Tackling eco anxiety
Eco-anxiety - including eco-grief - is real. Since the release of the IPCC’s report, there’s been a dramatic, horrible spike. Here’s how to spot it, how to deal with it, and how you can help people with it - whether that’s your customers, friends, colleagues, children, or you.
Image by Rob Schreckhise via Unsplash
What is eco anxiety
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) describes eco-anxiety as “a chronic fear of environmental doom.”
Us humans like to have control - and we’re overwhelmed by the lack of control we have over something as big as the environmental crisis.
2021 has been relentless. It would be a heck of a person who isn’t affected by the incessant floods and fires, the reality of the IPCC report and the mind-boggling inaction from governments and businesses.
We’re scared for ourselves, we’re scared for the future, and we’re scared about whether we’ll be the next to face extreme weather. We’re guilty about our own unsustainable habits and choices, past and present; increasingly we’re feeling guilt on behalf of an entire generation.
And let’s face it, not many of us are coming from a great place, full of huge reserves of emotional energy; what with global pandemics and all.
So it’s hardly surprising that more of us than ever are struggling with eco-anxiety and eco-guilt.
How to deal with it
Many people still don’t know that what they’re feeling is a real thing. Simply by talking about eco-anxiety and grief, we can help - don’t we all feel better when we know that we’re not the only one? And doesn’t it help when we discover ‘it’ has a name, so that we’re in a position to learn how to manage it?
As ethical businesses, we have a platform - and we can use that platform to help. Here’s six suggestions that can make a difference.
A gentle reminder: small things matter
Most of us know the phrase: ‘‘It’s only one plastic straw”, said 2.8 billion people’.
Well, how about we turn that on it’s head?
“It’s one less journey by car”, said 7.8 billion people.
Small steps may seem frustratingly small. But they add up.
And we forget that it’s not just the action itself. It’s the impact you have on those around you.
Every time someone sees you with your reusable mug or electric car; every time someone passes the zero waste store and it looks busy; every time you have visitors who see your refilled washing up liquid and plant milk; every time you pick up litter?
You’re normalising sustainable living. Every time others see you doing it they realise it’s not so hard, nor so scary, nor so different. That it’s achievable, and easy, and normal.
Every time someone sees you acting sustainably - then you’re an influencer and a change maker, without even trying.
Join with like-minded souls
Repair cafes are popping up everywhere. Many communities have groups for local environmental action. There are community gardens, tree planting groups, citizen science projects…
Taking part in these can help. In part, that’s because it gives you back a little bit of control - you’re doing something. More than that, it reminds you that you’re not the only one who wants change. There are others like us - and more and more people are joining us every single day. There’s nothing like the company of like-minded souls to give you the lift you need.
Switch off
We’re bombarded. Bombarded by bad news, bombarded my deniers, bombarded by what may or may not happen at COP26.
It’s too much.
The worse you feel, the easier it is to sit on the couch and doom scroll through social media or the news.
The worse you feel, the more you need to stop. If the bad news and social media deniers are overwhelming - then take a break. Nothing bad is going to happen because you don’t know that a mountain shrank by two metres this week.
And, speaking as the marketer? Customers bloomin’ love you when you use social media to remind them to switch off from social media. No idea why - but it happens, time and time again.
A healthy dose of optimism
It’s not easy, but looking for the good helps. For me, that looks like remembering how simple it is to solve the problems through reducing consumption. I like to imagine what the world can look like, in as little as 15 years from now, if we simply reduce our consumption and reconnect with community and nature.
Some people like to focus on the positive news - new breakthroughs, the incredible things communities and individuals achieve, day in and day out.
Think simple solutions, not hard problems
We CAN make this simple, easy and positive. The ‘how’ isn’t as hard as we’re often led to believe. Each and every week, there’s more talk about reducing consumption and the exciting possibilities for thriving in a post-growth era.
Ghastly lists of endless things we can do (turn off the lights, recycle more etc) are off-putting; we tend to find the long lists overwhelming; our guilt levels are heightened by what we ‘should’ be doing better.
Simplifying those should-do-more lists into basic principles - consume less, shift away from growth and consumerism - is far more manageable.
Focusing on the positives - a world with more financial security, more time for family friends and hobbies, more comfortable homes, and healthier happier lives - motivates and cheers us far more than doom and gloom.
Get out of here
Get outside.
Run, bike, climb or walk, if that’s your thing.
But take it slow, too. Nature is our greatest healer.
If you’ve ever tried to get from A to B with a toddler, you’ll know that the world is full of wonder; when we just stop to look. The contours on the bark of a tree; the busy chatter of sparrows, the incredible blue of a cornflower, dew on a spiders’ web, or the ripples on a pond.
Nature is incredible, and it lifts us.
Get perspective on that guilty feeling
My children wanted crisps for a picnic. I bought them. Six plastic, hard-to-recycle individual packets encased in a further bag of plastic; and from a company whose ethics I really don’t like.
Boy, did I feel guilty.
Handily, my mother was there, with a snort of derision and a “Don’t be daft!”
She was right (as usual). It’s far too easy to focus on what we do that’s ‘wrong’, and how we should be ‘better’.
It’s healthier for me to make a conscious effort to focus on the fact that our usual food choices are pretty ethical. Most of the time we get it pretty right. And we keep getting better. To misquote my favourite ‘eco meme’: it’s far better to do many things imperfectly, rather than a few things perfectly.
Image via One Million Women
Fixing on the fact I buy six packs of crisps once in a blue moon? Within the greater scheme of things, there are better ways to use up my emotional energy.
(NB: It’s entirely possible my mum’s response was based on the fact she got to snaffle an illicit bag of cheese and onion.)
Keep spreading the word
Mental health matters. So let’s just talk about it. Talk about how we’re feeling, talk about how other people might be feeling. As ethical businesses, we can make a difference - to our customers, our ‘audiences’, to their families and friends.
Let’s just keep talking about eco-anxiety.