Earth is everyone’s home, so reading news stories about carbon emissions harming the planet can feel stressful. Hence a term to describe this is eco-anxiety and there’s nothing more powerful for this than positive anxiety affirmations.
While you can always try to help the environment by living sustainably, it may not do much for your current anxieties. Positive affirmations for eco-anxiety may ease your stress by calming your nerves. Learn more about them by reading this guide.
What Is Eco-Anxiety?
Eco-anxiety is any anxiety triggered by concern for the environment. An estimated 31.1% of U.S. adults have anxiety and 67% have environmental anxiety due to the effects of global warming.
Someone might have eco-anxiety if they keep up with global warming news and feel bad long after reading it. Reports about how over 140 million people could lose their homes due to water scarcity might make you feel powerless. Fortunately, there are many ways to ease your mind and help the planet.
What Are the Symptoms of Eco-Anxiety?
The symptoms of eco-anxiety are similar to standard anxiety. However, they may appear when you read or hear about climate destruction related to carbon emissions. Research shows that people with exo-anxiety experience recurring symptoms such as:
- Panic attacks
- Sleeplessness
- Loss of appetite
- Irritability
If you notice these symptoms occurring frequently, eco-anxiety might drop your quality of life. These are a few positive affirmations you can use to ease your stress when you feel panicked.
50 Positive Affirmations for Eco-Anxiety
Positive affirmations remind people what’s true when they feel on edge, upset or scared. Repeat these to yourself daily or when you feel climate anxiety affecting your mental health to ground yourself in the positive.
20 Positive Affirmations for the Fight Against Climate Change
- I am strong and not the only one experiencing eco-anxiety.
- I find comfort in the beauty of nature when I’m stressed.
- I respond to environmental challenges with endless ambition and a realistic perspective of what I can do.
- I am mindful of what I consume and throw away to protect the planet better.
- I picture the future optimistically because so many people are with me in the fight against climate change.
- I acknowledge how my actions minimize my carbon footprint.
- I absorb Earth’s positive energy and release it back into nature through sustainable choices.
- I am grateful for the earth and use that gratitude to motivate my sustainable choices.
- I am part of nature, so I never stop contributing to it, even when my sustainable efforts slow down.
- I take small actions that help the planet, which is equally important as significant actions.
- I prioritize the earth through each decision I make, which is exactly what the planet needs to fight global warming.
- I protect nature each time I face eco-anxiety and prevent it from discouraging me.
- I never back down from a fight, just like the environment.
- I prepare myself for an environmentalist lifestyle by learning every day.
- I take small steps leading to great things in the fight against global warming.
- I’m in control of my deep breathing and remind myself the planet knows how to recover from environmental events as it has done over billions of years.
- I always meet climate change challenges with the same energy the planet pours into me daily.
- I pay attention to climate change news, projecting positivity through my response to it.
- I embrace the helpful education received by staying current on global warming news.
- I generate more environmental change by joining forces with other eco-conscious people through my sustainable choices.
15 Comforting Affirmations to Alleviate Eco-Anxiety
- I’m not alone in fighting climate change.
- I heal the planet every time I leave it as I found it.
- I honor the planet through my concern for it.
- I can manage any feelings that arise after eco-anxiety starts affecting me.
- My environmentalism makes people more aware of global warming, causing even greater social change.
- I give myself the grace to accept my eco-anxiety and recover from its effects on my well-being.
- I’m already making a difference by paying attention to the planet’s needs.
- I am capable of adapting to global warming with new efforts in my personal life.
- I believe in my ability to overcome my climate anxiety.
- I prioritize the earth through each decision I make, which is exactly what the planet needs to fight global warming.
- I take each step knowing they improve the planet before I ever reach my goals.
- I am an environmentalist role model for everyone who knows me.
- I accept climate change updates and respond with positive actions.
- I build a greener community whenever I talk about the planet, do something productive, or foster friendships centered around the environment.
- I accept that individual efforts make a difference alongside far-reaching environmentalist efforts.
15 Positive Anxiety Affirmations For The Worried Soul
- I release pieces of my anxiety with every exhale.
- I foster and retain the power to continue making a difference.
- I overcome my fears and make them smaller each week.
- I can relax even when my anxiety feels overwhelming.
- I value minor signs of progress over total perfection.
- I pause my anxious thoughts to appreciate the environment around me.
- I acknowledge that my efforts make a difference.
- I foster greater serenity by inviting it into my life every day.
- I do my best and it’s always enough.
- I recognize the anxiety in my mind and body while reclaiming control of my nervous system.
- I appreciate the privilege I have of learning about the environment.
- I will make my sustainable dreams come true, even if it takes years.
- I mindfully spend my time and energy on positivity for the planet.
- I accept that I can’t heal the earth alone, so I let go of the anxiety demanding perfection.
- I will not spend time with stress over what I can’t control because it isn’t what I deserve.
Other Ways to Fight Anxious Thoughts
As you develop a habit of repeating positive affirmations for eco-anxiety, you can also manage your climate anxiety with these strategies. There are always other ways to help yourself in this process. For example, learning to manage your mental health while participating in the long-haul efforts to defeat global warming.
Try New Sustainable Habits (like positive affirmations for eco-anxiety!)
You might worry that you aren’t doing enough for the planet, resulting in climate anxiety that ruins your day. If this is a recurring trigger for your mental health, start adopting new eco-friendly habits slowly. This if course does not need to stop at simply giving positive affirmations for eco-anxiety that haunts you.
If you recycle, consider composting to increase your positive environmental impact. Try riding public transportation when you can instead of driving all the time.
Buy your next wardrobe update from a sustainable clothing manufacturer. Simple choices like these still contribute to the planet’s well-being while being small, easy steps.
Reduce Your News Consumption
People often feel their eco-anxiety increases when they’re reading the news. Yes, keeping up with global warming effects is vital to making better sustainable decisions. But, you don’t need to read or hear the news all day.
Try reducing your news consumption by limiting your intake to 15 or 30 minutes daily. When the time runs out, you’ll know to switch to a different channel or app for your mental health.
Try Meditative Breathing Exercises
Anxiety activates the nervous system, resulting in chronic symptoms like hyperventilation to deliver more oxygen to the brain. Breathing exercises reduce the heart rate, making it easier to slow your breathing and accept things like positive affirmations.
If you’re struggling to focus on your positive affirmations consider this. Because your eco-anxiety makes it challenging to catch your breath, follow a meditative breathing video. As you slowly inhale and exhale according to timed movements, you’ll calm your nervous system. It might make positive affirmations easier to repeat and believe in moments of increased environmental stress.
Drink Less Caffeine
Your daily cup of sustainable coffee might be the perfect way to start your day. However, drinking even more caffeine could cause intensified eco-anxiety. Researchers found that people with anxiety experienced intensified symptoms when they consumed more caffeine.
Consider drinking one less cup of your preferred caffeinated beverage to see if you feel any better throughout the day. You can always further reduce your intake by swapping caffeinated drinks for caffeine-free sodas, herbal teas or sparkling water.
While it may not seem like a significant change it is still important. It lets your nervous system calm down with fewer stimulants in your body. And, as someone with extreme eco-anxiety, this is a big deal.
Journal Your Concerns and Progress
Worrying about the future is a significant part of eco-anxiety. While positive anxiety affirmations might focus your thoughts, you may feel discouraged about the long-term fight to improve the planet.
When that feeling occurs, reflect on your continual efforts. This may encourage by reminding yourself of how you’ve helped the earth over the days, weeks or even years. Start journaling today with a new physical journal or an app.
Record what you did today to give back to the planet. Even if it was something as small as turning the lights off in another room. The entries will add up and prove that you’re doing what’s within your power to fight global warming. The reflection could calm you later because you’ll see your collective, encouraging efforts.
Exercise More Often
People talk about anxiety as a mental health condition and while that’s true, it also affects your body physically. Getting more physical exercise reduces the anxiety’s intensity by redirecting internal tension into physical exertion. Even work some of these positive affirmations for eco-anxiety somewhere into your workout!
Reflect on your current workout routine to determine how much physical activity you get each week. You could increase your exercise frequency by taking walks or doing workout videos at home.
The next time you feel climate anxiety affecting you, get your heart rate up while repeating positive anxiety affirmations. You may feel much better after a few minutes. This is because your nervous system is focused on exercising instead of your anxiety.
Talk With a Therapist
Anyone can make positive affirmations part of their daily routine to minimize their anxiety, but it might not be enough to ease your mind. Like if you’ve tried other options like working out and adjusting your caffeine intake. Or you’ve been trying breathing exercises with no progress, it could be time to talk with a therapist.
Licensed mental health experts know how to listen to their clients and discuss underlying factors contributing to their anxiety. While you may worry about the planet, events in your past could have started the anxiety that led to your environmental fears.
Working with a therapist to unpack your anxiety. Methods like cognitive reframing or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) are just a few methods available. Using these, a professional could help you get to the root of the problem.
Volunteer With Environmental Groups
Anxiety often seems the strongest when people feel isolated. You can live as sustainably as possible but still feel like your efforts are fruitless because you’re only one person. If you have similar thoughts, you may conquer your anxiety by getting involved with local environmental groups.
See if anyone in your community organizes efforts like cleaning riverways, gardening in public parks or caring for bees. The options around your town will depend on your geographic location as well.
Someone who lives by the beach could clean the coastline. Then, someone living in the mountains might pickup litter along hiking trails. You’ll make a few friends and have an active impact on the planet that could ease your mind.
Who knows, they may have their own positive affirmations for eco-anxiety. A community action is an especially helpful strategy. This is particularly true if you get physically active too. In this way you would combine ways to fight your anxiety alongside positive affirmations.
When to Seek Help for Your Eco-Anxiety
Although there are many ways to deal with eco-anxiety, you might need to get help to manage it. If your anxious thoughts or feelings prevent you from enjoying your hobbies, bonding with people or feeling hopeful about your future, talk with a therapist or doctor.
You may need help unpacking other issues like depression or unresolved trauma that’s fueling your anxiety. As you make this journey remember it is one of transformation, not of staying comfortable. Some of our best growth comes during times of discomfort when we have the willingness to learn.
Try Positive Anxiety Affirmations for Eco-Anxiety Today
Anyone can use these positive anxiety affirmations to better manage their eco-anxiety. When combined with other lifestyle changes, you’ll regain control over your mental health while continuing your fight for the planet.
About the Author
Mia Barnes is a freelance health and lifestyle writer from the East Coast. Mia is also the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Body+Mind Magazine. She enjoys writing about topics related to self-care, mindful living, and overall wellness. When not writing, you can find Mia reading romance novels, trying new recipes or practicing yoga.
Website: www.bodymind.com/