More Than Anxiety

Ep 114 - Transforming Climate Anxiety into Hope and Action

• Megan Devito • Episode 114

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Feeling overwhelmed by climate change? Join coach Megan Devito in episode 114 of the More than Anxiety podcast as she dives deep into the emotional impact of climate anxiety on your mental health and outlook on the future. In this episode, you'll learn how to:

  • Manage climate anxiety: Discover practical tips to calm your mind and reduce stress.
  • Embrace hope: Explore the power of positive thinking and envision a sustainable future.
  • Take action: Learn simple steps you can take now to make a difference.
  • Build resilience: Develop the mental strength to face challenges and uncertainty.
  • Lean into Faith: Find comfort in what you hope for and choose to believe.

Whether you're an eco-warrior or just starting to become aware of climate issues, this episode offers valuable insights about managing anxiety and hope.


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Megan Devito:

Let's get to it.

Megan Devito:

Hey there, welcome to episode 114 of the More Than Anxiety podcast. If this is your first episode, I'm thrilled that you chose to join me today, and if you've been here for a while, welcome back this week.

Megan Devito:

I want to talk to you about climate anxiety. As a person who started worrying way back when it was about the hole in the ozone layer, this has been something that's been a part of my anxiety charcuterie board, on my list of things to worry about since I was a little kid. That is still true today. It is very in our face, especially in the last couple of months with the excessive heat, with the giant hurricanes I mean, who would have thought we would have a hurricane in North Carolina, or that they would have had hurricane force winds in Southern Indiana as part of an actual hurricane. So if you are one of those people like me who maybe remembers when we talked about the ozone layer and chlorofluorocarbons, if you don't know what that is, then you are too young, but you will understand when we're talking about the climate. And let's just start to take a breath, kind of chill out a little bit and talk about climate change and why we should not freak out but should be obviously concerned. You've probably heard about climate change. It is a big deal and it can be kind of scary, but I really want to dive into the good, the bad and the hopeful parts, because if we don't have hope, we don't take action.

Megan Devito:

Let's talk about the science. Let's talk about the feelings and the emotions and what we can actually do about it. Let's balance the fear with all of the scary stuff and explore why it's okay to feel anxious, but also why we can't let it paralyze us. Let's talk about the power of the actions that we take, no matter how small they are, and the importance of really staying positive and focusing on what's possible. So let's start with the hard stuff. Let's start with the facts first and get those out of the way, because we are in a scary place. Let's not pretend that we're not.

Megan Devito:

I know there are a lot of people out there who say this is a natural cycle. I've read conspiracy theories about the magnetic poles quickly shifting. I've also read science that says that's not happening. There are conspiracy theories that say the government is controlling the weather. The weather and the climate are not the same, but we do know that overall, the temperature of the earth has gone up. Last year was it last year; It was two Junes ago from whenever I'm recording this, so June of 2023,.

Megan Devito:

I had the privilege of being able to go on a trip to Germany and the Czech Republic with my daughter, and one of the things that we talked about when we were in Germany, in this adorable little town, we were touring some older buildings and we got to go into this really cool collection of I guess I would call them cellars or underground tunnels, where they used to store beer in Germany, which I was like that is really cool. And they talked about why they kept it down there because the temperature was right, but that one of the things they know is they can't store things down there anymore because the rise in the Earth's temperature. So we know that obviously this is not just a United States problem, because it is a climate of the entire world. So Germany, I just thought it was interesting that when we were there they were like, yeah, we used to store things down here, but since the temperature's gone up, it's not ideal to store things down here anymore. So you know, this is something that we're seeing have tiny repercussions, like not being able to store beer in tunnels anymore, but also bigger repercussions, like giant hurricanes that are going to stay bigger.

Megan Devito:

One of the things that I've noticed a lot just in my life growing up in Northeast Indiana is thinking back to what it was like when we were little in the winter here Today is, I'm recording this on October 28th of 2024, tomorrow, on October 29th, it's supposed to be 79 degrees in Northeast Indiana at the end of October. Now that in and of itself isn't really that weird, because I know that there have been a lot of Halloweens where we would trick-or-treat and it was snowing and freezing, but I also know there were a lot of Halloweens where you didn't even need a jacket because it was 70 some degrees. But the consistency in having warmer falls and warmer winters with less snow over time is pretty significant. Yes, I know this is a La Nina year and that does mean it's going to be a little bit warmer. We are obviously in a drought here. Those things in and of themselves aren't the problem, it's the consistency of change over time.

Megan Devito:

So the reality is that climate change is happening, that sea levels have risen, that it does get hotter than it ever has. We've had lots of record heat, we got weird weather, just weird stuff and it's affecting people and the planet in major ways. We probably don't need to get into all that stuff, but if you're like I really don't know what's happening with climate, let me just give you a really quick overview of what that is. The ice caps are melting. The ice caps, like imagine the hat on the top of the Earth and the bottom of the earth, those things are melting and when those things melt, they don't just refreeze. It's a problem. Once they're gone, they're gone. These are the things that happen. And when those go down, that changes air patterns, and when the air patterns change, that means that the weather will change, and so you're going to find more extreme heat, more extreme weather swings, and you're also going to have more migration. So we are a week out from the election and all I hear about is migrants. And if we think that migration is bad now, that is also going to get worse with climate change.

Megan Devito:

So that fear factor that we have from everything, from you know maybe something as silly as thinking but what about white Christmases, or you know, what about beautiful snow in the winter or whatever that is for you? Yes, that, but so much more than not having the snow in the winter. If you are feeling overly anxious about all of these things, I'm there with you. It's scary stuff. It's totally normal to feel anxious and scared about the future because your brain is making up stories based on that fear inside of your body. Those feelings inside of your body, but let's not let that fear keep us from taking action. One of the things that anxiety does is it starts putting all of these catastrophic thoughts into our brain. Yes, some of the things that can happen are pretty big and overwhelming, but that doesn't mean we're trapped, it doesn't mean there's no hope and it doesn't mean there's no solution, because I have a kind of a different way of thinking about this. So now we've talked about the scary stuff, let's talk about the hopeful things that we can look at. That can motivate us to take action, because if you don't have hope, it's really hard to know what we're moving toward. One of the things that I work on with my clients whether we're talking about climate anxiety or we're talking about anxiety about your job is really looking for what you want to see and moving toward that vision of the future. And that really stands with anxiety and fear over the climate as well. So if we look at the hopeful side of this, there is power in the collective. We have power in the us.

Megan Devito:

But when we think about how we can make a difference, even if it's just small steps, simple things like recycling, simple things like using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins I know that seems silly. I switched to cloth napkins at my house several years ago. It's so easy I throw them in the laundry, I get them out, I reuse them. I don't buy paper napkins anymore, unless I'm having some birthday party, wearing some cute little napkins. Something as simple as using a cloth napkin, something as simple as carpooling if you're just going to go someplace not very far away. Buying a hybrid car or just a car that gets better gas mileage?

Megan Devito:

Yeah, eating less meat, and I live in the middle of an agricultural county. I would catch so much crap for saying this, but the fact of the matter is that the processing of meat does take a lot more energy. I'm not going to talk about cow farts and all of that stuff, because methane is whatever. Look at the landfills. They put off so much methane. I don't know that it's actually cow farts that are the problem, but I do know that the amount of energy it takes to grow and process meat is a lot more than what it takes to go out and pick lettuce from your garden. Please, don't eat just lettuce. You have to have protein. I'm not saying don't eat any meat either because I like cheeseburger, but I'm saying that when we're conscious of what we're eating, when we're looking to more of a plant-based diet. One, because it's better for you, but two because it does make a difference, not just if I was the only person. But if we as a collective just start saying, "hey, you know what we're going to do meatless Monday that makes an impact. I know there's a lot of people out there that are losing their mind over meat right now because those are the things that we like and we feel like they're necessary and they feel like they're right and they are, but every little bit helps.

Megan Devito:

I have some pretty extreme thoughts on things that we should do. I've had this conversation with my mom before about the climate and she's like what do you think we should do, Megan? Just stop doing everything. And my answer was kind of like yeah, because we've gotten to this level of privilege where we think we should be able to do whatever we want to do. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't, that you don't have that right. You absolutely do have the right to do whatever you want to do. But I am saying that we are in this amazing place and time in history where it's not a big deal.

Megan Devito:

If I decided I wanted to go to France, I would just get a plane ticket and go to France. If you have the money to be able to do that, that's incredible, and if everybody's doing that, that puts a lot of carbon into the air. Now, am I saying that nobody should ever travel again? I mean, I love to travel, you guys? I just told you I went to Germany last summer. It was amazing. I would go to Europe every, like every month or every two months if I could and just hang out.

Megan Devito:

But if I am being conscious, if I am being aware of okay, what's the impact that has on the environment, and if my real anxiety is that I want to be able to do something to improve that, then maybe I have to say no to some things that I really want. And what I want to offer here is what if that doesn't have to be forever? What if that was temporary? Because I like to use my imagination and sometimes, if I don't control it, it goes down that rabbit hole of really, really scary things. So what I want to challenge you to do is think about the future you want, and that means being creative.

Megan Devito:

So let's really dream big about this for a minute, and I want you to imagine a world where we have clean energy. We're getting there, we're creating it, and that's amazing. Think about a place where we have healthy ecosystems, where we don't have all of the chemicals all over everything. What if we had thriving communities that weren't polluted? Or what if we had a place where people didn't have to migrate because they just couldn't grow food anymore? That's not just a fantasy. It's not something that it's like yeah, that would be nice, but you're crazy or that's never going to happen, Megan. No, no, no, no. This is a possibility, because if you can think of something, if you can imagine it, it can really happen.

Megan Devito:

So I want to play a little game that most people with anxiety play a lot, and I want to turn it towards the positive. And we're going to play the what if game, because if you are a person who struggles with anxiety, you understand what it's like to play the "what-if game. What if it's really bad? What if I get fired? What if I have a horrible disease? What if everybody makes fun of me? What if nothing works? What if the earth falls apart? What if? What if? What if? But you can. What if? In another way? What if we go all in? What if we did that? What if we went all in? This is my extreme brain.

Megan Devito:

I'm not recommending that we do this, because I think that economies would collapse and businesses would collapse. But what if we did? Could we solve for the economy? Sure, we could.

Megan Devito:

We've solved for a lot of things. It's how we got to where we are today. It's why we have so many amazing opportunities in our lives. It's also why we have climate change, because we thought big. We created factories, we created vehicles, we created airplanes. If you would have asked somebody 100 to, however many years ago, hey, you think you could get on a plane and fly to France. They'd be like fly "who's flying anywhere? But we thought of that and we created it. So now we have to keep creating and we have to create solutions. So it's time for some what ifs. We have to use what ifs.

Megan Devito:

So let's start with thinking what if we did have a cleaner planet? What if we had a planet where carbon wasn't a problem? Because I can picture this and I just know that, if I can picture it, there is someone out there that at some point this is going to happen. What if we all stood back and said you know what we're going to do, we're going to go extreme for a minute. What if we had to solve for the economy? What if we had to solve for businesses, because we went extreme and we said that's it, this is the answer. We're going to find a solution for cars that run on gas. We're going to make sure that anybody who works on an oil rig or in a coal mine was trained to create a hydrogen engine, or to work on solar panels, or in a nuclear facility, whatever it is.

Megan Devito:

And, mind you, I'm not saying that this is something that's easy. It's not. It's hard and it feels really, really impossible and probably a little stupid and naive right now, right? I'm just playing the game, because if we can what-if ourselves into catastrophes, we can what-if ourselves into hope, and that's when our brain gets creative, because our nervous systems calm down. Right now, there's a collective fear, and it's warranted. It is scary, but we can play the game.

Megan Devito:

So I want you to imagine what it would take for us to do that. Would it be easy? Absolutely not. It wouldn't be. You would have people who were so angry. We would have people that were refusing to do it. We would have people reacting out of fear.

Megan Devito:

But what if? What if we did it? I know some people listening to this are probably like she is bat shit crazy. That could be true, but I want to flip the switch on this and it's going to get scary again for a minute. What if we don't do anything?

Megan Devito:

There are some people that will tell you if we do nothing, everything will be fine because this is a natural occurrence. Okay, what if they're right? What if the people who are saying that climate change is a natural occurrence, it is a natural cycle and it is what it is? What if they're right? What if the scientists are wrong? We could play that game for a while. If they are okay, how do we want to handle that? What if we had to create ways to? I don't know, what if we had to create ways to manage migration, find ways for people to grow food? What if we still decided to treat it that they were wrong and we still changed things anyway? Would we have a better planet? I mean, what would happen if we actually decided, "oh yeah, we're going to take care of pollution anyway, we're just not going to buy as many things anyway? What would change? Would it be a good change or a bad change? So if you're going to play the what if game, I'm going to challenge you to look at the what if I do something anyway? What if something good happens? What if it's really really that simple, not easy. Easy and simple are the same things. What if it's as simple as making changes on purpose, even when we don't want to, even when it makes us mad, even when it's an inconvenience, even when we have to be creative and come up with new solutions? What if we did it anyway? What if we had a better planet, no matter what, because we chose to make those changes? I'm going to play one more game that I like to imagine here.

Megan Devito:

ame saw a quote recently it was Neil deGrasse Tyson, and I'm going to butcher it. I'm not going to get it exactly right, but it was about space travel and about trying to find a new planet to move to. Like we've screwed this one up, I guess we'll have to find a new one. And his quote was something along the lines of if you can find a way to move to a new planet, then you can find a way to fix the one that we're on now, and I loved that because I absolutely believe this and maybe someone is already working on this. I certainly hope so.

Megan Devito:

What if there was a way that suddenly one day and I do believe this will happen at some point they found a way to take the carbon out of the atmosphere and do something amazing with it; I don't know, maybe to power cars or something, I don't know what. If they could take the carbon out of the atmosphere and actually found a way to reverse climate change. Because, yes, that's not an option right now. Right, if we keep going on this way, we're stuck and we can't get it back right now. But that's not to say in 10 minutes that somebody couldn't come up with a way to do that, or in 10 years, we don't know. But if I can look at that as a point of hope and I can keep moving towards that and do the things that we need to do now to calm your body, to calm your brain and to refocus on what we want, and that's important.

Megan Devito:

So let's talk about some ways that you can chill out over climate change, because I've been practicing a lot recently how we can do this in the middle of really scary weather patterns and things that I don't like. I like silly, simple things, like my very pretty snowy Christmases, and I don't like to be cold guys, I have a blanket on my lap, I turn on my heat and I'm still freezing and I know it's going to be 80 degrees tomorrow, but I like to be warm. But I also love snow and I like normalcy and I like feeling secure. Let's talk about some ways that we can calm the climate, anxiety, calm your body and still look for what we want and make those changes.

Megan Devito:

So number one is self-care. I know it's such a cliche, little term at this point, but it is important. You have to take care of yourself physically and mentally. That means eating well, eating healthy, sleeping well and taking breaks, and getting some exercise and going outside and being in nature that stuff that you're all anxious about. Go be in that! Get off of your phone, get away from your computer, leave your phone inside and don't listen to podcasts or anything. Just go outside and be in nature and really appreciate it. Because if you're that worried about it, if you're really worried about the climate and you're really worried about the earth, go enjoy what's out there, go outside, get inspired by it.

Megan Devito:

The second thing is to find your people. You have to connect with other people who care about the planet, other people who are excited about progress, other people that are motivated to be like, oh, we could do this thing, we could ride share, we could do that. Hey, you know what? I have this thing that I wasn't using, do you want to borrow that for a while? Then we're not going out and buying more things. The less we produce, the less that we actually have to have in terms of waste.

Megan Devito:

Let's talk about good things that are happening. Let's talk about this thing that I just read that Colombia lowered the temperature in their country by, I think it said, two degrees Celsius. That seems a little extreme, but maybe it's true, by planting an obscene number of trees. Could we do that in the United States? Maybe or maybe not, I don't know, but that doesn't mean it's the only option, it's just the current option.

Megan Devito:

I believe that there are better things coming in the future and that someone I used to hope that it would be Elon Musk, that he would like stay out of politics and stay out of all this other stuff and really focus on his amazing genius brain, just like really say what could I do that would benefit the planet? I'm not sure if my hope isn't Elon Musk anymore at all, but I do believe that there's somebody else out there who's got what it takes inside their brain to find solutions, and I want you to feel really good about every action that you take, and I want you to celebrate every action that you personally take that lowers your anxiety, that does something good for the climate and that does something good for the collective community. Get involved, go volunteer, donate, make some really awesome gifts for people, instead of buying giant things that have to be shipped by airplanes or cruise liners. This is like the whole idea of shop small and shop local. You're supporting local businesses, local crafters, buying really amazing, actual gifts that aren't just things, and you're kind of saving the planet at the same time. There are really great little things that you can do right here in your own town, wherever you are, that are good for the planet, that you can celebrate and you can feel like you are taking action until we have a better solution.

Megan Devito:

So we've talked a lot about the scary stuff. We've talked a lot about things that you can do and we've talked about hopeful stuff, and I hope that you'll remember that we're all working on this. We all want to have a planet, even people that don't believe in climate change. They want to have a planet. They want to have safety, they want to have a strong economy, they want to have clean water. They really do want to do those things. So let's keep talking about it, let's keep supporting each other and let's just make a difference, one little bit at a time.

Megan Devito:

If you notice that you are really anxious over this and you're like I don't know what to do, I don't know how to reframe my thoughts, I don't know how to calm my body down so I could be creative and come up with things, this is where I step in. So one of the things that I can help you do as your coach is help you come up with plans that work for you, and we start that process by really getting in tune with how anxiety feels inside of your body. Every time I think about the climate, I feel like I'm like shaking inside. I'm so afraid. Okay, let's get really familiar with that feeling so we can calm it down and you can think creatively.

Megan Devito:

What is something that you could do? What would you want to do? What would you want to believe about where we are headed as a planet? Because I don't think any of us want to believe that the end is near. We have power in this. You guys, we really do, but we have to calm down the collective anxiety first. So let's start there. Let's start with learning how to calm it down and think creatively. Then let's just find some little steps that you can take personally, because if everybody takes little steps, that's what makes the difference, and we can do that, and they can be things that are exciting to you, that feel good to you and that fit with how you live.

Megan Devito:

Now. It's so simple to learn how to get calm, how to feel good and how to make changes. All you have to do is message me. There are links in the show notes of every podcast episode and you can find me on social media at @Coachmegandevito. I talk a lot about the climate. I talk a lot about coffee and swimming and things that I love and the hope that I have for us, because that's what's going to get us where we want to go.

Megan Devito:

I hope this episode brought you a little bit of peace and some creativity and some forward motion. I hope that you will decide to take action in whatever way that you can and to get really excited about the future that we can produce together. All right, guys, if I do not talk to you on a consultation call. I will be back again next week. Take care.

Megan Devito:

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the More Than Anxiety podcast. Before you go, be sure to subscribe and leave a review so others can easily find this resource as well. And, of course, if you're ready to feel calm, to stop overthinking and have a lot more fun, you can go to the show notes, click the link and talk to me about coaching. I'll talk to you soon.