On the Coast – Families Issue 104 I February/March 2020 | Page 12

2040
fact-based dreaming to
create a better future
BY SARAH TOLMIE
O
ver the summer holidays our
family became a bit fatigued
at the stress of the bushfire
emergency, the unrelenting news
coverage and its link to the real
climate emergency our planet is now
facing. It was distressing watching the
devastation, the damage to communities,
homes, country and wildlife. I could feel
it beginning to take its toll on the mood
of our family and we weren’t alone.
The fear is real. Many people
were expressing to me their anxiety,
helplessness and stress.
Fear can create paralysis. Chronic
fear and helplessness can slump us into
overwhelm and feel like there is
nothing we can do. It is our natural
stress response in action – fight, flight
or freeze.
As a result, we have found ourselves
in one of three camps – ‘Fighters’ calling
for action, even rebellion, the Flighters
(or deniers clinging onto old thinking),
and the Freezers, who understand what
is happening but are unable to move
into action.
Which one are you?
I am one of the believers that know
it is time to act now to reduce, renew,
regenerate and reverse the climate but
for a while, I think I have been on ‘freeze’
mode, immobilised by the enormity of
the task and fear for the future.
In the area of climate action, the
recent and dominant conversation has
been one of fear, and those images of a
burning Australia were mighty scary.
Every kid I talk to is worried about the
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O N T H E C OA S T – FAM ILIES
environment and the future they will
inherit. The time for fear now must end
if we are going to get action. It is time
to bring new ideas to the discussion
through creative and collaborative
thinking motivated for solutions.
It is time for hope. And I have just the
place for each family to start.
As a way to address our feelings of
anxiety and do something useful my
family and a bunch of friends with their
kids watched the movie call 2040. It’s a
‘love letter’ from a father to his 5 year old
daughter, using a process of ‘fact-based
dreaming’, to envisage for her the world
she could inherit by the time she was
25 years old if people and communities
began to make some simple changes to
regenerate the planet and our improve
our way of life.
All the solutions he discovered
currently exist already now as proven
technologies – such as electric cars, solar
mini-grids, kelp farming, an increased
plant-based diet and carbon capturing
soil in farming for a start. The most
surprising and moving solution covered
was the simple truth of the role that
empowering and educating girls around
the world plays for making the planet a
better place.
The 2040 of the future envisioned
using fact-based dreaming looked
exciting, healthy and in harmony with
nature. It just takes action on these
solutions (and others) beginning within
communities, and then spreading across
the country and hopefully growing on a
global scale.
Nothing can exist in reality unless it
has been dreamed up first. Are we
going to bring in the future of our
current nightmares? NO! Enough
indulging in that.
We need to arrest the fear long
enough to allow us to begin dreaming
again of a better future. We need to
dream in a better alternative.
We need to rest and soothe our
brains out of fight/flight or freeze mode
long enough for these new ideas and
possibilities to take seed and germinate
imaginal cells (the building blocks in biology
for transformation) to create action and
tangible change.
I encourage every family, and every
school, to watch this movie. There is a
website where you can access the film
and a whole bunch of resources to help
you activate your own plan where you
can begin to make meaningful and
tangible changes for a better world.
Start dreaming up today in 2020 a
wonderful 2040!
Check out whatsyour2040.com
Sarah Tolmie assists people to celebrate, navigate, grow and heal through all their life & love transitions.
Her practice focuses on love & relationships, families & children; life success & fulfilment, illness, death &
grief. As an Holistic Celebrant Sarah creates profound and meaningful ceremonies for all life & love
events. Sarah is also a Marriage Therapist, Bespoke Funeral Director and End-of-Life Consultant. You
can visit her website www.sarahtolmie.com.au and Facebook page at Sarah Tolmie – Life & Love.