#157: Mental environmental health
I started to care about the health of the planet only recently.
I’ve only become conscious and caring about the health of our planet in the last few years.
Before then I was both unaware of the climate crisis and ignorant too.
I am sure I would have heard about climate change on the news or I might have read about it somewhere. Yet I wasn’t listening, I wasn’t letting it in.
I had problems that were more important to me.
Improving my mental health, getting to a secure place financially, having fun with my mates, finding love, going on holiday. I didn’t care about the planet or my impact on the environment.
I write this now and I’m embarrassed to admit that, but it’s absolutely true - until a few years ago I really didn’t care about the health of our planet, I wasn’t thinking about it at all.
I was thinking about myself, my own life or not really thinking at all.
Over the last couple of years my connection to the planet and the world we live in has dramatically increased alongside my desire to make the changes I can to lessen my own impact on the destruction of the natural world.
As I began to raise my own awareness to my own feelings and emotions, through different mental health interventions like journaling, meditation, coaching and therapy. I began to feel more secure from within and began to notice more in the world around me. I might notice the litter on the streets or the smells of petrol or the air quality in London.
I became more aware of the world around me.
I began to be interested in walking and hiking too. It was never a passion of mine before, but I began to enjoy going out walking in the Lake District, Peak District, Surrey, Kent or the South Coast. I began to feel a greater connection to the Earth. I mean the Earth itself, nature, trees, mud, stones, streams - I began to fall in love with nature. The grass, the texture in the leaves, the awe of a mountain or the beauty of a flower. I fell in love with nature and I still am in love.
This meant that when the sounds of climate change rang in my ears through Attenborough or Greta or Netflix documentaries or Extinction Rebellion or someone on instagram, this time I began to listen. I was able to hear it and I took note.
I began to notice the plastic in the shops. Meat began to look different. Supermarkets looked busy, bright and I saw endless consumerism all around. Boohoo ads stood out on the tube. Even some of the t-shirts in my wardrobe began to look different.
I became interested in people who were making different choices with their diet. Whereas before I might have not listened I began to ask why? Listen, ask what they might eat instead of chicken fajitas?
I began and have continued to, really care about the planet. To the point where I am pained by what I see and what I hear. To the point where I am angry, frustrated and feel hopeless.
I sometimes feel doom, dread and powerlessness that I don’t feel like I can do enough to stop the climate from burning up alone. I’ve swapped the chicken for tofu, but is that enough? It doesn’t feel like it. Is tofu even made sustainably? What is? I feel distrusting of all brands, all government, I feel stuck.
I notice that the sense of powerlessness and hopelessness I feel towards the climate crisis is shared when I talk to friends about it. That hopelessness can lead to a paralysis and an inaction. Or I notice others who might be aware and simply don’t care and then I sit with my own feelings in response to that too. I might think, well if nobody else is bothered why should I be? Get me a steak and a pint of milk, it’s been a while.
I feel a lot towards the health of our planet, only now, like I never did before. A mix of my own ability to look beyond the scarcity of my own life, a deep connection to nature and some great documentaries have all lead to a heightened awareness of how connected I am and we all are to our world.
I go through waves of hope and hopelessness. Hope that in WhatsApp groups with young men in them, many are making changes in their lives to positively impact the health of the planet. Hope that people are changing how they live to support our natural ecosystem.
Hopelessness though that change doesn’t seem to be happening fast enough, or that change is only happening in my postcode in London. And that the priority of the planet isn’t on the lips of the people in positions of power and authority and I can’t do much about that.
I notice too that I don’t want to be another voice telling people to do something, shouting at people or parking a bus in the middle of a street or protesting. Even though I understand why all of that must happen.
Still, I feel anger and frustration that I too am not doing enough. I forgot the reusable shopping bag the other day and had to buy a 5p one.
I know that my journey to the point of caring has been a long and windy one, where I’ve had to heal myself first, before I can play my part in healing the planet.
My vision is that we’ll all be able to put something else before us, to care about something else more than ourselves. I hope that something can be the planet. I hope we can move past our own wants, our own desire for convenience or status or calories or whatever it may be and we can put something else first.
That’s my hope and I do see signs of hope, glimmers, yet I write this with the sun on my face and I know on another day this could be a rant in hopelessness.
I know for myself, I have began to care, to act and to change my life towards the health of the planet as my mental health began to improve and I learned more about myself in relation to my environment.
The link between mental health and environment health seems directly correlated to me. How can we be kind to our planet if we cannot be kind to ourselves? How can we put something else before us, if our own needs are not met? How can we look after something else, if we ourselves are not looked after? How can we resource and nourish our Earth if we are not resourced or nourished ourselves?
The link to me is stark and on some level it anchors me and provides hope, even if on another day I might wonder if that is a weak link and how frayed those strands may be.
Cheers,
James x
What I'm up to:
I'm reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - loving it.
I'm listening to Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin. It's great and making me think, thanks for the recommendation Soph :)
This is the last piece of Art I made (for my Mum), I sell some prints here
Here's the cover for my book!
I made some chocolate muffins on Sunday.
https://sanctus.community/welcome
Who am I?
I'm not quite sure. I'm the Founder of a Mental Health mission called Sanctus and I'm the Author of a Book; "Mental Health at Work" that's published by Penguin and out in October.
I write this newsletter about mental health, startups and my life, my journey and 8,000 people like it enough to still be here. I try to respond to everyone who emails me, it just takes me a while.