Do What Lights You Up
When you're happy and healthy, you're one of the stars that makes humanity shimmer—but how do you find activism that truly energizes you for the long haul? Guest writer Gwen Hanson, a physician and climate activist, shares personal stories and four powerful questions to help you discover the path that will keep you fresh, inspired, and eager to show up each day.
Where does joy fit in all of this mess?
Sometimes I find myself wondering where joy fits in all of this mess. For many of us, leaning into joy in a time of darkness feels disrespectful—but what if our joy could actually be a gift to others?
Balancing Work with Play
How does a climate scientist stay energized and productive throughout their career? Guest writer Steve Ghan shares his secret: play every day. Throughout his career as a climate scientist, Steve found that biking to work and taking daily walks weren't time away from his work—they were what made his work possible. Thirty minutes of riding each way gave him mental clarity, creative insights, and the perfect transition between home and work. When stuck on a problem, walking helped him think it through. The result? A fulfilling career powered by movement, nature, and the same sense of freedom he felt on his first road bike at fifteen.
One Night, One River, One Reset: Nature's Gift to us Climateers
Climate change sucks. Political strife sucks. The constant tension we carry in our bodies? Also sucks. But here's what I love about nature's power to reset our nervous systems - and why it matters for us as climateers.
Better than Dental Surgery: 10 Ways to Enjoyify Your Online Meetings
Last Friday's dental surgery got me thinking: why do online meetings feel so much like being trapped in that chair, dreading every minute? But just like the dental assistant who transformed my experience by simply considering my needs, we can enjoyify our virtual gatherings and turn them into something people actually want to attend.
The Power of a Positive List
We're hardwired to notice negative experiences more than positive ones, but research shows we can train our brains differently. My daughter's colorful summer list reminded me that the tools for shifting our perspective are often simpler than we think. The effort isn't much, but the follow-through is key and the benefits are huge.
Allowing Joy
When my friend's husband went missing during a week I was co-facilitating a workshop on resilience, I learned that joy isn't something we earn after solving our problems - it's a practice that sustains us through uncertainty.
Flipping the Ratio
Doom and gloom is a prevalent trope within climate change engagement work. However, when we focus on the negative impacts we miss an opportunity to help other move towards a future vision full of possibility and opportunity.
Play as a Gateway to Deeper Resilience
I was planning a weeklong retreat on resilience and resistance, but something felt off about addressing play and joy only after the heavy topics. So I decided to lead with play instead—and that decision changed everything. By the final day, participants kept returning to the power of play, affirming what I've long suspected: we build resilient communities not despite our playfulness, but because of it.
Brickstorms Over Brainstorms: Why LEGO® Belongs at the Table
We use LEGO SERIOUS PLAY to help those engaged in sustainability work tap into their own sense of playfulness in order to unlock deeper insights and more innovative solutions than verbal or written communication alone. Plus, it’s just plain fun!
From Play to Playful: Finding your Lighter Side
From my experience, it can feel awkward, uncomfortable, and even unpleasant, for adults to 'play'. But I think that's because so many of us associate 'play' with that first definition: to engage in activity. There's a belief that, in order to play, we need to be doing something, playing something - a 'something' is often associated with a time or an experience that we no longer like or never enjoyed in the first place.
The Power of Connection
The Greek philosopher Plato reputedly said, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” While I'm not sure this sentiment entirely holds up, I do know that by encouraging playfulness in adults, we're not just fostering fleeting moments of joy; we're jumpstarting these vital connections to form and flourish.
Splooting Squirrels and the Practice of Paradox
Maybe this is one of those small but important life skills we don't talk about enough - how to hold lightness and gravity at the same time. Grief and hope. Anger and curiosity. How to let ourselves find delight in a word like 'sploot' while also acknowledging that those splooting squirrels are adapting to a world that's heating up faster than it should.
The Subversiveness of Play
What can any one of us do against such massive abuse of government power, especially when it is endorsed by (or at least ignored by) the powerful millionaire and billionaire classes?
We can play.
Play is an act of subversion. When we play, we become dangerous to the powers that be because play invites us to question the status quo.
From Climate Camp to Summer Gathering: Join Me This July
Tamara’s approach to resilience training is comprehensive, but includes an element that may come as a surprise: play. “Staying in the unending struggle isn’t just about persistence,” she says. “So many things put us into fight or flight mode that over time, our nervous systems get trained to be reactive. Tapping into our sense of playfulness is so natural - it’s part of our human design.
Care About Climate? Unleash Your Inner Creative.
How many times have you heard someone say “I’m not a creative person.” Perhaps you tell yourself that? Well, it’s nonsense. All humans have the capacity to be creative. Don’t believe me? Think about the creativity that kids, especially under the age of 10 or so, not only embrace but seemingly use to taunt us adults with their effortless ability to ideate and imagine on a daily basis.
If only I could get that feeling of unrestrained creativity back. The thing is, I can. We can. It just might look a little bit different than when we were kids.
Leaning into the Light
Honestly, it’s easy to wallow in what’s wrong. There’s proof of despair everywhere…but when we tap into our sense of passion and possibility…we literally see the world in a different light, from a different perspective – and this changes our reality for the better.
It’s Okay Not to Be Playful: Embracing the Full Spectrum of Climate Emotions
Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: sometimes, we just don’t feel playful, and the idea of finding the 'lighter side' of anything, much less climate change, feels impossible.
Playfulness as a Powerful Climate Tool (and 4 other values that guide us)
These five values—playfulness, curiosity, connection, resilience, and transformation—aren't just words on a page for us. They're the beacon that guides our decisions, the foundation upon which we're building Lighter Side of Climate.
Ready, Set, GOoooose!
It’s no secret that I think a lot about cultivating joy in climate action and sustainability work. The 5th Annual Green Goose Chase shows that sustainability engagement can be fun if the conditions are right.