Gratitude as Resistance: How a 10-Things-a-Day Practice Can Reduce Eco Anxiety.

Do you ever feel like the world is unravelling and no one is doing enough? You're not alone.

Slowly at first and then all at once, eco-anxiety can creep into your bones. It’s more than a twinge of sadness or worry. It's a constant ache that intensifies and subsides in waves, but never quite leaves us alone. Some days it feels like you're carrying the grief of the whole planet, and it can become hard to notice anything but the problems. But one simple practice can help break that spiral: writing down ten things you're thankful for every morning. Yes, it really is that simple.

Why bother trying to feel better? Don't we owe it to the world to suffer? I don't think so. When you're overwhelmed by climate-grief and eco-anxiety, you can't make a sustainable contribution to a better world. You have less energy to offer your family and community, and you feel awful. That's no way to live your precious, short life! You deserve to be healthy and happy. And as a bonus, happy healthy people are more empowered to help build a happy, healthy world.

Gratitude as an Antidote to Eco-Anxiety and Climate-Grief

Gratitude doesn’t fix the climate crisis. It doesn’t cancel injustice. But it does shift the way you look at the world around you, and that matters. When we practice gratitude, we train our brains to notice what is still good, still working, still worth fighting for. It strengthens the part of us that is alive and resilient, the part that can take meaningful action without falling apart. It helps us reduce eco anxiety so we have the energy to recharge our batteries, so we can be healthy and give left over energy to causes we believe in.

What to Write Down On Your Gratitude List

There are no rules about what you write down on your gratitude list! You can include anything at all, but you have to be thankful for it.

A hot cup of coffee. A funny text from a friend. Your compost bin. All the people working hard on climate solutions. A policy win. The return of the swallows. A warm jumper. The fact that you’re still here. Nothing you're grateful for is too big or too small.

Did you get outside for a walk today? That can totally go on your gratitude list!

But What If I Don’t Feel Grateful?

It might not feel natural to write down things you're grateful for at first. That’s okay. If you don't feel it very much, just use your thinking mind to choose something you really ought to be grateful for. Your good health? Food in the cupboards? A safe home?

Try to frame things in a positive light. For example, you could write "a lovely walk in the sun" rather than "a walk where it didn't rain for once."

It might feel fake at first. Do it anyway. You don't see a sunflower pop up in the garden as soon as you plant a seed, right? You have to keep watering it every day, and little by little it grows bigger and more beautiful. Before you know it, you'll start looking around you to find things to put on your list. And you'll have a thousand different things to choose from.

Commit to doing your gratitude list every day for at least two weeks. Keep a notebook by your bed or do it while your tea brews. Keep it private if you prefer. But don’t skip a day in those first couple of weeks. You need to be regular with it to feel the impact. When two weeks are up, you can decide how regularly you want to keep doing it. I probably do it 3 or 4 times a week now, depending on how busy I am.

How Practising Gratitude Helped Me Reduce Eco Anxiety

I started doing this practice when I was completely overwhelmed by climate grief. I had fallen into a negative spiral where everything felt pointless, urgent, and overwhelming. I didn’t want to ignore reality. But I did want to stop drowning.

At first, it felt forced. But around day 10, something started to shift. I found myself noticing the good in people and the world again. I caught myself smiling at small things. Gratitude didn’t make me forget that the world needs help. Rather, it restored my resilience so I could start volunteering for nature charities and start a career in ecological journalism.

Thanks to my more positive outlook, I had the energy to build a career as a writer who specialises in sustainable farming and regenerative food systems.

Here's what I wrote on my list today:

1. Thank you for a lovely walk with my donkeys

2. Thank you for a healthy dinner cooked by my husband

3. Thank you for a kind babysitter who takes great care of my daughter

4. Thank you for the hot cup of coffee I drank this morning

5. Thank you for clean water to drink

6. Thank you for the village market, where I can buy local and delicious food

7. Thank you for my hot shower this evening

8. Thank you for the phone call with my sister

9. Thank you for the health of my family

10. Thank you for the owls I heard outside last night

Why This Practice Is Powerful in the Climate Movement

This isn’t toxic positivity. This is about building emotional muscle.

Because if we only ever feel despair, we burn out. If we notice all the beautiful things in our life, we stay engaged. In so many ways, we are so lucky to be born in this generation. If you're reading this blog post, you probably have access to clean water, affordable medicine, education, shelter and food to drink. Take a moment to be grateful, and let it fuel your contribution to a better world.

Try It Today:

Open a notebook. Write the date. Then list ten things. Big or small. Repeat tomorrow. And the next day. You don’t have to feel good to begin, you just have to begin. You might be surprised how quickly the light begins to return.

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