Archive for NEEPS North East Eco-friendly People's Site
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Maria
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Resilience - in response to climate changeA long - but very worthwhile read.  What stage are you at??
| Quote: | Toward a resilience psychology in response to climate change
Few of us are eager to contemplate, let alone truly face, these looming changes. Just the threat of losing chunks of the comfortable way of life we’re accustomed to (or aspiring to) is a frightening-enough prospect. But there’s no avoiding the current facts and trends of the human and planetary situation. And as the edges of our familiar reality begin to ravel, more and more people are reacting psychologically. A noticeable pattern of behavior is emerging
We call this pattern the Waking Up Syndrome, and it unfolds in six stages, though not necessarily in any particular order.
As with many approaches, the authors (Sarah Anne Edwards and Linda Buzzell) outline categories of responses which they observe as common in people who progress through denial to active engagement with the almighty scale of the challenge (and opportunity) we collectively face:
Stage 1 Denial - “I don’t believe it” and “It’s not a problem” becomes “Someone will fix it” or “It’s useless”.
Stage 2 'Semi-consciousness' suggests that as evidence mounts around us and the news coverage escalates, we may begin to feel a vague sense of eco-anxiety which we might respond to by misdirecting our anger/sadness toward other things - familiar bug-bears, or media-constructed scapegoats.
Stage 3 - The moment of realization suggests that at some point we may encounter something that breaks through our defenses and brings the inevitability and severity of the implications of our collective problems into full consciousness. "At such moments, suddenly we realize no matter how we try to explain away the changes that are happening, they are and will be accompanied by huge challenges to life as we know it and cause considerable pain and suffering for many, including ourselves and those we love... we begin to understand on a visceral level that the changes taking place will have dramatically unpleasant implications beyond anything we’ve faced in our lifetimes. In fact, we realize many of these uncomfortable changes are already underway and will be growing in coming months and years, affecting most of the things we love and cherish
...Some of us become obsessive newswatchers, documentary filmgoers, internet compulsives or book readers, wanting to know more and more about what’s really happening. Loved ones may think we’ve gone nuts. Spouses may consider divorce; kids may decide mom and dad are hopeless cranks.
The more fragile or vulnerable among us may get depressed or experience panic attacks. If something about this current eco-trauma retriggers earlier traumas in our lives, we may have a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) reaction. Even the more resilient may throw themselves obsessively into save-the-planet and other activities, soon to become exhausted and weary from trying to do what no one person can."
Stage 4 - A Point of No Return, is a point in the journey into awareness when we realise we cannot pretend our knowledge doesn't matter. It can also be a place of profound aloneness - a "sense of isolation and disconnection we may feel when living in a different world from most of those around us, a world we can no longer escape from, but one few others seem to notice....
...which might lead to despair, guilt, hopelessness, powerlessness.
"Some have suggested that this stage is similar to the traditional grief process, and indeed, this is a time of grieving. But there is a significant difference between this awakening and the normal experience of grief. Grief that occurs after a loss usually ends with acceptance of what’s been lost and then one adjusts and goes on. But this is more like the process of accepting a degenerative illness. It’s not a one-time loss one can accommodate and simply move on. It is a chronic, on-going, permanent situation that will not only not improve, but actually continue to worsen and become more uncomfortable in the foreseeable future, probably for the entire lifetime of most people living today. This is what author James Howard Kunstler calls “The Long Emergency.”"
The authors (and my experience over many years of working through stages of awareness with students at the Centre for Human Ecology), sense that there is a natural unfolding into acceptance, empowerment, and action once through the 'despair' stage.
And indeed, growing numbers of people are beginning to respond with a plethora of creative, socially and personally responsible actions.
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Full version of above by Nick Wilding, and lots of related resources can be found at http://resilienceblog.blogspot.co...ard-resilience-psychology-in.html
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Forget-me-Not
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ResilienceHello
I've been as far as four but am now entering five, if there is one. Feeling a sense of optimism, acceptance and positive drive to seek the skills we'll all need and also the need to establish food security and sustainability in all things.
Beth
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