It's possible to be well-informed about the world's harms and still experience real happiness and gratitude.
Don't find happiness in pretending everything is fine. Root it in real things like close relationships, the natural world, your senses, and the calm inside you.
Practice feeling emotions all the way through and deliberately noticing beauty; these skills let feelings pass quickly and let you live joyfully while staying honest about reality.
2025 had one of the lowest global death rates from extreme weather on record, at under 0.8 deaths per million people.
This low toll is part of a long-term decline: death rates from extreme weather have fallen dramatically since the 1960s as better science, technology, policy, and greater wealth reduced vulnerability.
Progress doesn’t eliminate risk—large, deadly disasters can still occur, and the data have limits (older undercounts and exclusion of extreme temperature impacts), so continued preparation and careful tracking are essential.
We are quietly withdrawing our commitment to maintaining shared systems and infrastructure. Trading resilience for short-term efficiency shrinks margins for error and makes cascading failures and inequality more likely.
The planet is storing heat and the impacts keep accumulating, so climate-driven risks will persist and compound even without dramatic new events. That truth erodes confidence in a stable future and reduces people's willingness to invest in long-term projects.
Trust, cooperation, and belief in the future are fraying as people and nations pull back from each other, from treaties, and even from having children. That loss of social commitment undermines our ability to solve shared problems and sustain institutions.
Sustainable performance needs both effort and careful energy management. Effort builds growth, but energy is what keeps that growth going.
Life after professional sport can become a meaningful second career through coaching, speaking, and leading teams, turning past experience into purposeful work.
Community action and storytelling — like free events and sharing personal stories — help fight suicide stigma and build resilience.
People are moving past mourning the old future and choosing practical action. They’re learning skills like growing food, installing power systems, and staying healthy to survive and thrive.
Community resilience is rising as friends and neighbors start homesteading where they live and building local networks and shared resources. At the same time, people are staying cautious about what they share and who they trust.
The larger system is collapsing, so the focus has shifted from trying to save it to making a soft landing and building alternative systems. The priority now is preserving what can survive and creating practical, local solutions.
Keep working and polish your ideas until they matter; recognition often comes after repeated rejection and proves you can overcome doubt.
Expect serious climate and institutional disruptions this decade, so adapt now instead of waiting for others to save you.
Learn practical, community-focused skills—like electrical work, plumbing, or emergency care—to keep systems running and help people rather than falling into despair.
Sometimes the best choice is to not publish a painful story because putting it out gives it more life than it needs.
Small, simple narrative bridges—brief acknowledgements or redirects—are often enough to recognize difficulty and then move attention to the present.
Reframing hardships as opportunities for growth can improve mental health and lower stress-related inflammation, so focusing on what you’ll do next supports recovery.
Healing is not the same as feeling safe; it starts by moving into uncomfortable feelings and fully experiencing them instead of trying to escape them.
Healing means tracking reactive habits back to their first moments, listening to and compassionately soothing the small parts of yourself that developed those defenses, which dissolves their power over you.
You can and should start healing now, even amid chaos, because it clears reactivity, restores intuition and agency, and makes you more effective against oppressive systems.
Doubt, if you let it grow, will paralyze you and become a self-own that stops you from trying or moving forward.
There’s a useful difference between analysis and paralyzing doubt: analysis requires momentum and doing things to gather data, while doubt keeps you stuck and fuels imposter syndrome.
You can control your internal doubts by choosing not to be mean to yourself; accept that others will doubt you but that their doubt is their task, and practice 'doubt your doubts' so you act instead of freeze.
Obstacles aren’t just roadblocks but the path itself, so use whatever comes up as the real practice you need right now.
You always have a choice: you can rage at the interruption or adapt like water and find a new way to act and grow.
Different obstacles train different virtues—when one practice is blocked, practice acceptance, patience, or temperance instead, because training never stops.
Stockpiling supplies and practical gear saves lives in crises. Keep a deep pantry, medical supplies, and appropriate cold-weather clothing so your household can get by.
Learn practical skills and set up basic systems like battery hookups and emergency toilets so you can function when infrastructure fails. Even simple know-how lets you help your family and neighbors.
Disasters are occurring more often, so focus on building resilience and adapting rather than waiting for vindication. Step up and lead in whatever ways you can, because everyone can contribute something.
Happiness fuels success. When you're positive your brain works better, you think more clearly, and you recover from setbacks faster.
Happiness is something you practice by choosing your perspective and habits. Small starting steps and simple environment changes make good habits easy and build momentum.
Setbacks can become opportunities when you reframe them and focus on what you can control. Investing in relationships and community boosts resilience and helps you succeed.
The illustrated survival guide now adds practical pages on dew harvesting, water generators, zeers, and heatwave mitigation to help people in different living situations prepare for emergencies.
The guide has been revised and expanded using reader feedback and is being prepared for a print edition, with a downloadable PDF available now.
The project relies on reader support and subscriptions to keep producing updates as climate and social stresses increase, and asks for one-time or ongoing contributions.
Living in New York and having a supportive partner has made life very fulfilling. Enjoying a successful music career is something to be grateful for.
Having muscular dystrophy changed life dramatically, but it also taught important lessons about resilience and asking for help. It's a journey that forced personal growth.
The wheelchair experience has made interactions with others deeper and more empathetic. It highlighted the importance of valuing what you have and understanding different perspectives.
The world is going through not just a crisis, but a transition. We need to focus on how we can build better relationships with each other and the environment.
We can learn from successful small-scale practices that prioritize care and regeneration. These practices show that working together and sharing resources can help us thrive.
It's important to pay attention to what care looks like in our lives. Simple acts of kindness can create stronger communities and help us notice the connections we often overlook.
Community programs that start as personal recovery can naturally become service: simple, regular group movement and no-pressure social time give people a safe place to breathe, connect, and feel less alone.
Framing struggles as "nervous system health" rather than clinical "mental health" can make the path forward clearer, because sleep, routine, exercise and community help settle the nervous system and build resilience.
Real cultural change comes from people giving themselves to something bigger and from everyday rituals and honest conversation; a suicide-free future will be built one regulated nervous system and authentic connection at a time.
It's important to keep trying even when things get tough. Just like running after a break, persistence makes the journey worthwhile.
Community support can really help us through hard times. Finding caring people can encourage us to explore our feelings about faith and identity.
Reflecting on past experiences, like family and culture, can be healing. It reminds us of our roots and the things we cherish, even when faced with conflicts.
Focusing on your core values rather than roles can help you bounce back from tough times. When your identity is built around values like connection and integrity, you're more adaptable to change.
People who tie their identity to their job or relationship might struggle more during transitions. If you see yourself as defined by your values, losing a job or going through a divorce feels less drastic.
Building daily habits that reflect your values can strengthen your sense of self. For example, if curiosity is important to you, spending time learning new things helps keep you engaged and authentic.
Labels that describe a mental state can freeze a temporary condition into identity and hide whether you’re moving toward recovery or decline.
People move in spirals of effort and recovery, not straight lines, so incomplete recovery can leave you starting each cycle lower and slowly spiral downward without obvious collapse.
The loss of play and fun is an early warning sign that pressure is narrowing your life; noticing small signals and asking which way you’re spiralling lets you change direction before things get worse.
The emerging food crisis is not primarily caused by the conflict in Ukraine and a peaceful resolution to that conflict will not avert it.
The crisis is driven by low supplies of fuel, chemical fertilizer, glyphosate, labor, and properly working equipment, impacting different farms to varying degrees.
To prepare for rising food prices, consider supporting local farms, buying food with long shelf-lives, and gradually increasing your food supply based on the inflation trends and expert insights.
Personal and family life moved from struggling to thriving — managing stress better helped the kids and strengthened relationships, marked by lots of happy milestones and trips.
Work and community impact scaled up strongly — talks exceeded goals and Running for Resilience grew programs, events, partnerships, and measurable community outcomes.
The main lesson is to slow down and set clearer boundaries — prioritising rest, saying no more often, and focusing on diet and balanced exercise are top priorities for next year.
The phrase "mental health" started in medical and institutional settings and still sounds clinical, which can make normal stress feel like a personal defect.
Most everyday struggles like anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm are often signs of nervous system overload, and reframing them that way points to practical actions like more rest, routine, movement, and connection.
Seeing strain as too much load rather than being broken reduces shame and helps people—especially men—ask for support and use skills to prevent crisis earlier.