With the news that July was globally the hottest on record, the changing climate is once more headline news – for a time. Suddenly expressions like climate emergency feel tangible, particularly with news of fires and floods. These headlines may or may not spur political action, but one impact is clear. Like other news events, the climate emergency is fuelling anxiety, depression and other mental health issues for many people.
Many of us feel disillusioned by the slow responses of governments and businesses. For some people, this will go further. They may feel overwhelmed (by the scale of the emergency), powerless, fearful for the future. Ecogrief has become a familiar experience, a form of bereavement, mourning the loss of biodiversity or of a more stable climate.
Would you call what you feel, ecogrief or eco anxiety? Combined with strikes, the cost of living and conflicts & unrest across the world, I know some people now avoid the news wherever possible,
The focus of my work as an arts for wellbeing practitioner is to share art, as well as music and nature, to boost mental health and wellbeing. When issues like the climate emergency and ecological decline so damage wellbeing, how might art, music and nature help? Not simply as a distraction, burying heads in the sand, but as a way to think through your responses so you might harness how you feel to act positively.
Art could help express feelings of fear, anger or sadness. Drawing, visualization and journaling are all powerful mental health tools, a way of setting down on paper or canvas how you feel. You could share your climate art with others or use it as a way to explore how you feel on your own. Visualization might be particularly useful. Visualize a scene you know, maybe a local street or green space. Draw or paint the scene as it is and then again as you would like it to be. You could draw this as a ground plan or map. Think about what would need to happen to turn some of the ideal into reality. Or try word pictures – write down words about climate or environment or government responses in different colours, sizes and fonts to express how you feel about them. Or make a thoughts tree – draw out a tree trunk and branches, then separately cut out some leaf shapes and write on them thoughts or prayers about the environment and stick them on the tree. You could add different ones over time.
Art boosts wellbeing partly because it is productive and active. You could use it to practically lower your environmental footprint too, by upcycling old everyday items to make greetings cards or clothing.
Music is another expressive art form, conveying mood, giving form to feelings. Listening to music that it angry, loud, combative, could match your mood. If you yourself play music or sing, try improvising music or writing songs to express how you feel about climate.
Connecting with nature could also help as a productive activity, like art. Time spent in nature could feel too painful, as enjoying being outdoors amidst trees and plants only highlights all that is under threat. But taking part in some specific initiative, like tree planting or maintaining a community green space, could be a positive. The immensity of the climate emergency can make these feel insignificant, but they can all play a part here and now, and counterbalance feelings of powerlessness and frustration which drain momentum.
Like any form of bereavement, eco grief may feel very different from one day – or hour – to another. And like any form of anxiety, eco anxiety will ebb and flow. Just sometimes, nature or music or art might help.
Medley 