Dear Friends -
A series of conversations with clients and friends along a similar theme - the ways in which so many people seem on edge for so many different reasons - prompted me to write the following article. I'm planning to publish it soon, but thought I'd share it with you all in this format. :-) Reflections welcomed. I hope you enjoy reading it. - Sara Jolena
Temperatures are rising.
Planetary temperatures: yes, this is both predicted and well documented. The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record. January 2024 was the hottest January on record. The ocean temperatures at the equator are 3.2 degrees hotter than on average, which is contributing to, amongst other things, increased evaporation and thus increased atmospheric rivers and high levels of rainfall. Winter heat waves are becoming a thing. That means less snow — which upsets ecosystems and shifts year-round water flow, especially in those places which rely upon summer snow melt to have a continuous flow of water.
It also feels as if, even as planetary temperatures are rising, so are human beings finding a rise in their emotional and social “temperatures” as well.
It seems that busy-ness is increasing (something which I did not think was possible). Winter can, for many people, be a time for deep rest. For physically, emotionally, and practically slowing down. For sitting by fires and sleeping long hours. And with that slower time comes a kind of emotional “cooling down” from the “heat” of human activity.
Of course it doesn’t always work this way. Winter “cabin fever” is a real thing, and tensions between people can rise at any time of year.
But I keep wondering - as our planet is warming, it seems that so too are people’s overarching anxiety levels.
Some of that is clearly articulated and increasingly understood as eco-anxiety.
What I’m trying to point to here is not only anxiety about the state and future of our planet. It is the world wide elections, where “so much is at stake.” It is the ongoing war/genocide in Gaza. It is often tense discourses around gender, pronouns, and policies. It is the deep, deep divisions about the nature of reality and of what is “true” and what is "disinformation" and who is lying to whom/being sold a pile of baloney.
It is as if, a friend of mine was saying to me recently, “everyone has a stone in their hand.” Ready to throw.
I don’t think most of us remember picking up the stone. Maybe it came in the coat pocket we picked up from our aunt. Maybe its been there in our pocket all along. Maybe at one point it was a worry stone, designed to help us not over-react. But then, as if suddenly, it becomes a stone that one can throw.
And it’s not just about political divisions. I see this rise of “temperatures” within all sorts of progressive spaces. Including for myself.
I surprised myself, recently, when I got really angry during a meeting that I was in recently, and said something that was totally unhelpful. I pride myself on caring and careful communications! After the meeting, I found myself taking a lot of deep breaths, literally “cooling-calming down.” It seemed to take a long time.
A client of mine recently relating an incident where she got very, very angry when the “wrong” pianist showing up for a concert her choir was giving. He was really not as good as the normal pianist. She felt she and her choir had to support him — but his job was to support them! She got so flustered she had to take a time out and go sit outside for a few moments to calm herself down. A week later, she was still angry at the situation. And the choir? The choir was actually fine. Was she "just" overreacting?
When I hear about everything else in her life — a very stressful work situation, stresses in family life, and general eco-anxiety and anger at how little really important things (such as actual action to reduce carbon emissions) are not changing, I can’t say I was surprised at her response. Neither of us were surprised when, a few days later, she sprained a muscle whilst working out.
What, I asked her, does it mean to lower your own temperature? To help yourself stop hurting yourself?
Not an easy question.
In the midst of multiple social, ecological, and inter-personal tensions, it is easy to over-react. Or to just withdraw. I’m sure most of us have done both.
Is it “worse than usual”? Does “usual” mean pre-pandemic? If so, how can we even compare where we are now to where we were then? So much has shifted. And so much remains unresolved.
It’s hard question to answer these questions about "usual" in part because, as Dr Gabor Mate points out in his new book, The Myth of Normal, most people aren’t “normal”... our culture is itself unhealthy. It is not supporting healthy development of individuals or the collective.
Chronic conditions and mental health disorders are at very high rates. Unresolved historical trauma, both within an individual’s lifetime and within our wider culture, abounds. Stress wreaks havoc on the body, setting the conditions for injuries and disease. And, as Mate says, our culture creates the conditions of chronic stress.
Maybe its increasing. Maybe its not. Regardless: there is a lot of tension.
And it is easy to find yourself in a situation where you have a stone in your hand.
Where tempers and general social “temperatures” seem high.
Which raises the question — how do we put down the stone? Or (re)turn it into a worry stone?
Especially when there is so much good reason for anger, for rage, anxiety, upset… for moral righteousness.
One of my favorite forms of “cooling down” for myself is to literally submerge myself in water. Lakes and (preferably warm-ish) oceans and hot tubs and pools. Even a shower helps. “Forest bathing” (which generally does not include actual water or bathing) is one term for that immersion in the power and beauty of the natural world — can also help. Scientific evidence as to the healing power of nature (aka basic common sense that our grandmothers have known for generations) keeps increasing.
Knowing how many of these waters and natural spaces are themselves heating up raises one of the greatest challenges (spiritual and just darn practical) of our climate changed era: where do we find solace and healing when those sacred places are themselves in trouble?
One thing for sure: developing practices throughout the day to ‘cool down’, de-escalate what’s going on around you and within you, and aligning yourself with yourself and with Spirit is amongst the most important skills we can cultivate in an increasingly warming planet. Neuro-science and trauma-informed understandings of the vagus nerve, etc., can help a lot.
Note - I don’t mean that we should ignore our sacred rage about the horrors we are perpetuating on each other and our planet!
How else can might these metaphorical and practical connections help us understand the moments we find ourselves in?
Global temperatures are rising because we continue to invest in and perpetuate the culture that creates the conditions for fossil fuels to fuel our society. To prevent further escalation of temperatures, we have to stop putting carbon in the air.
Pumping carbon into the atmosphere arises from economic practices and cultural habits which themselves arise from colonization. Withdrawing from those practices is critical.
If we treat the rising temperatures as a metaphor, then the question arises: how do we “reduce” our internal or social “carbon” — those things that fuel our social interactions and personal narratives in so many unhelpful ways?
If we treat ourselves as part of the planet as ecological beings, then the question arises: how is the work of reducing carbon in the atmosphere related to reducing our own tendencies for clawing each other (and sometimes ourselves) to pieces?
