Coping with Climate Anxiety and the Global News Spiral

Over the past month, and especially over the last 2 weeks, I’ve been feeling a lot of fear, anxiety, and dread about the state of the world. Our global systems are bending under the weight of multiple compounding crises and conflict. Every newsfeed is filled with depressing and disturbing news about gun violence, Ukraine, food shortages, inflation, climate change, the pandemic, political turmoil, refugees, and a looming global recession. The sheer enormity and complexity of these problems towers over me like a tsunami. Every generation is faced with distinct global challenges, but I think we can all agree that we are at a uniquely pivotal moment in human and ecological history.

Learning to sit with these emotions is uncomfortable and difficult, and some days are better than others. But last week, I did start using a few new coping strategies. I’ve found a lot of comfort, fun, hope, and community through these different practices and I hope they provide some starting points for your own self-care process.

8-ish Coping Strategies I've been using:

1.????Share a meal with familiar and new people:

Last week, I made some new friends! I had a potluck dinner with a mix of familiar and unknown folks in my apartment complex. We were a pretty eclectic mix of people in terms of our nationalities, interests, and perspectives. Dinner was delicious and the sassy & smart discourse was even tastier. It was refreshing to respectfully disagree and pull out the nuances in each other’s opinions. We don’t have many spaces left for this type of healthy disagreement in 2022, and I can’t overstate how special this meal felt.

2.????Art Therapy

I invited my new friends to some art therapy sessions over the remainder of the week. As a college student, I ran our school’s peer counseling program. One of the most important lessons I learned was the value of providing people with the resources they need to help themselves. For me, art therapy is simply the act of providing folks with the supplies, space, and funky tunes needed to be creative. You can cultivate a special type of conversation, as well as a special type of shared silence, while making art. And the best part is that EVERYONE always starts with saying “Oh, I haven’t done art in years - I won’t be any good at it” and then subsequently creates something beautiful. The photo below is from an earlier art session with some MBA friends over Spring Break.

3.????Animal Therapy

Dog magic is real, y’all. And it’s powerful stuff. I visited my boyfriend a few weeks ago and read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy while I was with him. He lives in a city with a critical mass of dachshunds, and we had a running ‘weenie count’ during my two-week visit. During our last walk around the neighborhood, we were at 41 weenies. We made the final turn back to his apartment and THERE HE WAS: one final, classic little wiener dog. This brought our weenie count to exactly 42 – the meaning of life itself.

I also got to pet and snuggle with THREE different dogs recently and I am very grateful to Buka (pictured below), Bug, and Roscoe for their love and affection during these trying times.

4.????Share the weight

I’ve been talking about the state of the world with everyone – my family, my boss, my friends, colleagues, and even the lady checking me out at the supermarket. And we all are feeling the weight right now. While talking about it can be uncomfortable and distressing, it also has shown me that we are unified in our emotions. Whatever and however you’re feeling, you truly are not alone. It is essential that we cultivate community and (cheesy as it sounds) love in our life right now. So much is out of our control, but we can all agree that the world would be better if we were kinder to each other. This isn’t about being a perfect person or overly forgiving with the people who have done you harm. To me, it’s just about trying to be a net positive presence.

5.????Memes

Please enjoy these three silly lil memes. That is all.

6.????News consumption and turning it off

I want to acknowledge the privilege of being able to turn off the news. In our modern context, it’s both harder and easier to escape. It’s harder because it gets interwoven with our social media and personal decisions. But it’s also easier because there is always something else you could scroll through. I don’t want to be uninformed about the state of the world, but I have had to start asking myself whether a certain level of detail is actually helpful or productive. I'm still figuring out the balance between remaining up-to-date about the world and re-centering on my local sphere of influence.

7.????Therapy, Medication, Journaling, Exercise, Meditation

Each of these topics deserves their own blurb, but I think a lot of great writing and research has already been done on all of them. At the core of each is a greater awareness of both the body and the mind. If you haven’t given one or more of these a try, consider exploring them a little deeper. I think they all can take multiple attempts before you figure out what works best for you (or if you need them at all).

8.????Re-center and refocus on my individual impact

Our global systems were never built to be truly resilient and environmentally, economically, and logistically sustainable. It’s inevitable that they will become strained and fragmented. But that also means that they are ripe for disruption and reorganization. The question then becomes: where do I fit in?

I know that working for a nature-based solutions startup is impactful. I believe in our tree’s ability to significantly sequester carbon and restore soil arability. The state of the world just adds to the urgency and meaning of my mission.

I hope these suggestions are helpful and that the memes made you giggle. I’d love to hear how you are coping with these challenges and your thoughts. Please feel free to share your own tips and tricks in the comments. I'm so grateful for the positive little community I've built through this newsletter and look forward to learning from you!!

Be safe and be well.

Warmly,

Johanna