Hola!
Welcome to the wabi-sabi letter, the digital newsletter that promotes healthy living, wellness, mental health awareness, fitness, positive habits, and all around happiness. Clear your head and cleanse your inbox with a tiny space for wellness as you set your intentions for the day. Badabing badaboom.
Dun, Dun Dun: The 2021 Climate Report
According to MBG, In the environmental movement, October 8, 2018 is a date that lives in infamy. That's when the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its (very bleak) special report outlining the challenges that lie ahead if global warming exceeds 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
Today, nearly three years later, the IPCC is back with another much-anticipated climate change report. This time around, 234 volunteer scientists sifted through over 14,000 studies and came to a loud-and-clear conclusion: we're heading down a dangerous path and if we don't radically reduce our emissions, the results will be catastrophic.
The report (which you can read in full here) contextualizes the widespread wildfires, severe droughts, and extreme storms happening around the world as part of the larger climate puzzle and warns that, without immediate action, they likely get worse.
Action Item: We *can* channel our climate anxiety into action. Learn more from this expert article on Vox detailing how consumer choices can make a difference.
Testing Your Self-Compassion Level
Research has shown that thinking kind thoughts about yourself has psychological and physical benefits, but acting out of kindness can be pretty subjective. After all, declaring how much you love yourself and actually putting self-love into practice are very different scenarios.
Take this quick test from Kristin Neff, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of self-compassion and associate professor in human development at the University of Texas at Austin. As she shares on the mindbodygreen podcast, one question can assess your affinity for self-love.
A quick test for self-compassion.
Allow Neff to explain: “A very simple way is just to ask yourself the question, ‘How do I treat my good friends?’”
Let’s say a friend confides in you about how they’re struggling or feeling badly about themselves. How do you respond? Do you brush off their concerns or treat them with compassion? For the sake of this self-compassion test, let’s imagine you talk to them how you talk to yourself whenever you’re personally struggling: Would that person still be your friend after hearing what you have to say?
Action Item: Consider where you fall on your own self-compassion spectrum. Check out these ways to cultivate self-compassion through self-kindness in Well + Good.
The Anatomy of an Anxiety Loop
We easily recognize our anxiety when it shows up as an anxiety attack, or when a cascade of anxious thoughts is triggered by a stress-inducing event like public speaking. Yet anxiety is a lot less noticeable when it’s our constant companion—part of the background noise in our thoughts on a regular basis.
Mindful has broken down the anatomy of the anxiety loop, to better understand and break your habits:
Trigger:
Emotion/Thought
Behavior:
Rumination/Action
Result:
Distraction/Feel in Control
Adding to the complexity, anxiety can spin off of any point in a habit loop. For example, pulling out your phone and checking your social feed might offer some brief anxiety relief, “but this just creates a new habit, which is that when you’re stressed or anxious, you distract yourself,” says psychiatrist and neuroscientist Judson Brewer.
Action Item: Read the full piece in Mindful on identifying toxic loops and breaking habits to reroute your brain towards calm.
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You're amazing. Enjoy the world today.
Love,
wabi-sabi team