The constant barrage of bad news facing the environment today can be extremely anxiety inducing, especially for those who live in communities that will be, and have been, affected by global warming and inclement weather. As we try and move through our everyday lives, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy state of mind when so many things feel out of our control. As I struggled to face my eco-anxiety, these were some of the biggest lessons I learned that may help you too. Know that you’re not alone, and hopefully these tips can help you move past the anxiety and focus on making a positive environmental difference.
1. No more living in the black and white.
Zero waste, zero carbon footprint, zero environmental impact, veganism, etc. are all very strict and very rigid guidelines that I’ve taken almost too literally. Once in my life I had gotten to a point of almost zero waste, but at the extreme expense of my sanity and my well being. At every company, I started a recycling program where I would take the recycling for the whole company to the plant myself every week. I never accepted a job outside a 10 mile radius because I couldn’t bear the idea of using so much gas driving. I consequently bought a scooter so I would stop mentally berating myself over said use of gas. I would skip social functions if I had to drive too far.
Weekly errands consisted of going to stores all over town where I knew exactly which products I could buy that were the most local, organic and yet affordable, where I could bring my own bulk container, or the packaging was in paper. I couldn’t buy snacks because they came in plastic, so I tried making my own cereal and crackers. I never ordered take out. I tried to bring composting to the company I worked for. I found a city grant that covered 50% of the costs. My proposal was rejected and never implemented because the company thought composting was “too gross”. I eventually left that job because my values and those of the company I worked for were at an extreme crossroads. If you couldn’t tell just from reading this, the fear of generating waste and living a sustainable lifestyle was dominating my life.
Find room in the grey.
I was living my life in the extremes. I had no room for error. I was judging and shaming myself all the time, and that became the motivation for my actions. After years of living this way, I saw that I could never be the shiny zero waste heroes on social media. It took me a while to realize, that was ok.
No matter how hard I shamed myself and made myself feel guilty for not doing more, that wasn’t going to make anything better. For me, living in the gray means I strive to do the best I can and allow room for mistakes. It means that in order for me to live a sustainable and environmentally responsible lifestyle for the long haul, I have to draw boundaries around what I’m reasonably able to do and what I’m willing to sacrifice. If I continued to live my life with hard rules and an extremely rigid structure, it would just fuel my eco-anxiety. I’m the only one that can make decisions for the lifestyle I live.
2. Stop with the shaming.
The accomplishments I’ve made seem so small in comparison to what others were doing. I wasn’t starting a movement like Greta Thundberg. I also wasn’t developing an invention to clean up oceans at age 17 like Boyan Slat. I wasn’t fighting on the front lines for conservation like my favorite author Lawrence Anthony. These things weren’t accessible to me. However, these comparisons didn’t make me want to work harder on my own path. Instead, I just spent precious mental energy shaming myself because I wasn’t more like these high profile individuals. Many people use shame as a tool for change (myself included), but there is a distinction between shame and accountability.
Shame researcher Brene Brown defines shame as
“the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.”
That may seem like an extreme definition, but at the core, when I shame myself, I identify myself as the failure rather than the behavior itself. My mental talk is “I’m a failure because at the age of 33 I’ve done nothing with my life. I can’t even commit to my zero waste goals.” Brene aptly calls it the shame spiral.
Shame is much more likely to be the source of destructive, hurtful behavior than the solution of cure.
If this is something you identify with, listen to her recent podcast episode “On Shame and Accountability.” Trust me, it’s worth the time.
This includes self comparisons.
If you do a simple Google search, you’ll see tons of content as to why comparison can be detrimental to our mental health. Ultimately, I had to learn how to stop shaming and comparing myself to other people. I learned to incorporate self compassion.
With self-compassion, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we’d give to a good friend. (Kristin Neff)
Self-compassion is comprised of three elements, as laid out by Kristen Neff, a leading researcher and professor on self-compassion:
Self-kindness instead of self-judgment: Imagine I forgot to bring my reusable shopping bags to the store.
- Self-kindness: “That’s ok, let’s make sure I make a reminder for myself to bring it next time. I’m doing my best.”
- Self-judgement: “It’s #PlasticFreeJuly! How could you do this? Don’t you even care about the environment? You’re so worthless compared to other people doing this challenge.”
Mindfulness rather than over-identification with thoughts: Imagine I just read an article about the top teen environmental leaders.
- Mindfulness: “I’m feeling inadequacy and shame for not having done as much as they have. Those are difficult feelings and thoughts. Let’s process them and remember you are not your thoughts.”
- Over-identification with thoughts: “Even young teenagers are contributing more to protecting the environment than I am. What have I done? Nothing. I am a failure.”
Common humanity and not isolation: Let’s take my struggle with eco-anxiety.
- Common humanity: “There are lots of people who are struggling with eco-anxiety, it’s not just me. We are in this together.”
- Isolation: “Why am I the only one that feels this way? I am the only one that’s concerned about the environment and feeling so anxious about everything that’s happening! It’s all on my shoulders to solve these problems.”
This practice continues to be an everyday struggle, but it takes a constant reminder to myself that as long as I make a step forward and do what I can as an individual, that’s enough. Small steps compound into big ones. And if I keep moving forward daily, that’s improvement.
3. Read some good news.
News in essence only makes the news if it’s worthy of reporting. If you pay attention to the standard news cycles, the only reports you’d get are ones that convince you the world is about to end. An experiment conducted by McGill University in Canada that found
“ The readers or viewers, have trained journalists to focus on these things… often chose stories with a negative tone — corruption, set-backs, hypocrisy and so on — rather than neutral or positive stories. People who were more interested in current affairs and politics were particularly likely to choose the bad news.” (BBC, Tom Stafford, 2014)
If the news reports negative news because that’s what makes headlines, and those headlines are the same ones causing us anxiety, it’s time we looked elsewhere for news that will brighten our day rather than make us depressed. I’m not advocating for thinking everything is unicorns and rainbows, but if we seek out positive environmental news, it helps us feel a little less hopeless. Happy Eco News, The Good News Network, and One Tree Planted all have great content that’s a little less apocalyptic.
4. Find hope and inspiration.
Hope doesn’t equate to holding unrealistic optimism. Global warming, wildlife poaching, worldwide deforestation, loss of biodiversity, plastic pollution, coral bleaching, bee colony collapse disorder, water pollution, air pollution, etc. are not things that are going to go away from me or you sitting there being optimistic about other people solving them. In fact, these issues are not solvable by one person at all. Hope is defined as
“perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways…Higher hope consistently is related to better outcomes in academics, athletics, physical health, psychological adjustment, and psychotherapy.” (Snyder, 2009)
So rather than finding motivation through shame, fear, or anger, perhaps finding motivation with an underlying theme of hope will help us continue the good fight in the long term. Rather than being ashamed that I haven’t made a massive contribution to the causes I care about, I find inspiration in the people who have. I try and inundate myself with content from people who are changing the world, not so that I can be like them, but so that I am reminded of what my own goals are, so my hope of moving towards them becomes renewed daily.
5. Make YOUR list of things YOU can do, and start doing it.
Part of me embracing the gray and finding hope was finding ways that I could contribute that were accessible to me. I saw a documentary on rhino poaching and was so moved I went and volunteered in Africa for a few weeks. If I can’t be paid to protect the environment, then I would volunteer my time for causes I cared deeply about. I found leadership opportunities in the community around sustainable tourism. I sat on the city board for the local food system. I supported local businesses dedicated to ethical practices. I embraced others and reached for a community of people who held the same values as I did. All these things helped me feel like I was advocating for the environment.
We need the small inputs from the masses to create a seismic shift.
When I traveled I learned from people who were living and breathing the sustainable lifestyle. I worked on an organic farm in France where I learned how to make unpasteurized goat cheese. Everything we ate we grew or made.
I stayed with a family in Chile who was interested in eating vegetarian and taught them how to cook. I started a MBA program in sustainability management because I believed using capitalism as a force for good is a systemic change that is necessary. As Jane Goodall said,
Never forget that every individual matters. That you have a role to play in this life. That what you do, each and every day, does make a difference.
We all have an important role to play in protecting the environment. Never think for a second that your efforts are wasted because in the grand scheme of things, we need the small inputs from the masses to create a seismic shift. Small changes from millions of people can make just as much, if not more of a difference.
As a parent you can teach your kids the wonders of the environment, and the importance of treating it and all living beings with compassion and care. As a consumer you can support companies who share your values. As a homeowner you can replace your lawn with a garden and indigenous plants, or plant a wildlife sanctuary for butterflies and bees. As an investor you can choose to commit to sustainable investing. As an employee you can talk to your company about starting environmentally based initiatives if it doesn’t already exist. As a citizen, you can make your voice heard by voting, and by engaging with your representatives so they truly represent your values. This leads to the last note I’d like to leave you with.
6. Realize there are much bigger responsible parties at play that go beyond you and I.
The truth is Governments and big businesses need to be held responsible for the destruction and damage they cause. For example, rather than solely putting the onus on consumers to decrease their single use plastic usage, big corporations like Coke need to take responsibility for the fact that they were found to be the “most polluting brand” in the world. It’s time we pushed back. If the government were to implement more environmental regulations, and industries started taking responsibility for the harm they are causing, that has the potential to change things on a massive scale that we as individuals simply cannot do. This realization was huge in managing my eco-anxiety. It didn’t mean I washed my hands of the part I could play. But it did encourage me to see the bigger picture.
When it comes to dealing with eco-anxiety, know that you’re not alone. It can be extremely difficult when we’re faced with the effects of environmental destruction daily. However, the only way change will happen is if we take care of ourselves so we can all continue to fight the good fight long-term. There are others who share your same values and beliefs, and are willing to take that extra step to change things for the better. I know I am.
