Eco-anxiety is often framed as something to manage, reduce, or overcome. A symptom to quiet. A feeling to soothe away so we can get back to “normal.”
But what if eco-anxiety isn’t a malfunction of the nervous system at all?
What if it’s a signal — an intelligent response to living inside a world that is rapidly changing, increasingly unstable, and asking more of our bodies, communities, and imaginations than ever before?
Rather than treating eco-anxiety as a personal weakness or a mental health problem to be cured, we might begin by listening to it.
What is Eco-Anxiety?
Eco-anxiety refers to the distress, fear, grief, or unease people feel in response to climate change and environmental degradation.
It shows up differently for everyone:
- A sense of dread about the future
- Difficulty concentrating
- Grief for what’s being lost
- Anger at systems that feel immovable
- A low to high-level tension that never fully releases
According to the American Psychological Association, eco-anxiety is not classified as a diagnosable mental illness. It is a reasonable emotional response to a real and ongoing threat. Researchers Kurth and Pihkala describe eco-anxiety as morally and socially meaningful — not pathological — because it reflects care, awareness, and concern for the world we live in.
In other words, eco-anxiety often arises because something in us is paying attention.
And yet, in a culture that prioritizes productivity, certainty, and emotional containment, these feelings are often treated as problems to be fixed rather than information to be understood.
Why Listening Matters
When eco-anxiety is ignored or suppressed, it doesn’t disappear. It moves into the body.
It shows up as chronic stress, numbness, overwhelm, burnout, or freeze. People may disengage from climate conversations entirely, not because they don’t care, but because caring feels too heavy to hold alone. Others may spiral into constant urgency without grounding, leading to exhaustion and despair.
Van Valkengoed argues that climate anxiety is not a mental health disorder, but it does require care. Not care that silences it, but care that helps people metabolize it.
Listening to eco-anxiety allows us to ask different questions:
- What values are being threatened?
- What do I love that feels at risk?
- What kind of future do I long for?
- What support do I need to stay engaged rather than overwhelmed?
These questions move us from fear into clarity.
The Body is an Interpreter
Eco-anxiety does not live only in the mind. It lives in the nervous system.
Our bodies evolved to respond to danger with activation or protection. Climate disruption is not a single event; it’s a chronic condition. The nervous system is asked to stay alert without resolution, which can lead to hypervigilance or shutdown.
Somatic approaches recognize that before we can act wisely, we must be able to stay present. Regulation is not about calming ourselves into complacency. It’s about building the capacity to feel, sense, and respond without collapsing.
When we work with the body, eco-anxiety can become a guide:
- Tightness in the chest might signal grief.
- Restlessness might signal a desire to act.
- Numbness might signal the need for safety and connection.
The body helps translate abstract fear into felt information we can work with.
From Fear to Agency
One of the most damaging myths about eco-anxiety is that it inevitably leads to paralysis. Research tells a more nuanced story.
When people feel supported, resourced, and connected to others, concern about climate change can increase pro-environmental behavior, civic engagement, and stewardship. Anxiety becomes fuel, not friction.
Agency doesn’t require the absence of fear. It requires enough grounding to choose how to respond.
Embodied practices—breathwork, grounding, time in nature, communal rituals, skill-building—help transform eco-anxiety into something usable. They allow people to stay in relationship with their fear rather than be ruled by it.
From this place, action becomes more sustainable. People prepare not from panic, but from care. They engage not from urgency alone, but from love.
Stewardship is a Response
Eco-anxiety often carries a deeper question beneath it: What is my role in this moment of history?
Stewardship is one answer.
Stewardship doesn’t require perfection or heroism. It asks for presence, responsibility, and relationship. It can look like learning local emergency preparedness, tending a garden, teaching children how to listen to the land, organizing mutual aid, or simply staying engaged when it would be easier to turn away.
These acts root anxiety in place. They transform abstract global fear into local, relational care.
Eco-anxiety in a Shifting Political Climate
As political landscapes shift and climate policy becomes increasingly contested, it can be tempting to disengage—to wait, to see, to hope someone else will handle it.
But the changing political climate does not pause climate disruption. Extreme weather, infrastructure strain, and ecological loss continue regardless of who is in office.
This is precisely why embodied clarity matters.
When nervous systems are overwhelmed, people become more susceptible to fear-based narratives, division, and paralysis. When bodies are regulated and communities are connected, people are better able to discern, prepare, and act with intention.
Embodied climate resilience is not partisan. It is practical. It supports people in staying grounded enough to navigate uncertainty, adapt to change, and care for one another no matter the external conditions.
A Simple Practice: Listening Without Fixing
If eco-anxiety is a signal, we don’t need to silence it. We need to listen.
Try this:
- Place a hand on your body where you feel the anxiety most.
- Take three slow breaths, allowing the body to soften around the sensation.
- Ask quietly: What am I trying to protect? What am I afraid of losing?
- Notice what arises — an image, a value, a memory, a desire.
- Let that answer inform one small, grounded action you can take this week.
No fixing. No bypassing. Just awareness and acceptance in relation to what is most important right now.
Moving Forward Together
Eco-anxiety is not a personal failure. It is a collective signal arising in a time that demands new ways of being human together.
When we listen to it with care, support, and embodied wisdom, it can guide us toward agency, stewardship, and clarity. It can help us remain present in the work of preparing, adapting, and imagining futures rooted in care rather than fear.
The goal is not to eliminate eco-anxiety. The goal is to let it teach us how to stay awake, connected, and engaged in a world that needs us—fully present.
References
American Psychological Association. (2021). Mental health and climate change. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/03/ce-climate-change
Kurth, C., & Pihkala, P. (2022). Eco-anxiety: What it is and why it matters. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 981814. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.981814
Van Valkengoed, A. M. (2023). Climate anxiety is not a mental health problem. But we should still treat it as one. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 79(6), 385–387. https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2023.2266942
University of Minnesota Extension. (n.d.). Eco-anxiety. https://extension.umn.edu/stress-and-change/eco-anxiety
The Lancet Planetary Health. (2021). Climate change and mental health. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext
