Mindfulness

Mark Williams & Danny Penman

This isn’t technically a book on death or grief, but mindfulness- the practice of being with what is unfolding in each moment- has enabled me to listen to and become transformed by my climate grief in a virtually unparalleled way. Read more about how a mindfulnes practice has helped me work with eco-anxiety and climate grief.

Radical Acceptance

Tara Brach

Perhaps the battered cover of my copy betrays just how much I love this book. Radical Acceptance delves deeply into the practice of ‘being with’ that which we try to run away from. It has helped me with climate grief, and with all the many other difficult-to-be-with emotions of life I’m journeying with.

Fallling Upwards

Richard Rohr

This book is an old favourite, drawing on Jungian ideas of a first and second stage of life.

Rohr makes a compelling case that our moments of greatest loss, grief and bewilderment can be the most powerful sources of our transformation.

Falling Upwards sits broadly within the Christian tradition.

Active Hope

Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Essential reading for anyone working in or around climate change. Joanna and Chris have pioneered a model of climate action that begins in gratitude and honours our pain in order for us to ‘see with new eyes’ and ‘go forth’ into the world.

Languages of Loss

Sasha Bates

Sasha shares her journey through grief after the sudden loss of her husband.

She brings her personal story alongside many years of training and experience as a grief councellor, somehow making the muddy waters of grief a little less bewildering.

The Future We Choose

Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett- Carmac

Christiana and Tom, founders of Global Optimism, were instrumental in securing the 2016 Paris Climate Change Agreement. They propose two contrasting visions for the world; one of grief and pain, the other of hope and human flourishing. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a read, and articulates so much of what it feels like to be living during a climate emergency.

With the End in Mind

Kathryn Mannix

For a collection of stories about death from a palliative care professional, this is a surprisingly inspiring and easy to digest read.

Kathryn captures the physicality of death beautifully, and where, even at the very end, we might even then draw hope.