5 Ways to Manage Your Climate Anxiety
It is hard to escape climate change these days. Every place on Earth is affected by unusual weather patterns and suffering ecosystems. The cascading climate crisis negatively impacts the people and places we love while heavily challenging the economic system putting additional undue strain on the working classes.
In this instance, ignorance isn’t bliss. Most citizens in North America recognize climate changes are impacting their lives but are unsure how to move forward and sweep the issues under the collective rug. Many people are now voicing their fears and are full of anxiety over the environment. We want to do something, but we have seen no change in decades despite people actively fighting for positive reform.
Here are some things you can do to help your climate anxiety and allow you to get involved with positive climate movements actively. If you have other suggestions that have worked for you, comment below.
- Join an online climate café
We are social creatures by nature and spending the past few years in various forms of pandemic lockdowns exacerbated by environmental uncertainty can cause depression and anxiety to worsen. By joining an online climate café, you can open up your social activities and participate in a helpful, solution-based community. Joining a like-minded community and expressing your feelings about our climate crisis with others can help you during times of uncertainty and isolation. Here are a few more global cafes, but I encourage you to find regional ones.
Climate Cafes, Community Climate Council, Climate & Mind, Climate Psychology Alliance
2. Read more positive climate news
Life is a balance, and while we recognize it is good to work on our issues when we only focus on the negative information, our mental health often deteriorates. Finding positive climate news sources can allow you to maintain a more balanced mind. Fear has a solid instinctual pull on our psyche, so, at first, more effort to actively seek positive information and thoughts is required. With practice, this becomes habitual and allows us respite knowing people are doing the right thing. Visit sites like Good News Network or follow social hashtag trends like #goodclimatenews.
3. Curate your social feed algorithms
In a similar vein to reading more positive climate news, we should be actively participating in maintaining our social algorithms. The creators and content we interact with actively impact our future feeds. These algorithms are powerful and work best at playing into outrage, compelling us to interact more frequently. Spend the time blocking content and the creators you are uninterested in; you will start to see content that moves you into a more positive mindset. Here are three examples of creators who appear to use their social platforms positively and environmentally friendly.
Hank and John Green, earthdr0p , witchbetty
4. Speak to a professional
If you have the means to do so, speak to somebody professionally about your anxiety. Many therapists now offer tele-counselling to comply with pandemic lockdowns. Therapists can provide things that friends and family cannot. They are experts and can provide you with activities to complete that will help regulate your fears and offer reading materials or sources to make some of your self-discoveries. They offer you a neutral ear that doesn’t interfere with your relationships with friends and family. Every person has different access to mental health care so, please investigate who is available in your area and how to access their services. A few general suggestions are Tia Health and Mind Beacon for Canada and Better Help for the USA. These systems are more generalized and work for those with no coverage or no idea where to start. Local programs recommended through your GP (if you are lucky to have one) would be ideal. Family services programs are often linked to extended benefits and offer mental health options; if this is your situation, don’t hesitate to contact your company’s comprehensive health general line and ask for the materials available for counselling. An example in Canada is the Family Services and Employee Assistance Program (FSEAP), which offers counselling, workplace wellness, and career advice.
5. Get outside
While lockdowns have restricted our ability to gather in crowds, that doesn’t mean you cannot spend some time outdoors. Getting outside in nature is ecotherapy. Participating in ecotherapy can help people who feel isolated and give you a boost of energy and motivation. If you have access to park trails, lakes, rivers, or other nature walks, it is worth finding the time in your day or week to get out and be in those natural settings. If you are in an area that doesn’t have access to these kinds of natural spaces, even a walk around your community or a nearby public park can start recharging you. Just make sure you keep a safe distance from others you encounter and leave the natural space better than you found it. You can bring a reusable bag or bucket to pick up litter for an extra boost. Hardware stores often carry lightweight, compact garbage pickers, which are a great option if you want to pick up trash but do not want to use your hands on questionable refuse. It’s also great picking up those cans out of hard-to-reach places. There are often meet-up groups, like shoreline cleanups, that will gather in parks and on beaches. Canada has Shoreline Cleanup, and this program has moved to California and Texas. There is a program in the USA called Keep America Beautiful (KAB), and you can volunteer or become an affiliate by signing up on their website.
Please note I am not an affiliate with any of the companies or people recommended in this article.
