Overcoming the paralysis of climate anxiety

Being part of a generation that has grown up with an ever-increasing awareness of the climate crisis, I, like many others find myself in a paralyzing conundrum.

Juggling:

• The existential dread of what this crisis will mean for us and our future
• The sense of powerlessness that comes from the sheer size of the situation
• The anger that comes with "why can't politicians just do more?"
• Saying "there are a lot of smart people in the world, someone will figure something out" while focusing on other things to keep ourselves sane
• Feeling bad that we're not doing enough so obsessing over micro-improvements like reducing plastics, buying electric cars, not travelling as much, choosing the "green" route on google maps... all of which come with an element of confusion as to if it's really helping or not.

And so we take that worry, overwhelm, anger, guilt and we internalize it. And it sits in there, like a heavy, dense, lump... occupying our chest.

And yet, in among this perceived lack of choice, lies an opportunity... for finding our personal power.

There is no such thing as "no choice", just lack of clarity. And confusion has been the biggest culprit of climate anxiety. So in this article, I will attempt to intrigue you as to my suggestion on how to transform climate anxiety into an empowered, non-delusional stance.

Anxiety is useful to no-one

There is an unspoken valor that comes with being anxious about something. "Because at least it means I care! I mean, what? You want me to just not care at all?"... it the justification we might hear ourselves or others say in response to "Is it healthy to be this worked up all the time?".

But here's the dirty little secret about anxiety, it eats away at your mental health and in turn, massively limits our ability to add any positive contribution to the world. If anything is going to turn this climate disaster around, it's going to be good ideas and good ideas don't come from stagnant minds.

I say "stagnant" because existential anxiety has a highly stagnant energy. And when we put our minds towards massive action, anxiety crumbles.

But the million dollar question is, what action? What can I possible do that will make a difference?

The power of focus

We're capable of a lot more than we think and the concept of "out of my control" is a lot further than we anticipate. Imagine your closest family member being in massive danger. How fiercely would you try to do something, before you decide it's "out of your hands"?

I'm not suggesting that everything is always within our control (I'll touch on this later). I'm merely pointing out the human superpower that has the ability to move mountains and has fueled every single breakthrough in history - the combination of intense emotional drive and clear focus.

Just like how a magnifying glass can focus the rays of the sun onto a single spot and start a fire. I believe that the emotional intensity is there for many people, but currently it's fueling our anxiety because there isn't a clear focus.

So what are the one or two areas that will make the biggest difference for the climate crisis?

Innovation over regulation

There is so much confusion as to what the most powerful areas to focus on are.

• One one hand you have "just stop oil" activists, on the other hand you have people getting rid of their functioning petrol/diesel cars and swapping them with a BRAND NEW electric car.
• Does carbon offsetting actually work or is it just green washing?
• Should we charge people more to fly? Or perhaps there should be a regulation where people pay by weight?
• Should I travel to see my family this Christmas or save the fuel and stay at home?

Our focus is so split, that we're making marginal gains for a problem that's moving in floods. We obsess over minor improvements and demand more climate-related regulations from the government.

And although, both of those things are powerful in the right context, I believe what is needed for this crisis that's fast approaching it's tipping point is a breakthrough. Breakthroughs don't come from minor improvements. Nor does it come from regulation.

In the context of climate change, I believe that innovation is much more powerful than regulation or minor improvements. Because instead of fighting against the current, innovation re-directs it.

Ask better questions, get better answers

The questions we're asking today, are optimized for improvement - "How can we make renewable energy more accessible?", "How can we get people to fly less?", "How do we reduce pollution?". All great questions but many of the answers rely on regulation.

How about if we asked bigger questions, optimized for breakthrough and innovation?

My friend recently told me that our brains are much more more creative when we're finding things that are wrong than when we're thinking of solutions. So what if we used that to our advantage and asked questions like...

"What would we need to do to make the climate crisis EXPONENTIALLY worse, right now?"

And then flipping the answers to drive the solution.

We did this excise with my friend and we came up with the wacky idea of "What if we could incrementally move the earth away from the sun?". It may or may not be realistic, but it gets people thinking.

Imagine if all that happened, was that people with climate anxiety just started having fun with creative questions like this - we would find a breakthrough solution at a much quicker rate than we are today.

The challenge with climate innovation

However, when it comes to climate change, finding truly effective innovation is not easy because of this one roadblock... Human advancement has fundamentally been built on the underlying assumption that the world is an unlimited resource for us to exploit.

We cannot switch off our desire to advance and yet finding ways of advancing in a way that doesn't deplete the earth, goes against the very building blocks of society has been built on to date. The assumption of "earth is a resource for us to exploit" has systematically been baked into the very fabric of our society.

That's why climate innovation has been few and far between because the only places where there is enough room for innovation to germinate are in the nooks and crannies where the innovation doesn't step on the toes of our underlying societal assumptions.

A spiritual revolution

So perhaps, in order to successfully navigate this crisis, beyond solely focusing on, innovating and acting on the right things, is the need for a change of heart. How we, a society as a whole, view our connection to and role in nature.

However, this sort of change doesn't come by force. There is no political policy that can facilitate or regulate this. This needs to come from within.

The art of surrender

So although, there is immense power in directing our focus and energy towards action and change, the part of climate anxiety less talked about is the art of letting go. No, I don't mean "the art of not caring", but the art of letting go.

No one really speaks about this but we do it all the time. We apply for a job we really, really want, put our absolute all in and then get to a point where we have to dis attach from the outcome saying "Whether I get or don't get this job, I trust that it's just as it needs to be".

In our highly masculine, achievement-driven society, the concept of surrender doesn't get much limelight. In his book "The Surrender Experiment", Michael Alan Singer beautifully illustrates just how active a role, surrendering and dis attaching from the outcome plays for a healthy life but more importantly for healthy ideas and overcoming societal challenges.

From a climate perspective, the idea of surrender is build on the belief that there is no such thing as "unnatural". Only "unfavorable" for humans. What if, everything that's happening in the world, was just another part of the universal dance? Like starts being made or destroyed...

This new perspective, would introduce a second question that feeds climate innovation

"How can we manage and reduce human suffering throughout all this?"

But more importantly...

Removing the blocker

If we could connect to that perfect dance of nature and the universe, the normal-ness and OK-ness of our situation in the grand context of things, we might just provide our hearts the opportunity they need to reconnect to our wider role in nature. How we're just a minuscule part of this giant ecosystem that will go on with our without us.

And with that re-wiring of the belief that "nature is here to be exploited" to "nature is here to flow with", stitch by stitch might we start to re-weave the fundamental belief that makes up the fabric of our society. And in turn, clear the way for more effective and frequent innovations to facilitate much-needed climate crisis breakthroughs, and continue to live on our beautiful planet in harmony.

What are your thoughts on overcoming climate anxiety?