Transform Eco-Anxiety Pod: 11 Steps

Can we face our eco-anxieties and then learn to shift that awareness into eco-activities which will bring fulfillment into our lives?

Pierre-Eric Sutter has written two books which describe a method to transform eco-anxiety into eco-choices and eco-engagements that will help solve the climate problem. This presentation will first cover three important ideas from Don’t Be Afraid of Collapse (N’ayez pas peur du collapse 2020): “eco-gestures”, brakes to taking climate action, and how active optimism leads to satisfaction for both yourself and the people around you. From there, we will move on to the second book, Living Well With Your Eco-Anxiety: Take care of yourself by taking care of the world 2023 (Bien vivre son eco-anxiete: Prendre soin de soi en prenant soin du monde). In it, Sutter presents an 11-step “map” of eco-anxiety that describes a gradual process which allows one to completely change their worldview. Studying these ideas for a few hours and then practicing them for a few weeks can lead to the overcoming of eco-anxiety.

Sutter spent several years conducting thousands of interviews with people who had become completely demoralized after learning about collapsology by reading How Everything Can Collapse (P. Servigne) in 2015. It was a best seller in France that year. Sutter is an existential therapist. He noticed that many of the demoralized people were able to transform their state of being and generate positivity and happy living despite the collapses that they witnessed around them (climate, diversity, democracy, politics, supply chains, etc.). He discovered that some people had read the book, become thoroughly depressed, and then somehow worked through it all to become “transformed”. In 2020, with Loic Steffan, he wrote Don’t Be Afraid of Collapse about this phenomenon. Last summer he wrote the second book, which carefully maps each step and provides 28 exercises that can lead to a transformation in how you think, feel, and act as you experience accelerating climate changes.

On the first Tuesday of each month, the Transform Eco-Anxiety Pod cycles through the four aspects of transforming: being with change, making meaning, making choices, and engaging. This session will include a breakout-room opportunity as well as a general discussion. For those who are already familiar with Sutter’s ideas, a “Level 2” discussion will be held on Wednesday, May 8th at 11:00am PST. If you are interested in registering for that, please email Robert Bell (rfbbbbb@gmail.com) for the link.