Climate anxiety is not innately pathological or unhealthy. It is important to stress that feelings and emotions due to climate change processes and impacts can be entirely normal and expected. If you are feeling such climate impacts, please know you are not alone in experiencing these feelings and emotions.
Validation and recognition of the ways climate change generates anxiety and impacts our mental health and wellbeing is an integral part of navigating climate anxiety. Holding space to validate, acknowledge, and talk about different lived experiences of climate anxiety can help us identify complex climate feelings and seek support as needed to process these feelings.
Acceptance of complex climate emotions can also help us recognize and understand the importance of hope, optimism, and joy as needed, possible, attainable, and an essential part of the whole scope of feelings around dealing with the impacts of climate change. Acknowledging eco-anxiety is an important step in helping to shift and mobilize anxiety from paralyzing to PRODUCTIVE and PURPOSEFUL action to build more cohesive, connected, and climate-resilient communities. 💙
