One of the more common ways to see climate anxiety is as a practical anxiety. It’s a set of feelings - namely, stress, fear, dread, overwhelm - that motivate people to care more about the ecological crisis, the injustices in its throws, and the future of our world. In this way it’s seen as something that’s, honestly, good because it leads to problem solving or to someone shifting the way they use plastic or how much they drive their car.

In my written piece here (and recording above), I’d like to offer you the sense-making that’s been emerging through me over the last several years. Sense-making that’s rooted in the concept of and calling towards collective healing; seeing it as a tool we have available to us to usher in and facilitate the shifts in paradigms and consciousness we need to address the global issues we face.

Is there value to being in touch with your emotions? You might read this question, knowing it comes from me, and be like - yea, duh. Isn’t that your whole thing?? But let’s wipe the slate clean and see what arises. If you’re a yes, and you believe there is value to being in touch with your emotions, why? Why is it helpful? And if you’re a no then why not..?

Liz Moyer Benferhat is a healer with a big question and a big dream: How do we heal ourselves collectively in the face of the damage and change that our entire planet is facing as our climate and culture shifts? How do we take care of each other and care for the world that we are a part of?

his is a chapter from The We Heal For All Circle Training, a self-paced course that teaches you a model of community-based emotional processing you can take, make your own, and bring to your people today. or many of us who are drawn to the term “collective healing” it’s something we feel or have a sense of more than a working definition.

Coming up with our own answers about what’s going on in the world. Here we are, as a collective world, waking up to the challenges we face, and trying to have a coherent conversation to organize where we go next… What a task! And far from easy... Because with any of these challenges - whether environmental, cultural, economic, political

We are witnesses of the collapse and therefore that makes us potential agents of the renewal.” - Michael Meade I didn’t know what I was looking for until I found it. I found myself, somewhat mindlessly, going from podcast to podcast looking for some take on what happened on January 6th to soothe.. some sort of need.

It’s more than just seeing from another’s view… Sure, this question seems obvious - empathy helps us understand another person’s point of view, which is crucial to the health of a functioning democracy. Our country is founded on the bedrock of multiple versions of truth coming together, and by doing so us getting ever-so-slightly closer to the Truth.

I think being silent sometimes can be wise. Not only does it allow me to listen to those around me in the traditional sense, it also allows me to listen within, which is more needed than ever. Silence can hold things that talking and taking action cannot. Silence can be nonviolent in ways that talking and taking action cannot. Holding that which is present without manipulating it with words, ideas or constructs; without the need to change, fix or shift it in any way.

In our fast-paced, crazy world that feels like it’s constantly on fire, it can feel impossible to know what to do. As change makers, helpers, and healers, many of us feel stretched to the max, constantly on alert for the next crisis to drop. Our heads are spinning and our hearts hurt, but the urgency of it all pushes us to keep going.

It’s no secret that the world’s going through a lot right now. Different people experience it in different ways. For some it’s connected to the outer world: war, political division, the fight for justice, runaway climate change, a broken government, corporate greed, media bias. The list goes on.

When you think about something being in a process of transformation, what comes to mind? Maybe you see something metamorphisizing over a period of time. I get this image of a caterpillar’s body, scrunched up and buried in its cocoon, changing shape at the cellular level as it forms wings and legs and antennas.

Healing is a big, broad topic. It stretches across time and disciplines, ranging from ancient spiritual practices used by Shamans to advancements in conventional medicine that influence how science thinks about healing today. There is also a growing field that focuses on healing at the collective level—in our societies, communities, between groups of people.

Perhaps by just reading the word you notice something shift in your body. A sense of calm washes over you. Your heart widens a bit. Perhaps the word takes you back in time to a point in your life when you were doing big, hard healing work. The blood, sweat, and tears that went into your healing journey come to mind.

I wonder if you can relate to this idea? As change makers and people who care deeply about the world, we’re conduits for this time of great transition. Collective healing is a tool we can use to be those conduits. Resonate? Let me share what I mean...

The age of information and communication technology gives us a growing level of awareness about ourselves as a collective and the challenges we face. What does that do to our collective consciousness, the social glue that holds us together as a society? And how does this relate to collective healing and other tools and support systems we need for this unique point in time and the crisis of consciousness many of us feel?

I think this scientifically-backed understanding offers us so much to chew on; both for ourselves as individuals—to destigmatize emotions and to have better tools to work with them—as well as for thinking about collective healing. It can help us explore things like why there is such a high degree of emotional energy in our collective nervous system these days, what it might mean, and what we might do about it.

How do you know when you’re feeling a particular emotion? Let’s take anger, for instance. What happens (in your mind, your body, your behavior, your perception of things) that signals to you that you’re feeling anger? In some ways this question seems easy, right? I know what I’m feeling because… I’m feeling it. I know I’m feeling anger because, well, I’m angry.

If at any point while reading this or while exploring things in my new course, Empower yourself, dear feeler, something doesn’t feel right for you then I encourage you to please pause and step back. It may mean that you need the accompaniment of another person who is emotionally-safe to be with you as you process or understand what you’re experiencing. This is normal.