Nature Can Hold Our Trauma And The Traumas Of Our Children

Our children are suffering more than ever.

This last year has had an enormous impact on the mental health of our children and teens.

A recent study on the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of our children, FAIR, looked at the last year and found that: 

• mental health claims nearly doubled
• reports of self-harm doubled
• the rate of overdose more than doubled in children and teens
• Fentynal overdoses increased 3 fold in youth and 5 fold in Black youth.

My heart broke while reading this.

While this trend in our children has been accelerating for years, we've never seen anything like this. Wired for safety and community in a world that continually separates us from the things we need to thrive, the mental health of our children and teens suffers dramatically.

The medical system has failed us. Placing the power in white coats while pushing pharmaceuticals and corporate food into policies and institutions that further the injustices that perpetuate the trauma this system ignores.

It is time to reclaim what is ours and shift this backward paradigm.

The cracks are getting bigger, the levy is going to break. Our ancestors and future generations stand just out of reach, urging us forward.

Our youth is disconnected from the very things that make them thrive.
Bombarded by stress, fear and isolation, our youth is suffering like never before.

Technology has brought tremendous opportunity, but it has come with a cost for our children and teens. Increased social isolation from technology,
not to mention the immense stress of social media, has had a devastating effect on the mental health of teens and children in these years of imposed isolation.

The enormity of the problem can often leave us feeling paralyzed. But this is a fight for our children and not one we're backing down from.

There is an entire ecosystem waiting to embrace our children, our families, and ourselves if we let it.

In a world that has cast aside our children, It's up to us to guide them back.

Guide them into your arms and laps,
Guide them into the rhythms of your day and the rhythms of the sun,
Guide them back into the loving embrace of nature,
Guide their very DNA with the food they eat, the sunshine they play in and the love we give them.

This is the cure.

Please share this far and wide.

Save it, share it with someone who needs this info and let's guide our children home.

#TENDYOURTERRAIN