Befriending my eco-anxiety 

Rachel created these worksheets for workshop participants and we wanted to share them with the wider Eco-Anxious Stories collective. We plan to create a stand-alone resource for the EAS library for each, but in the meantime, here’s a quick overview in case you want to use the worksheet for your own reflection. 

We’re excited to offer some of these worksheets in French as well.

Worksheet 1 outlines 5 things Rachel has learned befriending her eco-anxiety. There’s a fun way to use your hand as a mnemonic device to remember all 5:

1. This is healthy. We don’t have to pathologize our eco-emotions to understand them, it’s perfectly rational to be concerned about climate change.
2. I’m not alone. There is a growing body of evidence for the widespread experience of climate anxiety, fear, concern, and worry.
3. I’m not to blame but I am at hand. Given that power holders have known about the dangers of climate change for decades, I tap into my anger to fuel a sense of responsibility rather than drawing on personal sense of guilt to motivate action.
4. Emotions connect us. What we feel ties back to our values, and by sharing our eco-emotions, we can centre conversations around core values and motivations.
5. Emotions move us. Not all emotions are mobilizing, but we can intentionally frame our climate stories in ways that motivate courageous and compassionate action. 

Worksheet 2 provides a story-based framework for “Following the Feeling” we have about climate change to a more fulsome story with key characters and elements of context. Here’s how we use the prompts in workshops:

1. Who: How does this feeling relate to your sense of identity? Who are you as a key character in this climate story? What other key characters can you identify and what is each characters’ relationship to power and agency in this story
2. What: What key themes or concepts do you find yourself coming back to when you think about your climate emotions? Climate issues are vast – what topics do you tend to focus on? What are your priorities and areas of focus?
3. Where: Where are you located within this climate story? Where are you coming from with your lens on these issues? Consider the setting of your story, whether that’s your geographical location, your background journey, or your relationship to other places, sectors, organizations, or movements. 
4. When: What is the timeline of your climate story, and how does that relate to your climate feelings? What key moments help to define “now”, “then”? When are the key turning points or tipping points that bring meaning to “when” you are? 
5. Why: What core values underlie your climate feelings? Why does this matter to you? What motivates your response to these feelings?

Worksheet 3 provides 5 tips for connecting to and through your eco-emotions. These practices are ways to build a long-term relationship with your eco-anxiety. Two of the tips focus on ways to connect somatically, through your breath and you body. The last three are tips for connecting through storytelling, focusing on your people, your power, and your purpose. This version of Worksheet 3 was designed for teachers and their classrooms, but you might find it useful for your individual use or your group. Let us know if you’d like a modified version! Here’s how we use the prompts in workshops with teachers:

1. Breath: When uncomfortable eco-emotions arise, how might you connect to your breath? Explore breathing exercises like the “Balloon Breathing” technique mentioned in Leslie Davenport’s free All the Feelings Under the Sun Workbook.
2. Body: When you’re moving through intense eco-emotions, try to notice where you feel your feelings. Tension in your shoulders? A pit in your stomach? It can help to move your body through these sensations. Try movements that help you connect to body and beath, such as yoga, or go for a walk outside. Being in nature can help you regulate and tune back into your body.
3. People: When you feel more regulated, you can move on to longer-term strategies. One tip is to connect with people who share your values. This might be a friend, teacher, parent, or colleague who you can relate to when it comes to talking about environmental issues. It might look like joining a community organization in your city, or an online climate cafe where you can build relationships. Caring for each other is essential to caring for ourselves and our planet. 
4. Power: Another key step is to reflect on your sphere of influence and the privileges you can draw on to make a difference. Consider who already listens to you, who looks to you for advice, how you can use your money and time to fuel solidarity movements. What power can you draw upon to support the broader climate movement and the changemakers in your own backyard?
5. Purpose: Climate change isn’t going anywhere in our lifetimes, and to build a long-term relationships with our eco-emotions, we need to tap into the actions and relationships that feed our lives. Think about what you love to spend time doing, and figure out how to connect that to climate action. 

These worksheets are a starting point for deeper conversations about our climate emotions. There are a number of other activities, theories, and practices that we’d like to explore in this way, and we hope to focus more energy on these engagement tools in the new year.

Stay tuned for more!