In a world where daily news and social media feed us a steady stream of environmental crises, many of us start and end our days with the weight of worrying about the future of our shared home. This constant exposure to critical issues can lead to eco-anxiety—a deep sense of stress and helplessness about our future on Earth.
A recent Nature article titled“Who will protect us from seeing the world’s largest rainforest burn? The mental exhaustion faced by climate scientists” made us curious if eco-anxiety is affecting our online followers, a community of professionals across sustainability, landscape restoration, and biodiversity protection. 86% said it was.
At Commonland, we believe in the power of community, reflection, and actionable hope; this worrying statistic inspired us to ask our colleagues how they navigate the emotional weight of eco-anxiety. Here’s what they said:
1. Ellie Percey: Finding clarity in observing our inner and outer world
Ellie draws comfort from going on intentional walks—whether slow or fast—giving herself the space to observe what’s happening in the world around and inside her. This mindful observation allows her to bring some clarity to the jumble of concerns in her mind, which she then uses to write simple short poems. Ellie processes and reflects on her inner world, channeling her thoughts into creative outcomes that help her cope with the overwhelming emotions of eco-anxiety.
She also highlighted another perspective shift that helped her: reframing the narrative from ‘saving the earth’ to building resilience and fostering communities. She believes that ‘hope’ in the sense of ‘wishing things were different’ can be disabling, whereas concentrating energy on what you can control is enabling. This shift is built on moving away from polarising viewpoints, and instead, focusing on collective action, recognising the importance of working as one to face challenges.
2. Pienaar Du Plessis: Embracing the anxiety
Pienaar’s approach to eco-anxiety is acceptance. Drawing on the work of Jem Bendell, who advocates for facing climate anxiety head-on, Pienaar acknowledges that anxiety is a natural and appropriate response to the crisis in which we find ourselves. Instead of avoiding or minimising these feelings, he believes in being present with them, feeling them fully, and then channelling that energy into meaningful action.
Bendell’s “Deep Adaptation” framework provides a set of practices that help individuals sit with the discomfort of eco-anxiety while maintaining the capacity to act. For Pienaar, it’s about finding a balance between recognising the gravity of the situation and still making a tangible difference in the world.
3. Tessa Snaterse: Reconnecting through ‘Active Hope’
For Tessa, the concept and book “Active Hope” by Joanna Macy has been instrumental in managing eco-anxiety. Grounded in the teachings of the network ‘The Work That Reconnects’, this book’s authors walk us through a transformative process guided by mythic journeys, modern psychology, spirituality, and holistic science. Tessa believes this process can provide us with skills to confront the troubling situation in which we find ourselves and do our part to spark the collective transition.
This framework shifts focus from despair to empowerment, inspiring Tessa to keep contributing to the restoration of ecosystems. While the challenges we face are immense, by connecting with a broader community of individuals dedicated to making a difference, we can find the necessary hope and motivation to continue.
4. Ana Klaric: The power of a positive mindset
Ana said she doesn’t experience eco-anxiety in the same way many do, and she attributes this to her deeply ingrained optimism. To her, active optimism is key to staying engaged with the meaningful work of landscape restoration despite the alarming news and challenges related to planetary boundaries.
By making the conscious choice to live sustainably and choosing to contribute to solutions as much as possible–both at a personal and career level– Ana remains hopeful. She grounds herself through prayer, meditation, time in nature, and connection with her loved ones to renew energy. Her belief that humanity has the capacity to overcome the negative trends gives her a sense of purpose and drive.
5. Roos van der Deijl: The power of imagination and storytelling
Roos finds hope in imagination, storytelling, and gathering with others. While it’s easy to see only the doom and gloom of environmental collapse, she reminds us that humanity has faced crises before and found ways to thrive. Through creativity and collective imagination, we can envision positive futures, and it’s this storytelling that gives Roos hope. She highly recommends watching this video “Tired of Doomscrollling?” from Kurzgesagt.
Because negative thoughts tend to be our ‘default’, Roos is trying to rewire her way of thinking, so she recently began journalling as a way to reflect on the positive aspects of life, and to focus on hope rather than despair. While she doesn’t believe in manifestation as a magical or instant effect, she does believe that by consistently practising positivity, we can create ripples of change that grow into larger waves. For her, it’s about focusing on the small wins, which ultimately build momentum towards greater impact.
6. Joy Gibelin: Finding strength in community
For Joy, building community is a source of healing, and resilience towards any challenge. She believes in the saying, “You become who you surround yourself with,” and emphasizes building intentional friendships to create a strong support system where you will support each other when you most need it.
She also fights the common feeling of “powerlessness” in seeking to contribute by choosing a meaningful career path. Other ways that work for her are internal practices like journalling, positivity, and feeling emotions fully; Joy believes it’s important to release emotions in healthy ways to avoid resentment and burnout.
The environmental crisis can feel overwhelming, but at Commonland, we find strength in community and actionable hope. Each of us approaches eco-anxiety differently—through creativity, connection, or mindfulness—and by sharing our methods, we aim to inspire others to navigate these challenges in their own way.
We believe that together, we are stronger. That’s why our approach involves creating trust-based partnerships between a diverse range of actors across scales to scale the regeneration of nature and communities. Using Theory U and other methods, we aim to create inner (psychological) transformation to unlock outer change through empowering changemakers and their communities to act now for a better future. By embracing our feelings of eco-anxiety, while supporting one another to gain back a sense of inspiration and power by acting together, we can move forward—towards hope, resilience, and regeneration.