By: Camden Baucke MS LLP
Are you ready for Tuesday? The upcoming election is only two days away, which will bring an unavoidable flood of negative information. This includes almost all forms of media. The airwaves will be filled with non-stop updates, critical analyses, and prophetic predictions. This sort of content exacerbates what we call global anxiety. This is the anxious reaction to any sort of global event that could be perceived as threatening. This year’s presidential election is ripe for stabbing anxiety right in your living room.
This year, we need to do something about it. Instead of diving into the world of news, let’s create a new focus on self-care. This means shifting your attention to positive aspects of your day, self-care techniques to reduce your physical stress, reducing your time spent watching the news, and increasing your time spent on fun and distracting activities. Here’s a guide to navigating this year’s election, surviving the stress, and protecting yourself from the world of fear mongering.
Control Your Attention
This Tuesday will not just be a battle for the Oval Office, but a battle for your attention. It’s true that what we focus on can significantly impact our stress levels and mental health. During the election, the media will try to capture your attention through cycles of updates, worry, and anticipation. This is not just a general idea, attention economics is a formal system of business going back as far as 1971. While it makes someone money, you are left to suffer from the constant spotlight on the worst of news. While it’s fine to stay informed, you would benefit from controlling your attention during election week.
Attention management is the name of the game. Your focus is like breathing, where it goes on mindlessly until you choose to take active control of it. For this Tuesday, it’s time to take control of your attention. Think of your focus like a spotlight, directing it to healthier, more productive things. Find at least 3 positive aspects of your week to keep your spotlight on. This could be connecting with friends or family, practicing a hobby you enjoy, or working on a fun project. Doing so is a simple habit of self-care to keep calm during an incredibly stressful time. It could be as simple as a morning coffee ritual, walking outdoors, or listening to your favorite music. The goal here is not to ignore reality, but to give your mind the space to process the entirety of life.
Calm the Mind and Body
When the news screams danger, it’s natural for our bodies to react. Our muscles tense, our heart races, and our breaths become more shallow. To address the effects of the fear mongering news, you can use grounding techniques to help you calm down. First, try a calm breathing exercise: Breathe in for 5 seconds, hold it for 3 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds. This helps reduce the amount of physical strain your body experiences when facing a threatening situation.
Another technique to reduce stress from this year’s election is grounding. This is a form of mindfulness, where you rip yourself from your anxious thoughts and place yourself back in your body. You recognize that you’re fully in your body by paying attention to everything around you using your 5 senses. A popular exercise to practice grounding is the “5-4-3-2-1” method. This means naming, out loud, five things you see, four things you touch, three things you hear, two things you smell, and one thing you taste. It might feel silly at first, but it does calm the body and mind. This will be crucial when facing the global anxiety for this year’s election.
Restrict Your News Intake
Because of attention economics, the news won’t stop running but that does not mean you have to engage with their 24/7 coverage. Limiting your consumption can boost your mental health. Again, global anxiety poses the inescapable challenge of a tense event so large with such little you can do about it. Every article or headline is an external and dreadful signal that can unexpectedly hit you anywhere at any time. The election provides an incredible amount of unpredictability, but the news capitalizes on it with sirens and warnings. It’s important to stay informed, but not attached to the news until you have certainty. This week, you must set boundaries with your consumption of news.
“doom-scrolling” traps your attention and damages your mental health. To ensure that you don’t suffer from overexposure, limit your time for news. This could be two times in the afternoon using neutral reporting websites. You could set a timer for only 30 minutes a day for news coverage. Limiting your media consumption is important, but it’s even more important at critical points in the day. Avoid viewing the news or social media right after you wake up to prevent starting your day with dread. Also, you can avoid the news at least one hour before you go to bed to prevent stress from disrupting your sleep, causing more anxiety. Limiting your media consumption is beneficial for focused attention at work and closer connections with those you love. If you can limit your news intake for this year’s election, you can survive the stress of it.
Distract, Distract, Distract
Therapists usually don’t suggest distraction. Typically, we ask people to face their fears and process them directly. However, that is usually with fears we can control. With global anxiety, distraction can be a healthy tool. Once you’ve cast your vote, the results are out of your hands. While you wait for them, you can still find something to enjoy. Focusing on activities can help detach you from a news cycle that will be desperate to keep you frightfully engaged.
Distracting yourself with positive activities can take any form that fits you best. If you like movies, rewatch some old comfort movies or watch the ones you’ve been wanting to get to. If you enjoy books, read one, if you like talking to others, make plans to meet up. You could even take up a new skill like cooking, painting, learning a language, and so on. The goal is to do something you enjoy while something large and untouchable goes on. Again, it’s not about ignoring the situation. Distracting yourself is about utilizing the time you have to do fun things. Things that you can control, that bring you joy, and bring you back to your life.
Conclusion
This week, self-care will be essential to your mental health. By controlling your attention, staying grounded, limiting your news intake, and distracting yourself, you’re better equipped to handle the stress of this year’s presidential election. Please remember, self-care is not selfish. It’s taking the necessary steps to protect your mind and body during times of uncertainty. You might be terrified about the results, and that’s understandable. However, anxiety does not give you one more layer of armor. If you can control your attention for this next week, you can survive the election. If you can cope with this year’s election, you can survive just about anything.
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