Don't Let Election Day Stress You Out

On FOX29 Philadelphia Live, Lynne talks about handling election stress: what you can control, protecting your peace, and staying informed without drowning in the news.

Highlights

• “What we do have control over is how we respond to whatever is happening.”
• “Are you looking for reassurance, or are you looking for information?”
• “Take bite-sized moments and pay attention to what's happening right here, right now.”

Transcript

[The host asks how to stay calm when election news and campaign ads are everywhere.]

Lynne Goldberg: I think one of the things that we have to recognize is that it is stressful, because there's a lot of uncertainty around an election. We don't know what the outcome is going to be, and of course not having control over something makes us feel anxious. So what we do have control over is how we respond to whatever is happening, and what meditation lets us do is choose where we put our attention. If we're focusing on something that is bigger than us, that is in the future, that hasn't happened yet, it makes us feel a lot more anxious. Whereas if we can just take bite-sized moments and pay attention to what's happening right here, right now, it's a lot less stressful.

[The host asks whether it's okay to mute friends who get too passionate during elections.]

Lynne Goldberg: I think it's super important to notice what it is that makes you feel stressed in the moment. If you're noticing that there's a lot of negativity coming from certain people, or that you're getting triggered because you can't control what other people say, you certainly can control how you respond to what they're saying. Then you have choices. I call that choicefulness. It's that ability to take some time for yourself, notice that you're getting agitated and take a deep breath. Maybe that means not spending time with people who are triggering you in that moment, and deciding how you're going to protect your peace. That could be anything from choosing not to engage in that conversation to simply allowing yourself to have that space and time to calm your nervous system.

[The host asks for other ways to keep your peace when things get to be too much.]

Lynne Goldberg: I think that meditation is just the act of paying attention on purpose, moment to moment, and noticing where you're placing your attention. When you're getting super focused on something, it's almost like looking at something through a straw. You get really, really involved and you only see that one thing that's making you anxious. But if you can zoom out, you can start to notice other things. That might look like taking care of your mental health by going for a walk. That might look like deciding that you're going to practice meditation by taking several breaths every single day and noticing how your body is feeling in that moment. There are many, many different ways that you can cultivate your attention.

[The host asks how to stay informed without drowning in the news.]

Lynne Goldberg: I think there's the question: are you looking for reassurance, or are you looking for information? Being able to tell the two apart, and then deciding how much time and energy you're going to give it. Maybe that looks like putting a little bit of a boundary around the news that you're consuming, and allowing yourself to take timeouts and actually be mindful of where you're placing that attention.

[The host mentions Breethe, Lynne's meditation app, and asks about meditation.]

Lynne Goldberg: What I think is important about meditation is that it's something that everybody can do. A lot of people get a little nervous about it because they think that they're having thoughts and they're not good at it, or that they have to spend 25 minutes all at the same time. But if you take bite-sized moments and just allow yourself to be present for that period of time, paying attention to your breathing, it could be associating that breath with a cup of coffee in the morning. It's something that I do every day: I have my coffee and then I sit down and I meditate. It's habit stacking. Allowing yourself to have that five minutes for yourself lets you build the practice without biting off more than you need, just giving yourself permission to do what you can.

Lynne Goldberg: The other thing you can do is when you notice that you're getting triggered, for example when you hear an alarm go off or some sort of notification, that's also an opportunity to take a breath. Just doing that 100 times a day, because how many notifications do you get, is meditation.

Lightly edited for reading.

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