How is Your World Grief ?

We are in raw times of ecological, social, political and economic disruption.

Marginalized humans, ecosystems, the more than human world - are suffering deeply. There is devastating species loss, floods, wildfires, droughts and famines. If you are awake to polycrisis, you may not know what to do with the emotions that have been coursing through you -  grief,  fear, anxiety, numbness, sorrow, guilt, panic or anger are some of the common ones. You may feel alone as crises continue to unfold, but life around you goes on as usual. You may wonder if all that you feel (or are trying not to feel) makes sense.

Does it help you to know that your heavy feelings are actually a healthy response to what is happening? Your feelings are symptoms of sanity.

Grief, anger, despair, confusion, panic, shame, outrage, powerlessness are confusing and uncomfortable, but they make sense. Those emotions are evidence of your love for the world.

Who do you want to be in these times?

Climate psychologist Caroline Hickman explains that building resilience in these times means learning to grow down and grow up. Growing down means building our capacity to sit with and digest the heavy feelings that come so the layers of paralysis or burnout or despair can start to lift. When we “keep our grief warm,” as Francis Weller encourages, expressing it and allowing it to move, so grows our emotional resilience.

Growing up means nurturing “imaginative, creative, determined and hopeful capacities” in your life. Where can you bring moments of ease into your nervous system in order to face the hard realities of our world? How can you access moments of joy so you can stay present to the pain and transmute it into life-sustaining action? How are you restoring your energy and sustaining your ability to envision and live into the world you yearn for - today?

Will you join me?

I offer individual therapy, groups, presentations, keynotes, trainings and workshops. I support scientists, STEM professionals, therapists, caring professionals, educators, journalists, parents and caregivers. You can reach me to ask questions here: teddykellamtherapy@gmail.com

I offer my appreciation for teachings received from School for the Great Turning and Work That Reconnects (Lydia Harutoonian Violet and Adrian Villasenor-Garza), Good Grief Network, Somatic Experiencing, Climate Emotional Resilience institute, Climate Psychology alliance of North America, Kaira Jewell Lingo, Caroline Hickman, the Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Processing Institute, Somatic Abolitionism, Kristan Childs, and Francis Weller. The deep work offered by these teachers in my life help us leverage our innate capacity to grow, to listen and to act.