We Deny its Full Extent
I often write about the small annoyances that, in creating small stresses, contribute to your total stress level. But this time, I'll once again write about a major stress, global warming, because it illustrates one of our defense mechanisms: denial.
How Old Are You?
The younger you are, the more years you have to live as global warming gets worse and worse, so the greater your need to deny it. But for those of us who are less young, we, too, have a need to deny. Why? If we fully appreciated the impact that global warming is going to have on our lives, the stress would be unbearable. What do we do when a stress would be/is unbearable? We deny it.
How Does Denial Work?
When we perceive something, for instance, the sensation of hunger, it creates a disturbance in our mind. To end the disturbance, our mind matches this perception with the best possible solution.
True Solution: When we are hungry and there is food on the table, we eat. That is a true solution.
Partial Solution: When we are hungry and know that we can cook a meal, that is a partial solution. It doesn't end the disturbance but it decreases it because we know that we will be able to eat soon.
False Solution: When a person is hungry and there is no food anywhere (perhaps he is crawling through a desert), he matches the perception of hunger with a false solution: perhaps a hallucination of an oasis. How does his mind do this? It creates a double pathway.
In one arm of the double pathway, he continues to suffer from hunger. In the other arm, there is the hallucination that food is available. While he is aware of the hallucination and not the hunger, the reality of the hunger creates great stress, out of awareness, which he may only vaguely be aware of.
When is Denial Bad, and When is It Good?
It is bad when it interferes with our ability to make good decisions. What do people do when a hurricane is coming? They rush to the store to get needed supplies, only to find that the shelves are bare because everyone else was doing the same thing. Why didn't they stock up ahead of time? Because they denied that they were vulnerable to hurricanes. This instance of denial is bad.
It is good when it spares us from stress without causing problems. What do we do about global warming? We can't solve it all by ourselves. We can prepare for its effects as best we can, by not moving to an eroding coastline or a fire-prone area, and by weatherizing our homes. We can do our small part to help by recycling, installing solar panels, and limiting our use of fossil fuels and disposable items. And we might participate in political activities to influence our elected representatives to pass helpful legislation. But doing all these things won't fully solve the problem: our vulnerability to global warming. This is an instance in which denial can be helpful; it can spare us from stress that we are unable to fully solve.
The Inner Guide
Our Inner Guides can enable us to become aware of and take action on the things we can do to lessen the effects of global warming on ourselves. If you don't yet have an Inner Guide, you can acquire one here: https://emotionalcomfort.com/blog/post/you-can-acquire-an-inner-guide-part-4
