Day 232: Marilyn Levin
“… making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. … I like being in communities that support inspiration. The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Marilyn, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Marilyn Levin: My name is Marilyn Levin, and it’s an honor to be part of this amazing Project. I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Global Sufficiency Network, which is an organization that is trying to cause a paradigm shift in the global community — out of scarcity and into sufficiency — which I’m sure I’ll talk about through the interview.
Toni: Oh, fantastic. Marilyn, when you think of inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Marilyn: Well, when I thought about that question, I thought, you know, I really inspire anyone who really wants the world to work for everyone. I really believe that’s everybody. I believe that really everybody on the planet really wants to have a world that works and a world where everyone thrives.
Not everybody’s in touch with that, but you know, that’s truly who we are. I think in a world of materialism and a world of never enough, we’ve lost touch with what we truly actually want, and you know, part of the work that we do is to help people reconnect, you know, to what really, truly fulfills them and to go after what they really want instead of what they’ve been taught that they want.
Toni: Can you give an example of that?
Marilyn: Yeah, well, you know, for example, we see wealthy people who have multiple cars and multiple houses and all the material wants they could ever need, and research studies show that that really doesn’t increase fulfillment or happiness beyond a certain point. Really, the only reason why people have lost touch with what they truly want, which is a peaceful planet, which is everyone to have food, which is all of these types of things, is because that they don’t really get that they can have that.
They can have a peaceful world. They can have a world free of violence. They can have all those things. And so, part of our community is about reminding people that they can have what they truly want and giving them the tools to cause what I said — this paradigm shift out of scarcity and into sufficiency.
Toni: Now, if you could just give a … I don’t know, just a brief definition of what you mean by out of … what was it, out of scarcity?
Marilyn: Scarcity. Yeah, I’d love to. Yes, so basically scarcity is that mindset, that default way of looking at life where we feel like we never have enough, we never do enough, and that we’re not enough as human beings, and it really shows up all over the place.
Like when we go throughout a day, we wake up and one of the first thoughts we have is “Oh, I didn’t get enough sleep,” and then we go about “Oh, well, there’s not enough milk in the refrigerator for breakfast.” Then we go and we have meetings at work about how much … there is not enough market share, or if you’re in the nonprofit world, how we don’t have enough volunteers.
And then, you know, we deal with feeling like we’re not having a good hair day or we’re not thin enough or heavy enough or … you know, it’s just a siren song of “not-enoughness” where we really fixate on the things that we lack instead of actually what we have. Then at the end of the day, we go to bed and we think “Oh my God, I didn’t get enough done.
So it’s a way of thinking, a way of being that leaves us depleted, and you know, really leads to lack of fulfillment. So that’s scarcity, and that isn’t really the normal functioning of the world, but it is the paradigm that we’re living in, that we’ve all been taught and that we’ve all unconsciously embraced.
You know, what we’re up to is to cause the shift to really the natural order of things in the world which is sufficiency, because we truly do have enough of everything we need for everyone on the planet to survive. And when we can come to readjusting our thought patterns and our ways of interacting in the world and our structures and systems in the world, then we can actually manifest, you know, that reality.
So sufficiency would have each of us continuing to notice when those scarcity thoughts come up and letting them be, and then training ourselves in having different thoughts — noticing that you got enough sleep and noticing that you have enough support, noticing that whatever your body looks like, your body is good enough, you know, and then resisting the temptation in society to always be purchasing things you don’t need to alter who you are, naturally beautiful and wonderful.
Toni: How do you … this may be not even relevant now based on the explanation you just gave – which, by the way, thank you for that – but how do you think that thought process, that mentality, that paradigm shift that you’re working towards will help people to explore their own potential?
Marilyn: Well, it’s really clear that the primary – in my view – the primary reason why people aren’t out there just knocking each other over trying to create the world that they know is possible — and in some communities that’s happening, but as a whole in society that’s not happening yet — and I really believe it’s simply because people don’t know that they’re enough to pull it off. Because if any one person knew, they could help end suffering or could help stop violence or could help feed everyone, you know? We would just be lit up to take down and pull it off and celebrate.
And so, you know, it’s really about helping people understand that as individuals and as a community, as a human community, that we’ve created the world that we have, and that we are completely enough to create the world that we want, but we really don’t feel that that’s the case.
Toni: So it’s really understanding what we have to do in order to get to what we want.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah, and then putting ourselves through the transformational process that has us in this economic crisis. You know, rather than freaking out about what we’ve lost … people have lost a lot, but seeing it for also the opportunity to reset our relationship to, you know, what we have and just being able to be preciously present to all that we have and all that we are, instead of always being fixated on what we lack and what we don’t have.
Toni: What inspires you?
Marilyn: Well, you know, making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. To stay inspired, I love music, I love movement, I like breath work, I like being in communities that support inspiration.
The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives. And being a part of that community was really a great support system for me to be able to let go of my mindset of scarcity and embrace a mindset of sufficiency, and also create that in the world.
Toni: Marilyn, how did you get here? What happened along the way that this became the passion?
Marilyn: That’s a great question. Well, I had been in social justice work, which is, you know, working to address different forms of oppression like racism and sexism and homophobia, etc. I’d been doing that for several decades. I’d also been in experiential education doing Ropes courses and lots of outdoor stuff with youth and youth at risk.
And when I attended a weekend workshop of global activist Lynne Twist’s book called The Soul of Money, I had this massive experience that spoke to me that if this paradigm shifted, if we shifted on a global level out of scarcity into sufficiency, then everything I had worked for would be much better off.
It would really address … it was a core, fundamental cause of all these different problems we have in the world, whether it’s, you know, economic crisis, the spiritual crisis, the social justice crisis, the environmental crisis – all of them are fed by scarcity, and all of them have a key piece of needing sufficiency to be present to resolve. So then when I saw that, I said “Oh wow, you know, if I can go after the root cause, I’m there.”
And so then I followed Lynne Twist around for about a year-and-a-half going to different trainings she did — including the quest for global healing conference in Bali, Indonesia, which was life changing — and meeting people who were passionate about this conversation, and decided that things had progressed enough in this new conversation, that an emerging movement was being born. And so I decided and my partner decided that it was time to found an organization that would be the connecting point for this new emerging movement.
Toni: That is fantastic. So it really has been an evolution here for you.
Marilyn: Absolutely.
Toni: How do you continue to explore your own potential so that you can build this community around this organization? Plus, I know you’re involved in other things as well.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah. Well the structures in place are really important. First and foremost, I have a partner that’s committed to individual and global transformation, so we live that on a daily basis. We’re also very involved in landmark education, which has been very useful, about living in possibility, and then obviously the Global Sufficiency Network community has been instrumental.
And then I’m really proud to be a part of an amazing global initiative called Four Years Go, and that’s led by the largest ad agency in the world — the ad agency that did “Just Do It” for Nike — and they’ve already got over 750 organizations from over 100 countries signed on. It’s basically a massive initiative to generate the collective willpower to put humanity on the just, sustainable, and fulfilling track by 02/14/2014. Not that we’ll necessarily solve all the world’s problems by then, but we will change the trajectory so that humanity is really headed in the right direction by that point. So that’s another community of support that I love.
I’ve also used a tool called reevaluation counseling, which is all about emotional release work, because I do believe that it’s useful to live with a truly open heart, but to do so is challenging because there are a lot of really heartbreaking things that occur. In order to offload those emotions and stay clear as to the possibilities, to me, is the way that is the axis point to true fulfillment. So all these different communities I use to support me in my continued evolution.
Toni: You have been really helpful and have given so much value in this interview, truly, and I say that a lot because I am in awe of everyone that comes to the Get Inspired! Project and the work that people are doing, and you are no exception. I thank you so much for being part of this and for being so giving in this interview, and plus making those of us who weren’t aware of these organizations aware, and for that we thank you.
Marilyn: I want to applaud you. You know, I really believe in what you’re doing. I think it’s a huge contribution to the world, and I think you’re an amazing person, and I’m glad that you are offering this to the world.
Toni: Thank you very, very much for that. Thank you, and thank you for being here, Marilyn. It’s been a pleasure.
Marilyn: Thank you very much.
“… making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. … I like being in communities that support inspiration. The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives.”
Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Marilyn, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Marilyn Levin: My name is Marilyn Levin, and it’s an honor to be part of this amazing Project. I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Global Sufficiency Network, which is an organization that is trying to cause a paradigm shift in the global community — out of scarcity and into sufficiency — which I’m sure I’ll talk about through the interview.
Toni: Oh, fantastic. Marilyn, when you think of inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Marilyn: Well, when I thought about that question, I thought, you know, I really inspire anyone who really wants the world to work for everyone. I really believe that’s everybody. I believe that really everybody on the planet really wants to have a world that works and a world where everyone thrives.
Not everybody’s in touch with that, but you know, that’s truly who we are. I think in a world of materialism and a world of never enough, we’ve lost touch with what we truly actually want, and you know, part of the work that we do is to help people reconnect, you know, to what really, truly fulfills them and to go after what they really want instead of what they’ve been taught that they want.
Toni: Can you give an example of that?
Marilyn: Yeah, well, you know, for example, we see wealthy people who have multiple cars and multiple houses and all the material wants they could ever need, and research studies show that that really doesn’t increase fulfillment or happiness beyond a certain point. Really, the only reason why people have lost touch with what they truly want, which is a peaceful planet, which is everyone to have food, which is all of these types of things, is because that they don’t really get that they can have that.
They can have a peaceful world. They can have a world free of violence. They can have all those things. And so, part of our community is about reminding people that they can have what they truly want and giving them the tools to cause what I said — this paradigm shift out of scarcity and into sufficiency.
Toni: Now, if you could just give a … I don’t know, just a brief definition of what you mean by out of … what was it, out of scarcity?
Marilyn: Scarcity. Yeah, I’d love to. Yes, so basically scarcity is that mindset, that default way of looking at life where we feel like we never have enough, we never do enough, and that we’re not enough as human beings, and it really shows up all over the place.
Like when we go throughout a day, we wake up and one of the first thoughts we have is “Oh, I didn’t get enough sleep,” and then we go about “Oh, well, there’s not enough milk in the refrigerator for breakfast.” Then we go and we have meetings at work about how much … there is not enough market share, or if you’re in the nonprofit world, how we don’t have enough volunteers.
And then, you know, we deal with feeling like we’re not having a good hair day or we’re not thin enough or heavy enough or … you know, it’s just a siren song of “not-enoughness” where we really fixate on the things that we lack instead of actually what we have. Then at the end of the day, we go to bed and we think “Oh my God, I didn’t get enough done.
So it’s a way of thinking, a way of being that leaves us depleted, and you know, really leads to lack of fulfillment. So that’s scarcity, and that isn’t really the normal functioning of the world, but it is the paradigm that we’re living in, that we’ve all been taught and that we’ve all unconsciously embraced.
You know, what we’re up to is to cause the shift to really the natural order of things in the world which is sufficiency, because we truly do have enough of everything we need for everyone on the planet to survive. And when we can come to readjusting our thought patterns and our ways of interacting in the world and our structures and systems in the world, then we can actually manifest, you know, that reality.
So sufficiency would have each of us continuing to notice when those scarcity thoughts come up and letting them be, and then training ourselves in having different thoughts — noticing that you got enough sleep and noticing that you have enough support, noticing that whatever your body looks like, your body is good enough, you know, and then resisting the temptation in society to always be purchasing things you don’t need to alter who you are, naturally beautiful and wonderful.
Toni: How do you … this may be not even relevant now based on the explanation you just gave – which, by the way, thank you for that – but how do you think that thought process, that mentality, that paradigm shift that you’re working towards will help people to explore their own potential?
Marilyn: Well, it’s really clear that the primary – in my view – the primary reason why people aren’t out there just knocking each other over trying to create the world that they know is possible — and in some communities that’s happening, but as a whole in society that’s not happening yet — and I really believe it’s simply because people don’t know that they’re enough to pull it off. Because if any one person knew, they could help end suffering or could help stop violence or could help feed everyone, you know? We would just be lit up to take down and pull it off and celebrate.
And so, you know, it’s really about helping people understand that as individuals and as a community, as a human community, that we’ve created the world that we have, and that we are completely enough to create the world that we want, but we really don’t feel that that’s the case.
Toni: So it’s really understanding what we have to do in order to get to what we want.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah, and then putting ourselves through the transformational process that has us in this economic crisis. You know, rather than freaking out about what we’ve lost … people have lost a lot, but seeing it for also the opportunity to reset our relationship to, you know, what we have and just being able to be preciously present to all that we have and all that we are, instead of always being fixated on what we lack and what we don’t have.
Toni: What inspires you?
Marilyn: Well, you know, making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. To stay inspired, I love music, I love movement, I like breath work, I like being in communities that support inspiration.
The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives. And being a part of that community was really a great support system for me to be able to let go of my mindset of scarcity and embrace a mindset of sufficiency, and also create that in the world.
Toni: Marilyn, how did you get here? What happened along the way that this became the passion?
Marilyn: That’s a great question. Well, I had been in social justice work, which is, you know, working to address different forms of oppression like racism and sexism and homophobia, etc. I’d been doing that for several decades. I’d also been in experiential education doing Ropes courses and lots of outdoor stuff with youth and youth at risk.
And when I attended a weekend workshop of global activist Lynne Twist’s book called The Soul of Money, I had this massive experience that spoke to me that if this paradigm shifted, if we shifted on a global level out of scarcity into sufficiency, then everything I had worked for would be much better off.
It would really address … it was a core, fundamental cause of all these different problems we have in the world, whether it’s, you know, economic crisis, the spiritual crisis, the social justice crisis, the environmental crisis – all of them are fed by scarcity, and all of them have a key piece of needing sufficiency to be present to resolve. So then when I saw that, I said “Oh wow, you know, if I can go after the root cause, I’m there.”
And so then I followed Lynne Twist around for about a year-and-a-half going to different trainings she did — including the quest for global healing conference in Bali, Indonesia, which was life changing — and meeting people who were passionate about this conversation, and decided that things had progressed enough in this new conversation, that an emerging movement was being born. And so I decided and my partner decided that it was time to found an organization that would be the connecting point for this new emerging movement.
Toni: That is fantastic. So it really has been an evolution here for you.
Marilyn: Absolutely.
Toni: How do you continue to explore your own potential so that you can build this community around this organization? Plus, I know you’re involved in other things as well.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah. Well the structures in place are really important. First and foremost, I have a partner that’s committed to individual and global transformation, so we live that on a daily basis. We’re also very involved in landmark education, which has been very useful, about living in possibility, and then obviously the Global Sufficiency Network community has been instrumental.
And then I’m really proud to be a part of an amazing global initiative called Four Years Go, and that’s led by the largest ad agency in the world — the ad agency that did “Just Do It” for Nike — and they’ve already got over 750 organizations from over 100 countries signed on. It’s basically a massive initiative to generate the collective willpower to put humanity on the just, sustainable, and fulfilling track by 02/14/2014. Not that we’ll necessarily solve all the world’s problems by then, but we will change the trajectory so that humanity is really headed in the right direction by that point. So that’s another community of support that I love.
I’ve also used a tool called reevaluation counseling, which is all about emotional release work, because I do believe that it’s useful to live with a truly open heart, but to do so is challenging because there are a lot of really heartbreaking things that occur. In order to offload those emotions and stay clear as to the possibilities, to me, is the way that is the axis point to true fulfillment. So all these different communities I use to support me in my continued evolution.
Toni: You have been really helpful and have given so much value in this interview, truly, and I say that a lot because I am in awe of everyone that comes to the Get Inspired! Project and the work that people are doing, and you are no exception. I thank you so much for being part of this and for being so giving in this interview, and plus making those of us who weren’t aware of these organizations aware, and for that we thank you.
Marilyn: I want to applaud you. You know, I really believe in what you’re doing. I think it’s a huge contribution to the world, and I think you’re an amazing person, and I’m glad that you are offering this to the world.
Toni: Thank you very, very much for that. Thank you, and thank you for being here, Marilyn. It’s been a pleasure.
Marilyn: Thank you very much.
“… making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. … I like being in communities that support inspiration. The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives.”
Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Marilyn, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Marilyn Levin: My name is Marilyn Levin, and it’s an honor to be part of this amazing Project. I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Global Sufficiency Network, which is an organization that is trying to cause a paradigm shift in the global community — out of scarcity and into sufficiency — which I’m sure I’ll talk about through the interview.
Toni: Oh, fantastic. Marilyn, when you think of inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Marilyn: Well, when I thought about that question, I thought, you know, I really inspire anyone who really wants the world to work for everyone. I really believe that’s everybody. I believe that really everybody on the planet really wants to have a world that works and a world where everyone thrives.
Not everybody’s in touch with that, but you know, that’s truly who we are. I think in a world of materialism and a world of never enough, we’ve lost touch with what we truly actually want, and you know, part of the work that we do is to help people reconnect, you know, to what really, truly fulfills them and to go after what they really want instead of what they’ve been taught that they want.
Toni: Can you give an example of that?
Marilyn: Yeah, well, you know, for example, we see wealthy people who have multiple cars and multiple houses and all the material wants they could ever need, and research studies show that that really doesn’t increase fulfillment or happiness beyond a certain point. Really, the only reason why people have lost touch with what they truly want, which is a peaceful planet, which is everyone to have food, which is all of these types of things, is because that they don’t really get that they can have that.
They can have a peaceful world. They can have a world free of violence. They can have all those things. And so, part of our community is about reminding people that they can have what they truly want and giving them the tools to cause what I said — this paradigm shift out of scarcity and into sufficiency.
Toni: Now, if you could just give a … I don’t know, just a brief definition of what you mean by out of … what was it, out of scarcity?
Marilyn: Scarcity. Yeah, I’d love to. Yes, so basically scarcity is that mindset, that default way of looking at life where we feel like we never have enough, we never do enough, and that we’re not enough as human beings, and it really shows up all over the place.
Like when we go throughout a day, we wake up and one of the first thoughts we have is “Oh, I didn’t get enough sleep,” and then we go about “Oh, well, there’s not enough milk in the refrigerator for breakfast.” Then we go and we have meetings at work about how much … there is not enough market share, or if you’re in the nonprofit world, how we don’t have enough volunteers.
And then, you know, we deal with feeling like we’re not having a good hair day or we’re not thin enough or heavy enough or … you know, it’s just a siren song of “not-enoughness” where we really fixate on the things that we lack instead of actually what we have. Then at the end of the day, we go to bed and we think “Oh my God, I didn’t get enough done.
So it’s a way of thinking, a way of being that leaves us depleted, and you know, really leads to lack of fulfillment. So that’s scarcity, and that isn’t really the normal functioning of the world, but it is the paradigm that we’re living in, that we’ve all been taught and that we’ve all unconsciously embraced.
You know, what we’re up to is to cause the shift to really the natural order of things in the world which is sufficiency, because we truly do have enough of everything we need for everyone on the planet to survive. And when we can come to readjusting our thought patterns and our ways of interacting in the world and our structures and systems in the world, then we can actually manifest, you know, that reality.
So sufficiency would have each of us continuing to notice when those scarcity thoughts come up and letting them be, and then training ourselves in having different thoughts — noticing that you got enough sleep and noticing that you have enough support, noticing that whatever your body looks like, your body is good enough, you know, and then resisting the temptation in society to always be purchasing things you don’t need to alter who you are, naturally beautiful and wonderful.
Toni: How do you … this may be not even relevant now based on the explanation you just gave – which, by the way, thank you for that – but how do you think that thought process, that mentality, that paradigm shift that you’re working towards will help people to explore their own potential?
Marilyn: Well, it’s really clear that the primary – in my view – the primary reason why people aren’t out there just knocking each other over trying to create the world that they know is possible — and in some communities that’s happening, but as a whole in society that’s not happening yet — and I really believe it’s simply because people don’t know that they’re enough to pull it off. Because if any one person knew, they could help end suffering or could help stop violence or could help feed everyone, you know? We would just be lit up to take down and pull it off and celebrate.
And so, you know, it’s really about helping people understand that as individuals and as a community, as a human community, that we’ve created the world that we have, and that we are completely enough to create the world that we want, but we really don’t feel that that’s the case.
Toni: So it’s really understanding what we have to do in order to get to what we want.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah, and then putting ourselves through the transformational process that has us in this economic crisis. You know, rather than freaking out about what we’ve lost … people have lost a lot, but seeing it for also the opportunity to reset our relationship to, you know, what we have and just being able to be preciously present to all that we have and all that we are, instead of always being fixated on what we lack and what we don’t have.
Toni: What inspires you?
Marilyn: Well, you know, making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. To stay inspired, I love music, I love movement, I like breath work, I like being in communities that support inspiration.
The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives. And being a part of that community was really a great support system for me to be able to let go of my mindset of scarcity and embrace a mindset of sufficiency, and also create that in the world.
Toni: Marilyn, how did you get here? What happened along the way that this became the passion?
Marilyn: That’s a great question. Well, I had been in social justice work, which is, you know, working to address different forms of oppression like racism and sexism and homophobia, etc. I’d been doing that for several decades. I’d also been in experiential education doing Ropes courses and lots of outdoor stuff with youth and youth at risk.
And when I attended a weekend workshop of global activist Lynne Twist’s book called The Soul of Money, I had this massive experience that spoke to me that if this paradigm shifted, if we shifted on a global level out of scarcity into sufficiency, then everything I had worked for would be much better off.
It would really address … it was a core, fundamental cause of all these different problems we have in the world, whether it’s, you know, economic crisis, the spiritual crisis, the social justice crisis, the environmental crisis – all of them are fed by scarcity, and all of them have a key piece of needing sufficiency to be present to resolve. So then when I saw that, I said “Oh wow, you know, if I can go after the root cause, I’m there.”
And so then I followed Lynne Twist around for about a year-and-a-half going to different trainings she did — including the quest for global healing conference in Bali, Indonesia, which was life changing — and meeting people who were passionate about this conversation, and decided that things had progressed enough in this new conversation, that an emerging movement was being born. And so I decided and my partner decided that it was time to found an organization that would be the connecting point for this new emerging movement.
Toni: That is fantastic. So it really has been an evolution here for you.
Marilyn: Absolutely.
Toni: How do you continue to explore your own potential so that you can build this community around this organization? Plus, I know you’re involved in other things as well.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah. Well the structures in place are really important. First and foremost, I have a partner that’s committed to individual and global transformation, so we live that on a daily basis. We’re also very involved in landmark education, which has been very useful, about living in possibility, and then obviously the Global Sufficiency Network community has been instrumental.
And then I’m really proud to be a part of an amazing global initiative called Four Years Go, and that’s led by the largest ad agency in the world — the ad agency that did “Just Do It” for Nike — and they’ve already got over 750 organizations from over 100 countries signed on. It’s basically a massive initiative to generate the collective willpower to put humanity on the just, sustainable, and fulfilling track by 02/14/2014. Not that we’ll necessarily solve all the world’s problems by then, but we will change the trajectory so that humanity is really headed in the right direction by that point. So that’s another community of support that I love.
I’ve also used a tool called reevaluation counseling, which is all about emotional release work, because I do believe that it’s useful to live with a truly open heart, but to do so is challenging because there are a lot of really heartbreaking things that occur. In order to offload those emotions and stay clear as to the possibilities, to me, is the way that is the axis point to true fulfillment. So all these different communities I use to support me in my continued evolution.
Toni: You have been really helpful and have given so much value in this interview, truly, and I say that a lot because I am in awe of everyone that comes to the Get Inspired! Project and the work that people are doing, and you are no exception. I thank you so much for being part of this and for being so giving in this interview, and plus making those of us who weren’t aware of these organizations aware, and for that we thank you.
Marilyn: I want to applaud you. You know, I really believe in what you’re doing. I think it’s a huge contribution to the world, and I think you’re an amazing person, and I’m glad that you are offering this to the world.
Toni: Thank you very, very much for that. Thank you, and thank you for being here, Marilyn. It’s been a pleasure.
Marilyn: Thank you very much.
“… making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. … I like being in communities that support inspiration. The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives.”
Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Marilyn, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Marilyn Levin: My name is Marilyn Levin, and it’s an honor to be part of this amazing Project. I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Global Sufficiency Network, which is an organization that is trying to cause a paradigm shift in the global community — out of scarcity and into sufficiency — which I’m sure I’ll talk about through the interview.
Toni: Oh, fantastic. Marilyn, when you think of inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Marilyn: Well, when I thought about that question, I thought, you know, I really inspire anyone who really wants the world to work for everyone. I really believe that’s everybody. I believe that really everybody on the planet really wants to have a world that works and a world where everyone thrives.
Not everybody’s in touch with that, but you know, that’s truly who we are. I think in a world of materialism and a world of never enough, we’ve lost touch with what we truly actually want, and you know, part of the work that we do is to help people reconnect, you know, to what really, truly fulfills them and to go after what they really want instead of what they’ve been taught that they want.
Toni: Can you give an example of that?
Marilyn: Yeah, well, you know, for example, we see wealthy people who have multiple cars and multiple houses and all the material wants they could ever need, and research studies show that that really doesn’t increase fulfillment or happiness beyond a certain point. Really, the only reason why people have lost touch with what they truly want, which is a peaceful planet, which is everyone to have food, which is all of these types of things, is because that they don’t really get that they can have that.
They can have a peaceful world. They can have a world free of violence. They can have all those things. And so, part of our community is about reminding people that they can have what they truly want and giving them the tools to cause what I said — this paradigm shift out of scarcity and into sufficiency.
Toni: Now, if you could just give a … I don’t know, just a brief definition of what you mean by out of … what was it, out of scarcity?
Marilyn: Scarcity. Yeah, I’d love to. Yes, so basically scarcity is that mindset, that default way of looking at life where we feel like we never have enough, we never do enough, and that we’re not enough as human beings, and it really shows up all over the place.
Like when we go throughout a day, we wake up and one of the first thoughts we have is “Oh, I didn’t get enough sleep,” and then we go about “Oh, well, there’s not enough milk in the refrigerator for breakfast.” Then we go and we have meetings at work about how much … there is not enough market share, or if you’re in the nonprofit world, how we don’t have enough volunteers.
And then, you know, we deal with feeling like we’re not having a good hair day or we’re not thin enough or heavy enough or … you know, it’s just a siren song of “not-enoughness” where we really fixate on the things that we lack instead of actually what we have. Then at the end of the day, we go to bed and we think “Oh my God, I didn’t get enough done.
So it’s a way of thinking, a way of being that leaves us depleted, and you know, really leads to lack of fulfillment. So that’s scarcity, and that isn’t really the normal functioning of the world, but it is the paradigm that we’re living in, that we’ve all been taught and that we’ve all unconsciously embraced.
You know, what we’re up to is to cause the shift to really the natural order of things in the world which is sufficiency, because we truly do have enough of everything we need for everyone on the planet to survive. And when we can come to readjusting our thought patterns and our ways of interacting in the world and our structures and systems in the world, then we can actually manifest, you know, that reality.
So sufficiency would have each of us continuing to notice when those scarcity thoughts come up and letting them be, and then training ourselves in having different thoughts — noticing that you got enough sleep and noticing that you have enough support, noticing that whatever your body looks like, your body is good enough, you know, and then resisting the temptation in society to always be purchasing things you don’t need to alter who you are, naturally beautiful and wonderful.
Toni: How do you … this may be not even relevant now based on the explanation you just gave – which, by the way, thank you for that – but how do you think that thought process, that mentality, that paradigm shift that you’re working towards will help people to explore their own potential?
Marilyn: Well, it’s really clear that the primary – in my view – the primary reason why people aren’t out there just knocking each other over trying to create the world that they know is possible — and in some communities that’s happening, but as a whole in society that’s not happening yet — and I really believe it’s simply because people don’t know that they’re enough to pull it off. Because if any one person knew, they could help end suffering or could help stop violence or could help feed everyone, you know? We would just be lit up to take down and pull it off and celebrate.
And so, you know, it’s really about helping people understand that as individuals and as a community, as a human community, that we’ve created the world that we have, and that we are completely enough to create the world that we want, but we really don’t feel that that’s the case.
Toni: So it’s really understanding what we have to do in order to get to what we want.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah, and then putting ourselves through the transformational process that has us in this economic crisis. You know, rather than freaking out about what we’ve lost … people have lost a lot, but seeing it for also the opportunity to reset our relationship to, you know, what we have and just being able to be preciously present to all that we have and all that we are, instead of always being fixated on what we lack and what we don’t have.
Toni: What inspires you?
Marilyn: Well, you know, making a contribution totally inspires me, and other people being a contribution. I think that that’s the access point to the deepest sense of fulfillment. To stay inspired, I love music, I love movement, I like breath work, I like being in communities that support inspiration.
The Global Sufficiency Network, one of the reasons why I founded it was because I knew the people inspired by this concept of sufficiency were people that were completely committed to a world where everyone thrives. And being a part of that community was really a great support system for me to be able to let go of my mindset of scarcity and embrace a mindset of sufficiency, and also create that in the world.
Toni: Marilyn, how did you get here? What happened along the way that this became the passion?
Marilyn: That’s a great question. Well, I had been in social justice work, which is, you know, working to address different forms of oppression like racism and sexism and homophobia, etc. I’d been doing that for several decades. I’d also been in experiential education doing Ropes courses and lots of outdoor stuff with youth and youth at risk.
And when I attended a weekend workshop of global activist Lynne Twist’s book called The Soul of Money, I had this massive experience that spoke to me that if this paradigm shifted, if we shifted on a global level out of scarcity into sufficiency, then everything I had worked for would be much better off.
It would really address … it was a core, fundamental cause of all these different problems we have in the world, whether it’s, you know, economic crisis, the spiritual crisis, the social justice crisis, the environmental crisis – all of them are fed by scarcity, and all of them have a key piece of needing sufficiency to be present to resolve. So then when I saw that, I said “Oh wow, you know, if I can go after the root cause, I’m there.”
And so then I followed Lynne Twist around for about a year-and-a-half going to different trainings she did — including the quest for global healing conference in Bali, Indonesia, which was life changing — and meeting people who were passionate about this conversation, and decided that things had progressed enough in this new conversation, that an emerging movement was being born. And so I decided and my partner decided that it was time to found an organization that would be the connecting point for this new emerging movement.
Toni: That is fantastic. So it really has been an evolution here for you.
Marilyn: Absolutely.
Toni: How do you continue to explore your own potential so that you can build this community around this organization? Plus, I know you’re involved in other things as well.
Marilyn: Yeah, yeah. Well the structures in place are really important. First and foremost, I have a partner that’s committed to individual and global transformation, so we live that on a daily basis. We’re also very involved in landmark education, which has been very useful, about living in possibility, and then obviously the Global Sufficiency Network community has been instrumental.
And then I’m really proud to be a part of an amazing global initiative called Four Years Go, and that’s led by the largest ad agency in the world — the ad agency that did “Just Do It” for Nike — and they’ve already got over 750 organizations from over 100 countries signed on. It’s basically a massive initiative to generate the collective willpower to put humanity on the just, sustainable, and fulfilling track by 02/14/2014. Not that we’ll necessarily solve all the world’s problems by then, but we will change the trajectory so that humanity is really headed in the right direction by that point. So that’s another community of support that I love.
I’ve also used a tool called reevaluation counseling, which is all about emotional release work, because I do believe that it’s useful to live with a truly open heart, but to do so is challenging because there are a lot of really heartbreaking things that occur. In order to offload those emotions and stay clear as to the possibilities, to me, is the way that is the axis point to true fulfillment. So all these different communities I use to support me in my continued evolution.
Toni: You have been really helpful and have given so much value in this interview, truly, and I say that a lot because I am in awe of everyone that comes to the Get Inspired! Project and the work that people are doing, and you are no exception. I thank you so much for being part of this and for being so giving in this interview, and plus making those of us who weren’t aware of these organizations aware, and for that we thank you.
Marilyn: I want to applaud you. You know, I really believe in what you’re doing. I think it’s a huge contribution to the world, and I think you’re an amazing person, and I’m glad that you are offering this to the world.
Toni: Thank you very, very much for that. Thank you, and thank you for being here, Marilyn. It’s been a pleasure.
Marilyn: Thank you very much.
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For more information about Marilyn Levin: www.globalsufficiency.org
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