Dealing with eco-anxiety, often defined as a chronic fear of environmental doom, is a recurring issue for many of us today. It stems out of a place of deep caring for the planet and its inhabitants and as such, can really impact our overall well-being. It seems to become real when regarding the state of the environment, the future of our physical planet, the humans and the other species that call Earth home. This, all because of issues we seem to be causing, including human-induced climate change, pollution, deforestation and so on. In today’s episode, we are going to deal with combatting eco-anxiety. We dive into more about what it is, and some ways that we can deal with it, how we can confront the changes we need to make in the world, without eroding our own personal well being. We’ll discuss 5 elements of combatting eco-anxiety, that are tried and true methods, from my own personal experience but are also backed by the mental health research. Stay tuned for more on this intriguing topic and how we can be sure to combat eco-anxiety and remain flourishing.
Key Points From This Episode:
Tweetables:
“Make sure you understand that there really is nature all around you and it is accessible, as long as we open our eyes and understand that it is out there in front of us.” — Kristina Hunter [0:5:45]
“We need to find time to be out in nature. Make it part of your daily routine. Make it part of your lunchtime, do walking meetings outside, or simply just spend time in a park. Whatever you can do, to find little bits of time in nature.” — Kristina Hunter [0:06:30]
“We really shouldn’t ignore the need to be out in nature on a day-to-day basis, because that really fuels us.” — Kristina Hunter [0:07:30]
“Take action. Choose your action. Just one small action — you don’t have to do it all. It will matter.” — Kristina Hunter [0:13:05]
“We have to think about it in such a way that our action makes a difference for at least that one person. It mattered to that one. It matters what we do, even the very first small action we take — it matters.” — Kristina Hunter [0:17:20]
“Make sure that overall your downtime aligns with your values. Those physical, mental wellness values, your sustainability values and so on, otherwise, it won’t feel like good downtime. The downtime that aligns with our values and overall goals — that is good downtime.” — Kristina Hunter [0:18:45]
“For our own wellness, we really need to think about balancing the physical, mental as well as the work part of our lives. They should be balanced and aligned with one another for us to really be in our zone.” — Kristina Hunter [0:20:29]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Combatting Eco-Anxiety Worksheet