Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Gratitude has been really helpful for me. Whenever I start to have a negative feeling or go into that kind of ruminating spiral, I just look around and go, what can I be grateful for? You know, I mean, I could be walking down the street, look at a crack on the sidewalk. I can just look at my hand and go, I got fingers that move. And what it does, it's such a great tool. It immediately stops the negative flow from happening. That spiral of rumination, at least it puts it on pause.
And then you can try to go in that positive direction. Look at the light bouncing off the leaves on that tree. Look at the way it's swaying in the wind. And then already you're on the right path. No matter where I am, I can pull out my gratitude card.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Hello, I'm Deborah Rosman and a warm welcome to our listeners.
Each month for the Ad Heart podcast, I have the privilege of interviewing individuals who are contributing to the creation of a more heart based world.
This month I'm talking with Louis Schwartzberg, incredible documentary filmmaker and visual artist who explores the connections between humans and the subtleties of nature and the environment.
He's known for his amazing time lapse photography of flowers unfolding and many beautiful documentaries, like Fantastic Fungi, which I saw in an IMAX theater and was just blown away.
And when we were arranging for this interview, our marketing director told me that the film, I may not pronounce it right, but Koyana Scotsi made such a deep impression on her, it changed her life.
Wow.
Yeah. So Louie's visited Heartmath a few years ago, and I have such fond memories of that time. And now we're back together. So welcome, Louis.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: So great to be with you, Debbie.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: You know, a few years ago, I think it was 2022, you released your film Gratitude Revealed.
And I was told it was a documentary 40 years in the making that explores how gratitude can reconnect us to ourselves, to each other, and to the planet.
And when I looked you up, it said the film's been Featured in over 200 in person events with extensive social media and curriculum downloads.
How is it that 40 years in the making, what happened this month is November Gratitude Month. So what inspired you to create it and what was your journey with it?
[00:02:40] Speaker A: That's a great question. Well, it's great to be with you.
I think that to answer that question, I have to go all the way back to the fact that growing up with my parents, who were Holocaust survivors, they were grateful for every little blessing that came their way. You know, a roof over their head.
Food on the table, a steady job, the miracle of having children.
And so that was the lens I viewed the world through.
And then when I went to ucla, I was going to be probably a poli sci history major and be a lawyer to fight for social justice, given my parents background.
But the anti war protests were happening on campus and I couldn't study the French Revolution when there was a revolution right outside my door.
And I quickly learned photography.
There were no phones back then.
And I documented the protests which I then handed into my poli sci class as a photo essay, which is a lot easier than writing a paper. So it was similar to what my parents went through in that the only way to fight back a situation like being in Auschwitz for five years is you need to survive and tell the story, to bear witness to what occurred.
And that's what I was doing, I think is bearing witness to the police brutality that was happening on campus.
And so I think I've always been inspired to tell stories where you overcome adversity but still have love and joy and hope, because that's what my mom especially. But my parents were very positive actually and had a lot of hope and love and joy.
And that's one of the benefits of gratitude, is that it builds resilience.
They've actually studied that. And there's scientific evidence that those folks who practice gratitude bounce back quicker from the bumps that we all are going to occur on our journey through life, big or small.
And so then throughout the years I would be shooting wherever I was, I'd shoot these little vignettes of remarkable but ordinary people.
You know, they could be a rug weaver, it could be a jazz musician, could be a dairy farmer. And I was always looking for that angle, like how do they overcome adversity but have the ability to be creative and express themselves and celebrate life?
And so those were always in my kind of my library. And along the way I would always kind of keep these stories intact and then after to release a fantastic fungi. We all know what happened. That was in 2020, we covered and you really couldn't go out and shoot. And I figured this would be the perfect time to do it. In addition, I did a short film with brother David, you know, from gratefulness.org and that thing went viral back in like, you know, I don't know, 2014.
So I always felt I wanted to make a longer form of that film.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: And.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: And now that I was stuck and I couldn't travel, now is the perfect time. And maybe the universe wanted me to dive into the archive and put it together. So whether it was stories of remarkable but ordinary people or little vignettes with interviews with people like Michael Beckwith, Norman Lear, Lynne Twist, Jack Kornfield, you know, I would always ask the questions about gratitude. I ask questions about what is beauty, stuff like that.
And it finally found a home. And I also intellectualized or rationalized maybe in my own head, that after doing Fantastic Fungi, if Fantastic Fungi is the aha, revelation moment of, you know, connecting with the mycelial network, connecting with divine intelligence in a sacred ceremony, then what's critical is the integration. And in a way, gratitude revealed for me represented integration.
Because in the film, I don't ever tell anybody what is gratitude? What I really do is I look at all the values that add up to gratitude. Things like forgiveness, creativity, wonder, curiosity, compassion.
Those are all elements, I think, that fit under the umbrella.
Because I didn't want to make a film that would be preachy. We actually did make a journal based on science from the Greater Good Science center at UC Berkeley that people could have a practice gratitude with scientific links to scientific articles that proved that all these values are good for you and are good for your life.
But the film itself, you just get to hang out with cool people and you get to see how they're living their life. And then it's up to you to figure out or integrate whatever you want from that experience without being told how to do it.
So I hope that wasn't too long of an answer, but that's why it was 40 years in the making and that's why it was a lifelong journey and it was a film that just needed to come out.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: Yes. Well, that's lovely. I'm so glad you shared all that.
You know, whenever any of us feel gratitude, when we teach children to say please and thank you, and when it's sincere, we all feel that immediate heart opening.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: And it's wonderful. I mean, we don't need the scientific research, but that helps lock it in. That is good for you. Not only your heart, health and your well being, your longevity, but your spirit. It lifts your vibration.
What surprised you most in researching the science of gratitude or interviewing the people?
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Well, as I mentioned earlier, I fact that there was, you know, evidence to prove that you were more resilient.
I thought that was really great because, you know, you little bumps happen, like somebody scratched your car, you know, and for some people that could be a. A bummer. That might last a couple of days, you know, or you just shrug it off and you go, it's no big deal. You know, so it's how you integrate gratitude into your practice that is your life, is what I'm saying. Really.
And so that was, I think, a really big discovery. The other thing that I learned for my own benefit, again, you know, sharing the fact that with my parents being Holocaust survivors, it's easy for me to feel victimized.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: It really.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: My sister who passed, she absorbed that victim state of mind from my folks. She identified with them. And we all know that no matter what the situation, feeling like a victim is never good for you, regardless of the circumstances.
So what gratitude has been really helpful for me is whenever I start to have a negative feeling or go into that kind of ruminating spiral, I just look around and go, what can I be grateful for? You know, I mean, I could be walking down the street, look at a crack in the sidewalk. I could be in an alley, look at graffiti. I could look at, you know, anything.
I can just look at my hand and go. I got fingers that move.
You know, I'm breathing.
And what it does, it's such a great tool. It isn't like you have to learn how to, you know, meditate or whatever. It's like it immediately stops the negative flow from happening. That spiral of rumination.
At least it puts it on pause.
And then you can try to go in that positive direction. Look at the light bouncing off the leaves on that tree. You know, look at the way it's swaying in the wind.
And then already you're on the right path, you know, so it's a beautiful, kind of like, ace in the hole, something I keep in my back pocket.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: No matter where I am, I can pull out my gratitude card.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: You know?
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Yeah. That is so simple and profound. And I'm hoping people listen to this, take it to heart, and just practice that more and more, because it lifts your spirit, it lifts your vibration.
And, of course, you know, this, our research here at HeartMath Institute about heart rhythm, coherence, all those values of the heart you talked about, forgiveness, compassion, all aspects of gratitude that open the heart. They are what synchronize our heart and brain so we can see from a different perception. I like to say it's all love, and it's lifting our perception to a bigger picture. Just like you're saying you can appreciate your fingers and your hands and that it's amazing what we've got if we pause and ponder it.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I love that. And I'm just hoping that people try what you're talking about more and More, because this. What's going on in the world these days, it's so easy to get on a downward spiral of projection and fear and anxiety and what you're describing.
And that's a perception. That's a perception, projection. What you're describing is an antidote because it not only makes you feel better, you actually see more potentials, more positive possibilities. You and I were talking about that before, about a lot of people are experiencing a heart awakening, happening because they look at the world and they go, there's gotta be something else.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and that's why when you mentioned the antidote. And we'll be briefly talked on before the Call is the. Well, the film that I'm inspired to be working on. Currently, I'm about halfway there in terms of raising funds and working on it, but I'm doing a deep dive into what is beauty.
And I feel that, you know, right now the fear button is being played, as we know, pretty actively in politics, news, even in entertainment. I've had so many people in Hollywood always tell me that you can't tell a story without conflict. And in my brain I always go, bullshit. Because there are lots of stories that are based on conflict, but there are a lot of stories, especially the feminine side, that it's based on cooperation, on symbiotic relationships, on nurturing, regeneration, rebirth. These are stories that I've witnessed and filmed in nature. So I know it's all around us. As a matter of fact, the natural history stories, they keep on showing on in BBC. Nat Geo was always like predator versus prey.
When the giant story, which is happening billions of times every second, is what's going on in the microscopic world with fungi, with the pollinators, with flowers and bees and butterflies and hummingbirds. That is happening.
That's the foundation of life, you know? And so the. The dive I'm doing now is I really want the heart to feel beauty.
And instead of fear triggering, you know, adrenaline, which turns into cortisol and inflammation, we can fight that emotion with an emotion because logic doesn't work, obviously. You can say that our president is a felon or whatever. It doesn't matter at all.
Because we're in this world now of fake news, etcetera, where we don't have any sense of political reality.
So we have to have an emotion that can grab your attention. Because here's the thing, Debbie, we are living not only in. They call it an attention economy. It's more than that. It's a battleground for our consciousness.
That's what's happening right now. So fear will always grab your attention because you know, that's primal. But the only way to fight that, I believe an emotion that's equal or even more powerful, which I think is beauty, to be able to shift your consciousness over here because number one, it feels better.
Not because it's the right thing to do, it's going to grab you, you know, because we're hardwired to follow that code. You know, we're hardwired to walk in the path of beauty because beauty is always going to generate behavior to make life flourish.
I can't think of an act that beauty inspires that turns out to be negative. Except of how human beings have co opted it certainly to sell product and to create, you know, self esteem issues, especially with young women. But that's not what beauty is. That's just a manipulation of that energy to get your attention to say, look at me, look at this product. You know, be like, look like a model, whatever it is that presses your button, you know, and it's very effective. It's super effective as a matter of fact.
And it makes a lot of money in that world of creating product. But that's not what true beauty is. True beauty is what we're hardwired to respond to.
It's the energy which you guys have explored with coherence. It's the energy between you and somebody else, between you and something else, between planets, between molecules and it's the law of attraction.
And what is that energy?
I want to explore that.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: That's beautiful. And I know when I feel that sense of beauty it opens up a lot of other feelings. Like gratitude for feeling it. Yes, wonder.
Like you say the motions are all connected and it's be wonderful.
As you were talking, reminded me of a film I once saw of all these faces.
And they weren't necessarily attractive in the regular world, but their eyes shone with light and love and they were beautiful. The inner beauty just came through whatever the outer form.
And I imagine you're capturing that too.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Well because beauty is not decoration. In every continent there is different fashion, art, food and it's reflection of the nature or the environment that surrounds it. So what I really love is that beauty encourages diversity. And I think academia is very rigid about trying to define that. It's some kind of thing, I mean like symmetry or the golden ratio.
That's all true, but it's not the entire story, you know that. Yeah, of course symmetry is important because it's like duh, biomimicry. I mean I can't think of an animal on the planet that has a single eye or one arm that's 10 times longer than the other. Everything has balance, everything is symmetry. Because you know what, that's efficiency.
And I think when you look at, you know, biomimicry and you look at nature and you feel that connection, it's because it's a reflection of who you are. We are n.
And so those patterns and shapes and designs obviously make you feel good because you're remembering a reconnection to who, not only to who you are, but maybe where you came from. And so all of that is inside of us. And I feel like we just need to, I think, reconnect with it and to remember it and to reflect it.
And it's so important. And again, it's something that's easy to do, which is what I love. I mean, again, it gets complicated for some people to go, well, I have to meditate or I'm going to have to like, you know, become a Zen master to do whatever you can just open your eyes and have a practice of looking at the life through the lens of beauty.
That is what you said earlier, it changes your worldview, it changes your perspective. I mean, I can be anywhere and I can see beauty or I can be anywhere and not see it based on my point of view.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: That's wonderful advice to give people who are struggling to find things to be grateful for because they're in that vibration of fear or depression or what so many people are experiencing, the anxiety, they're stuck in that.
But what I hear you saying, and I know what you're going to want to capture in the film on beauty, is how that can help you be grateful.
Again, we're talking about lifting the vibration, lifting the spirit. And people need help, they need beauty. They go for entertainment to escape, but then they go right back to their lives.
How do you see your films or the handbook like you have in gratitude helping to actually make it a way of life, Help people find gratitude and beauty as a way of life?
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think once you get turned on, it's hard to turn off.
You know, once you can, you know, you can see life through the lens of beauty, I think it's hard to go back.
And so with my films, I try to broaden your worldview by doing things like shooting in time lapse and slow motion, by giving you a point of view of a hummingbird or a flower.
Because instead of just talking about that there's all kinds of different dimensions or points of view. I show you what they are, and then that creates. I think it opens your heart to be more compassionate. Like, you don't have to think about. I really want to, like, you know, save the forest. If I have a bunch of paper, I don't want to throw it out because I love the forest. I've seen how they grow. I've seen it from their point of view.
So I am now going to be someone that protects what I fall in love with. And that means I'm not going to step on ants, I'm not going to step on a bug, because I understand its point of view.
And that's true, I think, in life, even with people, you know, once you can look at someone else's, what is it like, be in their shoes, Whether they're more conservative than you or different than you, culturally different than you, whatever it might be, it opens your heart.
It opens your heart. And I want to open everyone's heart to the fact that everything on this planet is alive and has a right to live, has a right to flourish, has a valid point of view that's equal to ours.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: That's beautifully said. What a wonderful mission. And I love the fact that you can help people experience otherness from their point of view, whether it's in nature or another human being. It's so essential because a lot of people are cut off, shut off, because of hurt or trauma or whatever, or because no one has shown them how. I mean, again, with HeartMath, we have tools and techniques to try to help with that. And you're doing experiential immersion to help people feel something different and see possibilities.
And I'm really grateful for all you're doing there with all your experience doing all this.
What are you personally most grateful for today?
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Well, I think I'm most grateful that I'm alive in that I have the opportunity and the gift of being able to share these magic moments with people. The thing that gets me most excited is sharing it. I mean, people come up to me a lot and go, oh, Louie, you know, you get to go to all these really great places and share, shoot beautiful landscapes, whatever.
And that's all work, to be honest, because it's, you know, I'm always trying to get the ultimate shot, and it's always difficult to be in, you know, locations where there aren't bathrooms or food necessarily. And then I got people with me sometimes that are complaining about not complaining. They're wondering, like, when, When's the day going to be over? Because Louie's going to keep going forever, you Know, and. And so you're managing resources, you're managing time, because you want to get the ultimate shot. But when I'm finally in the cutting room and in the screening room with an audience, it's really great to see how everybody gets high and gets. If I could turn a theater into a congregation of shared energy and which you are really aware of in terms of, you know, heart coherence and vibration. If everyone is like grooving on the same thing, which you can do in the theater because everyone's attention, their consciousness is looking, let's say, toward a screen in the movie theater. Wow.
We're on a spaceship together. That's so cool.
Yeah.
That's my happy place.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that.
So I heard you're going to Antarctica. What are you filming there?
[00:25:17] Speaker A: What do you think?
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Beauty of the ice and the ice.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Beauty of the land. Yeah. The icebergs and the colors and the fact that the light is at a low angle and probably the sun won't even set, which is great.
Water in all of its manifestations.
I've shot shit, man. I've shot, you know, liquid, I've shot macro water drops in slow motion. I've shot ice, icicles and time lapse fog, steam clouds.
Think about what I just described.
They're all water, they're all different, and they're all beautiful.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Yeah. It's going to be awesome. I mean, you see all these pictures of Antarctica and penguins on tv, but looking through your eyes at those what you just described, I can imagine it's going to really bring it all to life another way.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah.
I think the through, I just try to capture imagery that reflects universal rhythms and patterns that touch the deepest part of my soul. And what's great, it's not just my soul.
I think it's everybody's soul because of the fact that those rhythms and patterns in nature are universal.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Right, Right. The heart rhythm is in nature. It's the center of the earth.
The research shows that we synchronize and resonate with that. And your wonderful work helps us do that.
And I just so appreciative of what you do.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Well, let's all do a heart focus meditation together.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: Gratitude.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Okay. Let's focus our attention in the area of the heart and just imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart or chest area. Breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.
Find an easy rhythm that's comfortable.
As you continue heart focus, breathing.
Activate a genuine feeling of gratitude or appreciation for something or someone. In your life or recall a genuine feeling of appreciation that you've had.
See if you can re experience that feeling.
This activates heart rhythm, coherence and lines your heart, brain and body. But it also lifts your spirit and vibration.
And you can simply breathe gratitude, breathe appreciation and feel it.
You can't feel the feeling, just the attitude of appreciation or attitude of gratitude works too.
Now let's radiate that appreciation to help anchor it into our cells and nervous system.
This radiate it out into the planet to each other who are listening to this together and to nature and to all of and let's close by radiating our compassion to all people and nations suffering from the polarization and separation and wars and trauma that are going on these days.
Know that our radiation of compassion is a practice of gratitude for ourselves and what we have and can really help lift the hearts of others.
Since gratitude is an energy, is a vibration, we can co create a reservoir of gratitude, appreciative and compassionate heart energy that each of us can tap into over the next month whenever we need a lift in spirit or support in connecting with our heart.
So let's do that for a moment or two. Let's create that reservoir together and we can all tap into when we need it.
Hey, thank you so much for sharing that heart meditation with me, Louis. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Well, I want to thank you and Heart Math for all the great work you guys do. I also want to want to mention that if folks want to see my work, we've made it now available on movingart.com not only my work, but other conscious creators. So that's available on every digital device like The Roku Apple TV, smart TVs and your phone. But you can watch it on big TV in 4K, which is pretty cool because as I said earlier, I think the rhythms and patterns and the beauty of nature are certainly in the detail.
And to be able to see it in a high quality presentation is what I want people to be able to look at and realize that it's a healing modality, that it's medicine. We actually have some clinical trials we've done that proves that it is a healing modality.
So yeah, movingart.com, you can access it and it's got other beautiful imagery and films from other filmmakers. And that way whenever you need a little burst of beauty, it'll be there.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: That's wonderful. Thank you for that. I'm going to go look at that. That's wonderful resource and also for our listeners. If you want a free experience from HeartMath, you can watch an online video course of the HeartMath experience available on the HeartMath websites or go to the new HeartMath app at the Google Play Store or the App Store and you can actually measure your heart coherence there and you can actually use techniques that help you shift emotion like in the moment and shift into a more coherent higher vibration.
So remind you that the third Tuesday of every month we publish a new episode so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss our next guest and topic.
Thank you again Louie. Thank you everyone and take care.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:33:29] Speaker C: Thank you for listening to the Add Heart 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 HeartMath and also the HeartMath Institute. Both organizations are committed to helping activate the heart of humanity.
