Eco therapy for climate anxiety and well-being

It is well-known how many benefits the natural world can hold for us, but how can we engage in climate change without feeling overwhelming anxiety?

As a practising eco therapist, I have a toolbox of ideas, and this article offers bitesize suggestions to help you.

Initially, I believe it is important to think about your relationship with the natural world and where it started. It may be to do with your experience of the weather, your body, animals and pets or the natural world. What memories do you hold dear in relation to these things? Think about the sensory elements of these memories to really bring them into the forefront of your mind. In doing so, you can meditate and reflect on these times to help aid your mental health and perhaps slow down your thoughts.

Sometimes these memories can feel very distant, but is there some part of the memory that you can incorporate into your daily life? 

Perhaps the memory was walking in nature or spending time with a favourite pet or flying a kite. Can you recreate this? If that isn't possible, what would it be like to draw it or make an image of the memory? Then you can put this image somewhere where you can regularly see it to evoke these good feelings. You could make sure you get out for a walk to your favourite place or the local park. Perhaps you like gardening; could you grow a new plant in your home? Do you have a window that looks onto a garden, a tree, or even the sky? And can you give yourself time each week to sit and look out of it? What do you notice? How about cooking your favourite meal or tea with mint from the garden?

Sometimes, over time or due to trauma, we can become disconnected from nature. This can cause anxiety because we are caught up in our minds rather than our bodies. Our bodies are nature and by connecting with nature we explore our senses (e.g listening to the birds or the wind rustling the leaves in the trees; stroking or holding a pet or feeling the sunshine on your skin; tasting the salt in the sea air; eating some homegrown vegetables, herbs or a delicious meal; looking at a pet or a beautiful view; smelling a fire on a camping trip or the air in the summer after a storm). These are useful grounding techniques often used in mindfulness practice that can alleviate depression, anxiety and trauma symptoms.

By bringing these small everyday acts into your routine, you can connect with nature and connect to a better understanding of yourself as part of something bigger. This sense of belonging and existential thinking can develop feelings of self-worth and connection to others.

Why not encourage your friends and families to get involved too? These may seem like small and perhaps insignificant steps, but if we all start to reconnect a little with the idea that we are nature, making steps to rekindle our relationship with nature, then perhaps we will also take bigger steps to look after ourselves, each other and this beautiful world around us.