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Dealing with overwhelm

Eco anxiety is real and can feel overwhelming. Greener and Cleaner exists because of that very fact. Parisa Wright, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, left her previous career of over 20 years to pursue climate change full time so that you can be empowered rather than overwhelmed.

That said, there is every chance that at some point on your greener and cleaner journey to fight climate change, you will feel an enormity of the scale of changes needed. We firmly believe we’re in this together. You are all welcome in The Hub at any time. Talking face-to-face is often a great way of feeling connection and reducing feelings of anxiety.

You can post in our Facebook group. There are thousands of members who have felt overwhelmed at some point and will gladly support you too.

We particularly like How to cope with eco anxiety, a practical article on ways of dealing with eco anxiety written by Friends of the Earth. And these eight tips for managing eco-anxiety from the New Scientist. We also recommend spending time outdoors and other activities to improve your mental health.

Get outdoors

There have been several studies linking living in the countryside, getting physical activity, and connecting with nature in any form, to improvements in mental health. Even urban green space does help a lot with your wellbeing. Grounding or any direct contact with the earth, a tree or grass, has been shown through electrical connectivity to support immune responses and reduce stress, pain and depression.

In addition to direct contact with nature, uniting to support our environment gives additional benefits linked with supporting our mental and physical wellbeing, because it gives us a purpose beyond ourselves, it give us engagement, flow and meaning or a purposeful existence; two of the central pillars of the PERMA model in Positive Psychology theory.

At Greener and Cleaner we work tirelessly raising awareness, working with our fantastic community, running practical activities and connecting to each other to support your wellbeing through our mission to improve the environment. If we can take small steps all together the positive effect we can create now, will be felt for years to come.

Two cartoon figures participate in exercise wearing sports wear and holding a water bottle

Activities to improve your mental health

We have put here a few of the activities that have been proven to improve our mental health, all of which link closely to our relationship with the environment and the social aspects of our wonderful community.

  • Physical Exercise
  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Play
  • Self-Care
  • Presence in the moment
  • Values and goals linked to something beyond ourselves
  • Adventure
  • Beauty appreciation
  • Walking
  • Breath work

You may also want to consider attending an event at The Hub. Not only will you learn or improve on a skill, you’ll meet and connect with like-minded people and join our community.

Articles about nature and wellbeing:

Because it shows how increased contact with nature benefits kids’ wellbeing and health over time, as well as their social confidence and creativity.

This is a more general article about nature in general not just for kids, but again same conclusions and benefits.

This is an article from 2014 about an environmental EU agency study on environment, health and wellbeing.

This is the official 2014 report linking environment, health and wellbeing.

Environmental degradation and climate change are bad for our long-term well-being. Here’s why students have a particular responsibility to act against them.

This is an interesting article on the effect that environmental anxiety has on the younger generation.

Again a very practical way of turning eco anxiety into eco action.

More organisations who can help

Mental health is no joke. You can contact the following organisations for support.

Mind

Provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They also campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. Find out more

Young minds

For young people’s mental health. They aim to ensure all young people can get the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what.
www.youngminds.co.uk

NHS advice for mental health

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/

Mental Health Foundation

Home of Mental Health Awareness Week. Whilst they don’t provide support directly, they do have useful reports and links to other organisations.
Find out more

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