[FOCUS] Tips and Framework To Deal With Eco Anxiety

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This is Brian.

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Excited to be here with everyone again

and talking today about eco anxiety and

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this topic of sort of becoming aware

of the challenges facing our planet

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and our culture and some of those,

the awareness of those challenges,

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filtering in and creating a sense.

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Uh, you know, attentiveness,

awareness, focus, that can

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lead to anxiety, challenge,

possibly other emotions as well.

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Um, and I'll share, you know, from a, my

personal side, as I've been getting more

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and more involved, which I've loved being

involved with Carbon Almanac and this

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podcast, these are things, my awareness

of some of these issues has expand.

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And with some of that and doing some

of the specific projects I was working

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on and diving into and meeting some

of these really impressive thought

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leaders who were out there making

really big impacts on the world.

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Um, the, my awareness started

to move into a place of creating

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a sense of anxiety as there was

sort of this sense of incongruity

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of like what I knew to be right.

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And what my own actions were and

what I was seeing happen around me

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with, you know, my own family and

friends and colleagues and things.

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And you know, and there's this, uh,

I don't know, I don't remember the

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exact quote precisely, but I know

one of our past speakers, Josh spk,

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references it, um, more beautifully

than I will about and quote from

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Abraham Lincoln, a former president

here in the United States about one.

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Worst things you can do is act

differently than, you know, to

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be, what is the right thing to do?

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Um, and I think that's this,

at its core, that's where this

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place of eco anxiety comes from.

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Sort of knowing better but

still acting in a certain way.

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And, you know, I'll share that

for me this last, you know,

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fall, winter, early spring.

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It really was building up and coming to

a head in a, in a couple ways of just

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sort of this anxiety, um, and a little

bit of tunnel vision on all the different

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moving parts that were problematic.

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And, you know, if, if, if we came home

from the grocery store in our groceries

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included, you know, something with

plastic packaging, it, I got stressed.

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Uh, and it bothered me.

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And, um, and a whole host of other things.

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Um, and so, You know, sort of this

place that like led to some, some extra

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anxiety for me in my own personal life.

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And you know, Christina, we were

chatting and you had, you had a really

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interesting perspective to share on this

and sort of how you approached not just

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eco anxiety but things, and that can

create concerns and worry and anxiety.

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So I wanna share it over to you.

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Thanks.

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Uh, yeah, I have been thinking about this.

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One of my, uh, eco anxieties happened.

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Last, uh, fall, I went to Edinboro

and the Garbagemen were on strike,

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and everywhere around there were,

uh, piles from the tourist of

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coffee cups and plastic bottles.

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And I realized walking through

the park, I realized, oh my

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God, this is what's showing me.

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It's showing me all my cups through my.

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I gathered and thrown out into the

universe and, uh, it, uh, I was really

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sad and I started literally panicking,

like, I have to stop everything I

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have to, and I just got wild up as,

uh, what you were talking about.

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And I remember I went through the school

of the work training, which is, it

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calls the work and it's done by Byron.

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She asked these four questions and

turned around, and when I started

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panicking, I went, okay, is it true?

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Do I know a hundred percent that

this is true, that these all cups

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are looking at me and that, and it

calmed me down, kind of I realized,

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okay, I have to come back into the

reality of it, what's going on, and.

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Go in the direction of inspiration

instead of fear and sadness and panic.

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So that was really helpful.

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Yeah.

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And, and so this is, um, Byron Katie

is this, uh, author and speaker

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who has created this concept.

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And, and you, you mentioned, and I've

just been reading up on this since you

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had told me, But you mentioned that there

are four questions, and so I'm gonna

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walk through the, the four different

questions here for our listeners.

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The first question is, and this,

these are questions you ask yourself

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about this thought you're having.

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Right?

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So one simple thought.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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A simple thought.

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So we'll use your examples since

you've shared it here of like, is this

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the universe showing me every coffee

cup I've ever disposed of, right?

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Yeah.

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As I walked down the street.

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And so the questions.

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Is it true?

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That's the first question.

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Um, and then the second question, which I

find interesting cuz it's like, it's like,

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it's like checking you a little bit again,

is can you absolutely know that it's true?

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So it's in an, in an interesting

twist on the first question, my mind.

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The third question is, how do you react?

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What happens when you

believe that thought?

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So like, sort of how does that change your

behavior, your reaction, your actions?

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And then the fourth is, who would

you be without that thought as

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if you like deleted a thought

and you weren't using it?

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And so, Christina, do you wanna

sort of talk through this?

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Are you comfortable talking through this?

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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We can.

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Uh, example, oh yeah.

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So is it true?

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I, uh, in that moment I felt, yep.

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Yeah, that's it.

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This is it.

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And, uh, when I repeated,

well, am I absolutely sure?

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No, I'm not absolutely sure of anything.

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And, uh, so that kind of stopped

me from, uh, feeling, uh, in such

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a various, this is it no other way.

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So it kind of calmed me down.

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Yeah.

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And how would you.

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It comes back to where does that

impulse, I'm doing something wrong.

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When did I see something that,

uh, it's, I'm not good enough?

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And all these kind of thoughts

coming back in from different things.

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So it's not just about the cups

is just also about inability

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to accept what's going on and.

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Get inspired by it and start

thinking, okay, what can I do?

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What, uh, what are the easy steps to do?

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And when I, when I, uh, turned it around,

who would you be without the thought?

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There is this pause.

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During this process, Katie Byron

has a, uh, has a website where all

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this stuff you can get for free.

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In this four question, there

is this beautiful pause.

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You just feel it.

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What would it feel in the body and

in mind without that, that thought?

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Because, and, uh, it's so peaceful.

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It's so peaceful.

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And when it's so peaceful, there are all

these, okay, I can do this, I can do that.

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Do I, for one of the things, I

have been remembering that made

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me remember to put a pla a cup for

coffee or juice, a pla Uh, I have

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some glass or plastic cups with a lit.

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Mm-hmm.

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So I have it in my back and, uh,

whenever I get some drink outside,

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I'll ask them to put it in the cup.

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So, and I, and she also has turnaround.

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Uh, people can read up on, on her website

what the turnaround, it's a process,

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but for me it was input for remembering.

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Uh, now it's five months or so after

Scotland, and I still remember.

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That pile.

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And so when I go out, I still ta

I remember taking the cup, wash it

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because I usually take it out, wash

it, and put it back in my back.

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Oh, and I think that's important to get

inspired and make these tiny steps that

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will lead towards, so that was my process.

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Yeah, I think that's,

thank you for sharing.

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That's, you know, well shared

and, and beautifully said.

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As I reflect on some of what you're

saying, I think, you know, there are

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many thoughts that create anxiety

for us that that very first question

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of these four questions, is it true?

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The answer is no.

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And you know, you know, there are

self-doubt questions that I think

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many of us, the world over deal with.

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You know, if I get wrinkles,

will this person stop loving me?

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And we feel that, but it's not.

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And then that second question helps

validate that or sort of helps strike out.

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Can you absolutely know that it's true?

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And the answer is no.

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I can't absolutely know

that's true either.

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But within our environmental challenges,

there's, there is a lot of truth to the

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challenges that we're facing, right?

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And to the impacts of these

decisions and actions that we

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individually and thus we as a larger.

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You know, uh, culture and

set of ecosystems create.

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And so for me, in my own personal sort

of approach with this, like I think I

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moved past question one and two and, you

know, reading the I P C C reports and

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everything, like knowing that like, I

think these things really are true and

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I absolutely can know that some of these

things that I'm worried about are true.

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I moved through those first

two questions and with this

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like, oh yeah, they are true.

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Um, and that's part of, for me, I think

where some of this, like this anxiety

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that normally I don't worry about if

I get wrinkles, my wife won't keep

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loving me, honey, if you're listening,

I hope you keep loving me even if I

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get, um, but I move past that cuz I

think I can sort of ask that question.

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Is that true?

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No, I think she'll love

me even as a wrinkly old.

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Um, but I move into this

then how do you react?

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What happens when you

believe that thought?

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And this is where this, you know,

sort of leads me to, and Christina,

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as you were just saying, like a need

to have an impact and to sort of make,

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like do something about it, you know?

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And, you know, leaky, I wanted

to turn over to you cause I think

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you had some good perspectives on,

on this and how action helps you

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deal with these kind of things.

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