Managing Your Eco-Anxiety

According to the article What to know about eco-anxiety: 

Eco-anxiety refers to a fear of environmental damage or ecological disaster. This sense of anxiety is largely based on the current and predicted future state of the environment and human-induced climate change.

Honestly, all of us who think about sustainability likely suffer from eco-anxiety to some degree. But, according to the research, there are some things that you can do. 

One thing is to get educated. You are probably well educated about what’s wrong, but not many understand what’s right, what sustainability actually looks like. Thankfully, that’s an easy to learn. Nature shows us what sustainability looks like. Living things thrived on Earth billions of years before humans emerged, and will continue to do so in spite of our impacts. Sustainability in Nature is about adapting and evolving, creating conditions conducive to other living things. It’s about relying on things that are abundant, rather than things that are scarce, and relying on each other. If you want to see what sustainability looks like, just go for a walk in a forest or a prairie and take a closer look. Just ask Nature.

Another thing you can do is become more resilient. You know what to resist (over-consumption, single-use plastics, fossil fuels), but how might you bounce back from change and disruption? Life has been facing change and disruption for billions of years. At the beginning, life emerged in seemingly toxic atmospheres. Life adapted and evolved and diversified to spread across every continent as well as all of the oceans, figuring out how to survive bitter cold, blazing heat, and the incredible pressures found at the bottom of the sea. Learning to discover and apply Nature’s strategies for resilience to your work, as well as your personal life, can make you more optimistic and, well, more resilient. 

Finally, you can foster a closer relationship to Nature. You can go outside more often. You can bring Nature inside. You can also recognize that you are a part of Nature, body and soul — you can’t not be. When eating, breathing, and digesting your body is participating in Nature’s endless systems and cycles. You are also born with an innate understanding of Nature, the way it works, and your role in it. This paradigm, the one you experience when you’re enjoying the outdoors, is your Natural Paradigm. Learning to live from your Natural Paradigm can give you new clarity and understanding of our world while building your resilience.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to rediscover your Natural Paradigm, I invite you to download the [free] Tiny Transformation Workbook which will give you a tiny peek into the Natural Paradigm and then a tiny experience of intentionally living from your own Natural Paradigm.

​