Last class, I started thinking about how present bias, especially in Westernized “wellness” movements, disrupts and discourages looking towards the future. I thought about how dominant narratives of “living in the moment” invisibilize the future. For example, when I worry about the future, I attempt to ground myself back in this moment, which is a practice that has been reified by guided meditation and therapy sessions. Thus, after years of subscribing to “living in the moment”, I’ve found it harder to look into the future and oftentimes discourage myself from doing so. 

Moreover, as my peer Ryan remarked, it can feel impossible to look towards the future when the present feels suffocating and ever changing. There’s an image I think about (to the right with image description below)that represents the magnitude of circumstances many find themselves thinking about in the present, let alone the future.

Art by Mushroomhead

For instance, when dealing with a global pandemic, food insecurity, housing/school payments, bodily autonomy, and mental health, it can seem impossible (for me, at least) to think about future-oriented issues. While “future-oriented” issues have an immense stake in the present (such as climate change), they seem less tangible and therefore, more likely to be relegated to the back of the mind while more “pressing” concerns take the frontal space in the brain.

Reference 1 in Survey regarding Youth and Climate Anxiety (Nature)

While I do think about climate change when provoked, my positionality and privilege have allowed me a large reprieve from constant climate anxiety, compounded with my inability to cope with my “present”. This is a privileged position, as those with different positionalities/experiences are forced into contemplation of the future by means of survival. As I move throughout this course, I hope to integrate more future-oriented thinking without diagnosing it as a “negative practice”. Additionally, I hope to challenge my traditional labels of “present” and “future” in order to engage in systems thinking and holistic consideration of the planet and the issues it is facing.

Image Descriptions and Citations Below:

[Image description of first image]: A blue-faced individual, wearing a white mask, in front of a dripping blue and green earth. Surrounding the earth is plastic waste represented by forks/food/containers and waste of resources represented by dripping tubes. 

[Image description of second image]: An image taken from Nature’s landmark survey of climate anxiety. At the top is a sliding bar measuring respondent’s climate anxiety from “extremely worried to not worried”. The statistics read, “extremely worried: 27%, very worried: 32%, moderately worried: 25%, a little worried: 11%, not worried: 5%”. Below the bar, is a phrase that reads “climate change makes me feel…” with a series of different emotions and represented percentage in bars. The varying emotions and related percentages read, “sad: 68%, afraid: 68%, anxious: 63%, angry: 58%, powerless: 57%, guilty: 51%, optimistic: 32%, indifferent: 30%”

Image Citations:

Depiction of Climate/Present Anxiety: Mushroomhead. (06/28/2021.). Climate and Other World Anxiety. https://www.psd.gov.sg/challenge/ideas/trends/eco-anxiety-the-psychological-impact-of-climate-change

Graph: Reference 1 (09/22/2021). Young people’s climate anxiety revealed in landmark survey. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02582-8 

Source Citations:

Thompson, T. (2021, September 22). Young People’s Climate Anxiety revealed in landmark survey. Nature News. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02582-8