Climate Anxiety: When All the Worries Should Be Fine and Normal
When you heard about the word anxiety, you will definitely remember about the feelings of fear, worry, sadness or even severe. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines anxiety as “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.” Doesn’t it sound terrible? Yes, it does. But it all comes back to what kind of anxiety are you aiming for?
The word anxiety may sound familiar to you, but have you ever heard about Climate Anxiety? In a book entitled Generation Dread, Climate Anxiety is defined as an assortment of feelings that a person can experience when they wake up to the full extent of the climate and wider ecological crisis. The term of Climate Anxiety developed by many talking about the issue of climate change and its effect on people’s mental health.
What are the characteristics of Climate Anxiety?
People with Climate Anxiety will get a sense of fear, worry or tension about the future related with the physical condition of our planet. To them, the world is frightening regarding the natural phenomena that occur like heatwaves, droughts, floods, melting iceberg, etc.
Is Climate Anxiety a good thing?
People with Climate Anxiety have a tendency to care about the environment, which is certainly a positive thing. But if the anxiety has bothered and made them uncomfortable in living their lives, then they need to reflect on their feelings of anxiety so that it can lead into a real good form as well.
What should people with Climate Anxiety do?
1. Breath properly. You may be very interested in news related to the state of the environment, although often it makes you feel even more anxious after reading it. Therefore, it is time for you to close your reading platform and breathe for a moment. This will really help you to calm down.
2. Join community. Your concern for the environment is not enough if it just stops as a form of sympathy. You can channel your anxiety into action. Connect with people who share the same concern and you all can start with steps to make healthy environment.
3. Spend time in nature. You may often find bad environmental conditions from the news circulating. However, that doesn’t mean you become overly afraid and think the outside world is very dangerous and not safe. Go outside. Go to a place that brings you closer to nature. This will help give you a view of the beauty of nature that you can still enjoy and that you should take care of.
4. Appreciate small actions. We know that environmental care is such a good thing. There are many things we can do to keep the environment in good condition. There’s no need to burden you with big but not easy actions, which will only make you more anxious. You can do small things such as throwing trash in its place, reducing the use of plastic bottles, walking to a relatively close destination, etc. Because every little action counts.
-Northern Ingo-
