6 Tips for Soothing Your Climate-Related Anxiety While Also Combating Climate Change

Are you stressed just thinking about current environmental and climate-related issues? Whether you're an avid gardener or simply a concerned citizen, there are several reasons you may be feeling stressed or anxious about climate change. The good news is that you may be able to relieve that stress while also fighting against climate change. Here are six ways to push back against both stress and negative environmental effects due to climate change.

1. Take Matters Into Your Own Hands by Opening Your Very Own Eco-Friendly Business

If you're feeling frustrated with the current availability of environmentally friendly products in your area, why not take matters into your own hands and start up your own eco-friendly company? This one move could prove not only empowering for you but beneficial for the planet.

In order to increase your odds of success in whatever industry you choose, you'll want to assemble a carefully detailed business plan. This plan includes company descriptions, service descriptions, structural specifications, and other details about how the business will be funded and what kind of financial issues or revenue you will project in the near future. 

2. Prioritize Relieving Your Anxiety and Practicing Soothing Self-Care Regularly

According to one study, being tuned in to the latest news about climate change may be correlated with a higher risk of developing anxiety disorders. If you feel more stressed and anxious when you think about environmental issues, make sure you're practicing self-care often to help relieve that anxiety. For example, try to:

• Take deep breaths and/or meditate

• Practice calming hobbies, such as reading

• Exercise a few times a week

3. Reconsider Your Current Approach to Transportation and Swap to Environmentally Friendly Options

One aspect of your everyday life that could be leaving a significant environmental impact is your method of transportation. If you're concerned that driving your car every day is producing too much pollution, for instance, you could consider switching to other, more eco-friendly alternatives.

For example, your area may offer public transportation, such as buses, trams, and subways. You may also be able to cut back on your footprint by carpooling to work and trying to fly less often.

4. Adjust Your Daily Menu and Make a Difference Through Your Diet

You may not have realized it, but what you put on your plate every day can make a difference in the environment. Clean Eating points out that just a few simple swaps to your usual menu could help reduce your footprint! For instance, you can easily switch to a more eco-friendly diet by:

• Eating locally produced fruits and vegetables

• Avoiding imported foods

• Reducing your overall consumption of meat and dairy, and especially of red meat, such as beef

5. Modify Your Home in a Few Key Ways to Make It More Eco-Friendly

Lastly, you can soothe your anxiety and make a difference simply by upgrading a few key home features to more eco-friendly versions. For example, at home, you could: 

• Switch to lights that automatically turn off when you're not in the room

• Reduce your total home energy use

• Switch to low-flow showerheads

• Install a recycling system in your home instead of throwing everything away

• Planting more trees in your yard 

6. Invest in Solar Panels

Solar panels are becoming increasingly popular as a way to generate renewable energy. In addition to being environmentally friendly, solar panels also have a number of other benefits. For one, they can help to lower your energy bills by offsetting the cost of electricity from the grid. They can also increase the value of your home and provide a hedge against rising energy costs.

If you're planning to install solar panels, the cost is based on the home's usage needs, the type and size of panels, and whether you're on the utility grid. Solar panels typically come with long-term warranties so you don't have to worry about repairs.

In today's world, it's common to feel stressed or even anxious about climate-related issues. Fortunately, there are several ways to soothe your stress while fighting against climate change, whether you're practicing self-care or making eco-friendly changes at home, like installing solar panels. Adopt these six tips as your quick guide to get started. 

Julia Mitchell

Image via Pexels

"Oh my neck!" Management of a cervical dislocation over 100 years ago.

Modern radiograph of a patient with a C6-C7 cervical dislocation.

Patients sustaining cervical spine dislocations or fractures are usually immobilized at the scene with a cervical collar and a backboard and transported to a medical facility where they undergo cervical X-rays, a cervical CT scan, and possibly a cervical MRI. Treatment frequently consists of cervical reduction using traction followed by surgical fusion. Case reports on the treatment of cervical spine injuries over 100 years ago are rare. Thus the importance of the detailed case managed by Balfour Fergusson, MD, and published in the Lancet on July 8, 1899:

"At midnight on June 17th I was called to see a laborer. It appeared that he was working away from home and was in the habit of returning every Saturday night. On the evening in question, he was returning home in charge of a horse and cart and, probably overcome by a week's hard work in the hayfield, he fell asleep while sitting on the edge of the cart." Two men found the laborer lying on the ground "groaning and complaining of his neck" and walked him home. There Dr. Fergusson found him "sitting on a chair with his head well bent backwards and resting against a wall. His skin was cold and clammy; his breathing was diaphragmatic; his pulse was soft, slow, and compressible; and his pupils were dilated and did not readily react to light. He had partially lost power in his arms and legs and he appeared to be dazed. His head was inclined backwards, the occiput resting on the spine."

When Dr. Fergusson tried correcting the position the patient’s neck, "he was thrown into violent spasm, the spasmodic contraction lasting a few minutes, the patient calling out all the time "Oh my neck!"

Dr. Fergusson's description of the reduction:

Securing the assistance of a parish nurse (who is, by the way, an unusually strong woman) and placing her in front of the patient I directed her to take both of his hands and to pull him directly upwards. I placed myself behind and supported his head and pressed his shoulders forwards. So great was the spasm produced by this attempt that the nurse was forcibly drawn across the bed and I was pressed backwards against the iron framework at the top, the poor fellow calling all the time, "Oh, my poor neck. Doctor, I am dying!" I as quickly as possible got him again into the sitting position and placing my left hand underneath his chin and my right behind the nape of the neck I jerked the head upwards, at the same time forcibly bending the head forwards over the chest. A sensation of a bone slipping into its place was communicated to the hand and I felt certain that the dislocation had been reduced.

The patient noted immediate improvement, and within two weeks, the patient was "now out of doors and walking." At the end of the report, Dr. Fergusson makes a few comments about injuries to the cervical spine and notes many are associated with fractures. Of particular interest is the statement that when injuries occur "between the atlas and axis, the odontoid is almost invariably fractured, death quickly ensuing."

The Lancet published the note due to "the rarity of the conditions found on this occasion."

John Oró, MD, FAANS
paleoterran@icloud.com