Thank you to comrades in XR who shared their personal stories and helped compile this!
Here are some personal stories and other resources that might help you:
Personal Stories
Here, a clinical psychologist tells of her journey through concern and fear to all sorts of action including occupying a road.
Here’s how Brianna Aspinall, founder of Carbon Conversations, turned her feelings of climate anxiety and grief into meaningful environmental action.
And here are some thoughts from a friend who is an Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist:
I personally think that I probably will not overcome the horror and grief fully of what humanity is doing to the planet and itself. So it will always sit with me. But I believe we can find ways to cope with it better.
One for me is definitely having stepped up in XR. It’s being with others in community that are aware of the situation and talk about it that is vital for me. Now what made me step up is probably a deep guilt of not doing enough and finally overcoming my social anxiety enough to join. And when I first joined there were some of you that came every meeting as did I and through whom I felt very supported.
Active Hope and the Work That Reconnects by Joanna Macy is also really helpful to me. As it looks at your personal life and links it up to the bigger picture of the dreadful situation we are in. Charlotte and I are attending a Active Hope book club at the moment that is really helpful and we discuss a lot about what we feel and is going on for us.
So being in community and connecting to the bigger picture is probably a good way.
I also believe citizens assemblies are a great way forward – again a community based change.
But I do also deeply believe that humanity needs to start coming from kindness and compassion. That’s the way forward. Also I personally work a lot on myself through various forms of therapy and do believe that that helps with the grief and it is valuable also for my place in the environmental movement because I learn to deal with conflict better and inhabit the place better.
And here’s something author Jeremy Lent said in a longer interview:
”There have been times when I have tried to venture into the unending depths of that despair, believing that’s what was required of me. Then a wise person once asked me “Why do you think you need to do that?” Following that question, I began my own investigation into what it was that life really was asking from me—and I realized what life demanded from me was to feel into its pain and suffering just enough that I could be energized to engage in fighting for its future flourishing—but not so much that I would be drowned in sorrow and unable to be as effective as I could otherwise be. I think that is the investigation each of us needs to make — how can we transmute that sense of despair and sorrow into a positive, life-affirming energy to engage in the cultural, social, and political process for life’s own benefit?”
Resources
- Read Rebecca Solnit’s Ten ways to confront the climate crisis without losing hope from The Guardian
- Read one of Joanna Macy’s books on Active Hope, and you might find a local reading group through Extinction Rebellion or your local Climate Emergency Centre.
- Read this Handbook for Climate Grief, Science and Action. The first page has “If you have picked up this handbook because you’re terrified about climate change, YOU’RE NOT ALONE!”
- Checkout Sim Kern’s the best books for transforming climate grief into climate action.
- There’s a useful Handbook and Podcasts, as well as access to trained psychologists, at Climate Psychology Alliance.
- You can call someone who will listen, or join a support group, at Extinction Rebellion’s Trained Emotional Support Network.
- You may find some help from Extinction Rebellion’s Post-Rebellion Blues; a practical guide to coming down to earth after non-violent direct action.