Navigating Climate and Election Anxiety

Hi everyone! My name is Alyssa and I am CCL’s Resilience and Education Intern this fall. I wanted to share a resource that you may find helpful if, like me, you're dealing with anxiety surrounding upcoming elections and what their results might mean for climate issues.

It’s easy to become anxious, disheartened, or overwhelmed by elections since they have immense consequences on our daily lives but can feel largely out of our control. I know I’ve experienced many of these emotions, which are only heightened by concern for how this election will affect the future of our climate. For those of us who are working to address climate change and may already experience climate anxiety, election season can take a heightened mental and physical toll. I recently attended a CCL webinar on Navigating Climate and Election Anxiety presented by Tamara Staton, CCL’s Education and Resilience Coordinator. In this webinar, Tamara explains the causes and signs of climate and election anxiety, then presents the Five Steps to Personal Resilience. When I'm feeling anxious, using these steps helps me reframe my challenging feelings into a more grounded and positive mindset. While this workshop focuses specifically on the intersection of climate and election anxiety, these strategies can help you build your overall personal resilience and better deal with many types of challenges so you can sustain your work and passions, including climate advocacy!

Share down below: Do you experience election or climate anxiety, and what strategies do you use to navigate it? For more resources on climate anxiety and building personal resilience, check out the CCL Resilience Hub!

2 Replies

@Alyssa Vandenberg I've been struggling a lot with both election and climate anxiety. Not really sure how to handle it though….

@Jordan Teicher Thanks so much for sharing, you're definitely not alone in those feelings. Some strategies I like to use when I'm feeling anxious, especially about climate/election issues, are going for a walk, practicing mindfulness and yoga, taking breaks from social media and the news, and learning to accept that while I cannot control the behavior of others, I can take action in ways that make me feel fulfilled.
If you haven't already, I recommend watching the Navigating Climate and Election Anxiety webinar or reading through the presentation slides. These resources offer a more in-depth framework for dealing with these feelings. Wishing you the best!

Forum help

Select a question below

CCL Community's Sitewide Forums are an easy and exciting way to interact with other members on CCL Community.  The Sitewide Forums are focused on subjects and areas of general interest to members.  Each forum consists of topics that members have posted, along with replies from other members. Some forums are divided into categories to group similar topics together. 

Any members can post a topic or reply to a topic.

The Sitewide Forums are open to the entire CCL community to create, comment on, and view online discussions.  Posts and comments should address the subject or focus of the selected forum. 

Note: Categories can only be created by community administrators.

Guidelines for posting: (also see general Community Guidelines)

  • Don’t see your question or topic? Post it.
  • Be thoughtful, considerate (nonpartisan) and complete. The more information you supply, the better the better and more engaging the conversation will be. 
  • Feel like cursing? Please don’t.
  • Ask yourself, “Would my topic post reveal sensitive or confidential information?” If so, please don't post!

Flag/report any offending comments, and then move on. In the rare instance of a comment containing a potentially credible threat, escalate that immediately to CCL.

If the Sitewide Forum has no categories, select the "Add Topic" button at the top of topics window. 

If the forum has categories, when you click on "Add Topic," a dropdown list of the categories appears. Select the desired category and then "Add Topic."
In either case this brings up a box to enter both the topic subject and topic text.

If you have questions or wish to add comments on a posted forum topic, open the post and click the blue “Add Reply” button at top. You can also click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the original topic posting.

This opens a text box. Add your reply. You can also add documents by dragging a file into the text box. Click “Post” at the bottom of the reply window This will add your reply to other replies (if there are any), sorted by oldest on top. 

If, however, you want to reply directly to someone else’s reply, click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of their reply. 

When replying to a topic post or a topic reply it may be helpful to quote the original text, or the part that your reply is referring to. To quote a topic or reply, click on the "Quote" link at bottom of post. 

When you do this the full text of either the post or reply will be pulled into a reply text box. If desired, you can remove parts of the quoted text in order to get the portion you are interested in quoting.

You can subscribe to notifications of new postings from any of the Sitewide Forums or forum categories. To subscribe, select the green “Subscribe” button at the top of the forum. Click on dropdown arrow to select frequency of notification.

If you are already subscribed, the button will display “Unsubscribe.”  Select it to unsubscribe or select the dropdown arrow to modify frequency of notification. 

Note: If you subscribe to a Sitewide Forum, such as "Media Relations" that has categories (such as "LTEs and Op-Eds"), you will also be subscribed to all the categories. If you wish to subscribe to only one or more of the categories, unsubscribe to the parent forum and subscribe individually to desired categories.

.

If you see a topic post or reply that interests you or that you like, you can click the “Like” icon at the bottom of the topic post or the reply. This lets the poster know that the topic was helpful. It also contributes to the topic’s popularity, which influences where it is listed in the "Popular" forum tab. There are also additional reactions available for members to use. Mouseover the "Like" icon to choose one of these options: Love, Clap, Celebrate, Insightful, or Interesting.

CCL Community Guidelines

  • Discuss, ask and share
  • Be respectful
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Protect privacy

More guidelines
 

CCL Blog Policy Area Categories