We’ve all had enough in the last two years. First the pandemic hit us, then came the war. Economic and energy problems have arisen, climate change is underway. Therefore, many of us suffer from anxiety about an uncertain future.

In order not to go “crazy” from all this, we must remain as calm as possible and not forget about mental health. That’s why we’re starting a new podcast series, Exhale – every week we’ll cover how to manage today’s challenges together with psychologists and psychotherapists.

“I don’t want to underestimate people’s suffering, but we didn’t really face anything extreme. This is a natural event,” said Miroslav Světlák, clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and head of the Department of Psychology and Psychosomatics at the Masaryk University School of Medicine.

Although our psyche reacts to long-term stress from external events by, for example, loss of sense of humor, irritability, insomnia, heart palpitations or inner restlessness, we can deal with it.

“Long-term stress really just means that we can’t adapt to the situation,” explains Svetlák, adding that it’s therefore very important to take care of one’s own mental health.

“It’s a skill and at the same time quite a lot of hard work that unfortunately, no one in our culture has ever taught us,” he emphasizes in the first part of Exhale’s new podcast series. He offers listeners some advice on how to de-stress and anchor yourself. One way is, for example, sharing your feelings with a loved one or “ten fingers” of gratitude before bed. What’s that?

Listen to the first episode of the Exhale podcast series in the player at the beginning of the article.

We also want to use your stories and questions. We’re looking for stories on the topic of environmental anxiety. And we’re interested: Does environmental grief affect you – and in what form? How do you get rid of such a burden? Do you think differently about your future under the weight of climate change?