How To Deal With Climate Emotions (What Worked for Me) [#19]

Environmental news can feel depressing and distant.

What does it even mean that we lost 73% of biodiversity since the 1970s?

Most people shrug it off nowadays.

“Yeah, the environment is fucked. Let's go on with our lives as long as we can.”

Most people numb their (climate) emotions down, don’t listen to them, or worse, reject them.

Too many people are afraid to feel.

This is a huge problem because emotions lead us to action. And we need action.

We need emotionally intelligent human beings wanting to take care of the places around them.

If we stop caring, we lose a big part of what makes us human:

“Being emotionally rich and available to build compassion”

Without that, life becomes a grey day-to-day thing with endless distractions that leave us feeling meaningless.

Before sharing how to stay emotionally rich, let me tell you a personal story.

For most of my 20s, I numbed my feelings with distraction and drugs.

Deep down, I felt a lot of pain for the world, which didn’t go together with my positive and happy personality.

I felt I needed to be happy all the time for the people around me. To be a beacon of joy.

So I often opted for smoking weed or having a beer with friends instead of feeling what was there. Sounds familiar?

During the last 8 years, I wrote a journal, and when I reflected on the past years in 2023, I noticed a pattern: Every time I took a break from smoking, I felt more alive, happier, more active, more positive.

So I stopped fully.

Yes, afterwards, I needed to deal with the difficult emotions that came up when learning about the state of the world.

But counterintuitively, it did not make me sad in the long run.

It made me want to change things.

I was ​coming back to life​.

In the contexts that I am part of nowadays, there is more focus on feeling.

• Check-ins in the beginning of meetings to become aware of how everyone is doing.
• Sharing Circles in the village where you can share your inner-world freely and be witnessed and heard by other people.
• Spaces to slow down, breathe, and meditate together.

There has been a surge in interest regarding emotional intelligence. And rightly so.

In the age of exponential technology, environmental breakdown and societal unrest, understanding and working with your emotions is key to staying sane.

An explanation for this process is the emotional transition curve. I went through it many times.

From eco-anxiety to hopelessness and indifference. Then, escaping the isolation by finding islands of coherence among changemakers. From grief to compassion, acceptance and gratitude.

And from gratitude for life to action, agency, resilience, wisdom and meaning.

This curve summarises a lot of what I want to inspire with this newsletter.

To feel the pain and suffering for the world. To go through it and to come out a better human on the other side. To become a changemaker for the regeneration of our planet in the way you can.

I strongly believe appreciation and curiosity for emotions can get you through anything.

This is a process. Sometimes you go through the curve several times a day - sometimes just once a month. And it becomes less over time.

I invite you to do this work and join the movement of building the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

Here are 4 ways to deal with climate emotions that I have found to work better and more long-term than suppressing them.

Self-Care

When strong emotions come up, take care of yourself (and at other times, too, of course ;-) ). This can look different for everyone.

Maybe it’s taking a bath, reading your favourite book, taking a nap, going for a walk or doing a meditation. Maybe it’s cooking a healthy meal with locally grown food with friends.

Whatever it may be. Remember, it is not egoistic to take care of yourself. Only if you feel good and healthy can you be there for others.

Connection

It’s hard to face all of this alone. It is better if you can share with someone and feel heard.

Maybe it’s just chatting with your best friend about how you feel or sharing with a group you are part of. We often think others would judge us for our feelings, but I have learned that most people feel touched, trusted and supportive when someone shares how they really feel.

Try to find these islands of coherence that support you in this process of the emotional transition curve.

Being with animals also helps me feel connected and to go through these emotions with support.

Mental Breaks

It’s hard to stay positive if you are constantly bombarded with how bad the world is.

Next to eating well, you should evaluate what content you consume. Remember that bad news is the business model: outrage and fear bring engagement, and engagement can be sold to advertisers.

Quitting daily social media use or turning off the news is a good start. Maybe replace them with good news.

I like to go on walks without my phone to have a real mental break. Maybe that is something for you, too.

Doing nothing and looking into the sky, watching a heartfelt movie, doing some sport - there are endless ways to catch a break.

If you want to have a deep mental break, maybe it’s time for a ​meditation retreat for a few days​.

Positive Action

Nothing beats heavy climate emotions like doing something good. And this doesn’t need to be big.

The other morning, I felt gloomy, and I simply took a stroll and found some chestnuts lying around in a place where they wouldn’t grow.

I collected them and spread them around the area where we cut a Eucalyptus monoculture recently.

After the walk, I felt way better.

From the simple classic act of helping an old person over the road to giving your full attention to a friend or spreading some seeds around, a small positive action will go a long way.

Imagine everyone on earth thinks like that. 8 billion+ positive actions a day amount to something.

It starts with you.

Happy regenerating,

Jonas

P.S.: If you want to go deeper, here are some book recommendations on this topic:

​Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet ​
​Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects​