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Episode 140: The Inner Climate: Coaching for Ecological Change with guest, Ryan Grist

• Garry Schleifer

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What if the key to addressing our climate crisis lies not just in technology and policy, but in our inner development? In this thought-provoking conversation, coach and writer Ryan Grist reveals a powerful framework that connects personal growth to planetary healing.

Drawing from his article "Coaching to Support Outer Change," Grist explores how the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals have inspired a complementary framework called the Inner Development Goals. These inner goals—organized into five pillars: stable self, adaptive mind, connected heart, inclusive collaborator, and courageous changemaker—provide a roadmap for the internal skills we need to face our greatest environmental challenges.

"Where things often break down is in the human dimensions," Grist explains. "It's in relationships, stress, mindset, and overwhelm." While technological solutions receive substantial funding and attention, the "soft skills" that enable effective collaboration, perspective-taking, and compassionate action have been historically undervalued. Yet these skills may be exactly what we need to navigate the complexity of climate change.

The conversation takes a particularly meaningful turn when Grist demonstrates how compassion functions as a trainable skill. Through practices like Tonglen (breathing in suffering, breathing out healing) and Metta meditation, he shows how we can expand our capacity for connection—even with those we find difficult. "Hurt people hurt people," he reminds us, suggesting that sending compassion instead of more hurt transforms not just relationships but our approach to shared problems.

As we face political uncertainty and growing eco-anxiety, Grist offers "muscular hope" as an antidote—not wishful thinking, but a practiced conviction that positive change remains possible. The conversation concludes with a compelling invitation to identify which inner development dimension needs attention in your life, and to explore how strengthening these skills might ripple outward, creating change from the inside out.

Watch the full interview by clicking here.

Find the full article here.

Learn more about Ryan here.

Subscribe for free to Ryan’s monthly publication on Substack! 

Grab your free issue of choice Magazine here - https://choice-online.com/

Garry Schleifer:

Welcome to Beyond the Page, the official podcast of choice, the magazine of professional coaching, where we bring you amazing insights and in-depth features that you just won't find anywhere else.

Garry Schleifer:

I'm your host, Garry Schleifer, and I'm excited to expand your learning as we dive into the latest articles, have a chat with this brilliant author behind one of them and uncover the learnings that are transforming the coaching world. When you get a chance, join our vibrant community of coaching professionals as we explore groundbreaking ideas, share expert tips and techniques and make a real difference in our clients' lives. Remember, this is your go-to resource for all things coaching, and let's dive in. In today's episode, I'm speaking with coach and writer Ryan Grist, who is the author of an article in our latest issue Climate Consciousness and Coaching~ Making the Connection. His article is entitled Coaching the Inner Climate to Support Outer Change ~ A framework for change from the inside out.

Garry Schleifer:

A little bit about Ryan. He has an MA, he's an NBC-HWC, which he's going to explain later, because I have no idea what that is, a coach, a writer, a grower working at the intersection of human health, ecological healing, and social change. In his coaching practice he serves emerging leaders, community changemakers and highly sensitive people who are experiencing high levels of stress, overwhelm and crises of meaning. His newsletter, The Exhale, how's that, explores the question of how to live well and on purpose in a time of profound change. He grows healing spaces on the ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nation in Southwest Wisconsin. Ryan, thank you so much for joining me today. So explain my friend. Explain NBC National Broadcasting Corporation.

Ryan Grist:

Well, thanks for having me, Garry. No, that's a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

Garry Schleifer:

Oh, of course. I I didn't know the acronym. I know yeah.

Ryan Grist:

, a lot of people have heard of it, but it's a long acronym to remember, so I don't blame you. No hard feelings.

Garry Schleifer:

Well, yes, very much welcome, and thank you so much for taking the time to write the article and for speaking to our listeners today. We really appreciate it.

Ryan Grist:

It's such a pleasure. I love this topic. I'm excited to have a conversation.

Garry Schleifer:

Exactly. To go beyond the page. Well, we didn't allow you to put in 1400 words in the article. So what inspired you to write this? Or should I hint at who inspired you to write this?

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, great question. You know this is a topic that's, I think, been brewing and stewing in me for the last decade or so. But I was speaking with a colleague a few years back that runs a nonprofit and they referenced a friend of theirs, a colleague that's at a consulting agency. It sounded like they're doing interesting work. So I checked them out and they, somewhere on their website, referenced this inner development goals framework and I thought, oh, that sounds really interesting. And I looked it up and began to explore it and it felt like it really synthesized a lot of what I'd been thinking and sort of prototyping in my own work and life around this idea of our inner climate and how do we cultivate and develop our inner climate to meet the moment where our outer climate is experiencing profound change and disruption?

Ryan Grist:

How do we link and match those two? The connection between the individual, the inner life, and outer change has always really interested me, and I think I actually thought about studying public health when I went to grad school for health and wellness coaching. Ended up doing a graduate minor in public health because I just couldn't let go of that sort of systems thread, even though I have this passionate interest in working with people in the one-on-one setting.

Garry Schleifer:

Well, and how did you come across this whole concept of sustainable development goals that United Nations put together? L ike that's a major portion, a link for you to this other framework?

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, the sustainable development goals, or SDGs, something that was sort of common in my studies. As an undergraduate, years and years ago, I studied environmental sociology, so thinking about people and systems and the connection to the environment and the UN sustainable development goals in the sustainability sector. It's kind of a classic or a big deal, because they set forth 17 ambitious goals for how do we continue to develop our globe, you know, especially places that have been underdeveloped, in a way that is sustainable and equitable. It is a big, broad, wide-reaching framework, and so I thought the link taking those ideas and then linking that to what are the inner dimensions we need to focus on in order to achieve those external goals, which are, like you know, eliminate poverty, eliminate hunger, transform to a green energy system, clean up our waters and so on and so forth.

Garry Schleifer:

Yeah, Wow. Well, and then I'm reading on. I remember that you talked about that there were a few people that created these individual. What did we call them? They're the inner development goals. So they took that and then set the goals for that. And then you, in this article, laid them over coaching. Like you intersected them to say, okay, if this it can apply to sustainable energy, how do we apply this SDGs to the coaching world? And you've done a fabulous job of that. Tell us a little bit more about how you came about that. That was like brilliant.

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, the inner development goals was a, people can search Google, search that and look that up, it's an open source initiative. It's it's a inter what do you call it? Interdepartmental, it's a collaborative, cross-sector sort of project, nonprofit project of leaders and change makers around the world that said, okay, what are some of the kind of inner dimensions, the inner goals that we need to be thinking about as a globe? And I took that and I had been, you know, previously, I love theories and frameworks so I've studied all sorts of things and this felt like it really hit on sort of this holistic framework of like, what sort of mind shifting and mind training do we need? What sort of like inner leadership, inner self-regulation skills do folks need? Thinking about collaboration, social skills, compassion and developing our sense of interconnection and then the courage to, you know, make change. And what does that look like? So I just started to look for what are some of the common themes that coaches work on and where do those sort of intersect with some of the skills and frameworks that this inner development goals group proposed? And it turns out they match super well and I think coaching is so well equipped to support the inner development. That's really what coaching is about but to make this link towards climate change and maybe social change more broadly

Garry Schleifer:

Yeah, and you know, for our listeners, the article, the five areas that Ryan's talking about are stable, self adaptive mind, connected heart, inclusive, collaborator and courageous changemaker. And, Ryan, I love how you, at the end of it, you put down inner skills. I don't just see skills, I see values as well, and it's interesting that those match with what my clients and their organizations want them to be better skilled at. So it really resonated for me. For example, under adaptive mind, it's critical thinking, complexity awareness, perspective skills, meaning making, long term orientation and visioning. All things that I work on with my corporate clients all the time, and you've put this under the lens of climate consciousness. So thank you very much.

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, I think that's such a great point. You know, none of this is like radically new skills. Like this should be probably pretty familiar to coaches. But I think drawing this link and thinking more intentionally about how are we developing our leaders and our clients. Of course, that's driven by them and what they seek, but it puts a framework towards the soft skills that have been historically set aside or not prioritized as much. especially in the conversation around climate change., we focus so much on technology policy. Some of these, like you know, more tangible, you know physical.

Garry Schleifer:

Right. Like actions and results right

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, yeah, and we haven't explored. Well, we have made quite a bit of progress in some regards especially we've had a lot of technological innovations, but we're still we're not making progress towards the climate crisis at the pace that we need to be. And where things often break down is in the human dimensions, it's in relationships, it's in stress and mindset and overwhelm and leaders making decisions from a place of threat response rather than a stable self. And so I think it's really rebalancing the scale to say that, you know, the inner dimensions are just as important as these external goals, because you know the two are intrinsically and deeply linked.

Ryan Grist:

And soft skills, so to speak, have been sort of stigmatized for not being cool or strong or that important. But I wrote this article really to try to highlight like these skills matter and can make a profound difference in our world. And I think we see that as coaches with the clients we serve, is when they, you know, improve their self-regulation skills or sharpen their mindset and their ability to look at multiple perspectives. They notice that, we notice that, and the people they serve notice how that shifts their leaderships and what results they get in their workplace.

Garry Schleifer:

Yeah. Well, yeah, but please don't tell my clients that soft skills are woo-woo, because they really are getting a lot out of it. And this is a really great article that gives a link between sustainable development goals, inner development goals, coaching, soft skills. It's just like a very clearly laid out path. So, thank you. I'm just going to pick on one of them. One of my favorites the connected heart pillar. You mentioned that compassion is a trainable skill. What practice just do you do personally, and how do you introduce that to your clients?

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, love this question. Compassion is a trainable skill. Yeah, the research shows that the more we practice it, just like many things, the better we get it, the more easy it comes to us, and compassion helps us see our connection to others and to all living things. I think that's a huge cultural shift that's in process and really needs to be emphasized or prioritized, because we are all deeply connected. The climate crisis reaffirms that and shows us that and to get out of this we're going to need to cultivate that connection.

Ryan Grist:

So there are two of my go-tos that I do and that I share with clients, and the first is a practice in Buddhist meditation that is called tonglen and that sort of loosely refers to taking in suffering and sending suffering.

Ryan Grist:

And so I do this visualization practice where I imagine the earth, the globe, and I think about all the global conflicts that are happening right now, and I begin to just breathe in dark light from the earth, that sort of symbolize the suffering and let that filter through me. Not that I'm going to hold on to that, but that I'm sort of this filter to release that and then breathe out a warm glow like a sunny, warm light onto the earth, and so I start with the earth as a whole and then I think about the places and war zones and where there's refugee crises and hunger and natural disasters, earthquakes, hurricanes, whatever it is, and that helps me feel like some agency. We are bombarded with bad news and to take a little time to just think about where there's heightened suffering in the world and to say, you know, I'm doing pretty well right now in my life.

Ryan Grist:

I'm going to offer some space to just reflect on these people. And you know, this can seem kind of woo-woo or intangible, but it really actually makes a difference in our internal system, in our brain wiring and how we think and feel towards others. And I know I feel, yeah, more empowered and more connected when I do a practice like that. So that's what I like to do with sort of the global conflict and news issues.

Garry Schleifer:

It sounds a little counterintuitive though, right? Like look and draw in suffering and to give it a different perspective in a way, but yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Ryan Grist:

No, I think that's a great point and that's where people often at first are like you want me to take in suffering and send light.

Ryan Grist:

And yeah, you know, I think this is sort of a deep lesson is, when we move towards suffering, we transform it. When we avoid suffering, what we resist persists. So when we look and say, gosh, there's so much hurt in the world, I'm just going to take a moment and send some care towards that. We feel different and, you know, maybe it makes a difference in the world. The second is really another traditional compassion practice called metta, from the meditation world, and this is a practice of saying phrases like may I be free from suffering and may you be free from suffering, may you have happiness and peace. And the sequence is always we start with ourselves and we practice self-compassion, which many of us struggle with. Then we extend that to a loved one or someone that feels easy. A dog could be that. We can send compassion to. So we're increasing our skills here. Then we do it with a neutral person, maybe a grocery store clerk or someone we see a lot but we don't know. And then we do it with difficult people, and this is really what we're building up to, and especially, I think, in leaderships and organizations in our world, whether it's political divisions and families. We begin to see that sending compassion doesn't mean I agree with how you show up or everything you do, but hurt people hurt people. So we send compassion instead of hurt.

Garry Schleifer:

Say that again.

Ryan Grist:

Hurt people, hurt people.

Ryan Grist:

So we send compassion instead of more hurt.

Garry Schleifer:

Bullies have been bullied.

Ryan Grist:

Exactly. Often our behaviors are not random, they come from a place of suffering, and so if we can see and witness to that suffering without all the stories and judgment, then it changes the relationship and there might still be a need for boundaries or, you know, you might still have to find your way with that person. But this I think is such a crucial skill for leaders and all the clients we serve is can we flex that muscle of compassion, extend that to people that we have a hard time being compassionate towards, and I think that can make a profound shift in our way of being and in our world. Because we're all here together, we're all facing the same climate mess, and we're going to have to figure out how to be well together and be in relationship together through this.

Garry Schleifer:

Yeah, that's interesting. I flashback to one of my clients who's also a regular listener of the podcast, so they know who I'm talking about, and there was a relationship with a leader and there was a trust issue and I think we might have handled it the way you just said, by being compassionate and just understanding that they're, you know, maybe not hurt, but there are other things going on for them that it's not personal, you know. So yeah.

Ryan Grist:

That's one of the four agreements, if you know that.

Garry Schleifer:

Exactly.

Ryan Grist:

Don't take it personally. That's probably the hardest. It's kind of getting out of our own way and just looking at things with a little more distance and objectivity.

Garry Schleifer:

Right, exactly, exactly.

Ryan Grist:

And while still holding to our boundaries or needs.

Garry Schleifer:

It's holding strengthening them, understanding what barriers weren't working, what things were not working, by going through that exercise.

Garry Schleifer:

And now you know, fast forward, the relationship is a lot stronger, a lot more trusting and still with respect that those people are different and all that sort of stuff.

Garry Schleifer:

So that was really. Yeah, I'm going to shift gears a little bit because of the current political climate. Not in here in Canada necessarily. What do you think, or what have you seen or heard is the impact of changes in just in working with and climate consciousness from the current administration? How people are affecting your clients? Are you starting to see an impact? How do you think it might start to impact? Increased echo stress , distress?

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, I think I think definitely what I'm , the the uncertainty and the rapidity of the changes that administration is is there, there is it's causing a lot of stress in itself. And then I think, the grief of those who have worked for years and years and years on initiatives, and there may be fundings being pulled or they're getting laid off. I haven't worked with specific folks that have been laid off, but I think it's a time when perspective is really needed and this is one of the skills under the adaptive mind category is to keep things in perspective. You know it's been some 70 days. It won't always be this We're Right, we're going to find our way through this think, I think helping clients see that and practice that is really important right now, because we have to hold steady to what we believe in and what we're working on and find creative ways to navigate, because I think what this time reveals is that stability and certainty are sort. Funding know funding sources that maybe felt really stable and they away, it away. It reminds us that, okay, at any time things can shift or things can change and we have to be training in how we adapt to change.

Ryan Grist:

lot of it's, I think, processing with clients the changes happening, orienting to what's going on, and then, yeah, the equal anxiety, the grief, the despair around. You to happen if we, you EPA or, you on clean air and clean water or whatever, um.. this 's of hope there too, that I see people, the conviction I think is growing and the sort of localizing efforts, piece, ,. There's more we can do in our local communities and, um, helping folks see you know other avenues or places that we aren't looking, where can still enact change, changes important.

Ryan Grist:

So returning that agency and conviction that we can still make progress.

Garry Schleifer:

Yeah, well said, and you know, it has me thinking.

Garry Schleifer:

We keep thinking that you know, up there, up there, they're going to take care of it and all of a sudden they're saying I'm not taking care of it and it's like, oh okay, so how can I step up?

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, how can I step up.

Garry Schleifer:

Because it is important to me. Just because it is not important to them or not on their agenda, it doesn't mean it's not still on mine. So I love how you said bring back to community and that you brought in hope, which I was going to ask you about. You have hope in your fifth pillar. You also mentioned optimism is key to enacting change. How does that fit in?

Ryan Grist:

Yeah, I think hope and optimism can be hard for me and so putting this in here was important and challenging for me. In ways, I tend to be more of a realist and I say, okay, let's just look at what's happening in the world but I think I've come to learn how important hope and optimism are, not in the sense of wishful thinking. I think that's where there's this part of me that sort of cringes or rebels against just put a positive spin on it and avoid reality. I think that's what we don't want to do when we think about hope and optimism is avoid what's happening. But I think it's more about, as I mentioned earlier, conviction and this sort of inner confidence that things can change, things can get better, we can hold true to our vision and our values for the world we want to live in.

Ryan Grist:

And there's a podcast host, Krista Tippett, the host of On Being podcast, talks about muscular hope, which I really like. It sort of gives more beefiness to hope that we have to flex this muscle of having faith and confidence that things can change and I take inspiration from those that have been through unthinkable suffering. You know I have been privileged to not be burdened by really, really high levels of suffering, but we think about those that survive refugee crisis or Victor Frankel who wrote Man's Search for Meaning surviving the Holocaust or so many others right now that we can look to for inspiration of finding a way forward. And it's almost shifting from needing hope to feel okay to needing hope to sort of just remind us that it's a gift to be alive and to be trying and to be experiencing life.

Ryan Grist:

And I think I feel like there's some risk in me saying that without having experienced really intense suffering. I imagine that's really really hard. But I think people that survive that have this conviction that, no matter what that's the one thing people can't take from us is our perspective, our sense of determination and hope that we can make a way forward. And I think that's sort of the leadership, whether that's in the organization or in our families or communities, is to honor the suffering and hold true to the belief that things can get better and we can make progress and that we will navigate the change in front of us.

Garry Schleifer:

Well said, well said, Ryan. Thank you very much. And what would you like our audience to do as a result of this article and conversation?

Ryan Grist:

I think what I'd love for people to do is pick one of the five pillars or dimensions. So stable self, adaptive mind, connected heart, inclusive collaborator or a courageous change maker. Pick one of those where you feel like it could maybe use some attention. Maybe that's an underdeveloped dimension in your inner world and look at the skills and reflect on, maybe make a commitment to practicing those skills and exploring ways to do that, and just continue to reflect on this link to those inner skills, to how that shifts the outer climate. So, whether that's immediately within your family system or planetary well-being, I really encourage people to start to think about our inner skills and dimensions and how that links to the outer world, because I think that's where what we've been talking about. That's where change and empowerment and transformation can really occur.

Garry Schleifer:

Yeah, thank you very much, and thanks again for writing this article. Certainly glad to have this conversation with you to take it a little bit further, so thank you. What's the best way for people to reach you to find out more?

Ryan Grist:

People can go to my website, rgrist. com. That's R-G-R-I-S-T dot com and you can contact me there. There's a link to my newsletter, info about my coaching work and so on, so that's the best place to find me.

Garry Schleifer:

Awesome. Keep doing the great work Ryan. And thank you so much for joining us for this Beyond the Page episode. For more episodes, subscribe via your favorite podcast app and, as we found, it's Beyond the Page, plus the word choice or magazine or coaching, and you'll find it. If you're not a subscriber to choice Magazine, you can sign up for your free digital issue by scanning the QR code in the top right-hand corner of this video or by going to choice-online. com and clicking the Sign Up Now button. I'm Garry Schleifer. Enjoy the journey of mastery.