Embracing Eco-Anxiety
How to cope with the overwhelming feelings of climate change
There are days when I’m optimistic about climate change. Days when I think we’ll turn this disaster train around and stop slowly hotboxing ourselves with CO2. Days when I see all the good people are doing in the world and believe that the future will be better.
Then there are days like today.
Days like today are marked by a gnawing sense of anxiety that eats me down to my core. It’s an anxiety that keeps me up at night and makes my mind wander away from my daily tasks. It’s an anxiety soaked in sadness, loneliness, and loss.
But I’ve learned to embrace these days. It’s easy to feel the weight of climate change on our shoulders every time we turn on the news or read another devastating article on the internet. But I’ve learned to use that weight to become stronger, more educated, and more active in the climate community. Learned to use my anxiety to power my motivation for change.
For years, the anxiety of climate change hung over my life and decisions. The more I considered all the aspects, the more overwhelmed I felt. The more overwhelmed I felt, the more frozen I was. It has taken me many years, struggles, and therapy to figure out how to cope with the crushing reality that is climate change.
