2023 is the summer that climate change noticeably affected our lives, wherever we are in the globe. The record heat waves in Europe and North Africa. The fires and flash flooding in Europe. The deadly heat waves across the US and Canada.
Hundreds of wildfires raged in most provinces. In Nova Scotia there were fatalities from extreme flooding. Such devastation across the country! The wildfires that burned caused record air pollution levels, not only in Canada, but in the US as well, including New York, one of the most populated states.
At the same time that all of these extreme weather events are happening, global and local food supplies are being affected. Indian just brought in an export ban on rice to ensure its domestic supply. Now people are panic-buying rice all over the world.
Those of us who have been following what the science has been saying about climate change aren’t surprised to hear this awful litany. It is what experts have been warning will happen if we continue to pour greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere. We do that by burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuels happen to be the way that we fuel our society, and all of our economy.
We are in a crisis.
The main of focus of this article isn’t about the climate-change related weather events going on. You can read the headlines for that. If you’ve read this far, you already know that we’re in unprecedented territory with regards to our climate and are aware of the implications for our society.
Instead, I’d like to talk about the automatic “fight flight or freeze” instinct that we humans, like other animals, have when we’re threatened. Because climate change is threatening not only our way of life, and our food supply, for some of you reading this you may have felt physically threatened by it. The “fight fight or freeze” response, the fear response, kicks in for me as well as everybody else who feels threatened. But my hope is to give us all, including me, some new tools to deal with that fear. Tools that can help reduce that rush of adrenaline and also to give a new perspective about these incredible times that we’re living in. Because we, all of us, are standing on a precipice of a whole new way of being on this planet.
All of us alive, the nearly 8 billion people on the planet today, get to cast a vote on whether we’re going to shift into a world of peace where everybody gets to thrive where there’s more cooperation and more health. Is this climate emergency and all of the other planetary emergencies that we’re facing – the biodiversity crisis, the economic crisis, the inequality crisis – is this a gateway into a world where everybody thrives? Or a gateway into increasing chaos, conflict and toxicity? So no pressure at all!
What’s a person supposed to do in these unprecedented times?
It’s tempting to look away.
But if you’re one of those courageous souls who can’t look away and you’re trying to make sense of and live coherently in a world seemingly gone crazy, I’m glad you dropped by because there is a frontier where eco-grief and quantum consciousness and quantum healing meet. That is the invitation that the Climate Emergency is extending to us. In order to take up that invitation, which really is about releasing the past way of doing things in order to cultivate a different reality than the painful one that currently dominates the globe, it is important to do our own healing.
It doesn’t mean we need to be perfect. We don’t want perfection to be the enemy of the good because none of us are perfect. We’re human. If you knew me well, you would know how imperfect I am. But the findings of quantum mechanics or quantum physics suggest that each of us has the power to shift our consciousness. Which impacts the world around us in mysterious but definite ways.
The Climate Emergency is telling us that the old way no longer works. The same system of thinking and being in the world that has brought us to the brink of global disaster has caused this fractured relationship with Mother Earth that most of us in the western world experience. The old way also taught us not to trust our sixth sense, our intuition. We are told it is only our five senses that can give us information about the world.
Quantum science, however, is pointing out to us that what we see and touch isn’t all that there is to reality. In fact, the world of the five senses is just the very superficial surface of things in the quantum world.
Material reality – the ultimate optical illusion?
We aren’t solid matter, we are vibrating energy and that means our consciousness has an impact on reality.
What does that even mean after a summer of alarming weather, increasing food prices and threats to our health and well-being?
Stop and breathe.
Stopping whatever you are doing and taking a deep breath is a good place to begin. Breathe slowly and deeply, and connect to the here-and-now. There may be looming disaster ahead, but not in the present moment. If our system is consistently in” fight flight or freeze” mode, we’re going to overreact, not just when the threat physically arrives, but before. Our system becomes primed for fighting or fleeing or freezing. None of which is a helpful response to this chaotic, incredible time we are living in.
Quantum Thinking:
A question that I remind myself regularly, is “How would it impact my life if I acknowledged and integrated the reality that, as solid as we and the world around us seems, we are vibrating energy? If I really took seriously that each thought that we put out affects ourselves and ripples out to the world.”
How would that change the way we think about ourselves, the way we think about others, what we put out into the world? And what would that mean in the context of the Climate Emergency? How would that change our response to what we’re bombarded with on the news?
It can be incredibly difficult if you’re someone who has recognized for years that extreme climate disruption is what the climate scientists have been warning us about. They have been very clear about their warning and yet it has not only has the science been disregarded by policy makers. In fact, there’s been an active campaign to undermine the reality of the climate science by and for those who are making the most money from polluting our the world that sustains life.
It’s very hard (and I speak from personal experience) not to feel intense anger and disdain for those who would pollute the earth for the sake of making a buck. It’s important to recognize, if that’s what you’re feeling, that it is righteous anger. But if this is to become an evolutionary moment for humanity those of us who are aware of our thoughts and intentions on the world around us need to release those “low vibration” feelings. If we continue to feel anger and vengeance towards those who have put us in this place, that is a consciousness that will continue the same state of affairs.
But if we recognize that we are vibrating energy, if we remember that we are more space than we are matter (so science tells us), do we have the ability to change the narrative? Is it possible to change the story that we tell ourselves? Could we say “for my part, I’m willing to release anger and vengefulness.” Is it possible to embrace the idea that we move forward collectively trying to lift everybody up. And that means letting go of anger and resentment personally and collectively.
It doesn’t mean we continue to let the fossil fuel companies dictate the agenda – absolutely not! But it does mean that we we don’t spend time and energy focusing on what they’ve done wrong and how they have gotten us into this situation.
Rather we move forward contributing a consciousness that is grounded. A mind and heart that are willing to forgive and willing to do their own healing work.
I would love to hear from you about what you do to keep yourself grounded in the midst of the crazy times that we’re in.
For myself, I love to walk , especially to walk in nature. And I use energy healing techniques to help release overwhelm and stress. Below this there is a link to a tapping video focused specifically for dealing with the feelings that may come up in the Climate Emergency. Feelings like powerlessness, anger, grief, etc. It is important to acknowledge what one feels before it can be released. And that is also true in EFT tapping, the energy healing tool that I love to use and share. EFT doesn’t work if you pretend disruptive emotions aren’t there. It’s important to first acknowledge one’s feelings while tapping on the acupressure point. That’s the beginning of an internal shift.
If you want to release some of the feelings that you have around the climate emergency, to feel free to use the video link below.
Click on the image below to listen to the original podcast of this post, Quantum Thinking in a World in Hot Water: The Climate Emergency and Consciousness. Or download Climate of Joy wherever you find your favourite podcasts!
Claiming Joy & Healing Amidst the Climate Emergency 