Eco-Anxiety in to Eco-Action

In this time of unprecedented threats to the natural environment, climate chaos, economic uncertainty, and political polarity which makes large-scale positive change nearly impossible, there is also a growing collective awareness that the way we have been living in Western culture is not sustainable (i.e., cannot endure). We must evolve as a species, or face the consequences we court.

If you have really conceptualized how dire our situation is ecologically, and what this means for the web of life and your place in it, a natural reaction will be fear and anxiety. This reaction has a lot of faces—immobilization, manic re/activity, exhaustion, and insomnia—all completely ordinary responses to a terrifying possibility.

Our eco-anxiety needs to be managed in order for us to continue (or begin) to take effective personal and cultural action towards a regenerative future. Managing our feelings and our minds at this time is key to walking a pro-active path.

Purposeful action, positive thinking, and good community relations relieve our anxiety. This group is an excellent opportunity to embody these practices in our lives, and transform our fear about cultural disintegration into action towards cultural regeneration.

Using a dialogue/council practice, we will create our community container and share our feelings and concerns with one another. Using art, we will express the archetypal longing we all experience at this time of the Great Turning. Learning home-scale permaculture skills will help us embody the practices of sustainable living we know we need. And allowing ourselves the spontaneity of improvisation and out-of-the-box thinking will give rise to moments of active hope which will buoy us up in our daily lives. This group helps us live mindfully through transition and to take a stand in our daily, local lives.

This first session is part of an on-going monthly group that will re-form in the beginning of 2013.

In order for us to run our classes, we need to have a minimum of 4 people pre-paid and registered for the class. Please pre-register for classes. Also, please leave a valid email and phone # so we have two ways we can contact you in the case the class has to be canceled or rescheduled.

Rachel Kaplan, MFT, has been working with individuals and groups for over 25 years, generating creative strategies for human and cultural restoration. A lapsed performing artist and dancer, she is an urban homesteader, eco-somatic psychotherapist, educator and mother. She is inspired to support people to create lives of beauty and simplicity at this time of cultural shift. She is the author of Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living, Moving Toward Life, and The Probable Site of the Garden of Eden.