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And here we are. Less than a week until the election and the noise has reached headache-inducing decibels. Your social feeds are overwhelmed with pundits in paid ads, your texts are inundated with spam donation requests, your usual news sites are talking about the latest inconclusive polls, and your thoughts are likely dwelling on the most recent op-ed you read asserting the thirty-seven different ways our country is pretty much doomed.
And you can’t do a damn thing about the outcome other than cast your vote. Well, that and hit “delete and report junk” on your phone more times than you care to count.
There’s a name for the intense barely-holding-ourselves-together mentality that so many of us are experiencing. Known as “election anxiety” or “political anxiety,” it’s a source of tension for 77 percent of adults in the U.S, according to a recent survey taken by the American Psychological Association. The sustained tension has also resulted in a third of Americans reducing their interactions with family as a result of differing political values.
Although there’s little you can do about the impending uncertainty of the election situation, there are ways that you can change how you react to the situation. You may already know and be quite familiar with these tactics from your yoga practice. It’s just that no one likely told you how to apply them to your life for election anxiety. Here’s how:
Ways to Manage Your Election Anxiety (and Keep Your Sanity)
Your yoga practice was actually designed for times like these. Its intention goes far beyond moving your body into challenging shapes and teaches you how you respond to challenging situations.
It’s not unlike finding yourself in a new-to-you pose or a familiar pose that frustrates you. What happens when a situation asks you to lean into discomfort? Are you tensing everywhere (including unnecessary places)? Are your thoughts racing? Are you trash talking yourself? Are you able to silence your self-talk, settle into some semblance of stillness, and acquiesce to whatever is happening in front of you?
How you do yoga is essentially how you do life. Those same patterned responses tend to show up everywhere in your thoughts and your life. So if you already know how to handle the difficult pose, you can rely on some of those same strategies as election anxiety amps up as voting day draws closer.
Repeat the following as needed.
1. Breathe
If being reminded to breathe sounds insultingly simple, hear us out. The mechanisms behind the breath are an exceptionally complex science. But put simply, research indicates when you slow your rate of breathing by lengthening your inhalations and exhalations, it pretty much becomes physiologically impossible to be in a state of anxiety or panic. Some studies suggest this occurs in as little as just 90 seconds.
There are also more elaborate approaches to breathwork, or pranayama, that include lengthy holds or a specific ratio for the length of time you inhale versus exhale. These are time-tested strategies. Whatever method you choose, simply slowing your breath can tremendously help your mental, emotional, and physical state.
How to:
Slow Your Breath
Explore Various Breathwork Practices
Practice Ujjayi Breath
2. Move
According to tradition, the physical practice of various poses precedes sitting in meditation. There’s a reason for this. Expending pent-up tension through physical movement can help you reset and experience stillness more effortlessly. (If you know a little about Ayurveda and identify as a vata, you’re likely intimately familiar with this concept.)
If you’re feeling like you simply can’t sit still or concentrate, try moving your body. Maybe you cut out of work a little early so you can make that late-afternoon vinyasa class. Or if you’re feeling unsettled but lethargic, opt for a slower flow. And those days when you can’t make it to the studio, rely on one of the practices below to deliver exactly what you need.
How to:
Move Your Body for 30 Minutes and Forget About the World
Get Your Yoga Fix In 10 Minutes or Less
Move a Little More Slowly
3. Rest
You may find yourself unable to slow your racing thoughts but also too exhausted for movement. Know that resilience is also built through cultivating rest. Opt for classes that require zero muscular engagement and enable you to experience a sense of ease and quiet sourced from within. Restorative yoga, yin yoga, and yoga nidra practices can help you experience of internal steadiness no matter the external circumstances.
How to:
Lose Yourself in This Restorative Practice
Practice Yin Yoga for Deep Release
Learn How to Make Time for Rest
Experience the Most Popular Yoga Nidra Class on YouTube
4. Fold Forward
Zero time or patience for an entire practice? Yoga tradition teaches that anytime you bring yourself into a forward fold, whether seated or standing, your mind is shut off from external stimuli and your body instinctively relaxes. So try a forward bend. Stay here as long as you like. Heck, some of us spent most of 2020 in these shapes. Don’t forget to breathe.
How to:
Try Poses That Calm Your Racing Thoughts in 5 Minutes (Or Less)
5. Focus
There’s a concept in yoga known as drishti, which loosely translates to single-pointed awareness. You’ve probably heard yoga teachers cue it in a balancing pose as they ask you to focus your gaze, steadfastly yet not too intensely, on a single point in front of you.
Practically speaking, drishti helps dull the distractions in the world around you as everything else—the person wobbling on the mat next to you or the drop of sweat about to drip off your nose—recede into the background.
Drishti brings you back to being in command of your focus. It’s different than, but similar to, the ancient practice of pratyahara, which translates as a “withdrawal of the senses.” This is a selective tuning out of outer noise and an intentional focus on what’s happening within. It’s not that you’ve removed yourself from distractions. It’s that you’ve transcended them.
Practice drishti and you can’t help but practice pratyahara. You can practice these skills in any moment. And if you’re feeling too fidgety to sit, stand up and practice your dristhi in a balancing pose. Because nothing draws your attention back to what’s real like trying not to fall on your face.
How to:
Practice Drishti
Learn the Types of Drishti
Train Your Focus
Practice Your Focus in Seated Stretches
6. Observe
It’s been said that no one ever relaxed because someone told them they should. But that’s not entirely true. Consider the cues your teachers share that coax you to release unnecessary tension. Drop your shoulders away from your ears. Unclench your jaw. Soften your gaze. Lengthen your breath. Notice if you’re tensing your glutes or gripping your hands.
Notice if you’re unconsciously falling into any of these patterns off the mat in response to election anxiety. Increased muscular tension is an indication of psychological tension, which signals the nervous system to be on high alert. Just as our thoughts influence our physical state, our physical state can also affect our thoughts.
The trick is to be aware when you’re holding that tension. If needed, set an alarm on your phone and check in with yourself throughout the day. Heck, throughout the hour.
How to:
Learn How Yoga Nidra Works
Release Your Tension With Yoga Nidra
7. Quiet Your Thoughts
Let’s talk about what’s happening inside your head. Sometimes creating the smallest amount of space in between those intrusive thoughts can help you come back to yourself. Even if it’s just for a few moments at a time.
This can look like meditation. Before you tell yourself that you can’t meditate, know that even one-minute of quieting your thoughts can have profound effects. Maybe inch yourself in that direction by laughing along to a 45-second comedic meditation designed to distract you with a swear word as mantra. The point is, you can train yourself to interrupt panicky, doom-ridden election anxiety thoughts. You simply have to start trying.
To focus on the things that haven’t yet happened mortgages your every thought until said outcome either happens or doesn’t happen. Rather than spiral, remember that life is still happening up to and beyond the election. You simply need to choose it.
How to:
How to Cultivate Self-Awareness Through Yoga
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