Heat

HSPs can sense the gravity of the climate crisis. So now what?

Welcome to my weekly newsletter building a supportive community for Highly Sensitive People (HSPs).

As I write this, the lightest spattering of rain has just fallen on the baked paving stones outside our open patio door. There’s thunder in the air, and the sky’s turned a weird shade of yellow. A wildfire that broke out on a golf course a few miles away, sending flames billowing into the air, has been brought under control. The worst of the heat has started to fade.

If you’re in the UK, then you’ll have had your own experience of the country’s hottest day. Temperatures set records that even climate scientists wouldn’t have imagined possible until their computer models began predicting the extraordinary heatwave a couple of weeks ago. The climate we grew up with is not coming back, and we’re entering a new era where the past is a poor guide to the future.

The climate crisis can feel so overwhelming that it’s hard to know where to begin. Even as the past two days of extreme heat have hammered the gravity of the situation home, what we’ve experienced barely compares to the devastation already caused by a growing litany of wildfires, floods, heatwaves and storms in much of the rest of the world, especially in the global south.

I certainly don’t have any ready-made answers for how to navigate these times. But I thought I’d share a little about what’s been coming up for me, and some observations that might speak to Highly Sensitive People (HSPs).

Always in the future

For most of my life, climate change had been something that was very real — but always in the future. I remember when I was about seven listening to my mother fretting about how we’d survive the coming calamity. Where would we live? Could we grow our own food? How would we find water? This was in the late 1980s. When she was killed in a road accident and I went to live with my grand-parents, my grand-dad would pose similar questions. It’s only more recently that the threats we worried about decades ago are starting to feel all too real: Covid, war in Europe, and the increasingly tangible impacts of climate change.

As HSPs, we have a paradoxical relationship to the climate crisis. On the one hand, we may have intuited the seriousness of the danger long before it became a mainstream concern. On the other, the emotional labour of processing the enormity of the situation can seem so overwhelming that it’s only natural that we might go numb. So many people I work with are already at their limit. They’re dealing with so many challenges in their daily lives that contemplating such an enormous issue is simply too much to take on.

Here and now

The fact is, the climate crisis is terrifying. There’s no wellness hack or meditation technique that can change that. But we do need to find ways to show up for ourselves and others with enough equilibrium to be capable of sharing the HSP creativity, intuitive ability and emotional intelligence that will be so vital in this new time. Watching my four-year-old daughter dozing in the heat earlier, I wondered what kind of future she would be looking at in 20 years from now. But I also know that — whatever that future might be — I need to keep my nervous system regulated so that I can serve her today.

In my experience, the key to staying grounded lies in the body. If we can allow ourselves to feel into the sensations that are coming up inside of us, we can work through the raw physical expression of anxiety, uncertainty or dread. By bringing awareness to the knot in our stomach, or the ache in our chest, or the tightness in our throat, we will learn that — however unpleasant — every feeling we have is only ever energy in motion. And that energy is always in the process of changing, evolving and giving way to something new. Of course, this won’t bring down the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But making space to process our emotions in this way is a first, essential step to keeping our inner space clear. Then we can be useful.

The biggest danger is getting stuck in our heads — going round and round in circles about what might happen in future. There’s nothing wrong with using our minds to think and plan ahead. But catastrophising drains our energy. We’re not going to be any help to ourselves or others if we allow ourselves to slide into rumination, or despair. HSPs are here to be the lighthouses at this time — and we need to keep our own beacons lit.

Our superpower

Yes, this can sound daunting. But one thing I’m certain of: It’s a lot easier in community. I believe that coming together to intentionally support like-minded people is one of humanity’s hidden superpowers — and it’s coming back online now for a reason.

That’s why I created The HSP Revolution, and I aim to build on this project further in future with more live events and other opportunities to gather and connect. If the climate crisis shows us anything, it’s that it’s time to dig deep into our capacity as humans to witness each other in all our pain, fragility and joy. It’s the moment to go beyond the surface and truly open up in all our vulnerability and power.

For some of us, that might look a lot like getting involved in the climate crisis directly — whether through some form of organising or activism, or responding in other ways. But anything that brings us into deep, more meaningful connection with each other is a source of medicine for the whole. Let’s meet each other at this deeper level — now more than ever — and see what might unfold.

Until next week