As Within, So Without: Why Self-Sustainability Is the Key

We’re all told to save the planet—but what if the key to global sustainability isn’t solar panels or recycling bins, but YOU?

In this episode, Justin Wenck, PhD, makes a powerful case for self-sustainability as the foundation of global sustainability. Because if you’re burnt out, depleted, and disconnected, how can you possibly create a better world?

You’ll learn how your internal energy directly shapes the external environment, and you’ll even be guided through a calming visualization to feel that truth in your body.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• 💡 Major global wins you probably forgot about (good news!).
• 🌀 The Hermetic Principle of Correspondence: “As within, so without.”
• ⚠️ Burnout, anxiety, depression—why these are sustainability issues.
• 🔋 How to boost your “life energy” so you can give from overflow, not depletion.
• 🌳 A peaceful beach visualization that will help you feel abundant and recharged.

🎯 Action Steps & Links

✅ Start refilling your life energy tank → 

🔗 JustinWenck.com/LEAP

📩 Share your biggest takeaway—DM or tag @JustinWenckPhD on social.

🎧 Subscribe to Engineering Emotions & Energy with Justin Wenck, PhD on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Overcome the daily grind with transformative techniques from Justin's book, 'Engineered to Love.'

These practices aren't just about finding peace—they're about reconnecting with yourself and the world around you in meaningful ways.

Access your free materials today at engineeredtolove.com/sample and start living a life filled with joy, ease, and love. 

Watch the full video episode at Justin Wenck, Ph.D. YouTube Channel!

Check out my best-selling book "Engineered to Love: Going Beyond Success to Fulfillment" also available on Audiobook on all streaming platforms! Go to https://www.engineeredtolove.com/ to learn more!

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Transcript

Justin Wenck: 0:00

Today I am talking about sustainability, and maybe you care about sustainability, maybe not. Yet the way I'm going to be talking about today, you are going to find it very, very important and very beneficial, because I'm going to make the case that your self sustainability is the key to global sustainability. You Are you ready to live a life with enough time, money and energy have relationships and connections that delight you? Are you ready for the extraordinary life you know you've been missing? If so, then this is the place for you. I'm a best selling author, coach, consultant and speaker who's worked in technology for over two decades. I'm a leader at transforming people and organizations from operating in fear, obligation and guilt to running off joy, ease and love. It's time for engineering emotions and energy with me. Justin Wenck, PhD, you let's back up. What do most people think of when, when they talk sustainability? If you're like me and many people, it's this, well, it's about it's about the Earth, it's about the environment. It's about climate, ensuring that things can continue without being depleted or destroyed or disrupted. Yet, if we really want to think of it, you know, at the global scale, the earth scale, from the point of view of the Earth, there is no depletion there. There is no destruction. Fact, every day the earth just gets more and more, because there's things coming from space, asteroids, meteorites, the other debris falling, and there's more energy coming from the sun. So the Earth is actually getting more and more. And so really things just change state, right? Like the weather changes the composition of materials from one form to another, right, like, what, 100 million years ago, there wasn't the fossil fuels, because where did they came from? They came from, what I what I'm taught, what maybe this has been changed, is that there were dinosaurs and other animals that became extinct and their their fossilized remains turned into the fuels that we used for still many of many of the things to power our lives. And so really, it's from a global perception the Earth is, has been, and always will be fine, yet we still have a lot of concerns. And I'm not saying we shouldn't have concerns, we absolutely should. What I'm saying is important to recognize is that what matters is the earth being in a state that is conducive to our enjoyment of being here, that we enjoy the Earth, the planet, the resources in a way that works for us. And so I was thinking of, well, what, what all has changed? What's, what's been going on, as you know, especially in my lifetime, so looking back over the past 40 years. So I grew up in the Los Angeles area, Orange County, to be exact, in the in the 80s, when there was horrible pollution and there was the the scare of, and, you know the facts of acid rain. It was one of those things where it's like, go to someplace outside of the LA basin in the mountains, or go visit family in Iowa, where both my parents were from. And it was like, What's going on here? I don't trust this air that I can't see. In the 40 years we've done so much stuff. Like, we've doubled the efficiency of cars. And then we used to be that, you know, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides would be put into the air, and those are down over 90 plus percent. Again, it's like, probably should be, could be, needs to be better yet. You know, I remember in my lifetime, it's like, unless there's a fire, which is another thing. It's like the air is relatively clean. And I remember going to visit Beijing China and the like, the 20 when I go 2020, 1120, 12. And it was, it reminded me of growing up in the LA area, because it's like, oh, air I can see again. Okay, wonderful. Yeah, there's been a lot of improvements in the environment, you know. So just, you know, air quality, again, not saying that everything's perfect everywhere, yet there's been huge issues that have been improved. Like, remember the hole in the ozone down near Antarctica, 99% of those ozone depleting chemicals got phased out because the world collectively said, enough of that, and they're used to you. Ever wonder why, when you go and you fuel up a, you know, internal combustion car, like, you know, there's diesel, and then what's the other fuel type, unleaded? What? Because there used to be fucking lead in the fuel that people fueled their cars up and up until the night. 80s, and then it's like, oh, that's a bad idea. So that's gone. So again, massive, massive improvements have happened, like even take it into account. You know, when I was growing up, it was like, Oh my gosh, the rainforests are all going to be gone. Well, the improvements have happened there as well. Apparently, in Brazil, deforestation was has been down 80% from 2004 to 2012 renewables have, like, let's see 4,000% increase in renewable energy production since 2000 according to one source. So just huge. And then let's, you know, let's look at what's been going on as far as, like, you know, compute power, right? Because, you know, growing up, I always wanted, you know, improve the world, and that's one of the reasons I got into electrical engineering, because it seemed like a great way that I could help the world without having to interact with people, which is kind of funny, because now my whole thing is working directly with people, impacting people, communicating with people. So let's look at this. So again, I already mentioned, but think of the to light our homes. It used to be incandescent bulbs were used to light, you know, all of the places and they were you could literally cook food using, you know, the Easy Bake oven that was a toy for kids. It was effectively a light bulb that was just put in a container so that people could cook food. Kids, well, I don't adults too. But with LED bulbs, it's now takes 70, 90% less energy to light the same spaces like That's amazing. Energy production is up two and a half times from 1990 to 2023 which is incredible, considering that the if you look at how what we're doing, how much more electricity that you'd think we would need, like for compute power, the amount of compute power has grown since the 80s, 1 billion fold, 1 billion times more compute power. So, you know, it's like we have in our pocket something more powerful than it was used to send people to the moon, right? And so the amount of efficiency, the amount of compute, the amount of power, the amount of cleaner power available, and the amount of just overall improvements that has happened in our environment Justin my lifetime, is incredible. So when I look at global sustainability, I get a little suspicious about, you know, well, is it that we don't have the ability to make these massive changes that benefit us? And I think that's a big thing, is just to own that these benefits are for us. So where does the problem lie? And I'm reminded of and a very important principle. It's the hermetic principle of correspondent, which comes from an ancient Egyptian Greek text called the Cabal ion. And it states as above, so below, as within, so without. What is what does this mean? Basically, that whatever's going on inside of me is going to kind of show up have an impact on what goes on outside of me. And whatever goes on at a very small scale has an impact at the very large scale. And this also goes the other way, or it's like, what's going on outside can have an impact within. And so many people, they go, Well, how can I be happy? How can I enjoy my life? How can I relax? How can I you know, when I see all these horrible things happening in my world, and I agree, it's disheartening, it's like, Oh, what the what the fuck people did these awful things, these pollutants and these harms and these other things. Yet consider that even if humans were perfect, that sometimes nature does wild things, like, you know, asteroids coming down, volcanoes exploding, like I had a chance to go to Yellowstone, and it's like, this is just like a post apocalyptic world just created by the Earth, that it's just there, and there's parts of the earth where it's just like this is just not going to be what we humans might want to live in. Yet it's got its own beauty, its own purpose. So it's not to say that we don't take responsibility. What I'm going to argue is that the place to be responsible is in our in our inner world, our thoughts, our emotions, our belief. And I do believe, and I've experienced this in my own life, that if we change that which each of us does have the ability to change our inner world, regardless of what's going on outside, that if the inner world of of yourself and many of us change that will enable more and more of these incredible global shifts that, as I've demonstrated, we're 100% capable of. So the fact that we haven't figured it out makes me think that there's a part of us not wanting to figure it out because. So let's, let's think of some of these things, of like, how we tackle a lot of these problems currently, like recycling. Often, most people, they go, you know, and there's like, three bin options, right? And depending on where you are, the three bins could be different, you know, sometimes there's usually always that trash, but then sometimes there's a food waste, then other times there's a compost, then other times there's a recycle, and it's like, what goes where? And it's like, oh, maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I did something bad. So that's coming up, and then it's often seems like, Okay, we have electric cars now, so that's not going to create carbon dioxide that is having the potential of, you know, causing, you know, all these pollutants other things yet, let's be honest here, an electric car is a much bigger pain in the ass, like it takes time to charge, and it has a it can have just a different way of driving. And so it seems to me that most the way things are kind of structured currently, is, if it's good for the environment, it's going to be bad for me. If it's good for me, it's going to be bad for the environment. So how is this showing up, collectively for us? And I think it is instructive to look at, well, what's going on in the inner world of us, of us humans, and you know, again, seeing like all of these improvements in technology, which are supposed to improve our world, yet, if we look at human sustainability, like, how well we feel, how we're enjoying How sustainable is our energy level, our ability to enjoy life, It's shit like, okay, just focusing on the US suicide is is up at least around 20% and I do believe that it would probably actually be a lot higher if it weren't for some of these other things going on that just make it too much work, honestly, to to stop lifeing yourself. And it's just like, oh, fuck it. Who's got the energy? I'll just, I'll just wait and let something else take of it. Obesity rates are about what two over two times. So you just be 15% in the 80s, and now it's around 42% is considered obese. Anxieties, up 20% Depression, depression is up huge. It's up depending on the source, 50% or up two times anywhere between went from only being 12% of people with being considered depressed to anywhere from 17 to almost 30% being depressed and burnout is more than doubled. So if you kind of go, like, collectively, like, oh my gosh, we are we're depleted, we're down, we're bummed. And then, you know, again, looking at this hermetic principle of as within so without, how can our Earth do well? How can what's going on in our environment do well when we don't have enough, you know, Justin our own internal environment. So what if? What if, recognizing that it's most important that we become self sustainable, that we find things to enjoy, to be happy about, that we have ways to have really good connectivity with each other, with nature. What if it's important that we take care of ourselves, and that by taking care of ourselves, naturally, the world starts to get be taken care of. How can we do this? What's the lens to look at and to me? And this is one of the things that I've discovered. And again, this is one of those things like, you might be like, Hey, I don't think this is true. You don't have to think this is true. But I what I will say is that even if you don't think it's true, kind of like the law of gravity, people didn't recognize the law of gravity for a long time didn't mean that it still wasn't impacting their life. Like you jump off a bridge and you don't believe in gravity, you're gonna fall down, you're gonna you're gonna fall and you're gonna go splat, right? So this law, whether you agree or not, it's just kind of the way the universe does operate. And the thing is, is even if, even if this doesn't change the global environment, you'll still feel better. You'll still feel better. And then if you choose to do things to benefit the environment, for for global sustainability, it's going to be that much more easy for you, you're going to be that much more impactful. You're going to be able to do that much more. You're going to have better ideas because of your self sustainability. So this really is one of those things, whether you buy into it having a global impact, it's going to have a good impact for you, and then it can still. Have a good impact for other people. So it really is a win win. Whether you agree with this being a universal principle, which it is just the thing that you can have the most control over in the shortest most impactful amount of time is your inner world. And so one of the things that I'm starting to share more and more about is this concept of of life energy, and what exactly is life energy? It really is, because being electrical engineer, it's what is, what is information? What is? What is energy? Energy like you know, what powers our homes? What is inspiration, what is intuition? What is what makes things go from one state to another? It is what I like to call life energy, because often we just go like, Okay, well, it's in the DNA, or it's in the design. Yet, if you look at an acorn, it has the DNA of an oak tree, yet it is not an oak tree. What makes it go from the acorn to the oak tree? And you might go like, Oh, well, some of it is the environment. Yes, some of it is the environment. Yet there can be two acorns in almost the exact same places, and they will either one may grow and one may not, or they may grow very differently. And then some oak trees may be healthy, and then others may not. This has to do with the life force energy surrounding this acorn slash oak tree, and that is what allows it to become the oak tree, the way it is the oak tree, and then the way it no longer becomes the oak tree. And much like that, you similarly have life energy that is allowing you to be you. And if you shift that, because there are things that will drain life energy and there are things that will allow more life energy in, and many people don't even know what's coming in and what's going out. So imagine that you are just you're like a boat, and the sum of your life energy going in and that going out is your buoyancy. Your life energy is your buoyancy. And if you have too much going out and not enough coming in, then you're completely underwater and you you can't go anywhere. You are just stuck wherever you are drowned in. And the thing is, is if you don't have enough life energy to come out of the water a little bit. You don't even know where you're leaking, and so to actually start to come up, that's why it's important to find ways to bring in more life energy. And a lot of people think that, oh, well, this just has to do with what you eat. It does. Yet there are many other sources of life energy, many practices. There's one that I've created that I teach. And then there's also just being in nature, and that's a good way of being in places that bring in naturally more life energy, while also simultaneously closing up some of those leagues for a brief amount of time, which is why so many people feel so drawn to be in nature. And as you are able to kind of surface and find your leaks, you'll naturally notice your leaks and start to do things to close them off. And then you'll also be able to see like, Well, where can there be more? And so as you become more sustainable, become a boat that is now floating instead of sinking, you can navigate your personal life with more ease, with more fun, with more joy, right? It becomes, it becomes great. You're this boat that can fucking float and steer and and cruise, and even if storms come, you can ride it out, because you can maybe shift positions and go places where it's a little bit more easeful and enjoyable when the storms come. And so really looking at your internal state, the life energy that you have, that you're releasing, that you're bringing in, is an incredible important part of your life energy. And another big part of this is just owning that there is enough, that there is enough for you, if anything that you can imagine, which goes totally against what most people believe, that there is a limited amount. As I said when I started this, there is no depletion of of anything on this earth period. There is just more and more more mass, more energy, continuously coming into this earth, the form it is that's up to debate, that's shifting, that's changing constantly. Yet how we shift, how we should change internally, can play a big part on how that shifts and change is in the world around. Around us. And so I want to take you through a little experience, because many of you are going like, Oh no, Justin, there's only so much food, there's only so much gold, there's only so much real estate, this and that, and there is and there isn't, because often people are utilizing way more than they actually need or desire. It's coming from place of scarcity, yet when you know that, you can just kind of enjoy what you want for as long as you want it, and then you can do something else, and that opens it up. It starts to become a really cool game where there's really enough for everybody to have what they want, because we don't all want the same things at the same time. Like, it's like, well, wouldn't everybody want to have a, you know, 18,000 square foot mansion, by this, by the by the ocean. As someone who had a, what did I have? I had a 2020 300 square foot two bedroom or five bedroom, three bathroom, home with a yard in the suburbs, I found it quite miserable after a while. It was, you know, was it cool for a while? Yeah, it was just like, I don't need all this space. I don't want to worry about all this space. And so it's something to enjoy. It's like, great to have for like, you know, a weekend with a group of people. Yet, for me, I really enjoy just having two bedroom, one bath place by the ocean here. That's what I really enjoy. Now, at some point, will I enjoy more? Yeah, and then maybe some point will enjoy less. If we're not stuck on I got to keep it and have it and maintain it because we know that there's enough, then we can start to see that there's plenty for everybody. And so I want to guide you through this experience that I'll likely make, make this available yet, if you're driving, you know, be careful. Drive yet. If you can, I'm going to invite you to comfortably start to close down your eyes and just we're going to start with three breaths to get really settled in, really deeply. So if those eyes closed again, if it's safe, going to inhale in the nose and always exhale out the mouth. We're just going to do three breaths that are going to go deeper and deeper. The first is going to be down to the down to the throat. Second is going to be down to the belly, and the third is going to be as deeply as is comfortable. So if you can breathe all the way down to to your your root, to your seat, do so, but only go as deep as is, as as is comfortable. And so going to inhale through the nose to the throat, inhaling at the mouth, exhale and down to the heart, to the belly, inhaling and exhaling, and all the way down to your base, inhaling as deep as you can, and exhaling and just allowing yourself to breathe gently, easefully, and allowing yourself to see a beautiful beach, very expansive, plenty of sand, plenty of beach, and it's sunny, it feels so good, and you're just wanting to soak up that sun into your skin, onto your body, and just you know that the sun is going to be safe for you, it's going to be nourishing, it's going to be beautiful. And you're wanting a space to just be able to lay back and enjoy and oh, there's, there are people here, and you start walking, and it's so easy to just find your own way. And just, there's plenty of people, but they just seem to have their space. And you have your space to walk, and oh, there's this most gorgeous space waiting for you. There's there's even a towel already laid down, and you just know this spots for you, and you lay down and you can expand out. And it feels so peaceful. You hear the birds, and you hear the lapping of the gentle ocean, and you lay down and you rest, and you start to just enjoy the sun that's coming into your skin, on your cheeks, on your forehead. And you feel how this is just so nourishing, so beneficial and enjoyable. And you're like, This is great. I just had to show up, and it's here for me, and there's plenty and others are doing the exact same thing, and they're they're getting all they need, and you're getting all you need, and you're getting more and more, and all of a sudden you just feel like, wow, this has been great. I feel I feel complete. I feel like I've gotten enough sunshine, and I'm ready, I'm ready to experience some shade. So you just stand up and you look back. And just at the edge of where the sand starts to end, there's these beautiful, beautiful trees that are tall and providing some shade. And you go there, and you see the beautiful beach, and you feel the coolness, the soothing of all this shade we get to still enjoy that the sun is shining where you were, and it's shining on those that are there, desiring it, enjoying the beautiful, beautiful view, and you're recognizing that there is enough, that there is plenty, that there is an abundance of energy, of space, of possibility of resource. And that is only as long as you enjoy what you wish to enjoy, that there is a beautiful dance of possibility, of plenty, of an energy of self sustainability that leads to global sustainability, and you realize that now it's time to go back to the world and see all the opportunities for this enoughness, this abundance, this plentiness, can start to come into your inner world. In your outer world, most elegant, easeful, beautiful ways. And with that, you start to come fully present, fully here, ready to come fully alert, fully awake, on the count of 312, and three, open up the eyes. And with that, I do hope that helped you feel a little bit more self sustained. And if you want to look for ways to be, you know, get some more life energy feel even more self sustained, and maybe that leads to you doing things for global sustainability, or maybe it just happens automatically, and you just start to see things happening for you, because things are happening within you, because remember principle of correspondence, as above, so below, as within, so without. I'd love to invite you to get on the list for leap. Justin wenck.com/leap, leap, that's my life energy activation process. It's incredibly powerful. It's something that I have developed, and it's doing amazing things for the people that have already experienced it. I do have an incredible, incredible 30 minute experience, that if you're getting this as it goes live, you'll still be able to sign up for it at the early bird rate. And so just you know, go to Justin wenck.com/leap, and you'll be able to see that, to sign up for that and be on the wait list for other experiences, self directed things. So really excited about this, and excited for you, and I'd love to hear what are some ways that you can see you can make your life more sustainable, which means enjoyable for you, and so that this is an enjoyable life for us and well, just all of us, you me and anyone else who wants to enjoy life again. Not everybody has to enjoy it so but I do. I wish you fantastic holidays. Thank you so much and good day. Thanks for tuning in to engineering emotions and energy with Justin Wenck PhD, today's episode resonated with you. 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