Why awareness alone won’t save the planet and how to turn your insights into impact.

The Climate Week Frenzy

At the Premiere of "River of Spirits," a film presented Tawna Cine, Kara Solar, & Honnold Foundation at MoMa during Climate Week NYC.

Picture this: New York City, buzzing with the energy of Climate Week. There I spent two jam-packed weeks bouncing from UN meetings to Brooklyn fireside chats, rubbing elbows with climate luminaries, policymakers, artists, and activists. Everyone—everyone—had something urgent to say.

We crunched data, swapped stories about rising sea levels, and listed off solutions like they were on a fast-food menu. It was invigorating, but if I’m honest, it was also overwhelming. The message was clear: We needed to solve this problem yesterday. And yet, despite all this frenetic energy and a sense of being wildly behind schedule, we all kept circling around the same thing—talking, hoping, strategizing. But where was the doing?

As I stood there at the edge of the Hudson River, overlooking Little Island after days of non-stop conversation, I realized something profound: We’re treating climate action like it’s an external problem to solve. A distant catastrophe. But in reality, the real work has to start within.

Climate action is not just something we think about. It’s something we feel. It’s something we live.

How Brazilian Carnaval Gave Me the Blueprint for Integration

Let’s take a brief detour to Brazil, shall we? Stay with me—this all ties together.

The yearly celebration of Carnaval, the kaleidoscopic festival you’ve probably seen in vibrant photos, is much more than a glittering street party. To the outsider, it may seem like an excuse for Brazilians to suspend all work and life to party for a week straight, but it’s so much more. Carnaval is Brazil’s soul on full display—it’s a story, told through music, dance, and spectacle. And here’s the truth of it: It’s a story of resistance.

The roots of Carnaval lie in its yearly ability to shine a light on Brazil’s injustices—whether social, environmental, or political. The destruction of the Amazon, for example, isn’t just anecdotal on Brazilian news; this year it was woven into the very fabric of one of Rio de Janeiro’s famous samba schools, Salgueiro, in February of this year paraded down the Sambodromo with a theme of celebrating the culture of the Yanomamí people of the Amazon and the general resistance of Brazil’s Indigenous populations. Every single person in that samba school, evert costume, every song, every perfectly timed step of samba were part of a narrative designed to move people—not just intellectually, but emotionally.

Carnaval embodies the perfect integration of thought, heart, and action. Every participant—from the dancers in the front to the seamstresses and musicians—plays a role in telling the story, sparking awareness, and motivating action. It’s not a crisis happening out there—it’s a shared reality that becomes deeply personal.
This is what climate action needs to be: not a far-off problem, but a deeply felt, lived experience. A matter of personal and collective responsibility that sparks us to do something—right now.

From Knowing to Being to Doing

This is the trifecta: when we stop merely talking about the crisis and start living the solution. Sounds simple, right? How do we bridge this gap between intellectualizing the problem and actually doing something about it?

Here’s where the three-step process comes in, and it’s deceptively simple:

Amazonian Indigenous Leaders Nemonte Nenquimo, Célia Xakriabá and Puyr Tembé at the Amazon Watch event during Climate Week in NYC.

Think (Mind): Awareness is Step One
You can’t solve a problem you don’t know exists. Simple as that. We have to first get the facts—whether it’s reading up on how single-use plastics are wreaking havoc on marine life or understanding the brutal realities of deforestation. But this is where most people stop—they gather facts, maybe watch a documentary or two, and feel like they’ve done their part. Not so fast.
Feel (Heart): Emotional Connection Changes Everything
Facts alone aren’t enough. We have to feel it. It’s one thing to intellectually understand that the Amazon is being destroyed. It’s another thing to feel the gut-wrenching loss of a living, breathing ecosystem. This is the most powerful ingredient—moving from your head to your heart. Because it’s only when you’re emotionally invested that you care enough to act.
Do (Action): Living the Solution
And then, finally, we act. We do. This is where the cycle of integration is completed. It’s not about thinking about climate change —it’s about letting that awareness drive how you live, day in and day out. Reducing waste, voting for sustainable policies, supporting local farms. Small, consistent choices add up over time. Whatever it is, make sure your actions reflect the values you hold in your mind and feel in your heart. This is what real integration looks like—living in alignment with your values. This is where we start creating ripples of change.

This is not a one-off task; it’s a continual, ongoing process of integration. We think, we feel, we act—and we do it over and over again.

We don’t stop until the habits we form are just part of who we are.

Collective Hierarchy of Needs: Blackfoot Nation’s Perspectives on Cultural Perpetuity

You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The pyramid where self-actualization sits smugly at the top? It’s the idea that once we’ve got food, water, and shelter sorted, we can focus on “becoming the best version of ourselves.”

Here’s the twist: Maslow spent a lot of time with the Blackfoot Native American Nation in the 1930s and was deeply inspired by their philosophy of life. He based his work on the Blackfoot Nation tipi. Though In the Blackfoot model, individual fulfillment isn’t the pinnacle of human achievement. Contributing to the collective good is. At the top of their hierarchy is the idea of cultural perpetuity—passing down knowledge, wisdom, and sustainable practices to future generations.

Apply this to climate action and suddenly, it’s not just about your individual choices—it’s about how those choices ripple outwards. This shift—from me to we—is a fundamental reframing that we desperately need in the climate conversation. Climate action isn’t just about personal virtue or ticking off sustainable behaviors on a checklist. It’s about recognizing that we’re all in this together—our individual choices ripple outward, affecting the whole. Just as one tree is part of a forest, our actions as individuals contribute to the larger system of life on Earth.

When we integrate this understanding into our daily lives, we start to see climate action not as a burdensome obligation but as a natural extension of our connection to the world around us. It becomes not only possible but inevitable to live in ways that contribute to collective survival and flourishing.

From Polycrisis to Polyopportunity: Flipping the Script

Just before the official start of Climate Week events, I had the pleasure of spoking at the Polyopportunity Event hosted by the House of Beautiful Business and the Acosta Institute at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College. I found myself in a room buzzing with 150 incredible people—thinkers and doers from across climate, racial justice, AI, and regenerative economics. The conversation was electric as we dove into how we can turn this tangled mess of crises—climate change, inequality, technological disruption—into polyopportunity. The key, I emphasized, is integration. We have to stop seeing these crises as isolated problems. Instead, they’re interconnected, and so are the solutions. The real magic happens when we integrate what we know, feel, and do—when we align our heads, hearts, and hands toward real, systemic transformation.

One of the most powerful moments came as we explored how integration is about much more than solving problems; it’s about rewriting the narrative entirely. We talked about the power of awe, attention, and beauty to shift us from reactive problem-solving to creative action. Whether it was humanizing AI or embracing Ubuntu’s wisdom of collective interconnection, the message was clear: integration doesn’t mean assimilation—it’s about weaving together diverse perspectives and creating something new. This wasn’t about patching up a broken system; it was about using the polycrisis as an opportunity to reimagine how we live, lead, and collaborate—turning chaos into possibility through intentional, embodied action.

Transcendence as an Integration Supercharger

At the PolyOpportunity event I took a different approach to my usual keynotes on integration. Instead I told a story — about the aforementioned Carnaval, and how it relates to transcendence.

When we talk about true integration, there’s something almost mystical about the way it works.

Transcendence is a process of moving beyond yourself and connecting with something larger, whether that’s nature, humanity, or the very pulse of the universe. Think of it like this: you’re standing in a forest, surrounded by towering trees, and for a split second, you get it. You feel the ancient wisdom of the earth, the interconnectedness of all life, and suddenly, climate change isn’t just a policy problem—it’s a personal, visceral experience. You’ve transcended your small, individual concerns and are now part of something much bigger.

When we tap into transcendence, whether through a stunning sunset, a hike through the mountains, reach a profound meditative state, or even have a psychedelic journey, we connect with the Earth in a way that stirs us into action. It fuels the integration process. You don’t just think about the crisis anymore—you feel it in your bones, and you can’t not do something about it.

Transcendence isn’t about escaping reality; it’s about expanding into it. It’s realizing that the fate of the planet isn’t just a policy issue or a crisis we read about in the news—it’s personal. It’s about us, our communities, and our shared future.

In fact, science backs this up: studies show that moments of awe can actually make people more generous, more connected, and more likely to take positive action. So, when we talk about integrating climate consciousness into our lives, it’s not just about taking action from a place of guilt or fear—it’s about tapping into the profound beauty and interconnectedness of life itself.

Bridging Being and Doing: PSYCA’s Steps for Climate Integration

You might be wondering, How do we actually make this happen? That’s where PSYCA, Psychedelics for Climate Action, comes in. At the PSYCA Climate Action 400+ event, I spoke alongside some of the most forward-thinking minds in the intersection of psychedelics, consciousness and climate.

In my talk, I introduced a set of key principles for climate integration, focusing on how we can take what we know about the climate crisis and bring it into our everyday actions in a way that feels natural, grounded, and consistent.

Here are the five key principles of integration I shared:

Consistency and compounding effects: Climate action doesn’t happen overnight. It's about small, consistent practices that add up over time. Whether it’s reducing your use of single-use plastics, committing to eating more plant-based meals, or supporting regenerative farming, these incremental changes compound and create lasting, systemic impact.
Harmonizing mind with body: Integration involves aligning your mental awareness with how you move through the world. Just like we can’t heal the mind without healing the body, we can’t solve the climate crisis without aligning our inner state with our outer actions. Practices like mindfulness, breathwork, and grounding allow us to reduce stress, reconnect with the Earth, and act from a place of clarity rather than panic or overwhelm.
Nature as our teacher: Indigenous cultures remind us that we are not separate from nature—we are nature. By observing natural rhythms, we learn how to restore balance in our own lives. Integration means remembering that the solutions to our climate challenges already exist within nature’s ecosystems. When we treat the planet as part of our extended self, we naturally start making choices that align with the Earth’s needs.
Multidisciplinary approaches: True integration is never linear, nor confined to one area of expertise. Just as our personal growth benefits from understanding psychology, neuroscience, and ancient wisdom, climate solutions require a multidisciplinary approach. We need the combined forces of various disciplines including economics, ecology, renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, and behavioral sciences to address the crisis holistically. Each discipline brings a vital piece of the puzzle.
Community: Healing, whether personal or planetary, is relational. It doesn’t happen in isolation. The PSYCA community is a perfect example of how powerful it is when we come together to share ideas, hold each other accountable, and push for collective change. Climate action is not about heroic individualism—it’s about joining forces. When we create spaces where ideas and actions can flourish together, the impact is exponentially greater.

Conscious Leadership for Climate Action

To wrap up my two weeks in New York, I co-created an experience with the Consciousness Collective, SYP, and Ananda Partners on the Gansevoort Peninsula, overlooking Little Island. It was a peaceful morning of reflection and integration for our Conscious Climate Leaders—a much-needed counterbalance to the cognitive overload of the previous days.

This wasn’t just a moment of rest. It was about embodying the insights we’d gathered. We grounded ourselves, tuning into the land and letting nature guide us.

It reminded us all that true integration isn’t just about knowing—it’s about aligning with our deeper purpose. We slowed down, reflected, and reconnected with the “why” behind our climate action.

This experience affirmed what I deeply believe: real climate action starts from within.

As we move forward, we’re developing a Conscious Leaders for Climate Action Toolkit to guide others through this process of internal integration and external impact. Because lasting change comes from aligning our awareness with action—and deeply connecting with both the land and each other.

Collective Transformation: A Carnival of Climate Action

Let’s think about Carnaval again for a moment—it’s a perfect metaphor for collective transformation. In Carnaval, everyone plays a role in the story. The rhythms of social and environmental justice are told through music, movement, and joy. It’s not just heard—it’s felt.

Climate action should be the same. It’s not something we do alone; it’s something we do together—and not from a place of heaviness, but with creativity, energy, and, yes, even joy. When we approach climate work from a place of connection, we invite others in, creating space for true transformation.

Carnaval shows us what’s possible when we integrate thought, heart, and action into a collective experience. It reminds us that we’re all part of the story—and when we come together, the impact is truly profound.

For more insights on integrating climate action, conscious leadership, and collective transformation, subscribe to my newsletter and stay connected with the journey!

When We Think, Feel, Do: The Integration Blueprint for Real Climate Action