How to deal with stress after Election Day

As the country wakes up to Donald Trump as the presumptive winner of the presidential election, there’s one thing we can all agree on – it’s been a long, hard-fought road to the White House.

Americans are tired, perhaps traumatized and battered, and perhaps worried about what the next few weeks will bring to a deeply divided nation.

As in 2020, now is a good time to pause and analyze your physical and emotional stress.

Dr. Cynthia Acrill, a stress management expert and former editor of Contentment magazine, produced by the American Institute of Stress said: “How we view our stress is important in our lives.

“When the brain senses any source of danger, even if it’s just worrying about what could happen, it will reset the stress levels to keep you safe,” Acrill said in an email. .

He added: “Thank your brain for doing its job, but make sure you have it from here.” “This can help you recognize random thoughts, stop independent thinking, and help you sort fact from fiction.”

Take a break or breathe and take care of yourself and your friends and neighbors. Here are some great science-backed ways to cut yourself a break.

Breathe, move and have a plan

You can use your body to help calm your mind, experts say. Deep, slow belly breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system to combat symptoms such as high heart rate and adrenaline rush.

“You don’t even have to stop what you’re doing. Just take a few slow breaths and really feel your body,” said Cortland Dahl, author of “A Meditator’s Guide to Buddhism” and an official growth mindset for Healthy Minds Innovations, a non-profit organization that provides free health services. “Slow breathing can restore your nervous system and bring much-needed calm to the mind.”

Walking can do the same thing — going for a walk in nature with an uplifting friend will add a bonus to stress reduction, Acrill said.

“Plan to do something today with friends, and bonus if it’s outside – choose something that feeds your mind, body, spirit, regardless of the election result,” he said.

Some recommended tips for reducing stress include practicing gratitude and eliminating stressful topics and social foods. Make a circle of control exercises where you list what is in your control, what you can influence and what is out of your control – and don’t worry about what you can’t touch, said Acrill.

“Everybody needs familiar ways to recognize when stress is taking hold and (a tool belt) of ways to deal with it. This includes recognition techniques, good ways to create problems of life, tools to reduce the mental and physical effects, and ways to stay focused on how to succeed,” he said.

“Unfortunately, most of us have not been taught these, so take this election stress as a challenge to face the next election with better ways to manage stress.”

Don’t fill your feelings

Feedback is like data, Acrill said in an earlier interview, needed to tell you that you have needs that still need to be met.

He said: “To deny or suppress your feelings does not work.” “Make room to deal with real emotions: sadness, grief, confusion, anger or guilt.

“Allow yourself to have the full range of emotions that make you who you are,” Acrill added. “Don’t ‘be right’ to yourself. There is no certain way you should feel and rewrite the story because somehow your fault doesn’t help. Whatever you feel is real. to you.”

One way to deal with your feelings, experts say, is to write them down until the feeling is felt on paper – you’ll know when that happens if you feel the emotional charge diminishing.

You can also contact a friend or loved one “who you trust will keep you safe,” Acrill suggested. But choose carefully. Before sharing with him in detail, he said, ask yourself: “Is this person really helping you cope with the emotional burden?”

Be sure to contact a doctor for help if you feel like you can’t “get out of your mind” or the discomfort is becoming too much to bear, he said. “Contrary to what our culture may teach you, help is not a bad four-letter word.”

We are all human

Finding common ground with others is important for mental health during times of stress, Acrill said.

“Because the noise of the election has been very divisive, it can damage our relations, especially with those who disagree with us,” he said. “We often share more concerns, fears, values ​​than we are different.

Psychologist Tania Israel, a professor of counseling psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, agrees.

“The media and our minds combine to manipulate those who disagree with us into being bigoted, irrational and hateful. In fact, we have more in common than we realize, Israel said in an email.

“Americans share basic values, such as service, patriotism, and partisanship. We agree on government accountability and representation, as well as protecting Constitutional freedoms and the fair use of laws,” he said. Israel, author of the book “Facing the Fracture: How to Solve the Problems of Living in a Divided Society.”

“Furthermore, we all desire free and fair elections, we support equal rights, and we do not want government officials to abuse their power.”

Israel identified organizations that aim to bring together the different sides of the political divide in what is known as a “bridge organization.”

“The important thing is to leave the conversation where you care more about the other person than whether or not you won the argument – be human first,” said Caroline Hopper, chief executive of Citizenship. & American Information Program at The Aspen Institute, he told CNN in an earlier interview.

The Aspen Institute has sponsored The Better Arguments Project, which strives to develop productive arguments. These discussions don’t have to be divisive, the group says. In fact, by learning to argue “better,” we can meet, it says.

“We don’t get the information we need to make informed decisions if we only interact with people who agree with us,” Hopper said. “By sharing different ideas and perspectives, we often emerge with deeper insights and stronger solutions to problems that affect us all.”

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