My co-director Ryan Wirick sent me a video this weekend that I felt compelled to share.
It's a short clip featuring Charles Eisenstein.
Eisenstein is a brilliant speaker and author of several books, including his latest, Climate - A New Story.
As I'm sure you're aware, there is much doom and gloom these days in the environmental movement. And as Eisenstein suggests, it could be holding us back.
The stories we tell ourselves as a culture are incredibly powerful.
"If we hold the story of this world [as] this dead thing - a source of resources, a dump for our wastes - we create a world that is dead...maybe we need to replace the rhetoric...the important question is not 'what do we need to do to survive', but 'what world do we want to live in?'"
Even from those with the best intentions, the subtlety of messaging coming from our activist heroes needs to shift beyond pushing more fear.
People are very familiarized with ignoring fear. We've become accustomed to apathy in the face of ideas too scary to think about.
If we focus on not just surviving amidst an aching and dying world, but rather on how we can thrive in creative ways that bring joy to everyone we interact with, even in the midst of solving problems...now we've got a movement!
Remember to be conscious of how you share environmental or health news.
Are you only using guilt and fear as your main tactics?
To some degree it's inevitable to point out negative realities. That's ok. Sometimes we need to paint the picture of what really is at stake.
Challenge yourself to follow any negative information with positive solution-based invitations whenever possible!!
So let's start now.
We can envision the world we want, take important action steps towards building new habits, and release the need to constantly point out everything going wrong. Let's identify what we can do RIGHT and have some fun doing it!
After all, what point is there in trying to save a world where people aren't joyful?