Anxiety to Action! Spiritually resourcing people to confront the climate crisis and move to bold action

By Rabbi Laura Bellows, Director of Spiritual Activism & Education

On (another) unseasonably warm day in October, I had the privilege of gathering with Dayenu facilitators and climate-concerned Jews in western Massachusetts to engage in Dayenu’s signature Spiritual Adaptation workshop. 

For three hours on a Sunday afternoon, the multigenerational and spirited group explored a series of resilience practices to foster a deeper sense of community, connection, and active hope in these challenging times.  

Guided by Jewish wisdom and the Work That Reconnects framework, we took time to anchor in gratitude for what we love and want to protect; metabolize feelings of climate helplessness, hopelessness, and anger; imagine a more just, livable, and whole future; and move toward actions that can help us reach that world together. 

Dayenu’s Spiritual Adaptation team has offered this participatory 2-3 hour workshop – Anxiety to Action: Cultivating Spiritual Courage to Confront The Climate Crisis – to over 60 Jewish communities, from cohorts of young Jewish activists to synagogue Green Teams, from campuses and Moishe Houses to Jews of Color collectives. 

In addition to the signature workshop, we now also regularly offer 1-1.5 hour Midrash & Imagination workshops for communities across the country.

Beyond the intensive workshops, we are developing new Spiritual Adaptation experiences that can be paired with Dayenu’s climate organizing trainings for conferences and public programs – introducing a broader audience to this meaningful work. 

Thank you to the Covenant Foundation and many others for supporting the growth of our Spiritual Adaptation work.

Learn more and apply to host a Spiritual Adaptation workshop in your community.