How do we change - in deeper ways?

Writing on the edge of deep ecology and mental health.

“Individual differences express the unity, as branches, leaves, and flowers from the same plant, and the love between the members is the realization of their basic interdependence.” - Alan Watts

About “A Deeper Green”

What if the state of our planet, and the state of ourselves, are really two sides of the same coin? The unprecedented challenges of our time all have the same root cause: disconnection - from ourselves, each other, and the wider web of life. The planet’s message is clear: change is inevitable.

For years, I worked on change on the top-down level. In powerful institutions, change is a question of policy, technology, law. Through my personal journey of ecological anxiety and grief, I learned about change from the bottom-up: change as a human, change as assuming responsibility in my web of relations, change as an act of care. If change is to be systemic, it needs to entail both. Change is not a question of policy only, but also one of mind, heart, and spirit.

“A Deeper Green” explores the act of reconnection, the mystery of our true and natural selves, and illuminates why this exploration is the essential quest of our times. Weaving together systemic perspectives on change, based on professional experience in the climate field, with deeply personal reflections of both grief and love for our natural world, “A Deeper Green” provokes us to consider the edge of personal and planetary healing.

Where do individual responsibility and collective action meet?

How do I stay human in this time of great fear?

How can we transform collapse into renewal?

If these questions speak to you, this Substack is for you.

Love for the natural world, joy in exploring the mysteries of the mind, and support of a safe and conscientious use of psychedelics, are all reflected in these works. And while these topics are discussed from a place of incredible privilege - with “renewal” not even an option for many of those already affected - it is better to speak from privilege than not to speak at all.

Thank you for being here!

About the Author

I am Leonie Staas, and I am passionate about aligning human consciousness and action with the needs of our time.

Bringing together professional expertise from both the politics of climate change as well as psychedelic healing and facilitation, I am a bridge between the environmental and the mental health communities, between the systemic and the personal.

Trained in energy- and climate policy, I have worked six years at the “World Energy Outlook” Team of the International Energy Agency (IEA), one of the most influential players in international climate politics. I became an expert in the role of behavioral changes and societal transformation, modeled their role in achieving the world’s climate goals, and advised the world’s governments on why each of us matters. I co-authored multiple high-impact reports on the climate transition, published a scientific paper on climate adaptation, and spoke to high-level policy makers at the climate converence (COP) or the German Chancellery.

Climate anxiety, ecological grief, and ultimately burnout, brought this work to a full stop. However, it also opened me up to a profound exploration of mind, consciousness, and what it means to truly heal. Healing - I discovered - is not an individual job. It is a planetary one. And it requires reconnection - to ourselves, each other, and most of all to nature.

What reconnected me were diverse practices, from rave to meditation, diverse wisdom traditions, from enacted Bhuddism to Taoist thought, and diverse philosophies, from deep ecology to system theory. Most of all, it was the lived experience of connection through the intentional use of psychedelics. They helped me see that, while our policies must certainly change, our understanding of our place in the world must too.

I am now a passionate advocate for understanding the climate crisis as a crisis of mental health and disconnection, for the power of psychedelics to restore our connection to nature, and for the crucial role of this shift in the current time. I am now a psychedelic facilitator, certified by the Synthesis Institute, aiming to make compassionately held expanded states of consciousness accessible to all those that seek help navigating the profound grief, as well as the profound opportunity, that this time calls us to take on. I combine my facilitation with Joana Macy’s The Work That Reconnects and the Eco-Dharma. I part of the Team at PsyGaia, offering an ecological understanding of the psychedelic healing path. I also work at the European Citizen Movement PsychedeliCare, where I advocate for climate anxiety and ecological grief to be considered as important therapeutic use cases for psychedelic-assisted therapy (PATs), as well as for PSYCA (Psychedelics for Climate Action), where I support the intentional use of psychedelics for a cultural shift towards environmental consciousness.

It was a shift in consciousness that taught me how to navigate my profound fear and sadness in these times, but also restored an unshakeable sense of connection, agency, and hope. Most importantly, it restored a deep commitment to action that comes not from self-righteousness, but from the heart.

This is what I hope to share with my readers.

Acknowledgements

Who I am is the sum of my influences, and what I write has been deeply impacted by people that might be unnamed at times in my articles, but have my gratitude, whether still with us or not. Maybe they will be an inspiration to you too:

Ram Dass: in teaching me the courage to be fearlessly different and unite science, social action and spiritual development without the slightest contradiction

Alan Watts: in breaking my old models with his logic and reminding me what the relationship between me and “nature” really is

Joanna Macy: in helping me reinvent my hope not based on outcomes, but as an active input to my future and that of our world

Christiana Figueres: in modeling the courage to speak of the importance of mind, even in the most “real-life” of all challenges, and in doing so vulnerably

Rosalind Watts: in laying out the path towards healing disconnection, and awakening the psychedelic scene towards the essential role of nature-connectedness

Mark Ovland: in guiding me through my practice and the Dharma and inspiring me through his self-less and heart-centered life

Andrew Boyd: in opening my eyes to catastrophe in a way that made me feel laughter and meaning in it

Marissa Feinberg: in setting an example for a “just do it!”-mindset, become active, and get our voices out - and her unwavering support for me to do the same

Note on the Use of AI

Artificial intelligence is not used for any of the original writing of my articles. It is used, however, for editing purposes, such as shortening, cutting, or suggesting summaries. This frees up my time for more creative work. I am using Earthly Insight as a way to minimize the environmental damage of my AI-use.