How to deal with climate anxiety

0:01You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey everybody, it's Marielle. Hurricane Milton has just landed on the coast of Florida. Meanwhile, folks in Florida and other states are still dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that killed hundreds of people and swept away entire homes. It's understandable in moments like these to feel powerless and filled with dread, to feel burned out. That's true when it comes to big natural disasters, but also smaller events like rainstorms can bring on feelings like this too. It's important that we try to hold on to optimism, and a new course at the University of California is helping students do that.

0:45The course is called Climate Resilience, Transforming Climate Distress to Action. The students meet scientists and leaders in the climate movement and do a series of exercises to help shift their mindsets and become more hopeful. On this episode of Life Kit, you're going to learn some of what those students have. This is part two of NPR correspondent Alison Aubrey's Stress Less series. She'll walk you through some of the exercises from the course and talk about how you can stay energized, even in the face of destruction and disaster, so you can advocate for causes that you care about. There's also a lot here that can be helpful to anyone who needs a stress reboot.

1:44Imagine something you love. Then imagine that thing is threatened. Jada Alexander knows that feeling. As a student at UC Santa Barbara, she went on a research trip to study coral reef in French Polynesia. The coral reef was vibrant. It was beautiful. There were small crabs in the coral. There were sharks around, beautiful fish. She says it was teeming with life. But then a year later, she went back to the same reef and it was mostly dead. It's really difficult, and it feels dark and sad, and it made me feel very hopeless. Professors at the University of California heard from a lot of students, like Jada, feeling anxious, many over climate issues.

2:33So they developed a course called Climate Resilience. Students hear lectures from leaders in the climate movement, and they're introduced to a series of exercises to help them shift their mindsets. Jada was a TA in the class. The class has been so successful, there are plans to offer it at 10 campuses next year. And there's a lot here that can be helpful to anyone who wants a reboot. These skills are universal to help manage stress and promote a sense of optimism. There's an arc or a process for leading people out of these kind of dark inner worlds where they feel alone and separate toward a more illuminated view of reality.

3:14That's psychologist Alyssa Eppel. She's a stress researcher at UC San Francisco and co-director of the Climate Resilience Course. She says from wildfires to record hot temperatures to hurricanes, it can all take its toll. So woven into this class is the understanding, and this is takeaway number one, people need to be inspired to see a path for change. And that means finding folks who are already making change. I have had to find my own path through climate despair and have, rather than reading the headlines, which are only one side of reality, I have found such strength and inspiration from global climate leaders who are showing us changes that are not in the news.

4:01So for me, I needed to find these leaders who both bring a positive mindset and see the full picture. Apple curated a bunch of inspiring lectures. Each and every one of us, business leaders, politicians, teachers, parents, students, has the responsibility to step up rather than shut down in the face of the climate crisis. Such as climate activist and founder of Force of Nature, Clover Hogan. What are the stories that we hold to be true that limit our agency, that limit our ability to take action? And master meditation teacher James Barraze. One of my teachers, Angelus Arian, says action absorbs anxiety.

4:41Just do it and do it from love and keep on drawing that in everyone around you and you'll make a positive difference. And no matter your cause, seek out leaders in your space. You're not just getting inspired. You're actually laying the foundation to make change. It's experiential. And rather than feeding the mind information, we're creating what we think of as neuroplasticity, as rewiring the brain to see more clearly, to see the beautiful, positive things in life. And Gioti, does that really happen? Does the brain really rewire when you tap into these stories of positivity? Well, yes, absolutely.

5:27That's Gioti Mishra. She's a neuroscientist and teaches the course at UC San Diego. She points to studies that show when people go through empathy and compassion training and then are exposed to distressing situations or images, the parts of the brain that are involved in emotional processing are activated more after the compassion training. Essentially, the compassion training primed participants to be more compassionate. And this is takeaway number two. Empathy and compassion training is critical. Jayati Mishra says this is something you can practice. And the more this happens, the more efficient that connection becomes.

6:04They're more easily able to communicate with each other. Just as someone can get good at a sport by repeating the same movement over and over again until it's automatic, it's similar with our emotional practices. The more that one is able to practice it in terms of expressing these positive emotions, it becomes easier to relate to others over time. And it becomes like a self-fulfilling positive cycle. It's like a positive loop that one gets. So the reason to do this is because if we deepen compassion, we can prime ourselves to be more pro-social in our thinking and our behavior. The focus is no longer just on you.

6:44You're thinking about others or causes, such as the environment. Now that you're off to the races to seek out the positive, you can delve into a set of exercises, because acting and thinking this way takes work and a lot of practice. We've adapted some exercises to get you started. The first exercise, takeaway number three, is to start finding a little time each day to slow down and be present. It's so easy as an individual to feel deflated, to get burnt out, but realizing that on a daily basis, we need to work on bolstering our own emotion regulation so that we can see the world outwardly and connect to other people and feel the inherent interconnection we have to nature, to the planet, to the human and more than human world.

7:39And so our class goes both from inner to outer. We start each class with learning a new mindfulness and compassion practice. You can start simply by finding a few minutes to sit still, take a deep breath so that your exhale is a little longer than your inhale. In daily life, you can look for prompts or create new rituals to help you slow down. For instance, chimes or church bells you can use as a moment to pause, or you can set a reminder on your phone to take breaks. These little moments can be more powerful than we realize. And so people's nervous system immediately gets very calm, and this changes how receptive they are to learning and to new information and to creative thinking.

8:33The next exercise is takeaway number four is called just like me. It's all about strengthening that critical skill of compassion to see the humanity in others. Just like me is an exercise that helps you with perspective taking. And it also helps you find sort of common humanity that there's a lot different about all of us. but there's also some things that are the same. Diana Hill teaches the climate resilience course at UC Santa Barbara. She says in a class setting, you break up into pairs, but you can also do this on your own. We all experience loss in our life. We all have wishes to be safe.

9:14We all have a desire to be healthy and happy. Hill is a psychologist and a leadership coach who uses this practice with lots of her clients. So in the Just Like Me exercise, what we have our students do is sit across from somebody face to face. And first, just pay attention to them as a human being that is sitting across from you. And then as you sit across from them, imagine that, you know, this is a person who has parents and grandparents. They have ancestors, right? It's just like I do. You can find lots of versions of Just Like Me recordings online. This person has been sad, disappointed, angry, hurt, confused, just like me.

10:01And even right now, this person has problems, struggles, just like me. So when we did this with the students, one of the lines that we did was, this person was a baby once, just like me. and the students cracked up because it was so funny to think about, you know, the person in front of them was like a little baby, right? But when you actually dig a little bit deeper under that and you see that all of us have been babies and children and have struggles and strengths and problems in our life right now, it makes you not feel so separate. Remember when this exercise started, students were asked to appear into a classmate's eyes, someone they didn't even know.

10:42As the mom of a son in college, knowing kind of the social dynamics of the moment, this must have been a hurdle at first. You know, we're asking them to step into discomfort. These are new experiences and looking into someone's eyes is like looking into their souls. And it was so impactful, uncomfortable as well as allowing them to really see their partner. And so the amount of connection that we saw build, you know, even right after that exercise was just so beautiful. If you want to do this by yourself, you can pick a stranger or someone you interact only briefly with, say at the coffee shop.

11:23Or you can picture someone you have conflict with. I'll instruct clients to go out in their day, like go to the grocery store and do this little just like me exercise. It could be as simple as saying, just like me, this person has problems right now. Just like me, this person has a desire to be healthy, happy, safe. The next exercise is takeaway number five. It's focused on joy and your ability to spread it. In order to recognize how good it can feel to pay attention to the positive, the exercise begins in a counterintuitive way. So what you're going to do is describe for two minutes everything that you want to complain about in your life.

12:06and you're just going to let it flow. The other person's going to listen and pay attention, but you can just talk about every single gripe, every single complaint, every single thing that is driving you nuts. In class, people partner up, but you can do this alone too. What's next? After those two minutes of complaining, you flip the script. Now you're going to describe for two minutes things that make you joyous, happy, that you feel grateful for. And you get to go into as much detail as you want. Talk about things that happened today for you or this week, things that lighten you up and bring you a sense of energy and complete happiness.

12:46If you've partnered up, you can take turns and then share your experience. Do you feel a difference in your body or in your mood? Jada Alexander says she remembers doing this. I very distinctly remember that exercise. It was very fun to be a part of and to see how people reacted to it. When people complained, she felt that negativity. And as the TA of the class, she noticed the group dynamic too. Negative energy spreads and it spreads very quickly. As soon as the roles were switched to talk about what they were grateful or happy about. People were laughing, people were smiling, and it created such a vibrant energy throughout the room.

13:29The exercise helped her notice small things like the sky, a beautiful tree, a nice warm breeze, or just a view of the water. It's something that made me feel very grateful to be exactly where I was. Diana Hill says people love this exercise. It's really awesome to hear and watch somebody else's joy. There's a concept called mudita, which is sympathetic joy. It's one of the immeasurables in Buddhism, one of the things that we can't have too much of, right? The joy that you get from watching somebody else be in joy or experience joy. And I definitely saw that in that exchange of mudita in the room.

14:09It's a beautiful thing to witness. The next exercise, which is takeaway number six, is focused on sharing grief. And it's best done as part of a group. To be activists for any cause, we need to be working together, and that starts by expressing our grief. And it's okay to cry. So this grief processing exercise starts with a private conversation between two students, and they answer the same questions while doing deep listening of each other. And so, for example, one of the questions is, the way I feel about the current state of society is. So they talk about how they feel for five minutes. They're told, let it all out.

14:53They think no one wants to hear any thoughts of sorrow, grief, gloom, and doom. And the truth is people don't want to hear it. But we need to talk about it if we are going to actually mobilize and take action and find a more hopeful view. Philippe Golden is a psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist at UC Davis. He's also co-director of the Climate Resilience Course. He says there's multiple things happening here. So for the person who's listening, they are working on the skill of simply being present and taking in and giving the space for the other person who's speaking to be heard. So that's one part.

15:31When they switch roles and the other person gets a chance to speak, they get the experience of someone giving their full, caring, uninterrupted attention, which is in and of itself one of the most powerful gifts we could ever give to another person. He says listening is one of the best ways to demonstrate compassion. It doesn't cost a penny. It feels really good to offer it. It feels really good for the person who's receiving it. And it has immediate and long-term rewards in the sense of connectivity. And this practice can have benefits we're not even aware of. Two people in short conversation with time are beginning to synchronize brain activity, emotional responsiveness, and a sense of trust.

16:24And if you do this repeatedly, you really begin to understand what is possible in trusting and being with another person, even if it's a quote-unquote stranger. It's very powerful.

16:40And for the next exercise, grab a pen and pad of paper for takeaway number seven, which is to compose your thoughts. You're going to write a letter to your future self. So a letter to your future self is a perspective taking practice. And oftentimes when we're feeling stressed and caught up in our problems, right, we get really myopic. We get really up close, focused up on them. And we can get into all sorts of worries and stories. And we don't have that wider, broader, wise perspective. You're going to imagine yourself a year from now or even much further out, say 10, 20, even 30 years. Where do you want to be?

17:20What kind of growth do you want to have had? What are your wishes for your future? And also knowing that there's going to be obstacles in the way. What are your hopes for yourself in terms of how you'll be able to navigate those obstacles? You can write two versions of a letter. In one, you can think about what life is like if you disengage or give up. Would you regret the lost opportunities? And in the other version, you can imagine what life would feel like if you actually accomplish your goals. If it's climate change you're working on, you could write about working collaboratively to find solutions.

17:57And once you have that kind of future in mind, and then you have maybe some steps and goals along the way to get there, it can be quite motivating. And so thinking about your future in this way is really, I think it's energizing. You can also use the same letter writing exercise, but instead of writing a letter to yourself, you can write a love letter to the earth. Here's how this looks. You can take a short five or 10 minute walk outside or just sit quietly in a favorite outdoor spot. Think of it as a mini nature retreat to kind of connect with the natural world. When you feel relaxed, you can start to write down some thoughts and compose a letter.

18:37What has your experience been like listening to nature? Being in nature? Have you felt love? Did it help you feel calm? Alyssa Apple said when she did this with her class, she thought the exercise had put her students to sleep. They all came back from writing letters looking so tired. So I asked them, I said, you guys look so sleepy. What was that like for you? And then one person raised their hand and said, I'm crying. This is not sleepiness. I'm just teary. I'm just emotional. And then everyone else raised their hand. And so I had completely misread the group. And this was such a deep exercise for them.

19:17Alyssa says letting yourself feel love and gratitude for the earth can be powerful. So let go and fall into the stillness. Now the point of all these steps and exercises is to help build you up. So you're ready to start doing, to actually take action. The best way to get going is to pick one goal or join one initiative. That's what the students in the class do. Their projects ranged from participation in a student-run community garden dedicated to sustainable agriculture, creation of a waste reduction workshop, a recycling initiative focused on clothing, and a pop-up produce stand to share fresh fruits and vegetables with neighbors and build a sense of community.

20:02Remember, this is all about collective action and community. When we can provide them with a worldview that small local changes add up to larger quantum changes, they get this and this shifts their mindset. And she says she actually started to see this happen in class. The survey students completed showed their sense of belonging and feeling connected actually increased, as did their sense of agency. One of the most common statements after the class from our students was, I see that I matter more than I think, that small changes matter, that local is global. And it was absolutely music to our ears to hear them say these things back.

20:53Philippe Golden says the survey data was surprising. We found evidence of significant increases in self-efficacy, both on the individual level and on the collective level. That's not what we expected that would happen. But this is a wonderful thing about science is let the data speak. And self-efficacy is just this idea that I can see this thing I can do. Now I'll go do it. But it's not just an idea. It's the biggest predictor of future behavior. The belief that you have what it takes to set a goal and follow through makes it more likely you'll actually do it. And if everyone around you is feeling the same, that's a way to turn collective angst into collective action.

21:38Jada Alexander, who was depressed about the coral reef, has been working with a non-profit focused on inspiring the next generation. To help them create a relationship with the ocean through the fun of serving. And now she's starting her own business, integrating her love of surfing with environmental stewardship. She says she thinks everyone can benefit from these exercises. So a quote that I do my best to live by is, if you can see it, then you can do it. So let's recap. Takeaway number one. Find the people who are already making a difference and use them to get inspired. Takeaway number two, empathy and compassion training is critical for any activism work and something you can get better at by practicing.

22:30Takeaway number three, find a little time to slow down and be present. Takeaway four, try the just like me exercise to strengthen compassion and help you see the humanity in others. Takeaway five, practice spreading joy to help inspire others. Takeaway six, share your grief. takeaway number seven compose your thoughts you're going to write a letter to your future self

23:01that was npr health correspondent allison aubrey you can read more of allison's reporting on stress and resilience at npr.org stress less you can also sign up for the newsletter there and if you want to share your tips for coping with stress write to us at thrive at npr.org For more Life Kit, check out our other episodes. We've got one on how to find joy in activism and another on how to cope with burnout. You can find those at npr.org slash life kit. Also, we love hearing from you. So if you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share, email us at lifekit at npr.org. This episode of Life Kit was produced by Margaret Serino.

23:39It was edited by Megan Cain and Andy Tegel. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan. And our digital editor is Malika Garib. Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Claire Marie Schneider and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from David Greenberg. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.