Conversations about environmental issues often take place online or in closed friend/family gatherings, but we in Endur Hugsa would like to offer a public platform to discuss issues in person. At our event next wednesday we will discuss among other things environment anxiety and self care.
But what is environmental anxiety and why is self care important alongside environmental activism? We are no therapists but we use the words environment anxiety to describe a state we ourselves find ourselves in when we try to face the world’s environmental issues head on. The experience of encountering something unthinkably large and powerful and becoming aware of your own smallness – experiencing the Sublime – can be thought about in context with environmental issues. Behavior that a whole international community is participating in now (co2 emissions, general overproduction, the spread of microplastics, destruction of ecosystems for farming or city expansions) will have irreversible consequences for the next generation and all others to come. This is very big!
We tend to either think we are doing enough already, or don’t know where to start, or run into hindrances out of our control even when knowledge and willpower are present.
It is not our intention at all to make anyone feel guilty, we only wish to provide a place for conversation and support.
We believe that self-examination, self-knowledge, self care and support for each other are very important alongside taking big and small steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle and community.
We want to hear what you are doing in your day to day life, mundane environmental habits, what you are particularly worried about, solutions you can think or dream of for your community. We want to share advice with each other and learn from each other, but it is also ok to say how extremely hard this all is, and tell us what you are not willing to give up just yet. It is ok to take a break from the struggle, think of yourself, and save your energy.
But many small and big things need to change if we are to stop or turn around human impact on the environment.
It is easy to feel paralyzed in front of an enormous challenge, but even when you feel like you are not doing much at all, we at Endur Hugsa feel it is important to set aside time just to think.
On our journey toward a more sustainable self and society it can be good to stop and think about some vague and possibly unanswerable questions, to gain a deeper understanding of the context and connection between man and environment. What is environment? What is nature? What is man, is man separate from nature, if there is such a thing as nature? How do I feel, what is my role, how can I and do I need to change? Do individual consumer habits matter in the big picture? What is the solution to all this?
Jóa 