How to Live in a Chaotic Climate 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet

A 10-step holistic guide to help you cope with the climate crisis—from the founders of the Good Grief Network.

Eco-distress is real. How to Live in a Chaotic Climate is here to help you rediscover meaning, joy, and connection as the tumult around us increases. Based on the Good Grief Network’s acclaimed 10 Steps to Resilience and Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate program, this book unpacks the social, political, and spiritual nuances of the climate emergency, step by step.

1. Accept the Severity of the Predicament
2. Be with Uncertainty
3. Honor My Mortality and the Mortality of All
4. Do Inner Work
5. Develop Awareness of Biases and Perception
6. Practice Gratitude, Seek Beauty, and Create Connections
7. Take Breaks and Rest
8. Grieve the Harm I Have Caused
9. Show Up
10. Reinvest in Meaningful Efforts

Each step includes practices that draw on meditation, mindfulness, journaling, dance, somatics, and self-inquiry to help readers cope with overwhelming feelings, heal wounds caused by disconnection, and act in generative ways that help cultivate a just and equitable future for all.

LAURA SCHMIDT and AIMEE LEWIS-REAU are the founders of The Good Grief Network, one of the first emotional support groups for eco-anxiety and climate grief. GGN has grown quickly in the United States, with additional groups forming in five continents and fourteen countries. GGN has been covered in Time, NPR, USA Today, CNN, NBC News, and The LA Times. Aimee and LaUra are the co-hosts of the podcast WHY?!? LaUra is trained in nonviolent civil disobedience and is a Climate Reality Leadership Corps member and mentor. Aimee received her MFA in creative nonfiction from Georgia College & State University and is a trained healer and yoga instructor. CHELSIE RIVERA is a California-based author with roots in small-town Kentucky. She received her MFA in fiction writing from Georgia College and State University.