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We are living in a challenging time on Earth – humanity has deployed power without wisdom and is causing tremendous damage to the planet, our fellow species, and ourselves as a result. One of the biggest challenges for many of us is a sense of powerlessness to do anything about it.
Eco-grief and climate anxiety have now become recognized mental health conditions.
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Eco-grief or eco-anxiety is when, “people experience climate grief when they notice or anticipate the loss of ‘species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change."
Addressing climate change concerns in practice
​Climate change creates stress and mental anguish for people around the world.
Research shows that when people realize eco-grief is something that has been recognized and studied they are relieved. Giving ecological distress a name is powerful. Expressing eco-grief is an important and healthy response because we grieve what we love and we are afraid of losing it. Climate change, plastic pollution, toxicity, and species loss is occurring everywhere around the globe and eco-grief is now a widely universal human experience. In the complex times we are now navigating, spiritual communities will be well-served by establishing ways to support members in handling eco-grief.
A significant way to mitigate the mental health impacts of eco-grief is to activate Unity’s fifth principle of “Action”.
This principle teaches that it’s not enough to know spiritual truth, but we must also put those truths into action in our lives. Action can be one of the best antidotes to despair. An aspect of the spiritual power of power is to put our spiritually-grounded beliefs and principles into action.
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There are many forms of activism:
 Eat Differently |  Our purchasing Choices |
|---|---|
 Prayer and Meditation |  Change Transportation |
Engaging in political issues, rallies, and demonstrations.
Spiritual Activism is the fusion of deep spiritual knowledge and principle, discipline in our inner world, with wise, radical action for positive change in our outer world.
When Charles Filmore was developing the 12 Spiritual Powers concept, he associated each power with a body part. Power is associated with the throat because of the mind and world-changing power of our voices, our words, spoken and written. People of faith have a powerful role to fill in speaking up for a new way of being and a world that works better for all beings.
Another aspect of Power is creativity. The human species is awash in creativity and we have the capacity to evolve through these challenging times. Nature is the ultimate demonstration of creativity, with myriad species creating miraculous ways to feed, procreate, and thrive on this gorgeous planet we all call home.
Here is a brief personal message from Earth Care Core Team member, Rev. Cylvia Hayes (and Olive) on Power of power.