The “work that reconnects”: a collective process to cultivate hope and promote action, facing the eco-climatic crisis

The eco-climatic crisis is one of the most urgent and enormous issues of our time, the scenarios of ecological and social collapse that loom if we continue with business as usual are of unprecedented magnitude and severity. Today irreversible processes are already underway, yet it is still possible to act towards climate and social justice, and indeed it is critical to do so now more than ever. However, the eco-climatic crisis generates powerful emotional reactions, such as grief, fear, guilt and despair, which can often can block awareness and inhibit action. Therefore, it appears essential to build spaces in which to process these emotions: a proposal that can prove extremely fruitful for developing this kind of elaboration is “The Work That Reconnects”. “The Work That Reconnects” is a collective process of emotional sharing, reflection and meditation, which aims to elaborate the most difficult emotions aroused by the eco-climatic crisis and to overcome attitudes of closure, paralysis and despair, in order to cultivate an active and realistically grounded hope, capable of motivating action. It is based on a spiral movement that goes through four steps: coming from gratitude, honouring our pain for the world, seeing with new eyes, going forth.