Feeling anxious lately? Maybe the environment is to blame.
Climate change is real, and it's making us anxious.
Beach cleaning can be therapeutic for eco-anxiety. Photo: pxhere
LINA KAMENSKIKH
Only eats pizza.
It's possible that you have been feeling eco-anxiety lately. Or maybe you haven’t. Maybe you've just never heard of it. The phenomenon has been defined as a chronic fear of environmental doom.
And with Earth Day this April, it’s hard not to be concerned about the state of the environment all the time.
Frances Lucraft, owner of Grace & Green, was “really feeling" eco-anxiety before she took a career break and founded her own sustainable sanitary products company.
She says, “I couldn’t go back working in a job where I didn’t feel like I was making a difference.” The CEO believes that it’s the “little steps” like travelling to meetings or doing the dry cleaning that make a difference.
She's desperate to “change things”. And she's been doing that through producing 100% organic cotton pads and tampons. They're healthy both for your body and for the environment.
Another eco-anxiety identifier is Pippa Best, founder of Sea Soul Blessings, that aims to raise funds for environmental causes. She has her own solution to this phenomenon: beach cleaning.
As a regular sea swimmer and married to a surfer, the more Pippa came to appreciate the sea, the more she realised “how much we have to lose”.
She knows she can reduce her fears by “taking action and inspiring others to do the same”. She suggests writing a letter to your local MP, reducing plastic consumption at home or donating towards an environmental cause.