For humans to learn how to behave sustainably, they must learn the natural laws of behavior, and use them to behave in a way that expands and improves life—their own, and all of life.

In previous episodes, I presented how the current vocabulary we use to speak about sustainability is full of ungrounded abstractions. I said our senses and feelings were essential guiding systems that we needed to use, and learn how to use appropriately, for better decision-making and action. Here I present, in voluntarily simplistic terms, how the brain of sustainability leaders must function if we want to stop floating in the higher spheres of empty words and land on earth, where sustainable development endeavors can succeed.

In short, over-simplified terms, we need to reconnect our left and right brain hemispheres.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert in neuroscience (or in climate science) and this is not a scientific article. I am aware that there is a controversy in neuroscience over whether the right and the left brain hemispheres have or not different unique traits or functions. I know however that each and all entities in nature are unique. Nature does not have any entity that would not have unique characteristics. The left/right model works to help leaders make better decisions, even though, indeed, “things are more complex than they appear.” I am a sustainable development pioneer and expert, and a leadership coach. Over my career, I designed and led several (sustainable development) programs that measurably changed human practices worldwide for the better in key industries, such as food and agriculture, or finance. Now, I help other leaders succeed.

Designing successful sustainable development projects requires, among others, to think in systems, and see the interdependence between variables, parts, and entire systems at all scales. It also requires tapping into multiple scientific disciplines, thus working with diverse specialists and teams. In over 40 years of experience, I was able to connect many dots between situations experienced by other leaders and myself on the one hand, and neuroscience information, gleaned in several books written by experts (some of which are listed below), on the other hand. Nevertheless, I invite you, my reader, to also get properly informed, and verify if what I present here matches with your own experience.

Essentially, in order to be consistently successful, a sustainability leader must be aware of their inner nature, and have a well integrated brain, allowing for a smooth information flow between their inner and outer nature. A good brain integration always implies a good brain-body integration. Here, I will focus on the brain.

1.We must become conscious that we possess different, “geographically” separate parts in our brain, containing different pieces and sorts of information, all playing different roles, yet interacting. Consider this list of diverse items (again, voluntarily oversimplifying to highlight just one main point, the need for connection):

• • Words and numbers, and combinations of such
  • Logical reasoning
  • Memories (including traumatic)
  • Images, sounds, touch, taste and smell –-our senses! Each sensing experience has its own piece of brain real estate too.
  • The sensation of pain
  • Judgment of good and bad
  • Will
  • Emotional feelings–-what we call anger, guilt, disgust, etc.
  • The experience of “the whole”, in which we feel like one eternal and infinite being seamlessly connected to all there is.
  • Not exactly a “part” but a physical energy component of the mind system (which includes the brain): the electromagnetic fields and signals that circulate in the brain and throughout the body and can emit out of its material boundaries, carrying precious information (such as emotional energy).

2.We must become conscious enough of how these parts and processes connect and work togetherharmoniously or not. For instance, a word, in one region of the brain, connects with a sensed experience, in another brain region, and that connects with a good or a bad feeling in the body. When I say, “red rose”, what forms in your mind? An image? A scent? If you can see a red rose in your mind, we know that you have connected the brain part containing the word “rose” with the memory and the sight parts. Now, what if I say “justice”? Can you clearly see a precise picture or scene in your mind that could be labeled with this word? Maybe not. What about “sustainability”? A word stays abstract for us when we cannot consciously see, hear or feel any lived experience it may be connected with. This connection happens in the brain (and the body). We must be able to paint with sufficient clarity, in our “mind’s eye”, the reality that we want, in order for it to have any chance of occurring.

3. Past trauma is associated with certain words, so, we need to resolve our traumas. Philosopher Ken Wilber speaks of “cleaning up”, as one of four essential human development components to reach better integration (the other three he recommends are “growing up”, “waking up”, and “showing up”). We may need professional help with this–and I highly recommend it — but if we don’t “clean up,” we will keep connecting the traumatic experience as the default reality for a given word or string of words. It works like a program. We will repeat the same (bad) experience in different circumstances until we consciously reprogram our mind. And God, do we all have a lot to clean up!

4. Beliefs work the same way: they are associated with our values and dictate how we think and behave. So, wrong belief dictates wrong behavior, that is, inappropriate to a given set of circumstances. A widespread wrong belief is that other people are responsible for our own behavior. For example, that how a woman is dressed makes a man assault her. Wrong: the man is 100% responsible for assaulting her (and the woman is 100% responsible for how she dresses). Other widespread wrong beliefs include “I do not have trauma”, and “I could never do that”. I hate to break it to you: we all have trauma and we can all behave like monsters. But with a sufficiently (consciously) integrated brain we can minimize the monster’s deeds.

The problem: In our decision-making, we (in particular, current leaders in the allegedly “developed” world) have been mostly missing the “data” (signals) coming from our natural, physical sensing abilities. Majorly important connections between parts of our brains, and thus also between our brains and the rest of our bodies, have been taken for granted, and are having us mostly fed with the wrong information for a given task at hand. In other words, we tend to confuse our interpretations of the world with the real world. And our disconnect goes unnoticed, especially within an entire group of people having the same disconnect. We use other words to define a given word, instead of experiencing the reality that this word represents, even only in our imagination. Not a bad thing… unless that’s all we do all the time. We should use explaining sparingly, to enhance life, not to replace it.

If we want to change the world for the better, and be able to verify that it is indeed the case, we must literally come back to our senses. Our behavior always has ripple effects. But which effects do we want to have? Without sufficient awareness of, and mastery over, our own brain and body abilities, it is impossible to change human behavior to a desired one. Call it “sustainable behavior” if you want, it just won’t be so until it can be sensed and described as a tangible experience.

We must therefore all invest massively and continuously in our own personal and collective human recovery — one that reclaims, regenerates, and reintegrates all of our lost natural abilities. That includes learning enough neuroscience, along with climate, life and other sciences, and, most importantly, practice, practice, practice.

Good news: it is not that hard to recover the fullness of our human nature. All it takes is to get started and take one step at a time. Recovery is in fact much faster than we may … ahem … think!

Wait… Did I mention practice?

Pretty good books on this topic:

Think, Learn, Succeed: Understanding and Using Your Mind to Thrive at School, the Workplace, and Life – Dr. Caroline Leaf, 2018.

Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life -Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D., 2022.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma – Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., 2015.

Your Body is Your Brain: Leverage Your Somatic Intelligence to Find Purpose, Build Resilience, Deepen Relationships and Lead More Powerfully – Amanda Blake, 2019.

How have your neuroscience practices impacted your life as a sustainability leader? Tell us in the comments! It helps everyone!

Have a question that you prefer not asking in the comments? Please reach out to me here!