Rising Withing: A Meditation for the Future

Rising Within: A Meditation for the Future is a 90-minute gathering for people navigating the emotional realities of the climate crisis in Florida who want to explore how connection, imagination, and the stories we tell can shape the futures we want to build. Climate grief, anxiety, uncertainty, and hopelessness can leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves, one another, and a sense of possibility or motivation to act. Through original music and poetry, guided facilitation, journaling, nature-based reflection, gentle movement, and shared dialogue, Rising Within creates a space to welcome heavy feelings and transform them through embodied presence. At its center, the practice honors imagination as a source of world-building and our bodies as a source of ancient wisdom. It centers everyday people as authors of the future, asking: what is Rising Within me? What stories can help us imagine a more just, livable world? By cultivating our imagination, we make room for the values and longings asking to be carried forward because before we build a new world, we must dare to dream and claim it. Participants build their capacity to draw on the relationships, values, and possibilities already present as living bridges to the future they are building. In post-workshop feedback from the 2025 Florida Climate Week pilot, 100% of respondents reported imagining new possibilities for community climate response. Created by Change Narrative LL and facilitated by Natalie Rivas, Rising Within offers a welcoming and loving place for reflection, imagination, and community.