🌌 Leading into the Future: Turning Climate Anxiety into Productive Action
Practical tips for leaders to empower others
Have you noticed lately that some people are starting to get a serious case of climate anxiety or environmental anxiety? With good reason, of course.
The trouble is that anxiety often causes dissociation or distraction, and even paralysis, making it difficult for individuals to take effective action. For meaningful change to happen, we need everyone to be able to act effectively.
As leaders, we need to listen to how they feel and help them regain emotional balance through informed support. There’s a fine line between staying informed and remaining functional. It’s crucial for leaders to strike this balance and assist as many people as possible in doing the same.
You will likely see more and more people exhibiting these symptoms, as I am. We need to notice and help them regulate those emotional states.
📢 Take this week. Did you hear about the research of the effects on the brain of micro- and nano-plastics? Very concerning.
As leaders, we need to understand that we navigate these environmental and social challenges (regardless of our particular industry). The climate, the environment, health… all affect people's lives and how they feel, and therefore how they are able to perform at work.
So helping those we lead maintain functionality and resilience is crucial. There's a lot you can do to help people stay as
functional as possible so that we can continue to make that positive change together.
Let's see how you can strike that balance between realism and optimism.
♸ Microplastics, brain and bodily health (the bad news)
Bear with me on this example. And notice as you read how you feel and what actions might you feel an impulse to take (or not). Protect yourself if needed. These news are tough to read! Above all, take care of yourself.
Microplastics and nanoplastics are now everywhere. Some of us have known they would be for decades, and the effects on the body are very concerning.
Recent research has uncovered their startling ability to infiltrate vital organs such as the brain and to create serious health risks.
The problem is that many plastics mimic important endogenous molecules structurally and, once in the body, wreak havoc on critical biological functions. Plastics can mimic hormones such as oestrogen and androgens, neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, lipids (fats) including cholesterol, and genetic molecules like DNA and RNA. While this mimicry could potentially be harnessed for future medical advances, the current reality is that these interactions body-plastics are leading to unhealthy and harmful effects on human health.
The science is showing that we're now exposed to micro- and nano- plastics daily through food packaging (solid and liquid), as well as from the environment. These tiny particles affect brain and bodily function in many ways.
Recent neuroscience research showcased some of the brain effects of plastic particles (polystyrene, a very common plastic).
The researchers said that these nanometer-sized particles, the smaller ones (but not the bigger ones) reach the brain within two hours after ingestion. They found the mechanism by which this happens. Your brain is built to be pretty impenetrable, with its blood brain barrier that few molecules are allowed to cross, thus protecting you from pathogens and toxins. Nano-plastics have cholesterol-like particles on their outside which makes them more likely to cross the blood brain barrier and enter the brain. Once in the brain, plastic molecules increase the risk of inflammation and potentially of neurological disorders(such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's).
This is where we take a few deep breaths. 😮💨
Now that's not where it stops. Previous research has decisively shown that small plastic molecules also penetrate the gastrointestinal tract. And these plastic molecules have been linked to contributing to local inflammatory and immune reactions, as well as the development of several cancers. Cancer rates are generally on the rise globally; plastics seem to be one reason.
More breaths. 😮💨
This is just one example of the concerns we all face. And people have heard that the effects are not just in humans. Scientists are finding micro- and nano-plastics in sea salt, on the beaches, in marine life. It’s all over the news.
The human use of plastic has got very severe, negative consequences.
This is one example, fresh from the news. How to react? How to respond?
A. We could become paralysed at the shock of our increased chance of illnesses. There is solid evidence to go there.
Or
B. We could instead resource ourselves to see what can be done and choose the route toward active positive change.
🌱 How do we go from climate anxiety to climate empowerment?
It's crucial for leaders to learn to transform environmental concerns into resilience through providing actionable steps so that people don't succumb to climate anxiety and instead are empowered to make a tangible difference.
Let’s go into some practical tips to help us lead in uncertain and shocking times.
When people think about what's happening with the environment, whether it be marine animal conservation, microplastics or toxins in the water, it is normal to have feelings of anxiety triggered. Sometimes these feelings can be extreme, even border fear or panic.
You might have just felt some of that reading the previous example (my sincere apologies). These feelings affect our bodies, and our nervous system launches a stress response of some sort. Chronically held stress responses also contribute to disease, by the way.
So regaining emotional balance is important not just to enable us to stay effective, but also to promote health and avoid illness.
If you are going to lead in today's complicated world, it requires that you have empathy and really understand how other people feel while you keep yourself resilient, and stay focused on solutions. In this way you can become a beacon of light, showing a pathway forward that may be hard for others to find on their own. This is effective leadership, influencing people by inspiring them to take effective and positive action.
This is a win-win approach in the difficult times we face.
3 ideas to try:
1. Be an eco-centric leader
Lead by empowerment. You do this by taking charge of what's in your hands to do. There is huge power for positive change when you do this.
Leading by empowerment could mean implementing new sustainability practices within your organisation.
Identify aspects of your business and your life where you can reduce plastic exposure and environmental harm. Share these strategies with your teams and your community, your family, as well as the reasons why you're doing it, to help others understand and do the same. Small changes like minimising plastic use or using tap water (vs. water bottled in plastic containers) can make a significant impact and inspire others, as well as reduce their anxiety.
Do you remember the days when we used to print everything? Now most people and in most places, hardly anything gets printed any longer. Or at least we think very hard whether it's necessary before we do so.
Neuroscience research shows that when people have tangible things to do in the face of stresses, actions to move things forward to a perceived positive outcome, they feel much happier and relaxed. You can read more in my post The Neuroscience of Stress Reduction: Having a Coping Strategy you Trust to Work.
Now this is common sense, but really it has tangible brain effects and mood effects. In fact, this is the very key to not feel helplessness, anxiety and depression-like symptoms. So don't underestimate what small, regular changes towards a more ecologically sustainable future can bring.
Make your leadership eco-centric.
2. Understand the facts and educate people (after you listen to them)
Of course, to support others to make better choices and feel empowered, you need to understand the real impacts of environmental issues such as micro-plastics. This allows you to make more informed actions without being overwhelmed by fear or anxiety.
It's especially important that you keep yourself informed of positive advancements and news and share those changes with other people. POSITIVE-
Negative news will continue to outnumber reports of positive news and hopeful initiatives. This purely reflects human beings’ negativity bias— a real, brain-based mechanism to make sure we don't miss dangers and respond appropriately for our survival. Negative news draw more attention and they sell more. We know how it goes. It is a self perpetuating system.
Additionally, that same bias makes it more easy to bypass the positive and hopeful. So it takes extra effort to keep yourself informed of positive changes and let them sink in, and to gather their importance.
Make sure you check out scientific, positive-focused NGOs, such as Project Drawdown or positive news channels, and share those news.
When people feel more positive, they are less paralysed and they are more likely to engage in the effort it takes for change.
3. Listen to your team and local community members
Empathic listening is literally a feel-better pill if you know how to do it. It has been shown to alleviate pain, physically and psychologically.
You can create spaces for your team to talk openly about their anxieties, and you can build emotional resilience together. Even just opening up a conversation without criticism and suspending judgment, and really having an empathic conversation, can inform you of how people are feeling. Listen without minimising nor countering what they're saying— this can be a huge step forward.
When people feel understood and that they belong, they are much more likely to let themselves be educated and engage in positive action. Remember that at times your “education” may go against long-held views or beliefs or their negativity bias. Listening first helps people open up.
Our global problems may seem too large to tackle. Remember that local actions add up, and we never know the impact that your small (and large) actions will create. So from reducing plastic use in your organisation to advocating for policies that limit plastic pollution, to listening and holding people’s anxiety, every step matters.
Start or nurture a community of like-mined individuals who are committed to both environmental action and mental well-being by supporting each other and other people. Provide a safe space to openly discuss those environmental and global concerns while focusing on practical solutions.
🔗 Stay Tuned
Upcoming courses
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Register here. £235. This month we are doing Empathic Leadership.
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About me
If you are new to this newsletter, welcome. I am a neuroscientist and certified Nonviolent Communication trainer and executive coach by the ICF (amongst other things).
I run Bright Communication; a leadership development company committed to building a more sustainable and compassionate world. Our mission is to help leaders, managers and organisations develop the empathic leadership skills necessary to fulfil the promise of the Global Goals.
Check out my new book blending Montessori and neuroscience for parents and educators— for now, in Spanish. Purchase online or in libraries in Spain, Latin America and the US. To be updated on events, go here.
Thanks for reading and for supporting my work. It means a lot to me.
Sources:
Micro- and Nanoplastics Breach the Blood–Brain Barrier (BBB): Biomolecular Corona’s Role Revealed, by Verena Kopatz, Lukas Kenner, et al.
A very interesting topic, I have not ever known before, thanks.