Brussels officials working on the climate policy of the Green Pact or Green Deal follow meditation courses. Inspired by Buddhist practices, these mindfulness trainings have one purpose: to accelerate the development of a consensus between decision-makers.
Interior transition, missing link?
The mindfulness program is called “ inner green deal or the Interior Green Pact. This European initiative starts from an observation, teaches us The Guardian, highlighted in particular in a recent report by the IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): the internal transition is a largely neglected dimension of the management of the climate crisis. An injunction taken up by Mindfulness Initiative, who set up a meditation practice group in the UK parliament. In a recently published report, the program attributed the “ roots of the climate crisis ” to the ” disconnection between oneself, others and nature. »
Therefore, the practice of meditation appears to be a relevant response to better management of the crisis for the first concerned: the decision-makers of the European Union.
Forest walks, meditation classes
The program ” inner green deal invites Brussels officials in particular to walks in the forest. The goal? Re-establishing one’s link with the living, rediscovering empathy for one’s natural environment. Meditation sessions are also planned in order to practice ” deep listening “, the condition sine qua non to the establishment of a genuine dialogue between the decision-makers.
The raw data of the climate crisis can be distressing: European Union civil servants are not spared from the phenomenon of eco-anxiety. The practice of the meditation program, started before starting the negotiations, has made it possible to approach the climate issue with more hindsight. It was also a question of addressing, throughout the process, his personal relationship with environmental issues.
First results
One of the reasons for the political inertia is said to be the feeling ” that there is not much to do “: a prejudice that would have been overcome by the practice of meditation. Jeroen Janss, who runs the program, explains for The Guardian that very strong emotions emerge during the sessions: deep sadness, guilt, despair. The ‘igreen deal allows you to learn how to regulate these emotions, better, to transform them into a driving force for action.
The reception of the program was not unanimous: some were impatient, arguing that they wanted to enter the ” heart of the matter “. In general, however, it emerges that the ” inner green deal strengthened participants’ motivation to take the climate crisis into their own hands.
“If I hadn’t practiced deep listening, I would have been unable to understand what 195 countries and thousands of stakeholders had to say. I really, deeply wanted to know what they had to say. »
Christiana Figueres, former UN climate negotiator, on the Paris Agreement. The Guardian
Mindfulness training, a tool to change the world? To meditate !
We want to thank the author of this post for this outstanding web content
To best manage the climate crisis, European Union officials are encouraged to reflect
Explore our social media profiles and also other related pageshttps://nimblespirit.com/related-pages/