Visualization techniques to help combat climate change, heal the environment and manifest a healthy earth.
Is it possible to manifest an end to global warming? We often use visualization techniques to help us achieve our personal goals, but we can actually use them to help us achieve communal goals as well, such as a healthier earth.
What is Eco-anxiety?
According to Healthline, eco-anxiety can be defined as “persistent worries about the future of Earth and the life it shelters.” Symptoms can include:
- anger or frustration, particularly toward people who don’t acknowledge climate change or older generations for not making more progress
- fatalistic thinking
- existential dread
- guilt or shame related to your own carbon footprint
- post-traumatic stress after experiencing effects of climate change
- feelings of depression, anxiety, or panic
- grief and sadness over the loss of natural environments or wildlife populations
- obsessive thoughts about the climate
- secondary issues such as sleep problems, appetite changes, difficulty concentrating
The good news is that there are ways to effectively cope with eco-anxiety, such as visualization techniques!
Intro to Green Visualizing
If you care about the environment, you have probably felt eco-anxiety at some point in your life. Staying up to date on climate news is important to be able to advocate for change, but what can you do if it is constantly stressing you out? Introducing green visualizing: visualization techniques to help combat climate change, heal the environment and manifest a healthy earth.
One major cause of eco-anxiety is that it is systematically difficult to live as sustainably as you may desire. The mentality of “I’m just one person, how much can I really do” is also a big contributor to feeling helpless to the crisis. However, your energy is powerful, and you can utilize it to help you manifest your goals, no matter how big and no matter how many outside factors may be needed to achieve that goal.
Guide to Green Visualizing
Let’s dive into how to effectively use green visualizing to minimize eco-anxiety and help heal the environment.
First, find a safe and comfortable space to begin your visualization practice. To enhance your ability to effectively visualize, it is important that you make the experience as immersive as possible. Try to think about all 5 senses and how you can customize your simulation. For example:
- Sight: Being in nature and visualizing with your eyes open is a great option here. If you have virtual reality capability, you can enter into an immersive nature experience. Or, you can picture your favorite space in nature in your mind.
- Sound: If you’re physically surrounded by nature, focus on the natural sounds around you. If you are simulating nature, find some relaxing nature sounds to play for yourself.
- Touch: When outside, feel the ground beneath you, sit right on the ground and you can even place your hands on a tree or run your fingers through the grass. If you are inside, try holding a plant! You may be surprised as you practice this exercise that you might start to feel the life-force energy of the plant as you hold it or run your fingers through the leaves. Your plant can become your new visualization buddy 🙂
- Smell: If you’re physically surrounded by nature, focus on the natural scents around you. If you are simulating nature, try lighting a nature-inspired candle or massaging some earthy essential oils onto your temples.
- Taste: Crisp, clean water! Try taking a refreshing sip right before beginning your practice. Water is one of our most precious natural resources!
Now that you have taken steps to make your experience as immersive as possible to elicit an increased emotional response, it is time to begin your visualization practice. Imagine that the world you are in is one where humanity has come together and somehow reversed climate change. The “somehow” is important here because it is crucial to not focus on how we as a society might get to this point in the future, it is only necessary to focus on the end result and placing yourself in the moment at that result.
During visualization, set the stage by telling yourself statements such as:
- “The earth is completely healed and nature all over the world is thriving”
- “Global warming is no longer a threat, and the damage on the environment is being undone”
Next, ask yourself questions such as:
- “How does it feel to live in a world that is completely free of environmental concern?”
- “What is a natural landscape that I am excited to see and explore now that it is in its most exceptional state?”
Finally, give gratitude for this improved world. For example:
- “I am so grateful for the efforts of society to make this happen”
- “I am so grateful for the resilience of the earth and its ability to restore itself and forgive us”
Frequency
How often should you practice green visualization? I recommend using this method whenever you identify symptoms of eco-anxiety, but you can also incorporate it into your daily routine. I work in the renewable energy industry, so I know that during my workday I am bound to see some stat that makes my eco-anxiety spike. For this reason, I enjoy using green visualizing during my morning routine to prepare me for the day as preventative mental care.
Lifestyle
As with any other visualization practice, it is important that your practice carries on into your lifestyle and doesn’t just stop after the meditative piece of the practice. For example, if you are constantly visualizing winning the lottery, but you never buy lottery tickets, you make it a lot harder for the universe to collapse that goal into your reality. We want to give the universe as many opportunities as possible to bring us our goals quickly and easily, so taking small steps towards our goal and “living as is” is extremely important for manifesting our dreams. The same applies when using green visualizing. By living a sustainable lifestyle, we are continuing to manifest through our actions. We are giving the universe opportunities to show others how to live as we do, setting off chains of sustainability-related events that help us achieve our communal goal.
Coaching
Did you know that here at Visualize in 360, we offer green visualization coaching? In our program we dive deeper into this concept and learn more skills and tools such as evolving & solidifying your green visualization practice as our ever changing society creates new obstacles for living sustainably. All of our training offerings are completely customizable – check out our Quantum Wellness Coaching page to learn more and Contact Us for more info!
Author: Nina Santarpia
