Sad and Happy: Moving with Our Climate Emotions
Copyright © 2023 by Bonita Eloise Ford. Posted on September 21, 2023.
I’ve never cried while taking a selfie before but I wanted to share this with you. (And this piece is actually about tools to help us move from uncomfortable emotions into a more grounded and peaceful state, so please keep reading...)
I am working through “Canada in the Year 2060” in this month’s issue of Maclean’s. I say “working through” it, because I have started and stopped reading it several times and I am only about one-quarter of the way done.
When I got teary eyed while reading it, I took a self-care break, I took the selfie, and then I sobbed.
Why bother reading that—and why share this?
As a well-known Canadian magazine, Maclean’s is not a scientific, environmental, or activist publication. It does not cater to readers like me, so I would expect it to address our climate crisis in a delicate or vague sort of way. “Canada in the Year 2060” does neither: it is awfully and brutally clear. If I break down in tears reading it, then the average Maclean’s reader (I am guessing they would typically have a less radical view about the climate than I do) would probably find it shocking and alarming. I think it’s significant that a mainstream publication is writing about the climate so starkly.
My goal for this piece is twofold. Firstly, if you think the climate “emergency” is an exaggeration, I would invite you to read the article. I’m not a climate scientist, and it’s really okay if you disagree with the article and/or with me. In any case, even if you disagree, I hope it might offer you some food for thought.
Secondly, for those of us who struggle emotionally about the state of the Earth, I want to offer some tools to help us better cope. I know how easy it is to give in to feeling depressed, hopeless, or helpless. Yet, there is in fact an upside to our challenging feelings. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication writes “The Climate Distressed Are Willing to Take More Action” (check out their recent article). My colleague, Anne Therese Gennari, author of “The Climate Optimist Handbook,” offers similar reassurance in this recent Reel.
I want to underscore here that those of us who feel eco-distress are part of fostering the collective changes necessary for a healthier future.
Nonetheless, we don’t have to be incapacitated by our climate emotions, though I would encourage us to try to feel them as a way of moving through them. While our sadness or anger may feel intense, I have learned from Nonviolent Communication and from Joanna Macy that our feelings are connected to something deeper: they arise from our care, our love, our drive to protect, and our desire to heal. So while we might be tempted to push away our feelings of sadness or anger, we actually do want to care, love, protect, and heal.
Also, I would not ask you to go somewhere that I avoid myself. I feel such deep eco-grief, overwhelm, and brokenheartedness too; I care so deeply sometimes that my heart hurts and I can melt into a pile of tears on the floor. I allow myself to grieve. And, when I am ready and feeling more grounded again, I look for some way forward, some way to help.
This piece is a way to help you and help me as we each work to help our own communities.
***
If you read “Canada in the Year 2060” (or any other distressing climate article) and your body clenches and your breath gets tight, please read on.
I approached that article intentionally as part of my own practice of “climate coping.” I did my best to be aware of the emotions and move through them, so I would not create more emotional burden for myself.
In working through eco and climate emotions, I’ve been exploring a multi-faceted practice of:
breathing,
feeling the emotions and physical sensations,
moving the body,
connecting with a hopeful or happy energy,
and repeating the above.
As I read the Maclean’s article, I noticed the sensations in my body. After one or several paragraphs, I stopped to focus on my breath, and I invited myself to really feel the emotions for a full inhale and a full exhale. Then I allowed my body to move freely, to stretch, shake, and wiggle, in order to help soften and let go of any tension or bracing. Next, I remembered an experience where I felt very hopeful or happy and I focussed on the sensations in my body. As I felt more peaceful and balanced again, I went back to reading. Although the reading itself was quite slow, I’m grateful to give myself a gentle way to process such intense information.
If you’d like to have a guided experience of this practice, I invite you to watch the following video. It’s a recording from an “Engaging with Climate Emotions” session, which was part of Youth Climate Lab’s “From Root to Sky” program.
Also, please download this free PDF resource, which leads you through this practice. It includes a list of “feelings when our needs are not met” and writing prompts as well.
***
If you are still reading this, then you probably care and hurt as much as I do about what is unfolding now on our precious planet home. Please take a gentle breath and thank yourself for caring and still showing up.
Yes, we are losing so much collectively—and there are still so many ways we can take action now. If you are a bit stuck about taking action, check out this post.
Remember: the scale of change we are needing depends on all of us—and you are a crucial part of it. Please keep finding ways to support yourself. Please collaborate with your communities to uplift all of your efforts. Please protect and celebrate all the life and beauty around you.
May you be fueled by your love for life.