by New York (AP) – fear, sadness, anger, fear, helplessness. The emotional toll of climate change is wide, especially for young people.
Many are worried about what the future has in store, and a daily grind of climate anxiety and need can lead to insomnia, an inability to concentrate and worse. Some young people wonder if it is morale to give children into the world. Many people mourn the natural world.
Activists, climate psychologists and others in the fight against climate change have a number of ways to build resilience and help manage emotions. Some ideas:
Become active in your community
Do you feel isolated? Looking for ways to make contact with like -minded people and help nature, said climate psychologist Laura Robinson in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There are many ways to participate.
Work locally to convince more residents to give up grass lawns and to increase biodiversity with indigenous plants, for example. Help set up new green spaces, connecting projects to protect water, to develop nature corridors or to reduce the use of pesticides to save frogs, insects and birds. Work to get the word when rejecting nocturnal lighting to help birds and lightning bugs.
“I see people struggling with these emotions at the age of age,” said Robinson. “I have parents who really struggle with their own feelings and really worry about their children in the future.”
Make a positivity company
Climate news and the attack of disasters and chaos in general have become heavy and overwhelming for many with the rise of social media and the use of mobile phones. Try to plan breaks of notifications on your phone or take a step back from the news cycle in other ways.
Consider the idea of a ‘positivity sandwich’, where you start with a good news, followed by a harder piece, and then end with a second feel-good story.
Model behavior for your children
Phoebe Yu, 39, gave up a soft job in health technology to work on an MBA with a focus on sustainability. She started a company that sold sponges from the Luffa Gourd. And she does it all as she raises her 6-year-old son with her husband in Fremont, California.
“I am generally a very happy person and I am very optimistic. And I am still that, but sometimes it is very difficult to manage. Like what will happen and think about the long term,” she said. “On points I regret that I have brought a child to this world, knowing how things can get much, much worse.”
Part of managing her own emotions is trying to model sustainable behavior for her son, while informing him about the importance of helping the environment. The family floats an electric vehicle. They do not eat meat and have encouraged extensive family to do the same. They recycle, compost and limit travel by air.
“I try to explain things to my son so that he can at least have some understanding of how the world and the ecosystem work as a whole,” Yu said. “I think children can absorb that and that can change in a certain level of action.”
Remember: we are all connected
Britnee Reid teaches Middle School Science for Gaston Virtual Academy, a Virtual Public School of K-12 based in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Reid participated in a pilot project for a free teaching worker chamit on the climate compiled by the National Environmental Education Foundation and the Climate Mental Health Network, a collective of community advocates working on the emotional effects of climate change.
The kit is full of ways to help teachers support the mental health of students and to manage their own climate -related emotions. One of the exercises means that students document their interactions with the natural world in a timeline of the environment. Laying on all often evokes action, said Reid.
“They can be anxious, they can be angry, they can feel anxious, but they are just like these go -geters of:” I’m going to make the change in this world. ” There are a kind of two truths at the same time where they feel scared, but they also feel the feeling, you know, I can do something about this, “she said.
“The timelines,” said Reid, “gave some good, rich conversations.”
Find the words to express your feelings
Psychotherapist Patricia Hasbach, just outside Eugene, Oregon, has written several books about eco-psychology and eco-therapy and has given graduated students on those topics.
“We include nature in the healing process,” she said. “And we deal with the relationship of a person with the natural world. Especially with climate change, eco-therapy plays a major role.”
One of her most important missions is to help people find their words to talk about climate change when pursuing resilience.
“A few studies have been done that show that an increased number of young people report concern, such as 84% of young people in the US who report concern about climate change, but only 59% of them think that other people are just as worried as they are,” Hasbach said.
That, she said, contributes to inactivity and feelings of fear, depression or insulation.
You’re not one. You are a lot
Climate scientist Kate Marvel, a physicist and author of the new book ‘Human Nature: Nine Ways to Finous About Our Changing Planet’, it urges people to think differently about their place in maintaining the environment.
“Often fear and hopelessness come from a feeling of powerlessness. And I don’t think someone of us is powerless,” she said.
“I think collective, we are incredibly powerful,” said Marvel. “The atmosphere cares about what we all do together, and I think you can have much more impact if you consider yourself to be part of the collective.”
