Coming to Our Senses
Easing anxiety through mindful embodiment
This morning, a young woman in an ecology-conscious online community shared that she was sad and anxious for not feeling effective in motivating people to take better care of the environment.
It was one of those moments I could have moved quickly passed, not registering the invitation she was extending. A heartfelt plea drenched in misspellings and text-speak. For whatever reason, I slowed down to greet the moment and sat with her words for a while.
In this stranger, I recognized myself. My deep and unwavering desire to add meaning to the world. The feeling of urgency I carry about the heartbreaking state of the planet, social inequities, and humanity’s need to sober up and take concrete action to change course. All complicated by my own unresolved personal grief.
My online stranger-friend was seeking advice on remaining in “good spirits,” given all the chaos in the world. She wanted to know how to keep from being consumed by anxiety to remain hopeful and motivated.
We’ve got grief. Overwhelming, complex, personal, collective, amorphous grief. Grief that grows by the day as the reality of our political situation becomes evermore bleak while those driving the country (backward) become overtly and unapologetically fascist. It is a scary and…
