Rather than viewing issues such as climate change and mass extinction as happening “out there,” what happens when we experience them emotionally and somatically as also happening “in here?”

The body politic. Human being and becoming in the planetary era

The Anthropocene cries out for deep inquiry into the peculiar place of the “anthropos” in the scheme of things. The dawning of the Anthropocene compels us to ask ourselves not only, “What on Earth are we doing?” but even more fundamentally, “What on Earth are we?” Rather than viewing such issues as climate change, mass extinction, world hunger, and political polarization as happening “out there,” what happens when we experience them emotionally and somatically as also happening “in here?” Our capacity for self-awareness, integrative thinking, holding multiple perspectives, tolerating uncertainty and ambiguity, and working with difficult emotions will be essential to creatively navigating the Anthropocene. The mind’s ability to adopt a meta-position relative to its own contents, thereby consciously integrating somatic, emotional, and mental experience, has profound implications for civic discourse and collective action.