Today’s homework is a journaling exercise that will help you get to know the emotions - both known or unknown - that you are holding on to in regard to climate change. You find a guided exercise on how to journal on this below, but the importance is that you find what works best for you. 

Do this: 

Find a quiet moment for yourself and put pen to paper. Write down everything you know about climate change that upsets you. It can be very little or a lot, but this exercise is helpful for everyone, including those who are new to the climate movement as well as seasoned climate scientists! 

Write down how it makes you feel and don’t hold back. Consider it a hate letter to the world and be as colorful in your language as you can (don’t worry, no one will read this but you).

If you hate the government for funding new oil projects, write that down. If you’re angry with humanity at large for harming other species, write down how that makes you feel. If you’re upset or disappointed with yourself for not having done more to take action, write that down too. The importance is that you get all your feelings down on paper. 

The next step is in releasing and you do so by reading what you just wrote back to yourself and allowing emotions to surface. If you want to cry, cry! If you want to scream, please do so! If you feel like punching something, try finding something soft enough to punch!

The only way to release your feelings is by allowing yourself to feel and go through them.

And remember that you don’t have to hold on to these feelings. That, in fact, you’ll be a much better change-maker if you use that energy to empower yourself and fuel it into action. 

After you’ve downloaded and released and if you still have energy left, I highly recommend finishing by writing a few lines about the world you want to see. Because the next step on our journey together is learning how to envision something even better, but more on that in our next session.

Below is a guide for a healing journaling exercise.