Understanding Climate Emotions: A Chat with Sarah Newman
Download the Climate Emotions Workbook
Amidst the urgency of the climate crisis, there's an unseen impact that's taking its toll on many of us. We recently hosted Sarah Newman, the visionary behind the Climate Mental Health Network, for a heartfelt conversation on the Changing Tomorrow podcast.
A Shared Emotional Journey
Climate change, Sarah said, stirs a whirlwind of personal emotions, ranging from deep denial to intense despair. However, she brought to light the silver lining: we're all in this together. A Lancet study from 2021 resonated with this sentiment, revealing that a staggering 75% of young individuals are anxious about their future because of climate repercussions.
Diving into the emotional impact of the climate crisis, Sarah introduced a tool: the "emotions wheel worksheet". This resource offers people a way to identify, process, and share their nuanced feelings regarding our changing environment.
The Power of Intergenerational Conversations
In the midst of global challenges, we often overlook the power of intergenerational wisdom. Cultivated over countless lifetimes and shared experiences, this wisdom can provide us hope and insight. The younger generation, while being the leaders of the climate movement, can benefit from the wisdom and experiences of the older ones, leaning on their support in a world where the narrative centers on the young people saving the world.
Nurturing Emotional Resilience
Sarah emphasizes the importance of emotional self-care. While there isn’t a solution that works for everyone, Sarah encourages people to make their own selfcare routine. Simple practices, such as limiting exposure to media and the news, journaling, or immersing oneself in nature, can be healing.
Towards the end of their conversation, when Gayathri probed about Sarah's source of hope, her answer was candid: dialogues like these. She encouraged people to talk about emotions with other people, acknowledging that we are in this together.
In Conclusion
It's essential, now more than ever, to recognize the profound emotional impact of the climate crisis. Sarah, with her undying dedication, not only identifies this intricate link between the environment and our mental well-being but is also at the forefront, curating tools to guide us through these tumultuous times
As Sarah and Gayathri's conversation beautifully showcased, in this vast, interconnected tapestry of life, feelings matter. By embracing our emotions, sharing tales, and taking heartwarming steps together, we're reminded that our journey is a shared one, and together, we can navigate its ebbs and flows.
Resources
Sarah’s Reading List
Podcast Transcript
Gayathri (00:00.846)
Okay, Sarah, are you ready? Okay, great. So Sarah, I'm gonna ask you the question that we ask every single guest on this podcast. If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?
Sarah Newman (00:02.737)
Ready.
Sarah Newman (00:17.156)
Oh wow, okay this is really hard.
Sarah Newman (00:22.442)
Ah, superpower. I think...
Sarah Newman (00:28.615)
self-compassion for oneself, for myself, and for all beings, and that all beings would have that, that all humans would be able to practice self-compassion for themselves and all other beings.
Gayathri (00:45.202)
I hear you, and starting with yourself, I think, is the key. Right. And I love that. OK, so we're here to talk about mental health as it relates to climate and climate change, and you've done some fabulous work. I wanted to ask you in your words, and this is a very this is a very high level question. What does climate mental health mean?
Sarah Newman (00:49.447)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (01:12.559)
Yeah, it's a great question and thank you so much just for having me and for your willingness to have this conversation. And so, you know, when we talk about the intersection of climate and mental health, there's a lot of layers to it. You know, the first is that people are already living with a lot of pre-existing mental health conditions and emotions due to structural...
inequities, life experiences, you know, so that's living with like violence or trauma or misogyny or racism and then you add on to that the additional layer of the climate crisis and people through both direct experiences of the climate crisis like extreme weather and also just indirect, you know, knowledge of the climate crisis, learning about it, following it in the news is
feel and you know it's particularly for people who are already experiencing a range of emotions like I had outlined before, it's just compounding the situation that they're already living with and in terms of you know what people are experiencing you know whether it's you know loss of property or you know being forced to move.
migration, a lot of different issues because of the climate crisis. This is impacting how people feel. It's trauma, it's grief, it's depression, despair. And there's also then just knowing and following the climate crisis in the news and taking action. And that brings up a whole range of emotions for people as well. Again, you know, anxiety and grief and a sense of perhaps helplessness or hopelessness. So there's many, many layers.
to how the climate crisis is impacting people's mental health.
Gayathri (03:09.346)
Do you think that this is happening to everybody? Do you think it's something that is impacting all of us? From personal experience, I can say it's almost everyone I know, but from your perspective, do you think that that's something that we are all going through as a collective?
Sarah Newman (03:29.783)
Yes, and I love that you use the word collective because this is a collective experience. And all the data shows, this is global research, shows that people worldwide are experiencing a range of mental health issues because of the climate crisis, though when broken down by ages, young people disproportionately struggle. And in terms of the data that overwhelmingly young people more than any other age group.
their numbers are much higher, but still it's the majority across all age groups. But in terms of, you're talking about using the word collective, and this is a collective issue, that we are not going through this alone. And it's really important for people to recognize that they're not alone with their climate emotions. This is a very normal, valid response to the climate crisis.
And sometimes people ask me, well, how do you engage with people who don't believe in climate change? Or there's still that political faction here, for example, in the United States. And even if people don't want to believe in the science of climate change, there's no denying that we are living through the impacts of the climate crisis with extreme weather, for example. And so whether it's...
Gayathri (04:32.526)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (04:51.475)
you know, someone can't be outside because of extreme heat or they're displaced because of a flood or, you know, their children can't go to school because of wildfire smoke. You know, everyone is experiencing in some way the impacts of the climate crisis. And the data shows that, you know, here in the United States, nearly every single person is now living in a place that has experienced extreme.
weather because of the climate crisis.
Gayathri (05:25.577)
Wow. Can I ask you, what age group do you mean by when you say young people?
Sarah Newman (05:30.315)
Oh yeah, great question. So the research, so there's been some research on young people, depending on the studies, but it's Gen Z-ers, so it's 16 to 25. So there was a study that was published in the Lancet in 2021 of 10,000 young people. They were ages 16 to 25. And that was looking how the climate crisis impacts their mental health.
Gayathri (05:40.876)
Okay.
Okay.
Sarah Newman (05:58.899)
And that research found that 75% of those surveyed in 10 countries, 75% said the future is frightening because of the climate crisis, and four in 10 do not want to have children.
Gayathri (06:10.818)
Wow.
Gayathri (06:14.646)
Wow, okay. Wow. That's a sobering, those are sobering numbers.
Sarah Newman (06:21.243)
Yes, very.
Gayathri (06:25.588)
And you mentioned the word equity when we were talking about kind of what it is and how it impacts. There are definitely factions of the collective that are...
being impacted by climate change a lot more. Their daily lives are impacted, like you said, through the flooding or the wildfires. While some people might have a second home or might be able to leave, many people can't. So the sensitivity that needs to kind of be...
considered or we can't consider the collective as the same is something that I really appreciate you bringing up in this conversation.
Sarah Newman (07:10.267)
Yeah, it's such a good point and thank you for talking about that because 100% I mean, frontline communities, disinvested communities that do not have the resources in the face of climate disasters don't have the resources to physically recover but then also often do not have the resources to address the emotional impacts and you know this is
Gayathri (07:33.974)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (07:38.923)
not just obviously in the United States, but this is across the world. And there was some research that was done in the United States about communities where people were displaced because of the climate crisis and found of no surprise that people who were of lower income were less likely to be able to return to the communities after the environmental disaster because of the climate crisis.
And I think another one of the challenges, again, with looking at this through the issue of how the climate crisis is impacting people's mental health and how it is an uneven impacts is that many communities don't have access to mental health care providers. And so I think that
Gayathri (08:29.395)
Right.
Sarah Newman (08:33.155)
you know, looking at, you know, you're living in a community that might not have any mental health care and you're struggling with, you know, the impacts of the climate crisis and, you know, what are you supposed to do, who are you supposed to turn to? And I think that is also touching on a really important aspect of this issue that needs to be addressed, that there's a lot of emphasis on looking at our one-on-one therapy, private, medical, mental health model.
And that is important for many people. That's a model that works for people who have access to a therapist, who want to do one on one therapy, that have the resources, that have insurance. But for vast swaths of the population, it's not culturally appropriate. It's not financially accessible. And it's also not a model that is building out community. It's placing.
Gayathri (08:59.49)
Mm.
Gayathri (09:09.207)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (09:26.679)
a global issue within the context of an individual lens rather than looking at it through the lens of this is a global problem and connecting with others and being in community is really important for the response. And I'm not saying there's a need and an opportunity in certain times where people need professional mental health services, 100%. But
Gayathri (09:48.693)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (09:51.419)
you know, we could train every therapist, every psychiatrist in this country, and that would be really important for all of them to be quote unquote climate aware therapists. But again, that's not scalable. You could train every single one of them and there's still not enough people to respond to the magnitude of this problem. And so, you know, for under-resourced communities, disinvested communities, frontline communities, it's really important to recognize
Gayathri (10:00.595)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (10:19.615)
how they are experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis from a mental health impacts of the climate crisis and what resources do they need to be able to address their emotions, to be more emotionally resilient, both as individuals and in community.
Gayathri (10:26.306)
Yeah.
Gayathri (10:44.882)
I agree with you that that's not a scalable model and I love that you touch upon the cultural stigmas I would say that exist often talking just about mental health. One way, I wouldn't say to scale it, but one way to reach a larger number of people could be going through organizations or organizations providing resources for their people. And I know that there are a lot of our listeners are, you know.
Sarah Newman (11:09.503)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (11:13.814)
working in organizations or are at leadership positions in organizations. Do you have any recommendations to what organizations can do to set their people, I wouldn't say up for success, but to at least support them?
Sarah Newman (11:30.619)
Yeah, no, it's such a good point. And I mean, I'll say that with all of the work that we're doing, we do everything in partnership with other groups and we work across sectors. And it's very much, organizations are already working in, say climate education, or they're working with parents, or they're working in health. And it's very much, how do you bring mental health, that mental health lens into your existing work? How do you reach the people that you're already
Gayathri (11:37.685)
Yeah.
Gayathri (11:51.328)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (11:58.612)
Mm.
Sarah Newman (12:00.339)
doing that with. And I don't, you know, I can't say that there's like a kind of one size fits all best practices. And this is very much both as an organization and as kind of a quote unquote field, this is very much building the airplane and flying it at the same time, because everything everyone is doing is new, but it's based on, you know, it's rooted in research and it's based on best practices that are drawn from other.
Gayathri (12:15.255)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (12:29.499)
you know, fields and research and so forth. But I think that it's just really important in whatever you're doing in, you know, whether it's environmental education or, you know, climate disaster mitigation or whatever it might be, to bring that mental health lens. What is happening with your staff who's working on this issue? What is happening with the communities that you're working with? What are the resources that people need? And how to...
Gayathri (12:53.592)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (12:58.495)
how to be able to support their needs. And I think it's, you know, the communities know what they need and it's, you know, listening to them and having them, you know, develop the best practices based on what their needs are.
Gayathri (13:16.978)
And I think the key here is listening to them and being in tune with them. And that in and of itself is a very powerful organizational strategy, just conducting a survey and it being anonymous.
step one, actually being anonymous can go a long way. So I love that you, you know, that is a very tangible thing that organizations can intentionally do and it's a fairly low-hanging fruit. So thank you for saying that and also for mentioning that people who are working in this field need support and at least need some attention paid to how they're doing and how they're feeling, the communities,
Sarah Newman (13:37.093)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (14:03.344)
I, you slightly touched upon a little bit, but I wanted to ask you, how does this whole mental health response to climate change, how do we see it manifesting, you know, if we take it to a personal level in our daily lives, what are some of the symptoms that we need to be looking out for?
Sarah Newman (14:25.839)
Yeah, I mean, I think for everyone, it shows up differently. And I think there's kind of can be kind of two extremes. One is denial and one is living in despair. And, you know, so kind of those are two different ends of a spectrum. And then there's everything in between. And, you know, how does this show up? I mean, there's denial. There's people saying like the climate crisis doesn't happen, isn't happening or.
Gayathri (14:35.774)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (14:55.015)
you know, this is not impacting me and I'm going to be fine and I'm just going to, you know, I can just move to whatever place and, you know, I'll be safe. And then, you know, at the other end there's the despair of, you know, just living in the overwhelming feelings of an existential crisis, but, you know, with that despair not being able to take action, not being able to, you know, fully live one's life.
Gayathri (14:57.608)
Mm.
Gayathri (15:23.542)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (15:23.963)
not being able to experience joy or gratitude in one's life and just feeling so overwhelmed and so, so mired in despair and depression and so forth. So it's, and it's not a linear process of like, oh, you go from like despair to joy, denial to action. And it's...
Gayathri (15:48.776)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (15:53.391)
you know, that there's ups and downs and it's really about embracing all of these, the range of emotions, but really trying to also have those tools and resources so that when you are in more of those negative places, you know, recognizing it, but not being, not feeling so overwhelmed that you're not able to function in your life and not being in such a,
Gayathri (15:57.237)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (16:23.455)
place of anxiety that you're not able to say, take action, things like that. And there's a, there's a really good chart. I'm just trying to find it.
Gayathri (16:26.093)
Yeah.
Gayathri (16:42.75)
and we'll absolutely link it for our listeners.
Sarah Newman (16:45.421)
Yeah, it's...
It's, oh, I'm trying to find it, but it's, where is her?
Gayathri (16:56.546)
take your time, we'll just edit this part out.
Sarah Newman (16:59.439)
Okay, sorry. It's she does this really. She has this brilliant chart. Yeah, let me just pull it up.
Gayathri (17:06.857)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (17:11.826)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (17:19.427)
Um...
Sarah Newman (17:22.867)
Let me just find, here it is. Okay, sorry. So this is, there's this five stages of climate feelings that was created.
Gayathri (17:29.545)
Okay.
Gayathri (17:43.202)
Do you want to reset maybe? Okay.
Sarah Newman (17:44.875)
Yeah, so it's, okay, it's Kimberly Nichols. Sorry, I was like, what is her name? Okay. So Kimberly Nichols, who has a sub stack called We Can Fix It, has five stages of climate feelings. And it's a really brilliant chart. And what I love about it is that it shows all these intersecting emotions, like there's avoidance and ignorance and doom, but really this kind of,
Gayathri (17:56.499)
Oh cool, okay.
Gayathri (18:00.972)
Yeah.
Gayathri (18:12.584)
rate.
Sarah Newman (18:14.527)
calls it all the feels, and it's kind of this up and down, that you're having that sadness and hope and, you know, grief and perhaps inspiration, but that there's a through line with all of those emotions that she calls purpose, and that this, that you're able to take those emotions and really use them in a very intentional way to, in your own life.
Gayathri (18:16.216)
Mm.
Gayathri (18:20.063)
Mm.
Gayathri (18:28.187)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (18:34.336)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (18:44.763)
in terms of how you're navigating and responding to the climate crisis and how you're living your life, but that these emotions, by sitting and experiencing and feeling all the emotions that are coming up, that these can be a critical tool for you to have that purpose, to channel it into a sense of purpose.
Gayathri (19:03.214)
channel.
Gayathri (19:08.022)
That sounds like a really helpful tool, and I will definitely link her tool and sub stack. There's nothing I like more than a newsletter. So I will definitely link this for our listeners. Another thing that I found extremely helpful, Sarah, as you were talking earlier, is the climate emotions wheel that you recommended that we share with our listeners.
Sarah Newman (19:16.165)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (19:30.139)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (19:33.514)
And it's a really cool wheel. It's got four quadrants, which are anger, sadness, fear, and positivity. And each quadrant is further divided into feelings. The first thing that struck me was that the majority of the quadrant is associated with what we would deem to be negative feelings.
anger, sadness and fear. And while that aligns with my own personal experience, I think 75% is a bit of a conservative estimate given how I see the world. It's usually 90% of negative emotions. What, based on your professional experience, do you think that is representative of a lot of people's feelings towards climate change? How can we get to that fourth?
quadrant of positivity. Who do we talk to and how can we use this collective, this experience as a collective and the people around us so we can not only bring ourselves up but bring all, everyone around us, support them and bring them up if possible to this fourth part of the quadrant which is positivity and it almost seems like, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel but it's a very, very long tunnel.
Sarah Newman (20:53.435)
Yeah, I mean, I feel like you just outlined a really good vision, breaking everyone together and so forth. Yeah, and this wheel, so the climate emotions wheel that we created, it's based on the research of Panu Pakala, who is a professor at the University of Helsinki. And so one of the things that we note is that positive emotions, even though it's a wheel and it's divided into four, it was...
from a kind of design perspective, it was hard to create it where there was different weights for different emotions. So we always say that it's not to scale and that the positive emotions are not, do not show up as much in his research on climate emotions so that they're lesser. So it's not that, you know, it's 75% versus 25%.
Gayathri (21:30.528)
Hmm
Gayathri (21:41.531)
Okay, okay.
Sarah Newman (21:48.231)
But I think you are raising a really important point of how do we bring more people to that positivity? And I think that, you know, it's not like a kind of easy answer, but I think that it's really important, you know, as if you're experiencing sadness or grief or depression, you know.
I've experienced every single emotion on this wheel many times over and I could go through one day where I'm experiencing half of them. But how do you in those moments of depression or grief in your life or guilt, how do you also, how can you also experience or notice or express gratitude that is so critical as humans? Like there is still so much beauty in the world despite living in the climate crisis, there's so much
Gayathri (22:21.486)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (22:46.879)
beauty and wonderment and amazement, and how do you have those moments of gratitude? How do you have empathy for, you know, what someone might be going through who perhaps is denying the science of climate change, but, you know, they're experiencing it? How do you move to a place where you feel empowered to take action? How do you have hope about the future? And I think hope is so essential.
Gayathri (23:02.769)
Mm.
Sarah Newman (23:16.007)
that if we don't have a sense of hope for what we can do in the future, how we can mitigate the worst, the most severe impacts of the climate crisis, if we don't have that, then what are we doing this work for? What are we working towards? And that is so essential. So it's not saying like each of these is equal. And I think that being able to talk about these emotions with other people is so important.
Gayathri (23:38.67)
Hmm.
Sarah Newman (23:45.535)
part of the emotions wheel we put in a worksheet. So it's just a, it's an empty wheel where you can draw and write about the emotions, the climate emotions you're experiencing. And the hope is that people can do this, you know, with friends or in classrooms or as a family and being able to share and see, excuse me, like where you, you know, just going through that process of sharing with other people is an opportunity to connect.
Gayathri (23:49.482)
Yes.
Sarah Newman (24:15.695)
and build community around shared experiences and emotions that you're feeling because of the climate crisis.
Gayathri (24:25.546)
Thanks, Sarah. We usually share a workbook with every single episode. And if you're OK with it, I would like to share this worksheet as the workbook for this episode, because it's a really powerful worksheet, and it's very important for us to first acknowledge.
Sarah Newman (24:35.836)
Amazing.
Gayathri (24:44.982)
that these feelings are normal and the range of feelings that we feel or the range of feelings that exist around this particular situation is something that we can in a way take control of. And I love how you kind of reframed that wheel into not being up to scale and that we may go through all the emotions in the wheel in a day or in a week and that's totally normal.
to do so, what is important is to be able to share it with our friends, family and our community and normalize it in a way.
Sarah Newman (25:29.819)
Yeah, exactly. And just, you know, having a lot of self-compassion about all the emotions that you're feeling, whatever they might be, you know?
Gayathri (25:39.866)
Yeah, yeah. You touched upon discussing this with a family and doing the workbook together as a family. I wanted to hear your perspective on intergenerational conversations and how this plays a role in kind of bringing of the collective, but also in a way of self care.
Sarah Newman (26:02.843)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, at the beginning, I had said that, you know, the data shows that young people more than any other age group are disproportionately struggling with the mental health impacts of the climate crisis. And so a lot of our work and programming has a strong youth focus, but we're not doing it.
exclusively just for young people, but it's through that intergenerational lens. So it's knowing that lots of different trusted adults in young people's lives can be important people for them to connect with to both, you know, validate their experiences, process their emotions, and that through that intergenerational lens, those other age groups are also
Gayathri (26:32.971)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (26:58.639)
addressing their own climate emotions and getting the support they need. And there's research done by the organization Cogenerate that shows, they did research on across different age groups and that people who were like millennials and Gen Zers wanted to be working with people across other age groups to address the climate crisis.
Gayathri (27:22.734)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (27:29.863)
You know, this is, I mean, I think there's a couple of things. One is I think that there's a lot of emphasis sometimes or messaging on young people as climate leaders, which is absolutely important and inspiring and great, but when the narrative is, oh, the older generation's messed up and now you have to come in and clean up our mess. That is a lot.
Gayathri (27:42.952)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (27:57.651)
from a mental health perspective for young people to carry. That's saying we're gonna give you our burdens that we messed up, you have to carry that and you have to go and solve this very scary existential crisis. And that from a mental health perspective is really overwhelming. And it also mitigates the opportunity for young people to work.
Gayathri (28:05.269)
Right.
Gayathri (28:13.425)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (28:26.839)
in partnership across generations that there's elders, you know, that have been working on this issue for many, many years, who have a lot of wisdom and leadership to impart to young people. And in the same way, those elders have so much that they can be learning from young people and that it only strengthens the movement when you come in as let's do this together as opposed to, oh, you go and clean up the mess. And that is, you know, it strengthens the work.
Gayathri (28:49.448)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (28:55.163)
But it also is really important from a mental health perspective, knowing that there's people from across generations that you can be turning to process your climate emotions, to understand that across generations people are experiencing this. And I think also if, you know, if our work was only about young people, you know, we just focused on programming for young people,
Gayathri (28:55.274)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (29:18.151)
that negates the experiences that others, like we work with teachers and offering programs for parents, that's negating their experiences. And again, the research shows that they want to be engaging with young people and there's research showing that parents want to be able to talk with their children about the climate crisis, but half of them...
Gayathri (29:23.266)
Great.
Sarah Newman (29:40.083)
don't even know how to. And this is research that was done by the Aspen Institute. And so it's also akin to if you get on an airplane and you have like a young child with you that you put on your oxygen mask before putting the oxygen mask on the child. And that for parents and teachers to be able to support young people, they also, they need their oxygen masks on first as well.
Gayathri (29:44.526)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (30:04.59)
I love that metaphor. That is such a powerful but meaningful way to talk about mental health as a whole. And it comes to this piece that is coming up over and over again in my work, which is self-care. And that's, you know, self-care sounds very indulgent. It sounds like, you know, it's been advertised as a bubble bath.
with a sheet mask on when in fact it is so much, so much more. Would you, you mentioned self-compassion in the beginning as, and you mentioned compassion specifically as a superpower. How do you think the parents and the adults and the grown people can practice self-care? Is it as simple as compassion and...
being okay with not being okay.
Sarah Newman (31:03.035)
Hmm. Okay. One thing I want to just add back on the other question is that with the young people is that Client Mental Health Network, we have a Gen Z advisory board. It's 10 young people from mostly the United States, but representing several other countries as well. And, you know, just to say, I mean, I'm old enough to be the mother to many of them. And
Gayathri (31:07.811)
Yeah
Gayathri (31:16.191)
Oh, awesome.
Gayathri (31:24.62)
Yeah.
Gayathri (31:30.23)
Hahahaha
Sarah Newman (31:32.383)
I am so, I'm constantly inspired and grateful to be able to work with them. You know, I turn to them for guidance. They inform the organization's vision and programming and I'm constantly learning from them. And you know, I just, the organization would not be what it is without having them. It's just essential to how the organization operates and also just for my own.
you know, personal journey in this issue, my own self-growth, my own learning. And so I'm just really grateful to, you know, to each of them. Yeah, in terms of your question of like self-care, so Anya Kamenetz, who is working on a lot of our parents' research and programming, she has a great newsletter called The Golden Hour, and she had a newsletter this past week that was about self-care.
Gayathri (32:26.638)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (32:31.483)
And she had this funny line, something to the effect of like, self-care is not about like, you know, candles and, you know, going to like the Goop website or things like that. You know, self-care is really about looking at, you know, setting boundaries.
Gayathri (32:41.148)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (32:45.506)
I'm gonna go.
Sarah Newman (32:52.995)
in one's life and how you're living, but also understanding that burnout can still happen because we are living in a system that has created structures that are so exploitive that really, you know, are exploitive that really foster a sense of give all that does not nourish people's, you know, way, you know, beings.
At a more kind of basic level, I mean, I do think that there is a lot of, you know, important things that people can be doing in their daily lives. And we have on our website a whole page that's called tips and resources. And again, this is not about, this is not gonna like turn the world upside down, but these are like easy practices that people can hopefully weave into their lives.
Gayathri (33:40.147)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (33:52.311)
that will help them hopefully feel better or maybe get them through a difficult emotion. And just to also have those tools so that you are able to, if you're working in climate, on climate change, that act as a bit of a buffer. And so this includes things like limiting your media intake.
Gayathri (34:18.488)
Hmm.
Sarah Newman (34:18.735)
or news intake, excuse me, listening to more, choosing what media you're taking in, doing things like journaling, connecting with other people, spending time in nature. We have an art therapy guide, which is also, resonates with people a lot. And I think also it's...
Gayathri (34:28.771)
Hmm.
Sarah Newman (34:48.239)
Oh, I just lost my train of thought. I can't remember.
Gayathri (34:50.57)
No, I mean, I, the media intake is one that I recognize that I resonate with on such a deep level, because through my mental health journey, the one thing that has had the most impact is, is managing the notifications of the several news apps on my phone. Because at some point, at some point I just stopped it and I would go in and check once a day, usually in the evening-ish.
Sarah Newman (35:07.16)
Mmm. Yup.
Gayathri (35:20.655)
and not first thing in the morning to see what the main headlines are because it is so shock driven. It's designed to make you click the link, right, the headlines. And the way they convey information is very often not positive. And that I think is a problem because that kind of, there is amazing work being done out there. And we don't necessarily have insight into it.
But also this barrage of notifications that you get is just pulling your mind in so many different directions. So the fact about engaging with the media and engaging with the news, or managing the engagement with the news, that one thing can have long lasting impacts. So thanks for sharing that. That one thing has helped me in, and ironically, or funnily enough, it was shared by the mental health lead
at the organization that I was working in earlier. Emily Winer, she's currently doing her PhD in Berkeley. She's doing wonderful work.
Sarah Newman (36:22.099)
Yeah.
Sarah Newman (36:28.823)
Yeah, no, I relate to everything you're saying. I mean, I, my whole life have been such a news junkie and, you know, like obsessively refreshing news sites and checking and this and that. And I, at the beginning of this year, started a very strict, quote unquote, media diet. And I still know what's going on in the world, but I have...
Gayathri (36:37.01)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (36:40.212)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (36:50.91)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (36:57.023)
to kind of an extreme way, very much limited my news consumption and I've had to do it for my mental health and my partner, he talks about, he's like, you're just so much happier when you're not listening to these things or reading these things and it's just, I notice it in my life and this is what I need to do, it's not obviously for everyone.
Gayathri (37:04.827)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (37:10.599)
Yeah, wow.
Gayathri (37:18.342)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (37:20.007)
And I think that's also important, like for people, everyone has their interests and their preferences and their needs and it's just a matter of like, what are those self-care practices that you need to build into your life more of? Like for some people, it's that they wanna be doing more meditation every day or maybe they want to ensure that they're finishing work early enough that they're spending more time with their families or more time in nature. I mean, it's not like a one size fits all. And I think another thing that's really important is just for people.
Gayathri (37:35.438)
straight.
Gayathri (37:41.966)
Hmm.
Sarah Newman (37:49.715)
to recognize, you know, again, like what they're experiencing is normal and valid. Having these emotions is a normal response to the climate crisis and that, you know, connecting with other people, whether it's talking in your family, you know, talking in a classroom, talking with colleagues, anything. I mean, just finding opportunities to connect with people so that you don't feel alone is really, really important.
Gayathri (37:53.119)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (38:09.698)
Hmm.
Gayathri (38:16.962)
Thank you for sharing that and I will be sure to link all the resources. Sarah, if we can for just a few minutes talk about you, if that's okay. Could you tell me a little bit about how you arrived here in your position as the Executive Director of the Climate Mental Health?
network is that could you share a little bit about your career journey and kind of how you found yourself in this very unique but such an important position?
Sarah Newman (38:51.999)
Sure. I mean, I would say my professional life is not a model that most career counselors would advocate for. It's not. It looks like Kimberly Nichols' substack image. It's a little all over the place. I mean, I, so one of the first things I did actually though, one of my first jobs was working on an interfaith climate campaign called California Interfaith
Gayathri (38:59.773)
Yeah
Gayathri (39:06.478)
I'm gonna do it. Ha ha ha.
Gayathri (39:18.299)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (39:21.727)
It's a really fantastic organization that has state chapters around the country now. And I worked there as the first outreach director for the organization. And then after several years there, I studied public health and I focused on environmental health like pesticide exposure amongst farm worker families and lead poisoning issues, things like that, as well as media and public health and how to use media to connect.
Gayathri (39:32.45)
Mm-hmm.
Gayathri (39:39.08)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (39:51.751)
and engage people in public health issues, which the entertainment industry has been really exemplary and a gold standard of doing. And then I ended up, for many years, I was living, I'd gone to UCLA for grad school and was living in LA and ended up working in the film world and I worked for a company that produced a lot of,
Gayathri (40:01.343)
Okay.
Gayathri (40:12.078)
Hmm.
Sarah Newman (40:20.339)
films, both documentaries and narratives, like an inconvenient truth and so forth that were about climate and other social justice, environmental justice issues. And so I worked doing impact campaigns for the films and did that for many years and then eventually started doing that as a consultant. And then long story short, I was really struggling with my climate emotions and
Gayathri (40:34.478)
Mm.
Gayathri (40:47.415)
Hmm.
Sarah Newman (40:49.047)
looking for resources and what I did find were some really great online classes but it was, you know, what I found was that there's some great resources or some great research but it was very limited in terms of what was being offered and you know I realized there's tens of millions of people who are just like me who need resources who maybe at that point didn't even have the language to describe their experiences, their emotions, and what they're going through.
And so in a very ill-thought-out way, without much thinking, I just decided, you know what, this is what I want to be doing. There's no opportunity at this point for being overly duplicative of anyone's work. This is such a small space and there's such a need. And, you know, the people I talk to who have become, you know, colleagues and friends, it's a very...
Gayathri (41:47.273)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Newman (41:48.683)
um connected sector you know everyone is you know very collaborative and welcoming and um so I decided to start the organization and um that was in late May 2021 so like almost two and a half years ago and then about like almost like a year later um I brought on um
Gayathri (41:55.595)
Yeah.
Gayathri (42:05.808)
Okay.
Sarah Newman (42:16.335)
Leanne, who is a young youth mental health advocate and activist, and he joined the organization then the following year as a co-founder.
Gayathri (42:29.97)
Okay, okay. Thank you for sharing that. And I think that's a really, really great journey. I think you kind of recognized what you needed and saw that it aligned with what was not there. I love the work that you're doing. I really appreciate it. And thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your wisdom. I mean, personally, this was almost therapeutic for me.
Sarah Newman (42:56.767)
I'm sorry.
Gayathri (42:59.174)
I'm sure our listeners are probably feeling the same. Before we wrap, Sarah, I have one final question for you. What is giving you hope right now?
Sarah Newman (43:05.203)
Thank you.
Sarah Newman (43:11.867)
What is giving me hope? Conversations like this give me hope. And I think just the recognition that people are talking about the climate crisis, people understand the existential crisis that we're living in and people want to do things. People wanna take action and people are being more open about their emotions, about their vulnerabilities, and that is such an important spark to bring more people into.
the climate movement and I say the climate movement in the broadest sense. This is people taking action and responding to the climate crisis in ways that are meaningful to them.
Gayathri (43:43.958)
Yeah.
Gayathri (43:50.783)
Well, thank you. Look for the helpers, as they say. And I really appreciate you coming on and I can't wait for this episode to go live. I'm going to stop recording.
Sarah Newman (43:53.107)
Thank you.