ResilienceResilience is “the capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation”.
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Impacts, 2014) |
|
Resilience: Climate Anxiety and Mental Health
What builds resilience and wellbeing in the face of eco-anxiety?
Empowering action
“Social action serves as the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. It creates an alliance with others, based on cooperation and shared purpose.” (Judith Herman, author of ‘Trauma and Recovery’)
“That feeling of empowerment, when you run at a problem and you’re dedicated to making the changes that you can, is one of the healthiest ways to deal with any of the emotions that climate change prompts. Get involved. The comradery of being with like-minded people, and personal action will help restore some of your equanimity.” (Lise van Susteren, in ‘Anxiety, depression and PTSD all results of global warming’, WRVO, 13 April 2019)
Forgiveness
“Staunching and repairing moral injury involves psychic work, facing remorse, seeking forgiveness, gaining new understanding of one's individual culpability, and being able to place that in a wider context. Shattered ideals can be rebuilt and what is right refound amid scars. … Breaking with the current culture of un-care requires a collective effort of working through grief and remorse, and a re-shouldering of collective responsibility. It matters greatly that this is undertaken in a spirit of forgiveness of self and other.”
(Sally Weintrobe, “Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis,” lecture at the NZ Association of Psychotherapists Conference, online, March 2021).
Grieving
We have rituals for grieving when a loved one dies, but how do we grieve the destruction of natural places and species? Hannah Malcolm calls people to “find the courage to uplift voices of grief”.
“We are still struggling to acknowledge what we have already lost, and what is too late for us to save. Our failure to acknowledge these things does not make them go away. To lament we first name the damage, give space where this damage can be addressed, then allow grief to be expressed, act out repentance and restitution, and so access restoring forgiveness. Hope, like lament, then becomes a way of being in the world.”
(Hannah Malcolm, Lecture, A Rocha International, January 2021)
Hope
“I am convinced that feeling hopeful has very little to do with being hopeful. We identify ourselves as hopeful people by the decision to live as though a new creation is coming in, whether that feels possible or not. Hope, much like love, is not just a word to describe an emotion, but a virtue which we can possess. This makes it a choice. Rather than relying on things that will make us feel hopeful, we choose to behave in hopeful ways, and can then invite people in to make that choice too.” (Hannah Malcolm, Lecture, A Rocha International, January 2021)
Hope is living with both optimism and pessimism: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” (Vaclav Havel)
Empowering action
“Social action serves as the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. It creates an alliance with others, based on cooperation and shared purpose.” (Judith Herman, author of ‘Trauma and Recovery’)
“That feeling of empowerment, when you run at a problem and you’re dedicated to making the changes that you can, is one of the healthiest ways to deal with any of the emotions that climate change prompts. Get involved. The comradery of being with like-minded people, and personal action will help restore some of your equanimity.” (Lise van Susteren, in ‘Anxiety, depression and PTSD all results of global warming’, WRVO, 13 April 2019)
Forgiveness
“Staunching and repairing moral injury involves psychic work, facing remorse, seeking forgiveness, gaining new understanding of one's individual culpability, and being able to place that in a wider context. Shattered ideals can be rebuilt and what is right refound amid scars. … Breaking with the current culture of un-care requires a collective effort of working through grief and remorse, and a re-shouldering of collective responsibility. It matters greatly that this is undertaken in a spirit of forgiveness of self and other.”
(Sally Weintrobe, “Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis,” lecture at the NZ Association of Psychotherapists Conference, online, March 2021).
Grieving
We have rituals for grieving when a loved one dies, but how do we grieve the destruction of natural places and species? Hannah Malcolm calls people to “find the courage to uplift voices of grief”.
“We are still struggling to acknowledge what we have already lost, and what is too late for us to save. Our failure to acknowledge these things does not make them go away. To lament we first name the damage, give space where this damage can be addressed, then allow grief to be expressed, act out repentance and restitution, and so access restoring forgiveness. Hope, like lament, then becomes a way of being in the world.”
(Hannah Malcolm, Lecture, A Rocha International, January 2021)
Hope
“I am convinced that feeling hopeful has very little to do with being hopeful. We identify ourselves as hopeful people by the decision to live as though a new creation is coming in, whether that feels possible or not. Hope, much like love, is not just a word to describe an emotion, but a virtue which we can possess. This makes it a choice. Rather than relying on things that will make us feel hopeful, we choose to behave in hopeful ways, and can then invite people in to make that choice too.” (Hannah Malcolm, Lecture, A Rocha International, January 2021)
Hope is living with both optimism and pessimism: “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” (Vaclav Havel)
Personal Resilience in climate crisis
I take in new information about environmental issues, but not too much.
Goal: open but not overloaded
I know how I can best make a contribution.
Goal: personal purpose
I have a good balance of work and rest, output and input.
Goal: sustainable energy
I am part of a community in which I feel valued and connected.
Goal: belonging
I am regularly in natural places to help out and be refreshed.
Goal: nature contact and contribution
I am part of wider strategic networks.
Goal: think global
I feel sadness for what is lost and fear for the future.
Goal: healthy grieving
I don’t expect more of myself than I would of someone else.
Goal: realistic expectations
I have ideas and energy for solutions.
Goal: creativity
I value having fun and find hope in small steps.
Goal: joy and gratitude
Goal: open but not overloaded
I know how I can best make a contribution.
Goal: personal purpose
I have a good balance of work and rest, output and input.
Goal: sustainable energy
I am part of a community in which I feel valued and connected.
Goal: belonging
I am regularly in natural places to help out and be refreshed.
Goal: nature contact and contribution
I am part of wider strategic networks.
Goal: think global
I feel sadness for what is lost and fear for the future.
Goal: healthy grieving
I don’t expect more of myself than I would of someone else.
Goal: realistic expectations
I have ideas and energy for solutions.
Goal: creativity
I value having fun and find hope in small steps.
Goal: joy and gratitude
Resilient Organisations resources
Motivation
Sustaining difficult effort requires knowing why we are doing it.
Have a clear sense of purpose - the 'why'.
Personal motivation connects together what upsets us, what inspires us, and how we feel we can make a contribution.
Hearts and Minds: Comment by Kate van Praagh, Westpac Senior Sustainability Leader,
Someone might be turned on by marketing, new customers and engagement. Someone else might be more tuned in to risk. Someone else might be more concerned about community. Some people are numbers people, and some people are arts people. You need to have a business case for sustainability in different chunks to suit your audience, to get through to different people. It does all weave back to the overall goal, but there are different parts of that and different ways to do it. It doesn't matter which way you get there. This flows through to communicating with employees: you need to do it in a variety of ways to connect hearts and minds. To make it work you have to find ways to connect the business case, the carbon story, and that individual person. Those three things together make it work.
Carbon Zero webinar, Christchurch Employers Chamber of Commerce
Have a clear sense of purpose - the 'why'.
Personal motivation connects together what upsets us, what inspires us, and how we feel we can make a contribution.
Hearts and Minds: Comment by Kate van Praagh, Westpac Senior Sustainability Leader,
Someone might be turned on by marketing, new customers and engagement. Someone else might be more tuned in to risk. Someone else might be more concerned about community. Some people are numbers people, and some people are arts people. You need to have a business case for sustainability in different chunks to suit your audience, to get through to different people. It does all weave back to the overall goal, but there are different parts of that and different ways to do it. It doesn't matter which way you get there. This flows through to communicating with employees: you need to do it in a variety of ways to connect hearts and minds. To make it work you have to find ways to connect the business case, the carbon story, and that individual person. Those three things together make it work.
Carbon Zero webinar, Christchurch Employers Chamber of Commerce
Disaster resilience: Practice, practice, practice
Preparation and frequent repetition of ‘what to do’ frees up cognitive functioning in a disaster.
Learning and practicing skills for what to do to in a crisis creates a ‘cognitive download’; your brain does not need to think about it as much. In a crisis you are less likely to be overloaded by the complexity of the situation. This allows your brain to simultaneously take in information and think about the next thing. “I know what I am doing now; I have a pre-loaded set of ‘to-do’ checklist.”
This makes all the difference in a crisis, because in a disaster our normal ‘to-do’ lists no longer work. Our minds get overloaded and cease to take in new information. Effective people in a crisis are thinking about the next thing, and are able to make decisions. We can only do this if we have sufficient mental functioning, which requires having an already loaded back-up plan.
Learning and practicing skills for what to do to in a crisis creates a ‘cognitive download’; your brain does not need to think about it as much. In a crisis you are less likely to be overloaded by the complexity of the situation. This allows your brain to simultaneously take in information and think about the next thing. “I know what I am doing now; I have a pre-loaded set of ‘to-do’ checklist.”
This makes all the difference in a crisis, because in a disaster our normal ‘to-do’ lists no longer work. Our minds get overloaded and cease to take in new information. Effective people in a crisis are thinking about the next thing, and are able to make decisions. We can only do this if we have sufficient mental functioning, which requires having an already loaded back-up plan.
A faith tradition: Perseverance
"Let us lay aside every weight ... and run with perseverance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1
The Christian tradition nurtures resilience through:
"Let us lay aside every weight ... and run with perseverance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1
The Christian tradition nurtures resilience through:
- A sense of purpose, both as individuals and collectively; feeling called in specific ways to share in God's mission.
- Tapping into divine grace and power in worship: the experience of being accepted no matter what.
- Church whanau for support and encouragement.
- Facing the flaws and failings that are inevitably part of being human; and sharing in the forgiveness of Jesus.
- Balance of work and rest: Sabbath and spiritual practices.
