The climate crisis and the current political situation are causing many people to feel discouraged, anxious, angry, and hopeless. These feelings can interfere with us taking actions to have the impact we want in the world.

For us to stay engaged, it is important to have hope. And the reverse is true as well: for us to have hope, it is important to stay engaged. Feelings of despair and hopelessness can confuse us and cloud our thinking. We can act whether we feel hopeful or not—and it makes sense to do so—but when we function out of a place of genuine hope, we have more access to our minds and can think better. We are able to connect more deeply with others, especially across challenging divisions.

In this workshop we will:
·  Create safe spaces to talk, listen and support each other
· Openly face the current situation that can cause discouragement, anxiety, anger, and hopelessness
· Share perspectives that we have developed and learned that have helped us to maintain hope and possibility
· Introduce some practices or tools that all participants can choose to use going forward that may help us maintain hope no matter how upsetting the daily news cycle

Our situation is difficult, but we have abundant reasons to be hopeful.

followed by Healing Circle (optional)
11:30am – 12:30pm

Healing circles based on shared experiences give people a chance to be listened to about feelings connected to climate change. Having the chance to share feelings of grief, fear, anger, discouragement, and hope in a mutually supportive group can refresh us and give us new ideas for action.