Take care of yourself to take care of the planet

By Virginie Soffer Mar 11th, 2026

In 5 seconds UdeM’s Xavier Gravend-Tirole argues that personal well-being and the ecological transition go hand in hand.

There is a profound circularity between inner ecology and outer ecology: by caring for the planet, we care for ourselves, and by cultivating our inner world, we become agents of care for the Earth.
Photo : Getty

With the planet facing an unprecedented ecological crisis, technical, political and economic fixes are proliferating. Solutions exist—energy transition, transportation electrification, reduced consumption—and they are evolving rapidly.

But public engagement is shaky. Many people want to do something but feel paralyzed by eco-anxiety, discouragement and a feeling of powerlessness.

Xavier Gravend-Tirole, a professor in Université de Montréal’s Institute of Religious Studies, believes the problem isn’t just a lack of concrete solutions. There’s something deeper: a crisis of meaning and connection.

In an paper published in December in RELIER (Revue interdisciplinaire d'études religieuses de l'Université de Montréal), he suggests that the ecological transition often overlooks a critical dimension: the intimate relationship between humans and the self, others and the living world.

Viewed in this light, personal well-being isn’t a luxury or a retreat into the self, but rather a vital means of restoring our capacity to act, both individually and collectively, he believes.

Overcoming the illusion of separation from nature

At the core of Gravend-Tirole’s thinking is a radical critique of one of the pillars of Western modernity: the belief that humans stand outside nature.

“I’m still a mammal who depends on the web of life to breathe, eat and clothe myself,” he noted. “I’m part of the biosphere.”

This perspective – the basis of ecopsychology – spurs people to overcome and repair the divide between their psyche (the inner world) and the oikos (humans' shared home), he added.

In this way, caring for our mental and physical health isn’t self-indulgence but a way of restoring balance to the web of relationships that sustain us all, he maintains. Shifting from an egocentric to an ecocentric worldview reveals a simple truth: the more life thrives within an ecosystem, the more resilient that system becomes.

There’s a profound link between inner and outer ecology: by nurturing ourselves, we nurture the planet, and by tending to the Earth, we tend to our own well-being, he said. And practices such as meditation and yoga, are more than stress relievers.

“When I care for myself, I deepen my connection to the living world and become more attuned to the needs of nature,” Gravend-Tirole explained. That heightened awareness can lead to more mindful choices, lasting commitments and greater attention to the world around us, he believes.

Xavier Gravend-Tirole, professor in Université de Montréal’s Institute of Religious Studies
Photo : Xavier Gravend-Tirole

Well-being: commodification or liberation?

Reclaiming well-being also requires a clear-eyed critique of its darker side in today’s world, he maintains.

The wellness industry is often accused of promoting a culture of superficial happiness, turning spiritual practices into commodities and encouraging self-absorption. When wellness becomes a consumer good, individuals are held responsible for their suffering while the systemic causes of distress are ignored.

Gravend-Tirole acknowledges these criticisms but cautions against dismissing well-being altogether. “The critiques are valid but they don’t tell the whole story,” he argued. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

The problem isn’t well-being as such but rather its reduction to an individualistic commercial product, and people need to shift from consuming well-being to cultivating it, focusing on the quality of their relationships rather than on personal performance, he believes.

This is where the concept of connection comes in. Instead of pitting the self against the world, connection places relationships at the centre. “What matters isn’t ‘me’ or ‘the world’ but the relationship that binds me to the world,” said Gravend-Tirole.

Seen in this way, cultivating inner security can become an act of political resistance. The dominant economic system feeds on permanent dissatisfaction and artificial needs, but by understanding themselves more deeply, people can break free from its dictates and escape the spell of advertising mirages.

Through this lens, well-being stops being about personal comfort and becomes a force for dismantling the consumerist model.

Reimagining environmental commitment

A major barrier to ecological action is the widespread sense of helplessness many people feel, compounded by activist burnout. Gravend-Tirole traces this to an attitude that is deeply rooted in modernity: the belief that everything rests on the shoulders of the individual.

He offers a corrective. “I tell myself, ‘Xavier, you’re not Superman. You can’t save the world.’” Recognizing our limits doesn’t mean giving up, he maintains—it means rejecting the saviour complex. “When I realize that I’m not the only one who can act, that there are other humans, and also non-humans—that the living world is already resisting—my sense of powerlessness fades.”

This requires rethinking environmental commitment as a shared journey, grounded in solidarity, listening and sharing, he said. By pooling their emotions, concerns and efforts, people can turn despair into constructive, sustainable energy.

Transforming emotions, relinquishing desires

Anger, sadness and despair are natural responses to ecological collapse. Gravend-Tirole urges us not to flee these emotions but to embrace them as drivers of action. “They express something perfectly valid,” he noted. Anger reveals a thirst for justice; sadness reflects a deep attachment to living things.

He compares these feelings to manure: foul-smelling, but a rich fertilizer when transformed. “Once composted, it spurs new growth,” he said.

Transforming emotions involves recognizing, naming and sharing them, in individual and collective settings, and channelling them into values, skills and concrete projects. Instead of leading to paralysis, ecological grief can become a catalyst for meaningful action. Emotion becomes a driving force, as the etymology of the word suggests.

This process also involves paring down our wants. “What suffocates us isn’t scarcity but excess,” Gravend-Tirole observed. Consumer culture sells the lie that happiness comes from accumulation, but “no accumulation of finite objects can quench our thirst for infinity," and letting go of artificial needs unleashes our capacity for well-being and lightens our ecological footprint at the same time, he said.

The fulfillment of our yearning for the infinite lies in what cannot be bought: relationships, contemplation, creativity and spiritual or artistic engagement, Gravend-Tirole believes. “There are moments of eternity with loved ones, in quiet reflection and in art,” and it is in these experiences of connection that personal well-being becomes a force for social and ecological change, he said.

For Gravend-Tirole, ecological transition means more than transforming infrastructure. It’s about questioning how we inhabit the world. If the ecological crisis is also a crisis of meaning and relationship, then self-care isn’t a detour—it is one of the straightest and truest paths to sustainable ecology.