Managing Stress and Getting Through This Election

My 20 y/o and I sat down to talk about our election strategy for this week knowing that it won’t be over tomorrow or probably even the next day. In fact, it might not be over for a while. This prompted me to write this blog post to share some of the strategies we will be using to manage our stress and anxiety.

As fond as I am of positive psychology, this post is not to talk about gratitude or motivation or how to improve your relationships. This post is about how to take care of yourself so that you have the energy to keep fighting for justice in your communities and countries.

We all know that exercise and eating right helps us manage our stress… but making big changes might be more than we can pull off right now. Here are the small and quick ways I recharge my energy and decrease my stress level throughout the day.

1- Habit Stacking

What is something you already do without thinking about it? Brush your teeth, use the restroom, walk your dog… are a few examples. While you are doing these mindless things, consider a new habit you want to pair (or stack) with them. It can be a mental or emotional habit, for example, think about 3 things you are grateful for every time you wash your hands. (Ok, I couldn’t resist talking about gratitude because it is such a powerful thing to do to improve your overall wellbeing.) It can be physical, for example, every time you get a call you can put it on speaker, stand up and do some gentle stretching.

2- Morning Light

Stress causes sleep disturbances and one great thing you can do to improve your sleep is to expose yourself to morning light. It helps your sleep/wake clock be set properly (and lots of other stuff about circadian rhythms and melatonin production). Grab your morning cup of coffee and take a little stroll.

3- Energy Monitoring

Pull out a sheet of paper and list the things that zap your energy. Here are some of mine… sugar, whining, Trump, poorly run meetings, difficult conversations, laundry. Now write a list of things that give you energy. Some of mine are sunlight, the sound of water, strawberries, hugs, cherry red lipstick, the smell of cinnamon, children laughing. Identifying what gives you energy is half of the battle. Once you have it figured out, figure out how can you sneak those things in a few times a day!

4- Thought Disruption

Even those of you who don’t have an anxiety disorder might find yourselves ruminating in times like these. If you get a worry stuck in your head and you can’t seem to get rid of it, you need 2-3 things you can do to break that perseveration. You need a really good distraction. This is a big problem of mine so I have years of fine-tuning my thought disruption skills. Here are the things I do… read a chapter of a mystery novel (I always have one on the Kindle APP on my phone), pull up a video of my favorite late-night comedians and watch it for 5-10 min, touch my toes until I can feel myself relaxing into the stretch.

None of these ideas take a large time commitment but even incorporating one will have an impact on your stress level. Do you have any ideas of easy and fast ways you reduce your stress? I would love to hear about them!!