Episode 037: The Built Environment and Aligning Ourselves With Nature with Marcus Sheffer

Welcome back for Episode 037 of the Seeds of Tao Podcast! Today we're talking with Marcus Sheffer, Enviroenergist at 7Group, and he's telling us about his awesome journey to truly living in tune with his heart. The head and heart battle are very common, and many people really struggle with this. Let's dive into truly living with ours hearts in this post, but first, if you'd like to get in contact with Marcus...

You can check out his website at www.sevengroup.com

Or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Creating Change with the Head vs. the Heart

Marcus starts out his story with his struggle to create the impact he really wanted, showing people how to live more sustainably. Marcus was working in the sustainable energy field, trying to show people how to build for less, require less energy, and work more in harmony with the environment. And yet, all the data and numbers wouldn't make them change their ways. Through this journey, he discovered that people didn't necessarily make decisions with their head. More often than not it was with their emotions, i.e. their heart. 

Marketing is a funny thing. Marketers have been studying buying habits of consumers for decades, and they've determined that consumers and WAY more persuaded to make a decision if the message they are receiving is appealing to their emotional side of their brain, their limbic system. While this emotional system of our brain is technically our "head," it functions more like our perverbial "heart."

So if we want to really create change, to create a change in action, a change in habit, we need to create a change in paradigm, as Marcus point out. And the most effective way to change that paradigm is through the "heart."

The same thing can be translated into how we help ourselves to become the people we really want to be, we need a paradigm shift. We need to be more in tune with our heart.  

Coming Heart to Heart with Nature

How do we become more in tune with our hearts? Our hearts speak quieter than our head does, constantly listening to the static of business and media around us. Sometimes we are floating through a sea of noise, and it completely drowns out who we really are and where our heart truly desires to travel. So how do we find out what our heart, and in reality, our higher self, really wants?

We have to find a way to shut off the deafening radio playing. There are a number of ways to do this, so it's really one of those situations where you just pick what resonates with you the most. 

First off is meditation. Meditation is magical. If you can stick with a daily meditation practice for a week or two, even just 10 minutes at a time, you will notice a DRASTIC change in your stress levels. It will also help you to not go into an anxious state when the noise around you gets too loud. There are lots of physical benefits such as helping to manage symptoms of asthma, chronic pain, IBS, high blood pressure, and many others. However the amazing benefit we want to point out here is that meditation can be a practice of shutting off the radio and truly quieting the mind. In this state, your heart, your intuition, your gut, whatever you want to call it, can start to speak and you will be prepared to hear it.

Another fantastic way to get more in tune with your heart is to do yoga. Like meditation, it has a myriad of health benefits, including being a fantastic workout. But more than that, the breath work and  focus yoga requires allows you to quiet everything else so you can be truly present with your body, and your heart. 

The last technique we wanted to touch on here is getting out into nature. Mother Earth has a fantastic energy about her. It's a cleansing, healing, quieting energy that allows your inner voices to make themselves known. Going out into nature for a walk can be a refuge like no other. If you want to take it up a notch, take your shoes off and spend some time physically connecting to the earth. This is a technique called grounding, and it is a great way to re-balance your body and mind. 

Of course, you're always welcome to combine any of the above techniques, I mean, who doesn't want to go do yoga and meditate in the woods?

Aligning Your Path with Your Heart

So once you're able to hear the message your heart is trying to tell you, and you know the path you want to take, the "easy" part is over. Now it's time to figure out how to manifest that path into your life. Honestly, this is where a lot of people get stuck. We've talked to countless people who have told us that all they really want is a quiet life with some livestock out of the city, yet they're living the normal rat-race in suburbia. 

Not only can we find our spouses not supportive, but family, friends, co-workers, and random people who you don't think should be able to even have an opinion can really be nay-sayers. We're not saying here to get divorced and leave everyone behind, though some people will benefit from that path, but it's important to find a balance that will not alienate you from your existing life, while still following your dreams.

If you continue to stay where you are, doing what you don't want to be doing, you can fight endless internal resistance which will manifest itself in horrible ways, such as in your health, your relationships, and your mental well-being. So take courage, and start taking a step forward. What's really stopping you? Only you are, so get out of your own way and get a move on!

This is exactly what Marcus found in his life as he strove towards a career that wasn't really where he wanted to be.

So in the end, we hope that you listen to where your heart really wants to be, and follow it fearlessly. If you can do that, you can find peace and happiness like you've never known before. And you will truly start to be the change you wish to see in the world. If you'd like some tools to help you connect more with your heart and your WHY, and then move forward on that information, these are some of the things we teach you in the FREE Dreamcatcher Mini-Course.

Keep Growing!

Previous Episode: Small and Slow Solution Can Change the World with Jenna Beatrice