman, you know, just to, to, to, okay, we're not going to look at the camera. We're going to look at each other and this beautiful photo of us just gazing at each other's eyes. And she, you know, had such a deep deep well of love and humanity. And it was just, it was really a privilege to be with her even for a short moment yeah uh and who who who else have you kind of met that's that's kind of

inspired you in that way and maybe you could share another story oh well um i'm going to pick um an indigenous uh man named manari ushiwa who's not famous to you and most of the people that are listening to this, but he is very, very important to me and to many people. He's the leader of the Zapara people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. And the Zapara people are facing extinction. There's about 500 of them left. He's their leader, and he's the primary shaman and um when i was with him in the rainforest in the amazon uh we were hiking and you know in the amazon indigenous people they know it like you and i

would know our home um and you know one foot away from him or 10 feet away from i'd be lost forever never know my way back to anywhere. But for him, it was his home. And we were walking through this very, very thick forest and a sacred forest for him. And he had a machete and he was cutting the trail as we go. Maybe there was a trail for him, but I certainly didn't see one. And I'm walking carefully behind him and I was a little scared. He was bare chested, had a kind of a sarong like thing on.

He was barefoot. You know, there was all kinds of stuff, brambles and mud and branches. And he was barefoot and had painted his face. And I had every possible thing on myself, mosquito repellent. You know, I was like covered with long long sleeves to protect myself and high boots. And we're going through the forest, and I'm going behind him, and he's very silent the way he walked. Couldn't hear his footsteps, but I had my boots behind him.

And then he stopped, and he said, Can you feel them? And it was in Spanish, and I thought, well, maybe I didn't understand. So I asked him to repeat, can you feel them? Can you feel them? And I didn't know what he was talking about, but I looked around, and then he said the millions and millions of souls. And suddenly, everything had a soul. For me too.

The caterpillars, the bugs, the leaves, the branches, the massive trees, the butterflies, the snakes, everything had a soul. For him, that was always the case. But it never occurred to me that way. Can you feel the millions and millions of souls? And for him, we were walking through a community of souls. For me, I was walking through brambles and bugs and trying to keep myself separate from them.

He was absolutely connected to them. He was one of them. And from that moment on, my experience of the natural world, in particular trees and branches and vines, and I have such a transformed relationship with the natural world as a community of life of which I'm a part. And then I met Suzanne Simard, who I think you probably have interviewed, Dr. Suzanne Simard. Oh, my God, you should put her on your list. She's the scientist that has been the primary scientist to discover that the trees are communicating with each other all over the world through the mycorrhizal network and the mycelium. And that there's a real

communication structure and there's mothers and father trees and there's all kinds of stuff going on that has been going on for thousands of years that we're, that we're not aware of. So now my relationship with the forest outside my, my window, just everything, it has a soul. And that gives me a kind of reverence that I didn't know was possible for everything. I think it's a beautiful story because it's true. We've sort of so disconnected ourselves from nature

and have lost our relationship to things that sustained us throughout most of our evolution. And the Native Americans also have a similar saying, it's to all my relations, right? It means to everything, to everyone, to everybody. And it's all the birds and the insects and the plants and the animals. And it's, you know, when you see everything as in relationship with as opposed to control over, it's very, very different. And it changes your framework for how you think about your life and how you live. So it's really clear. You've had

some really extraordinary encounters with extraordinary people that have left these little nuggets of wisdom that seem to have guided your life, which is so beautiful. Yeah. Well, I think everybody has that. They just need to listen, I think. Yeah. It's I think everybody has that, you know, they just need to listen. I think, you know, it's true. And I, I kind of, I read a book during COVID, which, which was, you know, really impacted me. It's called the soul of America, the search for our better angels. And, you know, in that, in that book, it talked about moments in history when we were in crisis points, right. When civil war and reconstruction and women's suffrage and civil rights and all these moments in history where they were really the

Cold War, where there were real threats to our survival and to our survival as a nation, to our survival as a species even. And it seems that we're in one of those moments now with the rise of autocracies, the divisiveness of our society, the climate change, the sort of existential threats we're facing. And the question I always ask myself is, where are we? Are we really at the end? Or are we another moment of inflection where we will we will find our better angels. Um, and you talk about how, you know, living a committed life is really crucial to our human future. Uh, and I am very intrigued by that because, uh, you know, in searching for the question, the answer to the question of how do we, how do we imagine our future? Um, how do we navigate our way out of

the predicament we're in now? How do we get back to being connected and a world where there's deeper understanding and compassion and humanity and trust and safety? How does a committed life play a role in that? What does that mean? Well, I'll just say, I think it gives me a perspective, a way of seeing things where I can look at a larger context than the content itself. And so, for example, the pandemic and the climate crisis are two huge things that impact every living thing, but particularly the human journey. And I started to realize the pandemic is horrible as it has been and continues to be. And the people have died and lost loved ones and been sick. I've been sick myself. The indigenous people of the Amazon have said to us that humanity in some primordial way has been waiting for something powerful and sacred enough to disrupt our way of living that we couldn't disrupt on our own and help us to rethink and reimagine and renew and resource the way we're living.

And that everything comes from the earth, everything, this computer I'm looking at, the ear pods I've got on, you know, everything, you and me, we all come from the earth. The virus came from the earth, too. And in many ways, you know, as Paul Hawken says, things are not happening to us. They're happening for us. They're happening for us. If we hold it that way, then we receive the teaching. And I think that the pandemic and the climate crisis, if you look at it this way, it could be one way of looking at it, is that the pandemic is a kind of morning sickness. And when I had morning sickness, when I was pregnant, I didn't know I was pregnant. I

thought I was sick. I really did. And I was throwing up in the morning and I was, you know, tired all the time and I wanted weird things. And then I found I was pregnant. And I was throwing up in the morning and I was, you know, tired all the time and I wanted weird things. And and then I found I was pregnant and then it changed completely. I had a context for my illness. And so I kind of like to think of the pandemic as morning sickness for a species that is pregnant with a new kind of human being. And the pregnancy might be long and painful and not every pregnancy produces a baby. And, and labor might be really, really tough, but the climate crisis is major feedback from the mother that we need to

rethink. You know, it's, it's huge feedback from the mother, the mother that we need to re recreate what we mean as what we consider being a human being. So I think we're in an epic evolutionary leap. And it's painful and it hurts. And some people aren't going to make it. And there's a depth to it that's beyond what we've ever identified before, I think. I think it's not just multiple crises. I think the whole thing is up for grabs.

And I think that's like when, you know, you're a doctor, so I know you've treated people who've been facing end-of-life illnesses, and then when they don't die, they say the cancer diagnosis changed their life, and they're so grateful for it. You know, that's kind of what I think is going on. And living a committed life gives you that kind of a way of holding things that are difficult, looking at them as breakdowns that have the seeds of a breakthrough in them and looking for the seeds of the breakthrough. Because you've got a commitment that's bigger than your own life. And you are always looking to reframe, recontextualize,

recreate in a way that you can fulfill the destiny that you've chosen for yourself or that you've been given. So maybe we're pregnant. Maybe we're really pregnant with with something glorious if we're willing to be open to that yeah and sort of uh in your book you said you know any situation to break down holds the seeds of a breakthrough that's greater than the breakdown itself and if you know that you're going to look for those seeds and water them and then life gives you exactly what you need to evolve to grow to make the difference you want to make in the world.

And it seems like we're as a planet, as a species, as nations, we're all in the middle of it right now. Maybe this breakdown is planting the seeds for something different. Maybe you can share something from your own life, a personal story, something you've seen or witnessed that was a breakdown that actually helped you break through to something else that was giving birth to something different that was something you couldn't imagine in the darkness. Well, I was one of the early leaders of the Hunger Project, which became a huge global movement and still exists and is really a glorious organizational commitment. And millions and millions of people are involved in it. And I was one of the early people.

So I said over and over again, and I became the leader of the volunteer network worldwide, which was millions of people. And I would say all the time, I've been here since the beginning. I'll be here till the end of hunger or the end of my life. Whatever comes first, I'm here. You can count on me. And other people would come and go in the Hunger Project, but everybody knew Lynn Twist was going to be there till the end of hunger or the end of her life. And then I had this whole, this beautiful story that I won't tell here, but I think it's in the book, about being called through a series of visions and

dreams to the Amazon rainforest. And I had never been to South America. I didn't speak Spanish. It was very strange to me. But ultimately, I followed that call with John Perkins and my husband, Bill, went to the Ecuadorian Amazon, and we started the Pachamama Alliance. But I was still in charge of this massive 57 countries of the Hunger Project. I was responsible for fundraising and volunteer participation and operations.

And I had no band and I had three kids, no bandwidth to suddenly take on preserving the Ambon rainforest. But we had started Pachamama Alliance and I was being pulled in these two directions. And then I got malaria. So this is the breakdown. When you were in South America? Really? pulled in these two directions. And then I got malaria. So this is the breakdown. I got really, really, really, um, well, the malaria came from, I was still doing the hunger project. So I got it from, I got VVEX and Ovali at the same time. VVEX, I think from Laitana in Ethiopia and Ovali from India. I didn't get it from Amazon, but I got really sick and I, it wasn't diagnosed early on. It was diagnosed in all other ways inaccurately.

So I was super sick and I couldn't do anything for anyone. And I was sick for nine months. So it was a long time. And so I had to be in bed, you know, and before that I was traveling all over the world. Like, you know, I consider myself a pro activist, an activist for and not against, but I'm definitely an activist. And so staying home and in bed was unthinkable for me, especially with all the responsibilities I held. But I had to because I was so sick. And by the end of that nine-month period, I realized I'm not meant to continue the Hunger Project till the end, at least in that form.

And I learned from my colleagues in Senegal when I went to Senegal to do a meeting with some elders. I was sitting on a dry piece of land near the ocean. It wasn't a beach. It was just like a desert. And I was with men who were 70 and 80 that were leaders of a Muslim village. And they told me they had grown up in a rainforest right where we were sitting. And they had been gone for 40 years. And I suddenly realized, oh, my God, I'm going to work in the Amazon to prevent what's happened across all of Africa that's ended up with poverty and hunger and slavery and all the horrible things that have happened to that continent.

It really was the exploitation and the destruction of the massive rainforests that were part of the African continent. And I realized I'm going from ending world hunger in the situations I've been in, in sub-Saharan Africa and sub-continent India, I'm going to prevent that in South America. So I made it work for myself to leave the Hunger Project and to become deeply engaged in the Pachamama Alliance. And I had to find my way through that breakdown because I had told everybody I was going to stay with Angkor Watik forever. And I'm still there in so many ways. But now I'm working in a different way in the same context to preserve the Amazon rainforest, which is critical to the future of life. So that's my story too. That's beautiful.

You know, it's true. We all have those stories. And we look at those things that happen in our life that seem like they're cataclysmic events. And, you know, I had gotten very sick when I was younger in my thirties and, and that's what led me to discover the value of, of rethinking medicine and, and coming upon functional medicine as a way of healing myself and healing my patients. And ultimately, it's a way of understanding us as part of a larger ecosystem that we live in,

in the earth. So it's really all connected. And that really has informed my work. And it wasn't something I chose, but it was something that chose me. And those little transformational moments helped direct the course of our life and, and led me to be so passionate about actually making this come to fruition, which, uh, and to relieve suffering where it doesn't need to be. I mean, there's some things that just, you can't avoid. I mean, hurricanes and natural disasters. I mean, yes, maybe part of climate change, but they're, they're often unavoidable, but, uh, the things that can be relieved relieved, like hunger, that's not a difficult problem to solve. There's enough food in the world for over 10 billion people.

Yeah, really. And we throw more than a third of it out. And so it's like this is a solvable problem. And I think we all have to find what for us actually is our North Star, the thing that keeps us going. And you know, you, you talk about in your book, uh, living a committed life, but it's, it's not really about sacrifice. Um, it's about how to live a life of service that actually leads to abundance and magic for yourself and everything and everyone in your life. So what are the kinds of lessons and teachings and things that you've accumulated through your life that are in the book? I used to sacrifice myself for other

people. I used to think that was the right thing to do. And you get completely exhausted or, you know, leave myself out of the transformation I was trying to produce for other people. And I realized that that doesn't work. And it it's out integrity actually there's an arrogance actually in that it seems so nice and humble but it's it's there's something arrogant about it when you're committed to transforming everything you think you're somehow some magician rather than you know part of the picture is is being able to include yourself in all of it there's a quote from the uh i think from the Bible, I'm not really sure where it comes from, called Drink As You Pour.

And for some reason that really got to me. I realized that, you know, I got into sacrifice, which is, you know, charity has a wonderful name. And Mother Teresa really taught the world about charity in the 20th century. She was an icon for that. But I actually don't think charity is useful any longer. And I think what we need is solidarity, not charity. Something about charity is sacrificial in a way that's unhealthy.

And it's like looking at someone as less or I don't know, there's something about it that I realized I want to kind of reboot and talk about solidarity. That's why that quote from Rachel Remen, you know, we help, we help. We're, we're, we're saying something is weak. When we fix, we're saying something is broken. When we serve, we're being whole ourselves and serving the whole and that's where you you're not in sacrifice in fact you're fulfilled

by it the way you were in haiti and i once was um interviewed by a a women's magazine called it was the name of the magazine called balance and the lady who called me was the editor and she said we want to put you on the cover and do an interview. And I said, you got the wrong person. I can't like, I don't even want balance. I don't understand it. I don't know how to do it. And I don't seek it, but I think it's a wonderful thing for others. And she said, well, why not? And I said, well, i seek integrity like if i need to stay up all night to complete something that i promised that that really is important to the person i promised to do i will but where i where i where i look is do i have integrity and when i have integrity and i feel

complete and whole i'm healthy also and i i say to people who say they're burned out and they're, that I don't think you can get burned out unless you get disconnected from source. I think that's what burnout comes from. I know you work hard. I know you stay up late. I know you travel the world. I do that too. But I love it.

And then, you know, I do have my moments when I crash, but I don't want balance. And so I said all this stuff and they still put me on the cover of the magazine. And, you know, it's just a different way of looking at life. But I do feel like I have learned to drink as I pour. And that has made my life so fulfilling it's just like ridiculous um how how much joy i i have been privy to and have been allowed to to express in my life through through through really being a pro-activist being an activist for not against i just want to say I know that there's stuff in between the vision I have for the world and me, but I'm not against it. I want to dismantle it with honor and respect.

I often say we need to hospice the death of the old cultures and structures that don't serve us rather than attack them or try to kill them. They're dying and that's why they're making so much noise um um and and we can hospice if we hospice them they'll die a a more dignified death and won't be so obnoxious about it but when we hospice and when we midwife the birth of the new structures and systems that we now know will serve us hospicing and midwifing you're so familiar with are really acts of witness and love and allowing dignity to be in the process, you know? So I don't know. That's where I am. Yeah. So people listening are probably wondering, gee, how do I find this in my old life? You've

had an extraordinary life, Lynn, Dr. Hyman, you maybe, you know, had also a life of serendipity and, you know, incredible opportunities. How do I, as someone listening, navigate my own life toward a committed life that is engaged in service and being in service of something greater than yourself that brings more joy and love and healing into the world? Well, it's really kind of going back to the quote from Howard Thurman in the beginning that you cited. It's what gives you, what makes your heart sing? And what is the call of the world that's a match for you? Like, you know, what upsets you so much that you want to passionately address it?

What is what strikes a chord in your heart? It doesn't just make you upset and angry, but it reaches your heart. It breaks your heart. Where is where is that in your life? And what have you you know, people I believe that anybody who's alive today is here to make a difference, to make a contribution. I mean, the times are so epic. My God, I'm so grateful I'm alive right now. There's so much to contribute to. There's so much need. There's so much going on. So there's room, plenty of room for everybody to get. And it's an all hands on deck

time anyway. It just is. So what calls to you? What makes your heart sing? What makes you feel worthy? What makes you feel useful? And go and do that. And look all the way through your life at what you've been called to do. You know, when you were a little kid on the playground, were you were you somebody who defended against the bully? Maybe you're a person who's all about justice. Maybe you're one of these people who, when you were in third grade and they picked teams for kickball,

you always picked the person who wasn't so good because you want to include. Maybe that's your thing. So we're called to take a stand for something, take a stand for something, not take a position against or for, but a stand for something that's worth giving your life to. And it doesn't need to be big and it doesn't need to be small. You know, I say there, you don't have a big role or small, there's just your role. And if you play it, you'll find the meaning that you've been looking for. You know, you can be a kindergarten teacher who's just going to do it for two years.

But those two years, you're going to make such a difference with those little ones. You're going to have them see who they are. You're going to have them never, ever doubt that they're worthy of the world that they're living in. You know, so it doesn't need to be ending world hunger like I, or, you know, healing world like you. It can be, you know, making your town a little bit greener. So I think there's just everybody's, if you listen deeply, you're being called right now. Everybody is because it's an all hands-on deaf world yeah

and we all get to play our part it's so true it kind of reminds me of one of the beautiful nuggets of wisdom and my favorite nuggets from mother teresa she said there are no acts of great love only small acts done with great love and i think that's exactly what you're saying doesn't be ending world hunger or healing the planet or saving the rainforest. It can be just as simple as being kind to that person you see on the street or your neighbor or doing something for your community. It doesn't have to be big, but those small things add up, and they change our world. Yeah, yeah.

I love Brother David Stimble-Ross. You probably know him. You know Brother David. So he's such a teacher for me. And sometimes just being around him, which I'm privileged to do, he will wake up in the morning and he'll

say, sometimes when he used to stay with me, he'd say, today I'm going to be grateful for yellow. Yellow. Everything yellow. I love these yellow pads. I love the color of that house next door. I love the sunshine. I love that woman's blonde hair.

I love this banana. You know, he would just find something to be grateful for, for the whole day. And just being in the presence of that is life changing. So that's an example of a, of a commitment to really make a difference with one's life. He's such a teacher for me.

So beautiful. So we've been talking about the state of the world and how we live our lives and how we kind of maybe reimagine our relationship to ourselves, to service, to our communities, to our families, to the earth. And I spend a lot of time now thinking about the future. My children are going to have families, to the earth. And I spend a lot of time now thinking about the future. My children are going to have children, hopefully soon, their children.

And I kind of met that stage of life where I'm thinking about this and I'm wondering about the future. And it feels like a fraught moment. And I'm curious about how you think about it. And given what you've seen with being in some of the worst suffering in the world and places where hunger is rampant, where there's just devastation and human suffering beyond what most of us have ever seen or can imagine. How do you reflect on what's happening now? And what do you think we most need to emerge out of this hole? Well, I have grandchildren.

I have children and grandchildren. And I have the same concerns as you do and we all do. Like, what kind of world are we leaving for them? What are they going to have on their plate? And at the same time, I also know that they're up to it. You know, it's incredible. This is a buckminster fuller quote one time he had dinner at our house and he wanted to eat in the kitchen with the kids that's

what he was and the kids were six eight and ten and i thought well that's great for them so we'll eat in the kitchen bucky wants to eat in the kitchen with the kids so we did and my daughter who's in the middle one um she was eight and she did, she said one of those kind of kid things that are really profound that, you know, out of the mouth of babes come these amazing things sometimes. And Bucky turned to Bill, my husband and myself, and he said, he said, never forget your children are your elders in universe time. They've come into a more complete, more evolved universe than you can ever understand except through their eyes. And that really, that just like rearranged my molecules. I'll never forget that day. And now I look at the young people that I work with, the young people that I know, their competencies, they're deeply engaged in the environmental crisis in a good way.

They're on the job, you know, I can barely turn on my TV without my grandkids, you know, they understand this whole digital thing that's happening. And I, you know, I worry about that, too. It seems so different than books and the we the way we were raised but at the same time i have so much trust in the universe you know the the um the universe story if you know that that wonderful work by thomas thomas berry which really says that you know that the that we're all children of the universe and the universe the grace and guidance that has guided the universe to evolve to what it is now is still here it's still here and uh we're collaborators yes we're very powerful as a species yes and we've made terrible mistakes but we're getting the feedback we need to uh

course correct and um and you know we are we are we are. We are loved by the universe. We are part of it. Maybe we made mistakes, but we're not flawed. We're part of the creation. And so we will find our way. And I feel like, you know, Joanna Macy is another mentor of mine, and she's 93. And I went to see her when i was writing this book and she said i'm so glad to still be alive during the transition we're in the great transition

and i'm i'm seeing it i'm feeling it and then she said souls are waiting in line to incarnate so that they can be part of this awesome, amazing transition, this transformation, this epic evolutionary leap. Isn't it exciting? Oh, yeah. You're right. And so really it's all how we hold it. Everything's challenging.

Everything's hard. The news is just like, oh, my God, can we even watch it? But at the same time, it wouldn't be here, I think, if we weren't up to it. And, you know, we say in our programs at Pachamama Alliance, the choices we make impact the future of life for 1,000 years. And that could show up like a burden, but actually what it does in another way, it ennobles your life. It ennobles the choices you make. It gives you the opportunity to stand tall and be responsible for the choices you make, realizing they're not just for you. They're for the long-term future of life.

And how exciting is that? I mean, that's pretty cool. And I think young people know that. And I think they know that in a way that we, we didn't know it. And they do. And that's, that's a consciousness.

That's, that's really deepening. The hope is in our children and their, their ability to imagine a different world and actually bring it into reality. So that's beautiful. Wow. And we'll thank you so much for what you're doing, for what you've done, for what you're going to do, for the light you bring in the world and for writing this book,

living a committed life, finding freedom and fulfillment and a purpose larger than yourself. It's a very important book in a time that's fraught. And I think it's something we should all be thinking about and how we each can be helping to be part of creating a different world than we live in now, which is really full of suffering and hatred and division and destruction. And how do we create a more regenerative world and a healing world? And I think, you know, you've been guided through such an extraordinary life with people who've really shaped our world, our thinking, our culture, our earth. And, um, and you've been such a vessel for all of it. And I thank you for

what you've done and I'm really grateful to know you. Well, Mark, thank you for what you've done. Thank you for your big, beautiful heart and your amazing brain taking care of all of our bodies at the same time and our souls. And,'m just grateful to know that we're both and everybody alive today are ancestors of an age to come, as wonderful people have said, and how lucky for us to know each other. Thank you for having me on this program, and thank you for the work you're doing,

and thank you for your love for the world. Thank you, Lynn. I hope I get to see you in person soon. And everybody listening, I hope you've enjoyed this podcast. It's inspired you as it's inspired me and maybe to reimagine your life and what you're doing and how to be part of the solution to the world we live in right now. Definitely check out the book, Living a Committed Life, Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself. We'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment. How have you found purpose in your life and how has the life of service changed you? And share this with everybody

because I think you need to hear it. And we'll see you next week on The Doctor's Pharmacy. Hey everybody, it's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning into The Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving this podcast. It's one of my favorite things to do and introduce to you all the experts that I know and I love and that I've learned so much from. And I want to tell you about something else I'm doing, which is called Mark's Picks. It's my weekly newsletter. And in it, I share my favorite stuff from foods to supplements, to gadgets, to tools to enhance your health. It's all the cool stuff that I use and that my team uses to optimize and enhance our health. And I'd love you to sign up

for the weekly newsletter. I'll only send it to you once a week on Fridays. Nothing else, I promise. And all you do is go to drhyman.com forward slash pics to sign up. That's drhyman.com forward slash pics,

P-I-C-K-S, and sign up for the newsletter and I'll share with you my favorite stuff that I use to enhance my health and get healthier and better and live younger longer. Hi, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or

services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.