In fact, it will be much more complicated for most, she says, but listening to the body is the foundation for deeper healing. “In other words,” Vora writes, “physical health is mental health.” That doesn’t mean that lessening our anxiety is always going to be a simple matter of cutting a certain kind of food from our diet, though. This book offers a reframing of anxiety not as something that is wrong with those who suffer from it, but as our body’s “check engine” light that often points to another cause-like inflammation due to diet, a thyroid condition, unhealthy habits, or a strong sense of justice struggling to cope in an unjust world. “Whether it’s the consequence of our habits or a missive from our inner psyche, anxiety is not the final diagnosis, but rather the beginning of our inquiry,” she writes. She invites the reader in, offers an honest and uncomplicated account of the ever-changing and incomplete knowledge we have about anxiety, and then asks the reader to trust themselves and go deeper. In The Anatomy of Anxiety, Ellen Vora does not promise the most effective life hacks for more peace and calm. Understanding and Overcoming the Body’s Fear Response It’s a nod to the truth that “lasting change is propelled by inner clarity, meaning, and purpose.” Most of all, it’s an exercise in balancing hope, fear, and grief to support us in finding a way forward.
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But Wray is clear: “This book is not a manual for how to take effective climate and environmental action.” Instead, it’s an ode to change-makers who are driven by emotion. Colonialism is inextricably linked to the climate crisis. This doesn’t mean that we should despair, but that our decision-making can be guided by a clearer perspective.Ī few key takeaways from the very first chapter: Climate anxiety is especially visible where racial and class privilege intersect.
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Naming a fear many of us struggle with, that “the world is ending,” she describes living in a wildfire zone as part of her way into the terrifying yet hopeful awareness that “life is by nature impermanent and in a constant state of flux…we are not in full control.” Accepting this doesn’t mean that we should despair, but that our decision-making can be guided by a clearer perspective. Wray’s voice is refreshing and rooted in the realities of the world we live in. But Wray, a writer and broadcaster who holds a PhD in science communication, explores how tending to each of these calls to (inner) action is indeed connected to collective action. At a glance, these calls to action may make mitigating eco-anxiety and effecting change seem like individual pursuits, akin to recycling our way out of planetary disaster.
These are Britt Wray’s reminders (and the aptly titled sections of her book) as we “shore ourselves up against what’s to come” in facing the climate crisis. Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisisįeel it all.