Spring has sprung at Wild Poppy Healing Arts!!!! The Magnolia has been perfuming the air for weeks!
It’s beautiful....but when I check in with myself more deeply, I find that my body and brain are still waiting for winter. There is an undercurrent of anxiety below the excitement to see daffodils, fresh green growth and newborn lambs.
When I moved to the Shenandoah Valley 11+ years ago, we had long periods of snow blanketing the ground during the winter. I remember it well, because we were hauling firewood from our barn. After a few winters of this we eventually built a makeshift covered woodshed by the back door so we wouldn’t have to spend another winter shoveling and wheelbarrowing wood each time we wanted to build a fire to heat up our drafty 1850s farm house. Spring was not springing already in February, and March did not feel like summer some days, as it has this year.
But, please, stay with me….
We know, deep down, that our seasons and our earth’s systems are out of balance. If I’m honest with myself, and stop looking for distractions, I feel the feelings! It feels unsettling, even downright scary. I feel overwhelm and a deep sense of grief for what has already been lost. I’m not going to call them negative feelings although they are difficult to face…. they just are. And they are giving me valuable information that I want to tune in to, not run away from.
I recently listened to a powerful book by Tyson Yunkaporta, an Indigenous Australian. In his book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, he talks about a new mental health diagnosis called “Post-Avatar Depression Syndrome.” Evidently, it’s a world-wide phenomenon…. People becoming depressed after watching the original or the new Avatar movie.
Yunkaporta distills the cause down to grief over our lost connection to the land and our ecosystems, after witnessing the deep symbiotic connection the Na’vi people have to their planet Pandora, it’s plants, animals and mycorrhizal networks! It is the newest name for something that mental health professionals have been noticing and naming for a while: eco-anxiety, eco-grief, climate change-anxiety, species loneliness, etc.
Check in with yourself after reading a longer description below. Know that you are not alone. Many, many other people are experiencing the same thing and help IS available. Many mental health professionals have discovered that the antidote to the anxiety, depression and grief caused by nature-disconnection is (SURPRISE!!!)…… restoring nature-connection!
You don’t have to live on Pandora or make it to a wilderness area to re-connect to nature. Step outside your back door for a few quiet minutes every day, a practice called “Sit Spot”, or visit a wooded area (even an urban park) for a couple hours a week to “forest bathe.”
Studies have shown the benefits include improved health and well-being…. Including improvements in mental health! If you want more information on the connection between health/mental health and nature, Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild by Lucy Jones is a fascinating and accessible read.
Finding like-minded people to talk to and share feelings and experiences with, either in person or online forums has also been shown to help. Taking action (especially collective action with others) to address the root problem helps alleviate feelings of helplessness. And finding a professional therapist to talk to and receiving bodywork or massage therapy to help ground and relax you, are also valuable resources. See a list of recourses below.
This article (from "An Darach" Forest Therapy’s website) offers a wealth of information and resources for re-connecting to nature, as well as this description of "Post-Avatar" and related mental health challenges:
“Many of the symptoms displayed by people experiencing Post-Avatar Depression are similar to those displayed by people experiencing Eco-Anxiety a term used to describe a heightened emotional and mental state in response to the dangers of climate change. Eco-anxiety, ecological grief, eco-grief or climate change anxiety, is a chronic or persistent anxiety about ecological disasters and threats to the natural environment such as pollution and climate change. Fears for our future and feelings of powerlessness are commonly linked to anxiety, stress, depression, anger, helplessness, sadness and feelings of hopelessness. In this way eco-anxiety can be amplified by fear and feelings of powerlessness in being able to do anything in the face of an impending catastrophe.”
https://silvotherapy.co.uk/articles/post-avatar-depression-syndrome, 24th December 2022
Take good care of yourself! Seek community and help, if you need it..... You deserve to be well!
Local groups re-connecting with nature:
Local groups addressing climate crisis:
Online community addressing climate crisis:
Global Nature Connection Networks:
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