Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out

"This report is brilliant... and fantastically important"
- Caroline Lucas MP, former Green Party leader and MEP

Version 1.2 - released 4 May 2022

Home printer-friendly black & white version

PRINT VERSION: Blackwells UK, Amazon UK, Barns & Noble US, Amazon US

Climate change is a physical reality, demanding political and practical solutions. But its inner dimension, overlooked entirely by mainstream approaches, is a human crisis of relationship. Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out outlines the relevance of mindfulness and compassion practices in addressing the endemic disconnection from self, others and nature at the root of the climate crisis.

We explore the cognitive and emotional foundations of conscious connection and discuss the potential for mindfulness and compassion practices to be developed into powerful enablers of reconnection, fostering both greater resilience and more appropriate responses to global sustainability crises.

Written by Jamie Bristow, Rosie Bell and Professor Christine Wamsler (LUCSUS), the report follows a research collaboration between the Mindfulness Initiative and the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, including 25 in-depth interviews with national and transnational politicians and policymakers, and a large-scale consultation with leading experts working on linking ‘inner’ and 'outer' aspects of the climate crisis. We draw upon the emerging evidence base linking internal transformation to sustainability, and broader academic literature on the prosocial impact of mindfulness and compassion training.

Initiative Mindfulness France have produced a translation of parts of the report into French, Se reconnecter à nos qualités humaines innées pour faire face à la crise climatique. We are grateful to them for making these ideas more accessible to the francophone world. The translation can be downloaded here:

Télécharger les extraits traduits en français

Watch the recording of our online policy launch, which took place on 28 April 2022

Speakers include:

Caroline Lucas MP, Member of the British Parliament and former Green Party leader
Yoko Alender, Member of the Estonian Parliament and Chair of its Environment Committee
Tom Rivett-Carnac, political lobbyist for the UNFCCC and an author on climate change policy

Video of the Consultation Draft launch event featuring Jon Kabat-Zinn (1 March 2022)

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