Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Our hearts are very powerful. And as you had mentioned, you know, when we hear about a new technology being released, it's often about, you know, we hear the power of technology or the power of science, when in fact, we don't really hear much about the power of our hearts. And so I think for me, this realization came when I sort of discovered and sat down and thought about why there is such a disconnect between humanity and nature.
And one of the things that I sort of realized was that the cause of the climate crisis is because of this lack of connection, but not only because of the lack of connection we have with nature, but also the lack of connection we have to each other and community.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Deborah Rosman and a warm welcome to our listeners each month for the At Heart podcast. I have the privilege of interviewing individuals who are contributing to the creation of a more heart based world.
And I'm excited to be interviewing a young person because that is what the future holds for all of us on our planet. And Sarah Syed is one of those people. I'm really excited to have you hear what this 18 year old innovator has to say. And we're going to be talking about adding heart to changing the world and how to turn your passion into mission and action.
Sarah's been named a top 25 underage 25 Environmentalist in Canada and is the founder of You Are the Change, a youthled organization dedicated to helping youth become change makers in their community and with the importance of adding heart.
She's spoken at many conferences, including United Nations Science, Technology and Innovation Forum. And I watched a video where she led delegates at the United Nations in heart mass heart coherence technique together. So welcome, Sarah. So glad you're with us.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me, Deborah. It's an honor to be here today.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Sarah, you have been leveraging your passion for technology, researching and designing climate tech solutions like bioplastics made from food scraps to a biodegradable sorbent made from polymers, biomass, polysaccharide, aerogels that have the efficiency of removing 98% of oils and organic compounds and heavy metal compounds. I mean, that's pretty heavy stuff. And I know you have a passion for technology, but most people in that field who have that interest put the mind first. And you talk about the heart, how to let the heart be the captain of the ship as you turn your passion into action or turn your ideas into action. Tell us how you discovered the importance of the heart for yourself in this.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Well, I completely agree. Our hearts are very powerful. And as you had mentioned, we hear about a new technology being released. It's often about we hear the power of technology or the power of science, when in fact, we don't really hear much about the power of our hearts. And so I think for me. This realization came when I sort of discovered and sat down and thought about why there is such a disconnect between humanity and nature.
And one of the things that I sort of realized was that the cause of the climate crisis is because of this lack of connection, but not only because of the lack of connection we have with nature, but also the lack of connection we have to each other and community. Which is why sometimes there's the exploitation of natural resources without the regard of the loss of biodiversity or communities or people in the process. And I think we are at a time right now where our hearts need to redirect us. We've tried to use technology, we've tried to use science. And although those are stepping stones, we need to lead with our hearts. Additionally, there's a saying by Albert Einstein it's that we're not going to solve a problem with the same thinking we used to create it. And so right now we need to take a different approach. And the way to do that is with our hearts and putting that at the center of all the work that we do.
And the best way that we need to do that is by turning empathy into action. And as you had mentioned, for me, one key part of my advocacy is to help other youth accomplish and channel their passion as a medium for advocacy through innovation, whether that be artistically, scientifically, like my research in high school, or through literacy, like poetry and creative writing.
I think a key point is that in order to be thought leaders, we need to focus beyond token actions and work collaboratively. And that starts by understanding the problem that you want to do research on.
And I think a very important note here that I always reemphasize during presentations and that has helped me as a young person as well, is that I think sometimes we think that we need to wait until we're in university or we have a PhD to actually leverage innovation or to be part of the solution.
But the key thing is that we don't need to be climate experts. We need to be ourselves and let our heart be the captain of the ship, as you say. And so honing a focus on a problem that resonates with yourself and you feel deeply connected with is the way to begin a journey into climate action. And these sort of small steps may seem very small, but they're very incremental to progressing our rate of change from linear to exponential and really letting our hearts guide us into working on something that we feel connected to working on, which will also allow us to in the long term, continue building that project.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: That's amazing wisdom. I really honor you for that discovery and implementing that because of course, that's what HeartMath is all about, is helping people awaken and activate their heart to be leading them in their choices and decisions.
So do you find young people that you speak to are receptive to this idea of listening to their hearts or following their hearts? Or do they tend to get stuck more in the mind and think of the heart as something soft and unreliable, which is what we found in our early years of teaching heart math. How do you find the receptivity to this now?
[00:07:12] Speaker A: I think right now, especially when I talk to young people, there's a lot of sense of eco anxiety, which I think doesn't really act as a block to the heart, but rather is acting as sort of as a stereotypical barrier. One of the things that I often get when speaking to young people is that they feel like their action is not enough or that they're just one person and it isn't going to make a difference. But something I often say is reverse that sentence. Imagine you saying that I am one person and my action makes a difference and then multiply that sentence by the 8 billion people on this planet. We will be looking at a whole new world filled with connectivity and sustainability across the different United Nations SDGs. And so what we need to realize and when I speak to young people, I emphasize that actions matter because change starts with you. It starts by educating yourself, whether that be staying up to date on the latest news, reading, know the IPCC reports, and then taking that knowledge that you gain and follow your curiosity and then channeling that into your passion as a voice of change.
Thing is that change ends when we decide to do nothing different and keep doing everything the same. And so change happens when we realize that the tools we have at our disposable are there and we can design feasible, implementable change when we work together and use the power of our hearts in that connection process.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: That's beautifully said. I love your term curiosity because when you put your heart into what your mind is interested in or what you're curious about, open hearted about, it really is that other aspect of ourselves that's open and that's curious to wonder, to discovery. And that is so missing in so many people that are so cynical and feel like you said, how can one person make a difference? And therefore they go into a hopelessness instead of reversing that, as you beautifully suggested, and say let's reverse it, I am making a difference, so what am I going to do? I love that. To me, that is a good answer to how do you let the heart be the captain of your ship in activism of any type. So let me ask you, how did this discovery in yourself in terms of realizing that nature, people being separate from nature and the heart's role so important? How did you let the heart be the captain of your ship? What changed for you?
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Personally, I think from a young age, I was always connected with nature.
And while others have a very unique story of how they fell in love with nature, mine is a bit more cliche, as my family is a very outdoorsy, and so whether it be participating in winter sports or recreational activities like hiking or biking, I really found myself really enthralled by how beautiful nature is.
And from a young age as well, I was a very curious person, had a lot of questions to ask, and I think that really translates to my love of science, because I was always interested in understanding how photosynthesis works, how do trees grow when I was very young? How does rain happen? And so I think all of this really just created this foundation and base of why I love nature and protecting it. But it wasn't until I was in, I think, my second last year of elementary school when I had learned about climate change in a textbook context.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: And.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Then I had to go and do some more research for an assignment. But something that I realized was that everyone was sharing statistics. When you Google about climate change, you get all these climate tipping points that can create a sense of worry and fear. And that, as I mentioned before, can overshadow determination and strength and hope. And so I think for myself, I realized that fear sometimes can be a motivator. And that's how I first began my journey. But as I grew older, I realized that when we work together, whether that be through a school bake sale or different class activities, we accomplish a task better and stronger. I think that's when I realized that our hearts truly are so powerful, and that sort of concept needs to be added to climate action. We need to use our hearts instead of letting fear motivate us. And so while learning about climate statistics is very important to understand where we are on the tipping scale and the trajectory of where we are going, it's also important to share with people that it's not only about climate statistics, it's about climate action through our hearts, how we need to switch the narrative. And look at those, as you mentioned, renewing emotions. Gratitude for what I can do today, gratitude for the people that I can collaborate with to create better, let's say, policies, better structures, better organizations. And I think that for me, was such an awakening moment. And from then on, I decided that as much as I will read climate statistics to stay up to date on the latest news, it's important that I do not let that overshadow the work that I'm doing and instead also focus on climate hope. And that climate hope comes from my action. I cannot just have hope. I need to add action to it. And so I think it goes hand in hand to let the heart be at the center, but of course, to also take action daily to help protect the planet and reach the SDGs.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Well, it sounds, from what I'm hearing, that your passion is listening to your heart to how you can every day take more action or effective action. And what do you experience? Do you feel effective in what you're doing? I mean, you read the news and there's both the optimistic news of all the wonderful things that are being discovered and implemented for helping the planet. And then you read the other news of where there's the people not caring and not wanting to give up their conveniences and the fear. So what's the climate of the climate change? What do you see as happening?
[00:14:11] Speaker A: I see a mix of both. I see some people are still in denial and I think that's because of the enormity of the climate crisis. But at the same time, I see people who are stepping out of that bubble and realizing that the climate crisis is happening, it's not coming, it's already there and that we need to work together.
The climate change was not caused by one singular person. It was caused by multiple people together. And so in order to find a solution, we also need to work collectively together.
I think when it comes to the climate crisis, it serves us with an opportunity which keeps me sometimes a little bit hopeful when things get very negative. And that opportunity is that we get to change the way that we respond to crisis. For example, instead of only, let's say, using technology to solve the climate crisis, now we're going to be using different methods and we're going to create an intergenerational blueprint together.
We're going to include more stakeholders that are meaningful, like indigenous communities, women, and it's going to change the system. And so the climate crisis serves us with this opportunity to change the way that we respond to these crisis.
Not to say that this is the only hopeful thing, but it definitely is a piece of why we should work towards climate action every single day.
I think for me, something also that really helps me in my climate action and turning my passion into action is that realizing that every climate job, sorry, every job is a climate job.
So whether you're a student, whether you're a teacher, whether you're a CEO of a company, or whether you're a politician, every job is a climate job.
And I think I realized this during my I think, first science project in grade six, when I realized that looking back on these experiences throughout my roles as a student or as a volunteer, as a part of different school committees when I was younger, I made sure to include a sense of environmental action or environmental awareness in different programs. And this goes back to what I was saying previously, that we don't need to be climate experts because expertise is not really an attribute of climate advocacy, but really what makes a climate activist or climate advocate is the willingness to learn, improve and most importantly, collaborate on protecting our one and only planet.
And I think a very key point that I want to mention that I've come to realize over the years is that there is a sort of a stereotype of perfectionism in the climate space.
And I think that we need to remove this stigma.
We need to normalize sometimes, let's say having to buy a plastic water bottle whereas you might have forgotten your reusable water bottle. But trying to make an effort to take it with you always is a key step. Also, for example, plastic straws, as much as they are not good for the environment, communities with disabilities need plastic straws in order to help them, let's say, drink hot liquids. And so I think we need to create this sort of awareness around these things and that's something that continues to fuel my motivation for climate action. But also is one of the steps in turning my passion into action of how we can become cautious consumers in our personal and professional life which actively creates this ripple effect of inspiration to your family, to your friends, to your colleagues at Know.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: I love what you're saying when you're talking about something that we talk a lot about. At HeartMath, it's about understanding and having compassionate latitude for people who you don't have to be perfect at any of these endeavors. It's just awareness and making the effort because people's inner climate let's talk about that for a moment is so important. Otherwise we can get into self righteous judgment which I believe is more detrimental energetically than if someone is using a plastic straw.
And I know that from my years ago as a baby boomer when I first became a vegetarian, how much I judged people who weren't. And I woke up to the fact that that is actually more damaging to me and to others, rather than understanding that everybody has their own awareness. And you're trying to educate people in what you believe. But your inner climate of how much compassionate care, kindness, heart actually inspires your intuition and your higher Mind how to best make changes.
So what do you see in terms of the inner climate? Because there's so much frustration and anger from young people that those in power or their friends or their family won't act on climate change issues.
But the inner climate and our attitudes towards it are so important.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Yes, I completely agree. I think when it comes to friends and family, I think the key thing is you need to explain climate change in a way that resonates with someone. And I think that's why the word resonance is so important because what resonates for me may not resonate for you. And that's why we have this different collective groups of young people who are working on different things. For me, my main focus is ocean pollution and atmospheric pollution, climate change, whereas other young people want to focus on the intersection of education and climate change or maybe gender inequality and climate change. So I think when it comes to friends and family, I think the key thing, and most important thing is just sharing from your own heart why does this matter to you and why it should matter to them. I think if you just share statistics to someone, it's not going to be very compelling unless they're very statistic driven. But I think when we sit down as a person, not as a climate activist, but as a person who really cares about the planet and as an individual, we really can get a message across in a more compassionate way, in a more caring way that encourages people to see it from our perspective, but then also to reflect on it and see it from their perspective. Why this could also matter to them.
I think when it comes to the youth movement and sort of those people in power, I think one of the key things in our advocacy, especially as a young person and for myself, is that we need to urge those in the seats of power to make better climate decisions. And that can be done through different ways. Whether that be, as I mentioned before, by channeling in our passions. And we see that with so many young people today, whether that be through community organization or like myself, through scientific research, I think at the moment there's like a mix of both. So I see young people sharing all the hopeful things that are happening. For example, the Youth Climate Justice Fund was recently released and I think youth have until September to apply for grants and funding to fund their own projects, which is a huge win. But at the same time, this is a step forward. But we still need more steps to reach the ultimate goal. And so I think that's where the youth come in and advocacy groups come in and everyone collectively comes together to create this louder voice that encourages and pressures those in the seats of power to make decisions that ultimately we will rely on for the future of our planet and the existence of the different countries and the existence of, let's say, having clean running water in least developed countries. And so I think it's like a mix of both emotions of gratitude but also emotions of determination to continue the work that we all do.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: I love that determination.
Commitment very different than anger. Frustration, which creates separation. You talk a lot about people working together and getting along with each other is something that this planet needs tremendously. And yet as soon as someone has a mind stance, I'm right, you're wrong. And the frustration and anger that can result, it keeps everybody separate. So whether it's climate action or psychological issues like the depression and loneliness epidemic that's going on among people and there's so many issues that need care that need help homelessness and I know you tell people find what resonates with you. Each person has something their heart is stirred about, that they care about and how important it is to take a step towards that so that you are acting on knowing that you can be contributing to that change. And a lot of people that I have as guests on this podcast see that there is a movement of heart based cooperation happening in these different areas that can provide new hope and solutions because really everything else has been tried. But that if you look around society, and certainly in climate change, Mother Nature has a way of reminding us almost every other day of some catastrophic climate situation that is motivating people to wake up, realizing we're all in this together and take care of each other more.
How do you see a movement of heart based cooperation happening not just in climate change but in all these areas of need on the planet?
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Well, I think it starts with collaboration and meaningful collaboration.
Personally, this has been a very impactful key that I have continued throughout my advocacy, for example, when doing research, reaching out and networking with professionals in their field to get advice from them or collaborating with other youth who have done research in a similar area and setting up just a meeting with them. And not only does this help me, but it also creates this sense of connection and intergenerational collaboration because I think that's something so key we need everybody together.
Young people have the creativity, the drive and the ideas whereas professionals and in their industry have the expertise. And I think when we combine these two together we can really create some wonderful opportunities, some wonderful sort of solutions that can be focused on the power of collaboration when we work together.
And so I think for me that's a very key point and I hope to see one day and as I continue my work, that we see a world where collaboration is key, not really about, let's say, hierarchy, where there's like the leadership and then there's the following teams. Of course that is important, but at the same time to have everyone listen to each other because there's one quote it's that the best advocacy is when we listen and then we respond. We don't just respond straight away, we first listen to our surroundings and then we take the time to analyze and then respond because that is the only way we will be able to move forward if we take every idea and sort of every consideration into reference and then as well put that together to create a solution. Because as we see right now we have solutions but some of those solutions actually harm others and that's what happens when we don't listen to other stakeholders, when we do not prioritize the connection and human collaboration. And so moving forward, we really need to have different groups marginalized communities, especially since they are the most affected, come in, work together to design solutions that help every single person on the planet.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Very well said. Well, Sarah, you are an inspiration. And we're going to now do a heart meditation so everybody can ponder what you said, go to their heart and how to let their heart be the captain of their ship to discover what resonates with you, to turn passion and ideas into action. Or if you're already doing that, what's your next step in letting your heart be your guide towards collaboration, co, creation, cooperation? Because that, I do agree, is the key to solutions. So let's shift our attention to the heart.
Just center in the heart, pretend your breath is flowing in and out of the heart area and let's just breathe. Gratitude and appreciation for a few minutes to increase our heart coherence.
Find something you appreciate, are grateful for.
Just allow that feeling to increase as you breathe through the heart area.
Now, as you continue this heart focus breathing, ask your heart what resonates with you. What do you care about that you want to put more heart care into action or more passion into action and listen to your heart taking that pause to ask your heart's intuitive guidance for clarity or inspiration on just your next steps.
And listen.
What areas can you let your heart be the guide and the captain of your ship as you move forward in life?
Now, let's close this heart meditation by cocreating a reservoir of collective heart energy that each of us can tap into as needed. Over the next month, when we need little extra support to listen to and follow through on our heart's guide, we collaborate. Now, by co creating this reservoir heart energy, we can all access and let's radiate some of this collective heart energy to the planet, to people suffering, the planetary climate changes, going on, extinction of animals, all of nature. Let's just radiate some of our collective heart energy to the planet.
Thank you so much for joining with me in that heart meditation, Sarah. This has been so inspiring. You are such a wonderful young woman. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Thank you so much.
I think one last sort of, I guess, word of wisdom, I would say is regardless of your age, when you're watching this, especially for young people, your age is not a limitation. It is in fact, your superpower. This is something I often say when speaking to young people through education, climate education, facilitations or my own presentations. And I think it's something so key because we're never too young or too old to actually make a difference.
Because just like you said, we need to look into our hearts and find what resonates with us and sort of let that be the guide to what we want to leave as a legacy or what we want our story to be when we look back in helping protect this planet.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: Beautiful. Thank you.
So, as a gift to our listeners, I want to remind you that you can get free access to the HeartMath Experience, an amazing online video course that helps you learn to discern what your heart is saying versus just your mind or head and get them working together. There's several helpful techniques and connecting with your deeper hearts, intuitive guidance and next steps.
And I also want to remind you that the third Tuesday of every month we publish a new episode. So be sure you subscribe so you don't miss our next guest and topic. So thank you so much. Thank you Sarah, and have a wonderful, wonderful next year as you embark on university and everyone much love and care.
[00:34:40] Speaker C: Thank you for listening to the adheart podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you can catch the latest episodes. If you're wanting even more Heart inspired content, find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. Look for Heart Math and also the HeartMath Institute. Both organizations are committed to helping activate the heart of humanity.
