It is beautiful to see so many of you
on here today.
This is the first of my
daily series for the week.
So many of you are stuck at home
because of lock downs.
I think billions of people around
the world are, largely stuck at home.
I want to be of service.
So, I am doing a live video
every day this week at
11:11 am New York City time,
that is 8:11am in California,
and that is 5:11am over here, in France.
I chose 11:11 just because I like the time.
I do not have any crazy significance to it.
I just thought it would be nice,
for the people I have seen asking that.
This series is here to be of service.
I am here to share stories,
to share inspiration,
and my tips and my advice
on how to live a more sustainable,
happy, and healthy life.
Please do ask questions in the comments
section, and I will answer some of them.
Today's topic is something that
is absolutely one of the
most frequently asked questions.
And that is, "how did I awaken?".
What was my awakening?
A lot of people, when they see my life
(I've shared a lot.
I've shared many times that
I wasn't always this way, that
I didn't always care
about environmental issues and
was not always living in a manner
where my actions were
in alignment with my beliefs.
You know, I was living the
"American Dream" for a long time.)
A lot of people, they just see
that there must have been some sort of
moment of enlightenment,
some sort of awakening,
to get to where I am today.
That is one of the most
frequently asked questions
and that is what we are going to be covering.
Tomorrow, we are going to
take it to the next step.
Tomorrow I am going to share over
100 positive changes that I made
and that you can make, as well.
Here we are!
It is wonderful to be here with all of you.
I am going to start
on my story of awakening.
Before I can really go into
the actual awakening itself,
I have to go to the time before that,
when I was asleep, when I was dreaming.
For much of my early teens
and into my early twenties,
my goal was to live the "American Dream".
I actually grew up very low income
in a small town in northern Wisconsin.
It was my mom and us 4 kids
in a two-bedroom duplex.
We were very low income.
My mom made about $15,000 per year, 
or something around there,
to support 4 kids.
We did get government help.
We got food stamps and rent assistance
and electricity assistance.
We had our basic needs met.
We lived a fairly comfortable life.
But, I always felt extremely poor.
For so much of my childhood,
I felt different from everyone else.
My dad was not around.
There were 3 dads for us 4 children,
and none of them were really around.
It was mostly just my mom and us kids.
And we help had from my aunt and 
my grandpa.
Being poor and not having a dad,
both made me feel very different from
other people.
Another big thing was that I am Jewish.
We weren't really a practicing
Jewish family, but born Jewish.
My mom is Jewish.
Everyone in her family before her 
is Jewish.
We are from what would be
present-day Ukraine.
Where I grew up,
there were only 3 Jewish families
in a town of about 8,620 people.
In that way, I was also feeling
very different from other people.
Where I grew up, being Jewish,
well, I didn't think of it as a good thing.
Mostly, I only heard negative words
associated with being Jewish.
I watched South Park, for example,
and it was always negative connotations
with Jewish people.
I actually grew up thinking that "Jew",
short for "Jewish", was a bad word.
I actually thought that "Jew"
was, basically, a swear word.
That was another thing that I was
basically hiding.
Being pretty poor, not having a dad around,
a house from the outside
the paint was flaking off in chips.
I just wanted to be like everybody else.
I wanted to have money,
and I wanted to be "normal".
For so much of my childhood
that was my goal.
I bought clothes to fit in.
I designed my life to largely fit in.
That kind of shaped some of my early
adulthood.
What I decided is that I wanted to
basically pursue the American Dream.
I wanted to have a nuclear family,
a mom and a dad and kids.
I wanted to do that.
I wanted to have a nice car and a nice house.
I wanted to have a job.
I wanted to pursue what I saw through media
and through looking at some of
my friends' families as the American Dream.
Something that's a picture that's painted
through a lot of movies,
a lot of mainstream media,
and through society.
That became largely my focus
for quite some time.
I decided that I wanted
to become a millionaire
by the time I was 30.
That was a focus, a goal of mine
that I made, probably in my early 20's.
I became very focused on
material possessions and financial wealth.
That was where I was going for a while.
I went to school for biology
at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
During that time,
I always had some environmental mindset.
At the parties that we had, I was the one
who would recycle the beer cans
and the beer bottles afterward,
and not throw them in the garbage.
I would always make sure to use water
somewhat wisely.
When my roommate, Ricky had
the faucet on,
I remember yelling at him.
Telling him, "Ricky, shut off the faucet!"
and we'd get into fights.
I put in energy-efficient lightbulbs
into the house and every year I would
take them and put them into the new house
to save electricity.
So I always was actually living somewhat
of an environmentally-friendly life.
There was always some of that within me.
(I'm watching some of the comments
over here, so I get a little bit distracted.
I'm going to take questions afterward.
After I share the story,
then I'll take questions.)
What happened then, I was persuing
basically, this American Dream.
What happened was, after university,
I graduated in 2009.
It was 2011, I was 25 years old.
Something happened, and I realized that
I had to drastically and radically
transform my life.
This is the part of the story where
a lot of people expect some sort of
big moment of enlightenment or a huge
"ah-hah" moment or maybe a near-death
or something that would create that
radical change of thought.
But, for me, there was nothing like that.
What happened is, I started to educate
myself.
I started to watch a lot of
documentaries and read a lot of books.
And I just started to learn that my life
wasn't what I thought it was.
I started to realize that my life
had been sold to me by mainstream media,
by society, by corporations, 
and government.
I realized that what I thought 
my life was,
it just wasn't.
At the same time, I had just moved
out of Wisconsin to San Diego, California.
I also was surrounded by a new group
of people.
I had moved away from Wisconsin
where I grew up and where I went to school
at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
I felt, very much, like you're caged-in
by some societal norms.
I remember, for example,
in Wisconsin, if you were vegetarian,
it was like at every meal you could have
people harassing you.
Like, "Where's the beef?" at every, 
single meal.
Just that little bit of being different,
(and this is something people experience
all over the United States and the world)
but there, it was strong enough that it
makes it very hard for people to change.
At the time that I was awakening,
I was in San Diego,
and I was in a place where
not necessarily everybody was thinking
the same,
but where people were just okay
with you thinking whatever you wanted
to think.
I was around more open-minded people.
This allowed me to explore more easily,
and just explore being myself and
and embracing who I was.
I was educating myself.
I was watching a lot of documentaries,
and I was reading a lot of books,
and I started to realize that
almost every single action that
I was taking
caused destruction to the Earth
and had been monetized by a corporation.
The food that I was eating was coming from
factory farms
where animals were being treated horribly.
It was being shipped around the world,
guzzling fossil fuels, 
being sprayed with pesticides.
The food that I was eating
was leaving behind huge amounts of trash
for future generations.
The car I was driving,
well, that gas that I was pumping into it,
that was a part of the routine
10,000 oil spills that happen per year,
and it was a part of war.
A lot of American wars were being fought
for oil.
So I realized when I was pumping that gas
into my car,
I was a part of war.
I was a part of these oil spills.
I realized the trash that I was creating,
from so many different ways,
was filling up landfills
and some of it making it to the lakes,
the oceans, the rivers, and forests
and littering the world that I loved.
The cheap junk that I was buying,
(at the time I bought most of my stuff
from Walmart,
or a lot of my stuff from 
Walmart.)
I realized that people on the other side
of the world
were working in horrible conditions
to bring me this cheap junk.
That peoples' environments
and other species' environments were being
polluted for me to have this cheap junk.
Even the water that I was drinking, in San
Diego at the time,
I learned that it was pumped
through canals
across the desert hundreds of miles,
and half of it would soak into the ground
and evaporate before even getting to me.
I learned that the Colorado River
was running dry and no longer making it
to the Sea of Cortez to bring that water 
to me.
I learned that almost every single thing
that I was doing was causing destruction
to people,
to other species, and to the world that I
loved.
The thing was, I just didn't know that.
Before that, I hadn't realized that my 
actions
were causing all of this destruction.
I was disconnected from it.
At the same time, I realized that my life
had been monetized by corporations.
So many of the things that I was doing,
I was really just doing because
corporations had sold me on this idea that
I needed it.
For example,
body odor.
At the time, I used Old Spice deodorant.
I thought that in order to be
an acceptable human being in society,
a contributing member of society,
that I needed to wear deodorant.
I started to think about it and I realized
human beings have existed long before
deodorant ever existed.
But there's this idea that everybody
needs it.
In order to fit in, you need it.
And this idea that it's bad to simply be
a human being.
These corporations were making billions of
dollars
off of making us feel uncomfortable with
ourselves.
I decided that I just wanted to be able to
comfortably be myself without needing
approval
and without having to buy things from
corporations.
I also realized that money in itself was
causing so much destruction and that our
financial system was so broken and had so
much corruption in it.
I learned that my money in the bank account
I had with Chase bank at the time
was being used to invest in destructive
practices.
The money that I had invested in mutual 
funds
was invested in cigarettes and fossil 
fuels and other industries.
I learned that I was just deeply, deeply
wrapped into all of this stuff that I did
not support.
And that there was so much corruption in
the government,
that I was unearthing through learning.
At the same time, I was also surrounded by
new people,
as I mentioned, and some of my best 
friends
in San Diego that I met, went to a school
called
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine
and they were studying traditional Chinese
medicine,
acupuncture, massage, and herbalism.
That was another part of just rethinking
my body.
I decided that I wanted to break free from
corruption.
I wanted to break free from all the 
injustice,
all of the lies, all of the inequality.
I realized that the way that I was living
my life,
just simply to meet my needs,
it required me to be pillaging resources
and quality of life from other people.
I just decided that wasn't right.
That was not the way I was going to live,
anymore.
I realized that I had to totally,
radically transform my life.
I was 25 years old at the time.
I realized that I was a living hypocrisy.
I learned that my actions were not
in alignment with my beliefs, at all.
A lot of people at that point would feel
total doom and gloom, totally hopeless
and helpless, and just think,
"What can I possibly do? I am 1 in
7 billion people.
I have been living this way for 2.5
decades, already.
Can I really change my life?
I am surrounded by this 'normal' way of
being.
Is there really anything that I can do?"
But I said to myself, "Look, I am only 25.
If I live to be the average life
expectancy of 80,
that is another 55 years.
I am not going to be a hypocrite for the
next 55 years.
I have got to change my life now so that
I don't live
a majority of my life as a hypocrisy,
through this hypocrisy."
Rather than feeling overwhelmed,
I actually felt inspired and empowered.
Because these documentaries and these
books that I was reading and watching,
they did not just tell me the problems
that existed in the world, I also learned
that there were solutions.
I learned that there was a different way
of doing these things.
Sure, I definitely had days of feeling
just overwhelmed,
and that deep pain in the chest about the
state of the world. There were times where
it was overwhelming to the point of not
knowing if I could do something.
What I decided to do was embrace
the situation that I was in.
I decided that I could only be myself
I could only be in the place that I was in
at the time,
and I could only be in the time that I
was in.
I had to deal with me.
I was not able to control other people.
I was not able to control the corporations
or the government,
I was able to control myself.
I decided that I was going to change my 
life
one bit at a time.
This wasn't going to be selfless.
This wasn't necessarily about sacrificing.
This was about taking control of my life.
This was about being able to wake up and
actually feel good about my life and my
actions.
This was about ascending delusion,
about starting to understand who I was
and how my actions rippled out around the
world.
I decided that I was going to start
changing my life one bit at a time.
I came up with this idea that if I just
made one positive change per week,
that I'd be able to make over 100 positive
changes in 2 years.
What actually worked for me wasn't the 
thinking about it,
that was important, the learning,
but it was the setting out on the path and
starting to make changes by putting myself
into action.
That is what allowed me to change my life,
by actually changing my life.
Tomorrow, that's what we're going to go
into.
We're going to talk about over 100
positive changes that I made.
I'm going to use those as examples of how
you can make those, as well.
Some of them will be bigger and more
extreme,
things that you won't be able to get to
right away,
but some will be very easy changes
that you can make immediately to start
shifting your life.
What it was for me was that these 
individual changes,
what they did is, they created a 
foundation.
With each positive change that I made,
I created a more solid foundation in being
the change that I wanted to see and
being the me that I wanted to be.
These changes aren't just about the action
themselves, they're about creating an
empowered human being who can stand up
and you can stand strong in the face of
these challenges, in the face of
corruption of corporations and governments
and such.
Tomorrow, we're going to go through
100 positive changes and more.
For now, I'm going to use the next 20
minutes or so to go through questions.
I'm going to scroll through these 
questions.
Please, questions that you have right now,
(especially ones that are really related
to this)
the awakening is really the focus of
this particular video. I'm going to be
doing a live video every day this week,
like I said.
I'd like to go primarily through questions
of what we just discussed, but
do ask questions that you'd like.
I see my mom. "Hi, Mom! Nice to see you on
there."
Smile back to you.
Let's see...
Okay, I'm going to start looking through
questions on here. There are a lot of 
comments.
While I do this, I'm going to mention this
again,
if you are on this channel and you haven't
subscribed, make sure that you subscribe
so that you will get notifications of the
next videos.
Also, if you have not already, next to the
"subscribe" button, there is a little bell.
If you click that and you click "all"
then you will get notified when I put out
a video or do a live video.
I don't do a lot of videos, so
it's not going to be crazy or anything.
Let's see what questions are in.
Alicia Serratos. Hey, Alicia! Nice to see
you!
She said, "We saw the list of your
favorite documentaries.
Is there a list of books, too?"
That is a perfect question that goes along
with this, the change.
The change came because the information
already existed.
I didn't have to come up with this
information.
There was already so much out there.
One of the earliest films that I watched
was "Food, Inc."
That was just mind-blowing, realizing
the reality behind my food and
the destruction that it was causing
and realizing that I was consuming the
planet
through the food that I was consuming.
"Zeitgeist" was another documentary.
"Earthlings" was another documentary
early on.
"What the Bleep Do We Know?", this was
a very eye-opening documentary for me,
early on.
If you go to robgreenfield.org/films,
that is a blog that is called
"23 Films That Changed My Life".
Since then I have been adding films to
that, as well.
There are maybe 40 or 50 different films
on there.
As far as books,
Michael Pollan - "The Omnivore's Dilemma"
and "Food Rules" were some very
mind-opening books for me.
If you go to robgreenfield.org/books,
that lists a good couple of handfuls of
the books
that were really mind-opening to me.
Mark Boyle's books,
his nickname is "The Moneyless Man".
He lived without money for 3.5 years.
He has been one of the more foundational
human beings in my life, through reading
his books
and through reading his work online.
Let's see...
Celine says, "Hi Rob. I want to change my
profession, but it scares me. I don't know
where to start."
I have a blog that is called
"How To Quit a Job That Does Not Serve You
Or the Earth".
If you go to my website, I think it is
robgreenfield.org/quityourjob.
That is, basically my guide on rethinking
your job.
For me, at the time during my
transformation,
I did actually have a company.
My company at the time was called
The Greenfield Group.
We did marketing.
At the same time as I was awakening,
I was also running a company and trying to
make money.
As I started to change my life, I realized
I had to change my company's life, too.
Because my company really was just an
extension of me.
It is very easy to outsource things
and say, "well, that's not me, that's my
job"
"That's the company". But the reality 
is that
I was the one running the company.
That was an extension of me.
If I was an employee working for a
corrupt company
or company causing destruction,
that work is me performing that work.
I decided I had to transform my company.
At first, I switched over to,
basically, one of the early things that
I did is,
I joined 1% for the Planet and committed
that my company would donate at least
1% of revenue to environmental nonprofits.
Really, I think I committed to at least
10% of my revenue being donated to
environmental nonprofits.
That was one way that I shifted
my company.
At first, I was still selling advertising
to companies that I didn't support,
promoting buying junk and unhealthy food.
The more I shifted my life, the more that
I had to really shift the company.
I switched to eventually,
only marketing for companies that had
a positive message.
Through a long transition,
I got to the point where I said that
I will only market for a company
if it's a company that I would basically
market for, for free.
As in, if what they are doing is 
meaningful enough
that I would tell people about it,
not because they are a customer, but
because the world needs to see more of it.
There were other changes in between, but
that is what I did. I shifted my company
from one that was environmentally
destructive
to one that could actually have a positive
impact.
I moved away from printing my stuff on
plastic
to doing online marketing, so that
I was no longer creating tens of thousands
of pounds of garbage by advertising on
hotel key cards and also on grocery
store cards.
I radically transformed my business and
eventually, I moved largely away from 
money
in the last 9 years, since I woke up.
Then, I eventually closed down my business
around 2014 or 2015 and started a
nonprofit, instead.
About 1 year ago, I closed down my
nonprofit.
How I make money right now is with public
speaking.
I have committed to making less than
the federal poverty threshold per year.
The last 3 years I've made $9,800,
$8,000 the year before that, and $5,000
before that.
Mostly, I live extremely simply,
so that I need a lot less money.
That goes a little bit into that awakening
and that transition of my business,
as well.
(Let's see...)
"Hi, Rob. Where can I find information
about how things are really produced
that I use daily, 
like energy, water, food?"
Okay, one of the most important resources
in my awakening was a short film called
"The Story of Stuff". This blew my mind!
I realized that there's a whole process
to get all this cheap junk to me.
This short film
goes through the extraction of 
raw materials,
the shipping and then the processing of
those raw materials.
Then getting it to the store,
then us having to go and buy it,
it breaking after a short period of time
because of planned obsolescence,
things that are designed to break,
designed for the dump,
then going to the landfill.
From extraction to landfill, this short
film,
called "The Story of Stuff",
really just opened my mind to the reality
behind everything, whether it was a
microphone,
or a computer, or they used the example of
a cheap radio that's only $6.
How in the heck is a radio only $6?
It's because the costs are externalized.
That was a big part of my awakening,
as well,
was realizing that things are very easy
and convenient for me because the burden
was being placed elsewhere.
I kept coming back to, 2011 at the time,
up to 2020 now, over the last decade,
and I keep looking at my actions
and seeing that I had it so easy.
Everything had been made so convenient.
I kept asking, "why is this so easy?"
and "why is this so convenient?".
What I kept coming back to is that
the burden had been placed elsewhere.
That the destruction was placed elsewhere
for me to have that convenience
and that comfortable way of life.
An easy example of that is driving a
fossil fuel-powered vehicle.
This is your ankle.
You sit down in the car
and you just go like this with your foot.
All of a sudden you're going from 0-60.
Just move that foot forward, and you're
going
from 0-60mph or 100kph with no
energy spent.
Where is the burden being placed?
Well, 10,000 oil spills happen per year,
routinely.
The burden is being placed on the other
species,
and on the other humans that live there.
How about the oil refineries, where those
are located?
The oil refineries are located, generally,
near low-income neighborhoods
and the people who live there have 2-4
times
higher rates of cancer and respiratory
diseases, often.
The burden is being placed on these people
who don't have clean air, anymore,
who don't have clean water because of
the pollution.
This is what I learned.
"The Story of Stuff" is an amazing 
resource to watch.
They have a whole series of videos about
bottled water, our clothing, and all of 
these.
I would highly recommend that as an early
source for awakening.
Boris says,
"For an environmentally-friendly life,
do you think living in a tiny house is a
good option?"
Yes, it can be a great option.
It is by no means the only way to do it,
but it is one way to really live simply,
to decrease your need for large amounts of
material possessions,
having lots of bills,
having lots of stuff.
I have lived in a tiny house twice,
in San Diego and in Orlando, Florida.
It's a beautiful way of existence.
There are other ways to do it, as well.
(Let's see)
Afishesandloaves says, "Hey, Rob.
Is the group that helped you learn about
growing food in Florida
in south Florida, as well."
There are a lot of ways to learn how to
grow your own food.
If you go to
robgreenfield.org/freeseedprojectguide,
that is my guide for beginners
on how to grow their own food.
The reason it's
robgreenfield.org/freeseedprojectguide,
is that I designed it for the
10,000 people
who have received free seeds from myself
and Live Like Ally Foundation to help them
start their own gardens.
But that guide is helpful to everyone.
If you go to robgreenfield.org/grow,
if you are in Florida,
that is my guide for Florida.
It has a lot of information for both
central Forida
and down south for you, as well.
The group that I worked with the most
is called Orlando Permaculture,
and also Sustainable Kashi in Sebastian,
but there is a lot down in your area,
as well.
That website, robgreenfield.org/grow,
has a lot of information.
(Let's see)
Okay. Amal says,
"How can I live
more sustainably while living in my
apartment?
Would love to grow my own food, but
it just seems complicated in my
situation."
Alright, so when I lived in my apartment,
in
(...)
A lot of people look at me,
and they see that I have lived in
this 50 square foot tiny house
in California,
and then a 100 square foot tiny house in
Florida,
and also I often am living with almost
nothing.
Right now I have 44 possessions that all
fit into a backpack, which
this is the backpack, right here.
Everything I own fits in here right now.
A lot of people look at that and
they think that it's always been this way.
But, you've seen that I went through a
radical transformation.
It wasn't always this way.
Before this, when I was going through my
awakening,
I lived in a 3-bedroom apartment.
When I first moved into the apartment,
I took the largest bedroom,
because I had a lot of stuff,
and I felt like more space was better.
Slowly, I went to the second biggest
bedroom,
and then the smallest bedroom,
and then I actually moved into the closet,
which was 36 square feet, just 6 feet
by 6 feet,
barely big enough for me to stretch out.
That was as I was downsizing my life.
All of this change was happening
while I lived in a pretty typical
apartment.
I started to make all these changes in
my apartment.
Like, for example, getting rid of
paper towels and napkins
and using reusable cloth towels instead.
And getting rid of all of the stuff in
the house
that wasn't needed, and doing gray water.
I collected the water that came from under
my sink,
and rather than it going down the pipe
to the sewer to be treated,
instead, I collected that to water my
plants to grow food.
I actually, luckily, had a guy come over
to film it in 2012 and have produced
a video.
If you go to my videos, you'll see one
that is simple and sustainable living in
my apartment.
I released that in about 2016, finally,
after filming it like 3 years before.
That video is a lot that you can do in an
apartment.
If you go to robgreenfield.org/houseguide,
that is my guide of changes that I made in
my home,
that are things that are largely adaptable
whether you are living in a house or an
apartment
in the United States or around the world.
(Okay)
Boris says, "How much money do you
think is needed
to start a more environmentally-friendly
life,
with a tiny house,
getting water from the sky,
forage for food, etc.?"
It can be anywhere from 0 to hundreds
of thousands of dollars,
depending on how you do it.
I built my tiny house for $1,500.
And to turn a whole front yard into
an abundant food garden cost about $500
or $600,
and within a short period of time, was
producing
that amount of money worth of food per
month,
thousands of dollars worth of food per
year,
easily from a $500 investment.
It just depends on how you do it.
If you're highly resourceful,
you can do it for next to no money.
If you want to downsize luxuriously,
I know people who have tiny houses
that cost $150,000 for a tiny house,
or even $250,000, I've heard of.
There are different ways of doing it.
If you are interested in doing it the
least expensive way,
I would recommend my Youtube videos from
my tiny house in Orlando.
I actually did a video on the build,
teaching how to build one out of
99% second-hand and repurposed materials.
Josenaro says, "That is not possible in
Switzerland."
I am not sure if you are talking about
exactly what I am talking about right now,
but what you have to do is take examples
and adapt them to where you are.
Nothing is applicable to everybody in the
world.
The easy way to not create change in your
life
is to look at exactly what someone else is
doing
and say, "I can't do that, so I'm going to
do nothing."
That is exactly how can maintain your
status quo
without having to change your life
and to be able to rationalize it.
If you are wanting to change your life,
then what you have to do is think
critically and problem solve.
Look at the scenario and figure out how
you
can take what works and adapt it into your
situation.
It doesn't matter where you live in the
world,
there is a way to live in a more
sustainable way
that requires a lot less money,
that contributes a lot less to
destruction,
where you can live the life that you want.
It's more challenging for some people than
for others,
but for most people that are watching
this video,
where there is a will there is a way.
It is really a matter of problem solving,
critical thinking, and figuring out a way
to do it where you are.
(Let's see)
Nichola says, "Hello, Rob. Do you think
you can start a family while being a
self-sustainable minimalist, or do
you have
to sacrifice some of your ideas
temporarily to be able to provide a good
life for your kids?"
That's a great question and that goes
perfectly in alignment with my
transformation.
When I woke up, I was a single person,
25 years old, lived a life that I could
change as desired.
I didn't have kids or dependents.
My transformation was relatively easy
compared to waking up and having
a spouse who hasn't woken up
and kids who don't want to live that
lifestyle.
As an example, that would be a very
difficult place to be.
Personally, I actually chose not to have
children
so that I could live exactly the life that
I wanted
and so that I could live a life that I was
super dedicated to making the change that
I think is needed in the world.
When I was 25 years old, around the time
that I really started to wake up, I got a
vasectomy.
That was for many reasons.
One of them being that I had seen the
destruction that birth control causes for
so many people that I love through
depression
and through throwing off their hormones,
but also I was not supportive of the
pharmaceutical industry.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the
early things that I realized was a hugely
corrupt industry that was largely
controlling so many people.
That was one of the reasons, but also
because I wanted to dedicate my life to
really focusing on the change.
I write about that at
robgreenfield.org/vasectomy.
To the point of,
can you do this with a family,
I can not personally prove it as myself,
because I have chosen to not have a
family.
However, there are thousands and thousands
of families out there that are living
with their actions in alignment with their
beliefs
and that are living sustainably with 
children.
I am actually working on a resource guide
right now that will share videos and
families with blogs to really provide
that.
One of my favorite Youtube channels is
a channel called "Exploring Alternatives".
They have multiple videos of families with
children.
Another one is "Happen Films".
Those are two of my favorite Youtube
channels.
Both of them have some great examples.
Yes, it absolutely can be done.
It has been done as long as humanity has
existed.
It is absolutely, 100% possible.
It's a different challenge.
Actually, in time, one of the things I am
going to do on this Youtube channel is
visit families that are living sustainably
to share more stories and more examples of
that.
The same goes for cold climate.
I have done my extreme sustainable living
projects in warmer climates in southern
California and Florida, but it can be done
in cold climates, too.
There are different designs.
You have straw bale houses, for example,
that have amazing insulation.
You have passive solar heating. There are
different ways.
There are Earth Ships, as well.
Wherever you are, there are ways to live
more harmoniously with the Earth and be
working with the Earth rather than
fighting it.
It can be done with a family.
It can be done in colder climates.
The colder climates is something that
I will be demonstrating, as well.
Actually, I haven't announced this over
Youtube
or social media yet, but I am going to do
a year of growing and foraging 100% of my
food
in a cold climate. 
I am committing to that.
I am going to do it. I will be
demonstrating it,
most likely, I'm thinking, in upstate 
New York.
That is Zone 5 or Zone 6, if you know 
climate zones.
I will be doing it there.
I will be doing about 2 years of living
sustainably
in a cold climate as one of my next
projects.
Also, I am going to be visiting families
and people that are living sustainably in
cold climates
and showing examples of that as well.
Tony says, "You have no idea how happy
you just made me, Rob!"
Why is that, Tony? Do you live in 
New York?
Amber Kelly says, "I am in Pennsylvania
and I need help."
Superb says, "Come to Massachusetts."
All of you can come and visit me in 
New York.
What I am setting up in New York will be,
hopefully, at a farm.
I am going to be part of a community,
creating a bit of a community
where you can come and you can stay
for a day, a week, maybe a month,
and learn how to grow food and how to live
sustainably.
That's actually one of my long-term plans,
is to set up a place where I will be
spending a good portion of my life
and where people can come and learn
to live simply and live sustainably.
You won't always just have to listen on
Youtube, you'll be able to come.
Blackskid says, "I live in Philly."
NetZero. Cool. So you can come out and
visit.
Francis says,
(I'm not sure what that means.)
DanGoni says,
"Your next project, will you allow
yourself to eat with friends?"
I can eat with them, I just have to forage
the food and eat with them. Or we can
forage the food together.
Terry says, "Rob, I have been watching
you for a long time.
Very interested to hear about your plans.
Teach us Obi-Wan! Peace, yo! You rock."
Good to hear, my friend.
That is going to be it for today.
I am so happy that so many of you are on
here.
I have been watching the count and it has
been nice to see that most of you who have
joined have actually stayed on here.
It is beautiful to have spent almost an
hour with you all.
Definitely, if you are not subscribed to
this channel,
make sure that you do. This video will be
on the channel after it is live.
You can go back and watch it again if you
have not seen it.
If you have not already, click the little
bell to get notifications.
I will be live at the same time for the
next 4 days.
that is 11:11 am New York time,
that is 8:11 am California time,
and that is 5:11 am over here, in France.
I love you all very, very much.
It was a true pleasure to spend this time
with you.
I guess I will finish my tea.
Oh actually,
for those of you who,
( consider this the end of the talk)
but I think if this interests you,
why don't you go ahead and practice a
little breathing?
A lot of people during these times are
having a hard time
with the time that we are in,
being stuck at home with isolation 
and such.
I just want to share one small practice to
end this.
And now that I think about this,
I am going to do this at the end of each
video.
The practice today is simple breathing.
I am going to take 10 deep breaths,
and I encourage you to join me for this,
as well.
The purpose of this is just to find 
centerness,
to balance, and to reduce stress and
anxiety.
Boris says, "every hour."
Yes, you can do this every hour,
just spending 2 minutes every hour.
I am just going to do 5 deep breaths.
You are welcome to watch, or you are
welcome to do it along with me.
Then I will say good-bye, for real.
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales and sighs)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales and sighs)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales and sighs)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales and sighs)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
(Inhales deeply)
(Exhales)
Whew! That felt good!
(Laughs) Really, really nice!
I encourage you to do that. Yeah.
Again, I love you all very much!
I am here with you in these times of
difficulty.
I will be here with you for the next
4 days,
but for every day, whether I am online
or not,
I am here with you.
I am excited for everything that is to
come.
I think that we can use this time to
to change our lives for the better.
That is the purpose of this series.
It is not jus to fill the time.
It's not just to provide entertainment and
inspiration.
This is about changing our lives.
That is what I am here to do,
to help you change your lives, radically,
transform your lives, to live the lives
that you want.
Tomorrow, 100 positive changes that you
you can make
to live more sustainably, more healthy,
and more happy.
I love you all so much!
I will see you soon!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community
