Let’s TAKE ACTION: Transforming Climate Grief into Growth

Kaira Jewel Lingo – a Buddhist teacher who has spent decades weaving mindfulness and meditation with social justice – and Good Grief Network’s founder LaUra Schmidt will guide us in taking small, sweet steps towards growth or transformation when confronting climate change and ecocide. After their dialogue, we will invite you into peer-led breakout groups to discuss some of the following questions:

If one definition of trauma is a disruption of core belief systems, what is that for you in relation to climate change and ecocide?

Can you share any insights about yourself resulting from the grief you're experiencing? What have you learned about yourself? Can you name at least one new opportunity or see one new pathway that has cleared?

What can you do to regulate these difficult emotions? What are some examples of mindfulness practices?

Can you name an act of service to help others and the planet? 

Kaira Jewel Lingo

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption from Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com. IG @kairajewel 

LaUra Schmidt

LaUra (she/her) is the founder of the Good Grief Network and the brain behind the “10-Steps to Resilience & Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate” program and the FLOW Facilitation Training modality. She is a truth seeker, community builder, cultural critic, trainer, program designer, and facilitator. She is a lifelong student, curator, and practitioner of personal and collective resilience strategies. LaUra graduated with a BS in Environmental Studies, Biology, and Religious Studies. Her MS is in Environmental Humanities. She recently earned an “Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy” Certificate through The Embody Lab and a “Climate Psychology” certificate through California Institute of Integral Studies.

In August 2023, LaUra’s book on Good Grief Network’s unique 10-Step program called How to Live in a Chaotic Climate: 10 Steps to Reconnect with Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Planet will be released through Shambhala Publications. 

About Reimagine and the Climate Grief & Growth Series

Reimagine's mission is to help all people face adversity, loss, and mortality, and channel the hard parts of life into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org

This event is part of Reimagine’s three-part series “Climate Grief & Growth” in March 2023. Planet earth is in hospice and its inhabitants need grief support. Climate change is relentlessly producing more disaster, death, grief, and anxiety. We are actively destroying the environment, both with intent and negligence. Governments and corporations have ignored warnings from scientists, spiritual leaders, and activists. But despite it all, there’s comfort in our collective struggle. In this series, we will learn ways to grow in the face of climate grief by learning, practicing mindfulness, and taking action. Topics for discussion and practice will include regulating feelings of despair and finding purpose in acts of service and civic engagement. 

About Good Grief Network

Good Grief Network is a nonprofit organization that started in 2016. We bring people together to process collective grief, eco-distress, and overwhelming feelings concerning the collective planetary crises. By building individual and community resilience, we empower people to rediscover their agency and engage in meaningful actions.

Using a variety of modalities such as embodiment, group sharing, deep listening, and co-visioning, Good Grief Network creates brave, emergent spaces where people process their heavy emotions, learn new skills, reconnect on all levels, and actively build communities that are invested in intentional relationships, healing, and growth.