How To Manage Climate Anxiety
Climate anxiety, including sadness, guilt, anger, etc., is a significant concern for many of us given the accelerating climate crisis. Here are some ideas to help you navigate your climate anxiety and translate that anxiety into purposeful action!
How To Manage Climate Anxiety
Many of us are feeling anxiety, guilt, anger, and sadness about the climate crisis. As we should! These emotions are understandable and can be helpful when channeled into action.
These emotions are less helpful if the anxiety and other emotions are debilitating and stop us from living a meaningful life. And yet we need to experience some degree of anxiety and guilt about the state of the planet to take action, and many of us could stand to feel more anxiety and urgency to offset catastrophic climate change!
84% of young adults are at least moderately worried about climate change and almost half say their worries about climate negatively impact their day-to-day lives.
If you’re struggling with climate anxiety, here are some ideas to help you bring that anxiety down to a milder level that can then inspire purposeful action:
1. Validate your emotions. They make sense, even if their intensity is unhelpful.
2. Observe your emotions and be curious about how they feel internally. Befriend them.
3. Breathe deeply and notice the feeling of the body breathing.
4. Spend mindful time in nature and keep bringing your attention back to the present moment.
5. Take a break from consuming information about the climate crisis.
6. Remind yourself that perfection isn’t possible.
7. Talk with others about your anxieties. Many of us feel them!
Actions To Address The Climate Crisis
Once your anxiety (or guilt, sadness, etc.) feels more manageable, here are some ideas to help you take action:
1. Educate yourself. Read the IPCC summaries and listen to podcasts or follow social accounts focused on climate. Remember to take breaks from consuming this content if you find yourself feeling consistently overwhelmed and burned out.
2. Change your consumption patterns to reduce material and energy use. There’s a reason why ‘Reduce’ is the first of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).
3. Write to government representatives to encourage them to prioritize climate initiatives. Don’t know your representatives? Use these links to find out (external links):
4. Write to businesses that you patronize to ask about and encourage greater climate accountability.
5. Reduce food waste in your home and reduce meat consumption. Much of food waste’s impact on the climate crisis occurs during production and transportation rather than in homes, but we can still make household decisions that limit our contribution to this problem.
6. Donate to climate-focused non-profits and initiatives like (external links):
7. Share and communicate your climate actions with other people on an ongoing basis. Many of the climate actions above are simply a drop in the bucket if done in isolation, and talking about changes you’re making with others can help inspire collective action and exert greater influence on large-scale actors like government and industry.
Final Thoughts
The reality is that industries like oil and gas are incentivized to download the responsibility for climate change initiatives to us as individuals and shift the focus away from industry itself. While we are taking individual actions, let’s not turn a blind eye to the reality that the significant changes required to dramatically shift our relationship with climate need to come from government and big business.
So let’s make sure that we make climate action and the ongoing communication of those actions a central part of our lives, while also remembering that we’re still allowed to live purposeful lives that will inevitably contribute to climate change to some (hopefully small) degree!
WG Psychology
WG Psychology is a psychology and psychotherapy clinic based in Toronto that helps people live more connected, purposeful lives through compassionate, evidence-based mental health support. Connect with us to see if we’re a fit for you!
Disclaimer: This post is intended for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for psychotherapy. The information provided is general and may not be appropriate for your particular mental health needs. Always consult a qualified health professional to discuss your personal needs and goals.