It's normal and appropriate to feel grief, anxiety, anger, and helplessness in the face of escalating climate disruption because it's a reality threat to all we hold dear and our whole way of life. But don't get paralyzed by negative thinking and emotion. Here are things you can do to manage stress:
1. Exercise - Always helps with stress
2. Meditate - Quiet frightened or obsessive thoughts
3. Find meaningful spiritual practices – yoga, tai chi, contemplation, prayer, gratitude
4. Talk with friends
5. Find or start a support group
6. Take constructive action – e.g., reduce your carbon footprint, buy a Carbon Offsets, create a more sustainable lifestyle, join activist organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund, DrawDown, or Elders Action Network, become politically active.
7. Write in your journal
8. Educate yourself and others
9. Express your feelings out - cry, be mad, be sad – don't bottle up your emotions
10. Find a therapist
11. Prepare for crisis times (food, water, medicines, first aid kits, neighborhood organizing) and be ready work together with others
12. Appreciate all you have; practice gratitude
13. Do normal things, play, garden,
14. Create - art, music, poetry, dance
15. Breathe
16. Seek larger meaning, clarify your priorities, explore your spiritual beliefs
17. Recognize that life is a temporary gift; face the existential reality of your own death so you can take risks
18. Be with loved ones and love the ones you're with
19. Connect with nature (walks, gardening, animals, communion)
20. Keep falling in love with Creation – with all our brothers and sisters in the plant and animal world
Blog
20 Ways to Cope with Climate Anxiety and Despair
October 9, 2019
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