#18 – 3/18/2022
Climate Anxiety – Simple Things to Do
If you or your children have been feeling unusually short-tempered, frustrated, anxious, helpless, tired, or overwhelmed, it might be climate anxiety. Also called environmental melancholia, ecological grief, climate denial, pre traumatic stress, and solastalgia, the American Psychiatric Association now recognizes climate change as a growing danger to mental health. Today we focus on common sense ways to deal with it.
Today’s Tips:
Limit the amount of news you consume by turning notifications off, setting time limits, and not diving into the news first thing in the morning or last thing at night.
Connect with nature at least 20 minutes a day.
Go offline — Nurture in-person relationships.
Take action like joining or donating to a local group, starting with the things you care about the most and where your talents can be put to use.
Join a group of like-minded people whose values align with yours.
Educate yourself about what’s going on with reliable sources that dig into the topics you care about.
Talk about the issues with friends, neighbors, family and community members.
Questions/Comments/Tips: Jean at environment@uucharlottesville.org
Past Newsletters: https://uucharlottesville.org/environmental-action-group/