May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which, for people working in climate, is a good opportunity to talk about the emotional experience of our work. Though we intentionally focus on, and practice climate hope, climate anxiety is real—and not something to shove down or avoid. Of course we experience sadness about environmental doom and anticipated future loss. There are many ways to cope with eco blues. Here are some useful ideas from Elizabeth Bechard, Senior Policy Analyst for Moms Clean Air Force.
Normalize and Share Climate Feelings
When sensing despair about our shared planet home, know your feelings are normal. Sharing your emotions with people who can acknowledge and validate them can be helpful. “Climate anxiety and grief are signs people are paying attention to and accurately grieving this moment. These are signs you understand things you care about and love are under threat,” said Bechard, author of Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for Cultivating Resilience, Taking Action, and Practicing Hope in the Face of Climate Change.
Confronting Fear Can Help
Engaging directly with distressing climate emotions instead of avoiding them may sound scary, but it’s part of a strategy known as meaning-focused coping. “A lot of our understanding of meaning-focused coping in the context of climate change comes from Maria Ojala, a Swedish researcher. Meaning-focused coping can involve looking honestly at a situation and appraising it: We know climate change is really bad. There’s no sugar coating that. But we can also use it as an chance to lean into our values, find unexpected opportunities for growth, and find sense of meaning and purpose.”
For Bechard, meaning-focused coping looks like taking stock of what kind of person the climate crisis is calling her to be: an author and an activist within a larger climate community. “I find a lot of meaning and purpose in the action I am doing and in the relationships I am making through climate work. That helps me cope.”
Ways to Ease Climate Anxiety
Taking action won’t erase climate anxiety, though it can help ease it some days. Mindfulness activities like spending time in nature can also soothe environmental fears by gently drawing our attention to the present moment, rather than on frightening future possibilities. Embracing uncertainty about the future—good and bad—and living in the unknown has proven useful for some. “Deep down I believe we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Bechard, using COVID as an example. “It’s easy to fall into the belief that we’re doomed on the climate front, but the world has shifted radically and in completely unexpected ways before. With COVID, our sense of what was conceivably possible in the world changed overnight. There’s humility in acknowledging we don’t actually know what’s possible. Who am I to know?”
Model Climate Resiliency
Parents’ fears about the climate crisis can influence their children. Tending to your own mental health can benefit your whole family. The next time you feel anxious, find someone to talk to, maybe a trusted friend or a climate-aware therapist. Read about climate and mental health, including cultivating hope as a practice. It can be a lifeline, but it’s also normal not to feel hopeful all the time. And find ways to take action. “I don’t think I would feel hopeful if I weren’t doing work on the climate. My job is just to do the work in front of me as best I can. I find hope in knowing there is so much more happening than meets the eye.”
If climate work isn’t also your job, join a climate group as a volunteer. There you’ll be able to connect with other parents who also care about climate change—your own climate community. “We need each other,” said Bechard. “We aren’t meant to carry this in isolation.”