Wildya Press

My adventurous spirit has taken me abroad to six countries and beyond. But it was during one of these adventures that the idea of Wildya was born.

I was sleeping next to lions in the African wilderness.

As I walked to the improvised bush toilet only a short distance from the Lion Pride, I felt my senses sharpen. I could hear the bustling in the nearby bushes, animal noises, and the crackling of the camp’s fire.

I felt more alive and connected at this moment than I had ever felt during my years living in the city.

That moment catalyzed this thought: What if people felt more alive, happy, and motivated by the environment? Could happier and more fulfilled humans also mean better, cleaner cities, stronger communities, and more abundant wildlife?

During my time in Africa and the years after, I concluded that our lack of climate agency comes from our disconnection with nature. After all, most of us live in cities that have little nature and wildlife. Disconnection leads us to be unempathetic, making it easy for us to exploit and destroy it.

My conclusion: We only protect what we care about.

If we stay on the current course, we risk losing life on our planet entirely. In the past fifty years animal populations have declined by 69%. We will lose polar bears, whales, lions, and many others — and they will only be images in wildlife books.

As the effects of environmental degradation increase, more people will feel the impact — physically, financially, and emotionally. Around 84% of 16-25-year-olds are already experiencing moderate eco-anxiety. Anxiety levels might be lower in older generations, but we strongly doubt that the other generations lack eco-anxiety entirely.

It’s all connected: biodiversity loss, climate change, and eco-anxiety.

To tackle degrading biodiversity, we need to reconnect people to nature. To strengthen people’s mental resilience to eco-anxiety, they need to be equipped with tools that help them transform their eco-anxiety into action.

That is where Wildya comes in.

Our mental fitness app strengthens people’s mental resilience to climate change while inspiring a deeper nature connection. Mental resilience reduces climate anxiety, stops action paralysis, and leads to positive action.