Climate Emotions Mandala Project
A Creative Framework for Navigating theEmotional Terrain of a Changing World
The climate crisis is not only an ecological challenge - it is an emotional one.
​​
Across the world, people are experiencing waves of climate grief, anxiety, anger, and numbness. These emotions are often ignored, suppressed, or pathologized, leaving individuals feeling isolated and overwhelmed. The Climate Emotions Mandala Project offers a creative, embodied way to meet these feelings with curiosity, compassion, and connection.
Through expressive arts, guided reflection, and collective ritual, participants learn to transform climate emotions into resilience, creativity, and renewed purpose.
​
Why This Work Matters
As ecological disruption intensifies, so does the need to care for our inner worlds.
Emotional resilience is not a luxury - it is a prerequisite for meaningful climate engagement.
When people have space to acknowledge and process their feelings, something powerful happens:
• grief becomes connection
• anxiety becomes awareness
• anger becomes clarity
• numbness becomes renewed aliveness
​
The Climate Emotions Mandala Project creates spaces where individuals and communities can name what they feel, integrate their experiences, and reconnect with collective agency.
Jesse Homan, 2024
At the Center of this Project
is the Climate Emotions Wheel, a visual map of 27 emotions that commonly arise in response to ecological change. Rather than approaching emotions as a linear process, the Mandala offers a nonlinear, holistic framework that reflects the layered and often contradictory nature of our inner landscapes.
​
Across cultures, mandalas have been used as symbols of wholeness in spiritual, artistic, and psychological traditions. In Jungian psychology, the mandala represents an archetypal pattern of integration - a visual expression of the psyche seeking balance.
​
In this work, the mandala becomes both a:
-
Mirror for emotional truth
-
Container for creative transformation
​
Through guided meditation and intuitive artmaking, participants create their own mandalas as expressions of their relationship with the living Earth.
Nocturnal Medicine Climate Week NYC, 2024
Workshop Experience
Each session unfolds as a ritual arc, weaving together learning, reflection, embodiment, and creativity.
1. Understanding Climate Emotions
A brief introduction to the emotional landscape of the climate crisis and tools for navigating it.
2. Cultural & Psychological Context
Exploring the mandala as a cross-cultural symbol of integration and creative healing.
3. Guided Meditation
A heart-centered visualization where the mandala emerges within the body and radiates outward into the collective field.
4. Creative Practice
Participants create intuitive mandalas using art materials in a reflective, supportive environment.
5. Reflection & Integration
Journaling, sharing, and facilitated dialogue to ground insights and deepen connection.
Workshops typically run 75–90 minutes and can be adapted for different communities and settings.
Who This is For
​
The Climate Emotions Mandala Project is designed for individuals and groups who want to engage the climate crisis with emotional depth, creativity, and care.
​
This includes:
• Mental health professionals and educators
• Climate leaders, organizers, and sustainability teams
• Artists and cultural workers
• Youth and community groups
• Anyone seeking a meaningful way to process climate emotions
​
No artistic experience is required - only curiosity and openness.
%20(1).png)
Current Phase & Invitation
The project was originally developed in collaboration with the Climate Mental Health Network and has been shared in dozens of:
• Climate resilience trainings
• Therapeutic settings
• Community gatherings
• Creative workshops and public rituals
We have also:
• Trained hundreds of facilitators
• Created community toolkits
• Curated site-specific installations and gatherings
• Offered organizational workshops
Bring This Work to Your Community
​
We welcome collaborations with organizations, educators, facilitators, and community leaders interested in bringing the Climate Emotions Mandala Project to their networks.
Together we can create spaces where emotion becomes insight, creativity becomes resilience, and community becomes a pathway toward healing.
​
Interested in collaborating or hosting a workshop?