Election Day Anxiety: 5 Ways to Stay Calm When the World Feels Chaotic

Today is Election Day of what feels like a marathon election season.

In this week's episode, Laurie is sharing five simple tips to assuage Election Day anxiety and stress: cast your ballot, practical tips for self-care, reduce exposure to the news, limit consumption of alcohol, and more.

Everything Laurie shares in this episode also works beyond Election Day to limit periods of stress and anxiety.

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Transcript

0:06

Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson. This is the podcast for the midlife woman who starting to ask herself big life questions. Like, what do I want? Is it too late for me? And what's my legacy beyond my family and my work. Each week we're answering these questions and more. At the School of Midlife, we're learning all of the life lessons they didn't teach us in school and we're figuring out finally what it is we want to be when we grow up. Let's make midlife your best life Hey friends. It's Laurie. Welcome back to another episode of the School of Midlife podcast. I waited as long as I could to record this week's episode, because you might be able to hear my voice that. Um, I've had a little, kind of a head cold for about a week now and it's settled into my chest and I just wanted to. Take as much time on getting, getting better so that I would sound a little. Less gravelly and froggy and snarkily and all the. All the sick words. Um, I'm feeling better. I'm definitely not a hundred percent, but. Um, we're going to give it a go and we'll see how, how today's episode goes. I, I guess I should say too, that I am not at all surprised that I. Got sick. I mean, I've been running on nothing but stress and adrenaline for the last couple of months. And finally, my body was like, Okay. You a little bit. If you're not going to start treating me nicely, you know what I'm going to, I'm going to revolt. And then the only thing that you're going to be able to do is sit your ass on the couch or. Stay in bed and we're not going to do shit until we feel better. So how do you like them? Apples? And this is one of the times that the body wins and. For a lot of years, you know, I would just push my body until just. The habits probably weren't as healthy as they could have been, because I just assumed that. You know, I'm just going to keep pushing and I will, um, sleep and catch up on my sleep when I have time. And. I don't do that anymore. So. When you do get a cold, like I have this week. Um, it's so odd. Like I just, I, I thankfully don't feel like this a lot anymore and it's, it's kind of. Let's just say I've slept a lot this last week. Um, so speaking of stress and adrenaline. This episode is going to drop on Election Day in the U S. And if you're anything like me, you're probably going to be thrilled to stop seeing all the campaign signs and the. Just crappy. The shitty commercials on TV and getting all of the text messages and. It like it's time for, I feel like this election cycle has been going on for years in my alone in that I just, I feel like we have been in election cycle for a while and certainly. It feels like we are very divided as a country. Feels like there's a lot of rhetoric. I don't know, I'm ready for the election to be over. Um, having said that, I think that there are a lot of us that are feeling some election anxiety, some election stress. And that's what I want to focus on today is give you in this, in this short little episode here. Four or five different things that you can do if you are feeling some of that Election Day stress. To help. Aleve. Well, I don't know if we can alleviate it completely, but help allay some of those feelings that you're feeling. I will say. To add to that, you know, there's a lot. Of buildup for Election Day. But if this is anything like the election was in 2020. Unless it's a huge landslide that no one is predicting because it seems to be a very close election coming down right to the wire. It's not likely that we will have we'll know the results of the national, the federal election tomorrow night. Maybe we will. But I think this is. It's not like Christmas where there's a lot of buildup and then Christmas comes and then, you know, you, you just kind of sit around on the couch for a week until New Year's. I think that there is going to be some of this continued. Vigilance and confusion and. unease in the country because I, I. I don't know that it's all going to be settled on Election Day. So. Give yourself some grace and know that we might be in this for. Longer than one more day. Okay. Couple of things that you can do, if you are feeling stressed out, anxious as it relates to the election. Number one go vote if you haven't voted already. And I know the numbers of early voters are staggering, um, which is great. I, I, I don't know why anyone would. Not vote. That that's me. Yeah, I mean, on my 18th birthday, I walked into the school office. And I registered to vote because that was something that you could do at our high school. And that was something that w has just always been so important to me. I think I may have missed. Like one school board election one time, because I didn't actually realize that we were voting on school board, but. As. An American. That is one thing that really sets us apart are these free and fair elections and our ability to go and. Vote for the candidate of our choice, not necessarily the candidate, you know, who checks every single box, but the candidate who aligns most closely. To the country that we want to live in that. Aligns most closely with our values that represents us. Um, better than the other candidates. And yeah, there's never going to be a perfect candidate. I heard. Someone talking on a news story and I can't remember who it was, but saying, you know, unless your running for say, president. You're never going to find a candidate who you align with 100%. There are always going to be. Some things that you like about that person, some things that you don't like about that person. But who most clearly represents. The country that you want to live in the future that you want to have, not only for you, but for your children and your grandchildren. And. Your friends and your family members But sitting this vote out. I don't understand that. I understand that you might think that your vote doesn't count because you might live in a state like I do. I live in very red Idaho, and I know how the state is going to vote. As far as the electoral college is concerned. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to go vote and cast my ballot and make my voice heard. We can't sit this one out. You might decide that, you know, the line's too long. Uh, you didn't really make a plan to vote. You didn't vote early. There their whole litany of excuses and reasons that you could decide that you don't want to go vote, but. This is the one thing that really. It's the cornerstone of our government. One person, one vote. So. Part of. Living in the United States, part of feeling that stress and that anxiety around Election Day. You can take some action. Go vote. Instead of sitting around worrying about what the outcome should be, and just assuming that other people are going to take care of it. Go out and do the damn thing. Number one is go vote. Number two. Is take care. Of your self. What I mean by that is. Work on some mindful meditative breathing, like. Work on your breath work, try and keep yourself in. A semi relaxed state, move yourself out of the whole fight or flight feeling. Where your adrenaline is going and cortisol is coursing through your brains. Taking some deep belly breaths. Tell your body that you are safe, that you are in control. Relax your system down. Which all is going to help take away some of the stress, which is going to make it a more. Pleasant, maybe bearable. Maybe it's going to be a better feeling for the day and the days after the election. If we don't know what the results are. But take care of yourself first and the easiest way that you can do that. Breathe. Why do you ever notice that when you are. Worried about something or you're stressed out or you're anxious. Your breathing is really high and it's really fast. It's very shallow. We need to do is move that breath down to your belly and your diaphragm. Take big deep breaths in through your nose. And out through your mouth. And just do that a couple of times a day, especially when you feel like you, when you feel like your shoulders are kind of shrugging up or you feel like you're tensing out. You can just take a couple of breaths. It's free. You can do it anywhere. You don't need any specific tools or gadgets. It's just something. It's built into our system. Related to that. Get outside, go exercise, move your body. Even if it's just for a quick walk around the block with your dog. Get away from your desk, get away from the TV. Get outside. Being outside in nature. Resets your. System in a way that you cannot do under fluorescent lights, staring at a blue screen. There's something about being outside. That. Naturally resets your mood. That grounds you. And those are both incredible tools for lowering. Your stress and anxiety. Related to that. Limit your exposure to the news. I think there, you know, there are plenty of us who do a lot of. Scrolling, because we want to make sure that we are. Current on all the events. We want to make sure that we know what's going on. But. There are times where you are just too informed. Like you don't need to know. Every little bit of information. You don't need to know at first. I mean, think about it. Anything that relates to the news that you need to find out about that you need to hear about. You will find out about it because you can't escape it. I mean, it's on your watch. It's on your phone. It's on the TV. It's on the car radio, the amount of information. It's it's everywhere and we cannot escape it. But you can limit your exposure to all of the news and all of the noise. I know for me, I used to listen to NPR in the car. Anytime I would get in the car, it would just be on and. Um, there are some very fascinating packages on NPR. There's some really interesting stories that they tell. There's also a lot of. Politics. And I just decided I didn't need to hear all of that. Like it's not going to change my vote. I knew enough. I had done my own research to know. Which candidate I was going to vote for and which one I wasn't going to. And there was nothing really that. That anyone would say on social media or there would be a news report that was going to change that. So I made the decision that instead of listening to news casts in the car, I now listen to entertaining podcasts and, um, it's, it's interesting because I've gotten in this habit of, on Mondays. I listened to my business. Coach has a podcast and on Tuesdays I listened to a, kind of more of a inspirational podcast. Wednesdays is an entertainment podcast. And same with Thursdays and Fridays. And. Just moving beyond a purely educational experience. Every time I was going out for a walk and listening to the podcast too. Limiting some of the education. Trading that for just pure entertainment, like something that makes me laugh and brings me joy. I know that that sounds. Kind of silly and like, why didn't I figure that out before, but. Instead of constantly being in a learning mode, constantly thinking that I need to get more information and figure out how I can apply that in my life and my business. I've actually stepped away from that and given myself the luxury of just listening to something for the pure entertainment value of it. And it's been fantastic. But what I will tell you is I've also taken. Twitter off of my phone. I've taken threads off of my phone. When the apps are gone, then I don't just grab for my phone and start scrolling when I don't have something better to do, like if I'm bored or if I'm standing in line at the grocery store. Or if I'm sitting in my car at a stoplight, I don't just grab my phone and start taking in some more. Click bait information that really isn't going to serve me in any way. And I've stopped doing that and it has made a world of difference. So just know that there is a difference between being informed. And being. Immersed in. Information that is meant to trigger you. And you. You have the option to turn it off. You don't have to read every headline. You don't have to click on every clickbait article. You don't have to search more information. So that the algorithm just provides you with that information that you like the whole confirmation bias thing that if the algorithm. Figures out that you like one candidate over the next, they're just going to continue to serve you information. That confirms your bias, that, that underscores why you think that one candidate is better than the other candidate? So you're not really getting any new information. You're just being fed. By your own doing, given who you've clicked on what you've clicked on what you've watched, what you have searched. You're just getting more of the same. And for me, I just don't need to marinate in that. It's, that's, that's a kind of. It look, if the political candidates were all just talking about puppies and rainbows, and it was an uplifting, spiritual message that we would be having a completely different conversation here. But that's not, what's going on. It's about calling people names and dragging people down, and I'm better at this than this person. And. It there's so many lies there so much misinformation. Even beyond the misinformation is the dis information. The purposely. Incorrect. untrue information that is planted and at our fingertips. And if we allow it. It just seeps into our body. And. One way. If you're looking to lower your stress, lower your election anxiety. Turn off the fucking news. It's that simple. Let me double back. Say on election night, your watching the election returns. And I just told you to turn off the news. unless You're like my husband and Election Day because of his job and his. Experience he's he's been involved in politics for a long time. It's it's literally his job. He ran election campaigns. He ran reelection campaigns. He's been immersed in politics, I think for forever. I mean, I used to joke that he was kind of the Alex P Keaton of his family where no one else was political in his family, but Mike was, um, Election Day for Mike is like a high holiday. He's got all of the screens out. He's got his iPad up. He's got his phone up. He's got his laptop up. He's he's monitoring all sorts of returns from different areas and election results and prognosticating. And like it is it's. It's a high holiday for Mike. He just, he loves it. For the rest of us that really aren't involved in that kind of environment, or, you know, we don't need to have that information to do our job. Maybe just turn off the TV on election night. Maybe just don't even watch the election results. Um, because they will have either announced. The presidential race. Or they won't. And it's not going to matter to you. Whether, you know that information before you go to bed, or if you just wake up and find out about it, you know, you read it in the paper or you read it. On your morning news Roundup on your phone. It's not going to matter to you. How the races turnout, you might as well just wait until. The day after election. Or a couple of days later. You're not going to live or die by what happens on election night. As far as the results go. Now I know that there are people out there whose families are likely, could be impacted by the. Election results. Certainly women's rights can be impacted. So I'm not saying that the results of the. The election won't. Potentially. Like they won't. I'm not saying that they won't impact your life. What I'm saying is knowing the results of the election. On Election Day. On election night. Your life isn't going to change. By knowing that information sooner than later. So instead of being glued to the TV and watching the election results, like I said, turn off the TV. And another thing that you might consider not doing is pouring yourself a big glass of wine so that you can be more relaxed. While you shouldn't really be watching the election results. Come in anyway. Um, We know as midlife women that alcohol our bodies just don't tolerate it as well. I don't want to get into the science of it because I don't want to misspeak about it, but the way our body processes, alcohol changes. And so a lot of us like me. We just don't tolerate it as well. Which means we get fitful interrupted sleep. We get those. That kind of clammy. Sleep sweat. Just, none of it is good. It's not conducive to a good night's sleep. And if you have been running on Election stress and anxiety. Alcohol is not the antidote. To stress and anxiety. In fact, it's only going to make it worse because it's going to impact the quality of your sleep. Same with caffeine. So, okay. Maybe you decide that you do want to stay up and watch the election results and every minute of all of the coverage. And you decide you want to drink a lot of caffeine, a lot of coffee so that you can stay awake then. You're going to be the same. Issue. You're not going to sleep well. The sleep that you do get is not going to be restorative. And that lack of sleep, the lack of deep sleep and REM sleep, the good sleep. It's just going to exacerbate the stress and anxiety that you're already feeling. All this to say, The stress and anxiety that you are feeling. That's normal. How you deal with it though, is it's completely up to you. You actually, while you cannot influence the outcome of the election, like, well, you can't just, you know, decide that this is the, the outcome that I want. And, and it is so. You do have the choice. To control. Yourself. Your body. What you're hearing what you're paying attention to. How you're treating your body. The rest of it. You can't control. So if you focus on what you can control. Tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that, and, and obviously what we're talking about is alleviating, eliminating, reducing election, anxiety, and stress, but this, this works for any type of anxiety and stress in your life. Take action. So in this case, go vote. Limit your exposure to the news. That's a whole garbage in garbage out idea. Get outside. Focus on your breath. Reset your breathing system so that you can lower your stress. Be nice to your body. Get some good sleep, limit your intake of alcohol limit your intake of caffeine. The better care that you take care of yourself. The more prepared. You're going to be two. deal with the election results. Whenever they are. Announced. And for most of us, Taking care of ourselves and our families and the world immediately around us. Is just as important, if not more important than who is sitting in the White House. I'm hopeful that moving forward our elections and the country will be less divided. This feels different to me than it has felt before. And I honestly, I don't like the feeling. I don't like the idea that. It's an us versus them. Like, if you don't believe with everything, I believe then we can't be friends. We can't be related. I. That's not how. I think we should be living our lives. But no one asked me. However, the election turns out. I hope. That we can all. Get back to being Americans. That we can focus on doing good for. Everyone, not just the people that look like us, not just the people that pray like us, not just the people with the same color skin. Or. With a family that looks like ours, but. That we find a little bit more tolerance. And community. And acceptance. Four. Views that may not perfectly alarm with ours. With the understanding that for the most part, we're all just doing our very best. So happy Election Day. I hope we get some sleep. I hope that the election stress and anxiety doesn't. Impact you too much today. I mean, I feel like that's, it's like we're at the end of what has been a very long marathon. We've all been feeling it for awhile. Um, be good to yourself be good to your neighbors. Make it a great week and I will see you right back here next week when the School of Midlife is back in session. Until then take a care. Thank you so much for listening to the School of Midlife podcast. It means so much to have you here each week. If you enjoyed this episode, could you do me the biggest favor and help us spread the word to other midlife women? There are a couple of easy ways for you to do that first. And most importantly, if you're not already following the show, would you please subscribe? That helps you because you'll never miss an episode. And it helps us because you'll never miss an episode. Second, if you'd be so kind to leave us a five-star rating, that would be absolutely incredible. And finally, I personally read each and every one of your reviews. So if you take a minute and say some nice things about the podcast, well, that's just good karma. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you right back here. Next week when the School of Midlife is back in session until then take good care.