Five Motivating Milestones in the Latest Edition of Positive News Magazine

3. The unique tool that helps us to understand our feelings about the climate crisis

Every day, we encounter an overwhelming wave of headlines about the climate crisis. Yet, there’s often little space to explore the emotional landscape that comes with witnessing these challenges and how we might start to navigate our feelings surrounding them.

The Climate Mental Health Network, a nurturing resource hub, aims to foster these important conversations through the Climate Emotions Wheel. This thoughtful tool features four color-coded quadrants, each representing a different emotional realm: anger, positivity, sadness, and fear. Within these quadrants, you’ll find subcategories of more specific emotions, such as outrage, panic, empowerment, and inspiration.

This first-of-its-kind wheel was developed in collaboration with Dr. Panu Pihkala from the University of Helsinki, whose decade-long research focuses on our emotional responses to the climate crisis. “It’s possible that when you hear birdsong, you feel both sadness and gratitude in that moment,” he shares with us in our latest issue. Embracing these complex feelings can be a step toward greater emotional wellness amidst the turmoil.