5 Strategies to Cope Ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election

There are 34 days until the 2024 presidential elections. You may have noticed increased feelings of stress, anxiety, and uncertainty leading up to November 5th. If this is the case for you, here are some things you can do to cope ahead.

  1. Reconnect with personal values. In a time of great uncertainty, it can be helpful to look inwards and reconnect with yourself and your values. Spend some time identifying and defining what your personal values are and think of ways to implement them in your daily life. This may look like volunteering your time, spending time with family, or engaging in intentional rest.
  2. Reconnect with social supports. Now might be a great time to reach out to trusted friends and family who can provide a safe space to process your emotions and offer a hopeful perspective.
  3. Engage in mindful disconnection. Consider taking a mindful break from social media and other news sources. If it seems too difficult to disconnect, consider setting boundaries around the time spent on media consumption.
  4. Practice acceptance. Spend some time exploring the idea that your preferred candidate might not be elected. Notice the emotions that are elicited by this thought and sit with them for a moment. Practice embracing the reality that election results may harbor some disappointment.
  5. Prioritize stress management and personal care. It is important to prioritize your wellbeing during the coming weeks. Consider engaging in pleasurable leisure activities, spending time outdoors, eating regularly, and reconnecting with old hobbies.

Getting Ahead of Seasonal Affective Disorder

Have you noticed the weather getting cooler in the mornings? The end of summer is quickly approaching; it’s getting darker a little earlier, the mornings are foggier and cooler, and you might begin to notice the advent of fall themes and flavors at your local establishments. As we begin to look forward to the excitements of Halloween, pumpkin spice, and a warm fleece, we might also begin to notice feelings of melancholia or sadness, and maybe even begin to anticipate the complicated emotions associated with the upcoming holidays. As the ‘late summer-scaries’ begin to creep up, I’m here with a much-needed reminder that you are not alone.

Broadly, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of mood disorder related to change in seasons. It is often characterized by low and depressed mood, loss of interest in activities, difficulty getting out of bed, feelings of dread, changes in eating patterns, reduced energy and fatigue, and irritability. If this sounds like you in the colder months, you might enjoy this episode of the NPR Life Kid Podcast focused on coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

In this episode, Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a clinical psychologist, provides some tips to help us get ahead of seasonal affective disorder which are briefly discussed below.

  1. Recognize symptoms – Noticing your symptoms is the first step to coping ahead. Seasonal Affective Disorder can vary in severity, and symptoms often occur incrementally making it easy to brush them off. Journaling can help you keep track of your mood to notice patterns or fluctuations.
  2. Finding Light – I mean this literally. Inadequate exposure to light can influence our mood during the cooler months. One way to get ahead of this is by prioritizing access to natural light by going outside more frequency, or by investing in a lamp or light source.
  3. Eating Habits – Seasonal Affective Disorder may interrupt our circadian rhythm and contribute to changes to our typical eating habits.
  4. Coping with Movement – Whether it is taking short walks outside, stretching in our homes, or completing short exercise circuits in a gym, you can ahead of Seasonal Affective Disorder by prioritizing movement.
  5. Stress Management – Stress management involves all of the various strategies we can implement in our routine to mitigate stressors. Some people might benefit from practicing meditation or mindfulness exercises, spending time with loved ones, or engaging in pleasurable hobbies and activities. If you find that you need additional support with managing stress, you may also consider seeking professional help from mental health professionals.

As a reminder, you can listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about Seasonal Affective Disorder and how to cope with symptoms.

Beating Screen Apnea

Ever wonder how your smartphone might be influencing your physical and mental health?

Linda Stone, a recent guest on the popular NPR Life Kit podcast show, talks about the unintentional changes that happen to our breathing patterns when using our smartphones or computers. In this podcast episode, the host and guests discuss the correlation between technology use and shallow breathing, and its effects on our body’s biochemistry. Linda Stone coined the term Email Apnea or Screen Apnea to describe this phenomenon. She explains that these changes in our breathing may result from unintentional posture changes or as a side effect of the stress we experience when we receive an influx of emails or online information.

James Nestor, the bestselling author of ‘Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art‘, further discusses the effects of shallow breathing on our mental and physical health. He highlights the negative impact of “sucking in” our stomachs on inhibiting our diaphragmatic activity. Further, shallow breathing often signals to our brains that we are under stress and could cause feelings of anxiety.

Are you curious about what poor breathing might look like? Nestor explained that it involves practices like breathing through one’s mouth, taking shallow chest breaths, or unintentionally holding one’s breath.

Worried about your breathing? Don’t be! We can build better breathing habits with practice. In the podcast episode, Nestor described a brief breathing exercise to reset our breathing. It involved taking deep slow belly breaths through our nose and engaging our diaphragm.

So, next time you open that work email, take a moment to notice your posture and pay attention to your breathing! Curious to reset your breathing? Learn more here.