X is for Climate Anxiety, Y is for Youth
How to deal with climate doom, anxiety and despair and how to alchemize it
Apologies to all of you, this newsletter is way overdue. The reason we haven’t managed to write or send it, actually has a lot to do with the topic of anxiety. The rain is tapping on the window as I am writing this and I am wearing at least three layers. The seasons have changed and the summer is behind us (at least in the northern hemisphere). It was another summer of record heatwaves, floods and fires. On top of the acceleration of the climate crisis, the ongoing genocide in the Middle East has been dominating the media as well as our hearts and minds. In times like this we feel hopeless for humanity and wonder where we went wrong. It is hard to stay positive when watching the news feels like watching a Black Mirror episode. We feel guilty when we turn away from the relentless onslaught of reporting but devastated when we do decide to engage. We can’t speak for everyone, but feelings of sadness, despair and numbness have been fairly persistent, and, speaking to some of you, we know we aren’t the only ones feeling this way.
Many of us within the climate movement care so profoundly about intersecting issues that I can’t name a single soul I’ve met who doesn’t struggle with their mental health in some capacity. […] Unsuprisingly, there is a long history of undermining sensitivity as a way to gaslight, coerce and quash the efforts and existence of marginalised people and anyone that campaigns against normalised injustice. Let me reassure all the sensitive souls out there that you are a gift to this earth. […] Sensitivity heightens us to inequality and injustice; it conditions us to be curious about and critical of that which has been normalised. – Tori Tsui, It’s Not Just You
Coincidentally, both the last two books as well as our final book club read (which we would love for you to join - more info below) deal with mental health in connection to the times and multiple crisis we’re currently living through. We hope the below take aways can help you reconnect with yourself and why we’re doing what we’re doing. Take care of yourselves, hold your loved ones tight and keep doing the work (write to your MPs, donate, march and protest). We got this.
‘I can’t make a difference, said 7 billion people.’
Let’s remind ourselves that another world is possible. And with it a free Palestine.
Our take aways:
See below our main take aways for letter ‘X’ when we read ‘Turning the tide on climate anxiety’ by Megan Kennedy-Woodward & Patrick Kennedy-Williams as well as letter ‘Y’: ‘Birdgirl’ by Dr. Mya-Rose Craig
Eco anxiety is not a mental disorder. It is a very normal reaction to what we are currently experiencing and makes us human. ‘It’s unnatural to see the state of the world and carry on like everything is fine. It’s okay to not be okay. […] It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society.’ – J. Krishnamurti
Understanding the human mind can help us feel more compassion. What’s at play when we receive messages about global warming are our many defences and biases doing their best to save us the misery that total exposure to climate information might bring. It can be helpful to understand how the human mind processes this information and how it reacts to it. Here is an interesting article by Per Espen Stoknes about how to inspire positive action in people.
An over-exposure to doom can be detrimental to the efforts of the climate movement and your own motivation as an activist. We can become immune to bad news and a doom-fatigue can set in, which, if accompanied by the lack of a clear set of achievable personal actions, can coalesce with a sense of helplessness to push us further away from engagement.
Identify and remind yourself of your ‘objects of care’. What connected Mya-Rose Craig with nature initially were the birds and her desire to see as many of them as possible, which lead her to become one of the youngest people in the world to have seen as many species as she has. Birds are Mya’s ‘objects of care’. Objects of care are things that we hold in our minds as being the most important, most emotionally resonant and over which we feel the greatest sense of guardianship. It could be people, emblems of the natural world, specific species or places. To identify your objects of care, you might want to try and envision the world in the future.
Envision the future you want to live … Imagine you find yourself in the year 20240, People woke up and saw what needed to be done. The soil is regenerating and there is fundamental respect for our planet. Now write down what you see. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? Who or what has been saved? What matters to you in this place? Use this visualisation as a kind of lighthouse when you fell you have lost your way.
… and the role you want to have in it. Will you demand more equality? Will you be the influencer or the disruptor? The connector? The listener? The healer? Lean into what you enjoy and what you are good at. By defining the role, we buy into the character that is our ideal, effectively imagining this persona and then learning to cultivate and believe in the individual we want to become. We can then start showing up as that person. If you are unsure of your role, here is a super informative post by Climate in Colour that might help.
Let go of perfectionism. In ourselves, as well as in others. We can’t over-attribute blame to ourselves or hold ourselves overly accountable as individuals. We don’t have to do everything, all the time, in a perfect way. It is exhausting, but most of all, impossible. ‘The goal is not self-purification. The goal is institutional and political change.’ – Leah Stokes
Direct your energy towards where you can have the biggest impact. And where we can have the biggest impact will be different to every single one of us. Our activism will look different depending on who we are, what our skillset is, who we are connected to and what we are passionate about. None of us can care about everything and that is okay.
Community will save us. Always. Community serves us by letting us serve it. Helping others increases our sense of social connectedness, optimism and purpose. Find a local group you can join.
Taking care of ourselves as activists can inspire others to join in too. This is key to bring more people into the movement, as already mentioned by Mikaela Loach in ‘It’s Not That Radical’. The only way to bring more people in is to show them how great this space is and how empowering this mentality feels and the strength we derive from this.
The importance of self efficacy. Self efficacy are people’s beliefs about their capabilities to exercise influence over events that affect their lives. In short, setting ourselves and achieving them creates a positive feedback loop that can create real lasting change. Evidence suggests that self-efficacy is a good predictor of climate change adaptation and pro-environmental behavioural intent.
Mindfulness. Many things feel out of our control. But the one thing we always have power over is how we respond to things, which leads us onto our final book club read. Zen and the art of saving the planet - see below.
Join our book club meet up for the final letter in our alphabet of climate solutions:
Join us for our final bookclub meet up of the year, where we read Zen and the art of saving the planet by Thich Nhat Hanh. We are taking a break from our book club after this so this one is the one to join.
About the book:
In this masterful work, one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today shares his wisdom on how to be the change we want to see in the world.
In these troubling times we all yearn for a better world. But many of us feel powerless and uncertain what we can do. Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) is blazingly clear: there's one thing that we have the power to change, and which can make all the difference: our mind. How we see and think about things determines all the choices we make, the everyday actions we take (or avoid), how we relate to those we love (or oppose), and how we react in a crisis or when things don't go our way.
Filled with powerful examples of engaged action he himself has undertaken, inspiring Buddhist parables, and accessible daily meditations, this powerful spiritual guide offers us a path forward, opening us to the possibilities of change and how we can contribute to the collective awakening and environmental revolution our fractured world so desperately needs.
This will be a special final book club meet up and we can’t wait for you to join us!
We will meet on the 21st of November at 7PM (GMT) – RSVP via Eventbrite.
Thank you for reading our newsletter! You can support our work by getting a paid Substack subscription. If you want to join us for one of our upcoming events, make sure you follow us on Eventbrite or Meet Up. If you have any questions please add a comment to this post or send us an email to hello@andthefuture.com
Lisa & Tash ✨