An anti-anxiety guide to Election Day

How to effectively manage anxiety, mental health and create true self-care during the election and whatever its aftermath may be 🫠

Photo by Cory on Unsplash

Alright dear Soothers, the week is here — the U.S. presidential election. Let me take you back in time to 8 years ago, the election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I knew, KNEW in my bones, that Trump was going to win, despite what the polls and conventional wisdom said; I had been hounded and haunted by a sense of dread and anxiety for weeks. 

The night of the election in 2016, I was living in DC and a thing you did then was attend election parties. I went to one at a local bar with friends, but my sense of deep anxiety was so strong, I left early. I then went to a friend’s house where we drank copious amounts of bourbon to deal with what the results were revealing. We stayed up late. When it became clear what was happening, there was no choice for me but to go home. I took one more shot of bourbon, then wandered the streets of DC on my way home like a tipsy, traumatized ghost. I picked up a pack of cigarettes at a gas station and smoked at least 10 of them, I swear to god (yes, I am a former smoker, mostly social, but a lot as crutch for my then-intense anxiety). I remember encountering a stranger outside my neighborhood pub, and we just looked at each other. “This can’t be happening,” he said. “I know,” I responded. “Can I bum a cigarette?” he asked. “Of course,” I said, handing him a few to tide him through the night. We stood in shocked but companionable silence smoking for a minute til I raised my hand in goodbye and walked the rest of the way home. When I arrived, well after midnight, I took a Xanax and scrolled my phone two inches from my eyeballs until I passed out. The next morning I had to wake up early to go to therapy (thank god), and I pounded at least two huge coffees on an empty stomach on my way there to try to get my hangover to go away. 

Eight years later, how I deal with my anxiety is very different —  much healthier, but also, most important, much more effective. I quit smoking completely years ago; I’m sober; coffee is an occasional treat, not something I need to ingest to have half a hope of functioning; my diet has completely changed, as have my self-care and mental health habits. I’m basically, I guess, a holistic wellness “warrior,” but not the creepy far-right RFK-jr endorsing one (aside: there NEEDS to be a space for people interested in holistic and alternative health to be welcomed in the progressive and political left spaces. Look around — modern standard of care health is not working, and there’s a lot to be worried about. But there are plenty of women like me who are still grounded, practical, progressive, supportive of science, AND interested in natural and holistic healing as complementary to modern medicine. When we are wholesale dismissive of that in the political left, and condescending about approaches like nature-based, Eastern or indigenous health practices, we shunt a lot of these women, I imagine, straight into the conservative wellness pipeline. Anyways, another essay for another day… you can read more of my thoughts on that here for now.)

ANYHOO, I imagine, if you’re a human with a beating heart, and half a sense of self-awareness, the past 8-10 years have deeply affected your anxiety. The pandemic; this fascist psychopath doing the equivalent of stalking and threatening us for nearly a decade; the rise in social media and global horrors… and a lot of that anxiety might be culminating for you this week.

Maybe you have a great plan for dealing and managing it. Or maybe you’re like the me of eight years ago: boozing, caffeine-ing, blue-light-scrolling and swinging between numbing and dysregulating your way through life, not realizing that the coping mechanisms you’re using to survive are actually, like, one of the primary CAUSES of your anxiety.

To that end, I thought I’d put together a little roundup of healthy self-care you can do to best manage your anxiety today and tomorrow (and maybe for the coming days and weeks, if this election is anything like past ones, where we don’t have the results right away). 

Of course, these tips can be incorporated into your life to handle ANY anxiety. I do all of these regularly now (and trust, it wasn’t a 180-degrees-thing — it’s been a years-long practice to shift to these, so give yourself grace and plenty of time and patience). 

If you like, think of this as an Anti-Anxiety Guide, to begin being deployed during this crazed, high-stakes election week.

Of course, the best thing you can do for your anxiety — and your health — is to vote for the candidate who believes that reproductive health matters, that women should be in charge of their bodies and medical decisions, and that health care is a basic human right.

But since presumably you’ve already done that, let’s try out this other stuff, huh? 

This is a mix of health, emotional, and spiritual anti-anxiety tips, take what serves you, leave the rest!

Here we go.

(PS: I include a ton of things below. I know from personal experience and also from others, sometimes, this can be more overwhelming than helpful — you may feel like you have to DO ALL THE THINGS! Then you freeze and do nothing, the opposite of what we want! Here’s what I recommend instead: close your eyes, scroll up and down, and point your finger to your phone or computer screen, and wherever your finger lands, that’s the one thing you should try to do this week. You could also print this list out, then cut it up into strips — one piece of advice per strip. Fold them all up and put them in a bowl or a cap. Given your capacity, pick 1-3. The one(s) you pick are what you should do this week! Voila!) 

#1: Reset your circadian rhythm. I recommend, starting on Election Day morning, to see the sunrise for 5-10 minutes as your first light before screens, phones, indoor lights (note it needs to be through an open window or outside, no glasses, contacts or closed windows in the way). Not only does this become a beautiful spiritual and nature-connection practice, it begins the process of resetting your stress hormones. The mix of red and blue light that rises gently at sunrise helps modulate both your cortisol and your melatonin production. This is so much better for your stress hormone levels than having full-wattage blue light, either from phone or tv or computer screens, or just your indoor lighting, be the first thing that your eyeballs (and therefore hormones, since your eyeballs and the light they perceive is the strongest way your hormones operate) bathe in. Want to amp this up? Download the circadian.life app and also make a commitment to get 5-10 minutes of “UVA rise” light (it’s often about an hour after sunrise, but double check). Being outside with naked eyes when the sun is 10 to 30 degrees above the horizon (aka, the UVA rise period) can stimulate and optimize various physiological pathways in our bodies that really, really help mental health and focus. Also, what is more centering than reminding yourself: No matter what happens, the sun will keep rise, and there will always be new days. For now. Lol. 

#2: Try out earthing. This is just the act of putting your bare skin on bare earth (dirt, grass, sand, natural bodies of water, but often even surfaces like slate and concrete are grounded, so you can possibly do this inside your garage, for example.) The why for anxiety? Humans are electrical beings. We KNOW this. We use electrical measuring scans for everything from heart to brain health and more. We need electrolytes for biological functioning in the body. Additionally, the earth has an electrical field that transports mitochondrial-enhancing electrons to humans when we’re in contact with it. Until about 50-100 years ago when we invented and starting using plastic and rubber in our shoes and housing materials, we were in constant contact with this field of the earth, a power source of sorts for us. I’m convinced the separation of our bodies/skin from the earth’s field has had an enormously negative impact on our health, both physical and mental. We’re doing the equivalent of running around on 2% charge of our batteries these days, and it’s showing. This is one of the things that science-minded people will dismiss as “woo-woo,” but the science is truly there, with dozens of peer-reviewed, double-blind studies on the effects of the human body of grounding. Here’s titles of just some of the research; Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm Infants; Metabolic Changes After Only 40 Minutes Of Grounding; One-Hour Of Grounding Improves Inflammation and Blood Flow; and plenty more. For our purposes, just get your bare feet on a conductive surface for 10-45 minutes per day. I use the grass in my yard. If not doable for you, there are grounding mats out there that provide a similar effect, though I find nature is always best. I pair this with my sunrise watching. 

#3: Eat a protein and fat-heavy breakfast, with no sugar and low carbs. The first meal will dictate your blood sugar status for the rest of your day. Unfortunately, too many of us are having toast, oatmeal, cereal, pastries, juice, etc. It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with those foods, it’s just that ingested first thing on an empty stomach, they’ll send you on a blood sugar rollercoaster, which can affect your mood and anxiety throughout the rest of your day. My breakfast always has at least 30-40 grams of protein, which for me looks like 2 eggs, some fish (I loved canned options from Trader Joe’s; a tinned sardines can has like 22 grams of protein); half an avocado; some seasonal veggies; and some ferments like kimchi or sauerkraut for that good microbiome. Other great options are cottage cheese, greek yogurt, a salad-with-protein as breakfast; etc. (My meals generally follow this type of eating overall; I have, except for treats here and there, eliminated most refined sugar, grains, gluten, and follow a low-carb, high-fat, high-protein style of eating. Your mileage may vary on what diet works best for your mental health.)

#4: If you drink coffee, make sure you have it after seeing sunrise and after your breakfast. Think of it as breakfast dessert! The reason is that coffee does increase your cortisol and adrenaline, so much more so when it’s on an empty stomach. It’s also an appetite suppressant, so it may make you feel as though you shouldn’t be eating, when in fact having some satiating and nutrient-dense food would be great for your brain and body. If you like, consider switching to half-caff or decaf, but make sure it’s decaf that’s been created using the Swiss water or sugarcane process; otherwise standard decaf process uses gnarly chemicals. No affiliation but I like Overview Coffee and Danger Coffee brands. 

#5: Get your supplement game on point. I truly could not live without a couple of scoops of a magnesium bis-glycinate powder that I use, each night in herbal tea. Consult with your intuition and your medical provider, but I always think it’s worth considering taking a high quality magnesium supplement; vitamin C supplement; and B complex supplement for mental health purposes. These mineral/electrolyte supplements are also excellent and I take both daily (no affiliation). A good quality electrolyte can help a lot; LMNT is sugar free, or you can even just put some salt in your water throughout the day. 

#6: Do periods of conscious breathing throughout the day. 4-7-8 breath; box breathing; soft belly breathing; alternate nostril breathing; the physiological sigh; and so many more. I love the Breathing Zone app. These types of breath really do work; set a timer for 5 minutes and practice any of them, or do it a few times throughout the day. 

#7: No duh, but movement helps. Personally, I plan on going on an extremely difficult hilly hike tomorrow morning and just wearing myself out. I also employ this hip release video; the legs up the wall yoga pose; sprinting; hill walking; heavy lifting (I like the StrongLifts 5x5 app) — whatever works and feels good for wherever my body is.

#8: Turn your phone screen red and wear blue-light blockers. Look, if we’re going to be doom scrolling for the next few days or weeks, we may as well try to introduce some guardrails into it, since blue light is so horribly disregulating for our stress hormones, circadian rhythm and nervous system. Here’s a video where I teach you how you can make your iPhone red:

catherineandrews

A post shared by @catherineandrews

Then for blue-light blocking glasses, I use Spectra479’s that are amber/red and fit over my regular glasses (clear blue-light blocking glasses don’t really work; they must be tinted). 

#9: Try out EFT tapping. Nothing, nothing has more effectively and quickly cleared my anxiety in the moment than EFT tapping. Here are a few i use all the time when I’m scared and fearful, all courtesy of Brad Yates on YouTube.

quick fear tap: 

feeling nervous: 

you'll be okay (fear that things are out of your control): 

#10: Create a distracting project. Look, what is written, is written. If you have voted, helped, donated, text-banked, for all intents and purposes, you’ve done what you can, for now, and we have to hang out in the messy middle while we want to see how this unfolds, at least for Election Day. Why not find a project that helps you out and takes your mind off things? I love a good declutter, or stress baking. Personally, I’m going to handle some life admin that I’ve been avoiding (specifically calling my insurance company; any other day I’d dread this but it feels like it could be a welcome respite on Election Day???). Here are some fun Feng Shui projects/assignments I’ve posted about on Instagram in the past that could be fun for you to do on Election Day: Turn your mattress into a manifesting portal; how to close out energetic leaks; ways to set up your bedroom to manifest while you sleep; call in more wealth using 8 Feng Shui tips; a get unstuck spell; a find a new job spell; clear the energy of your home. Look, if you wanted to do a magic spell that helps Harris win, I’m not against that either, just saying… 

#11: Write a letter to your ancestors, asking for their support. Our ancestors have been through much worse in their days, all the way back to the start of time, and I’m not saying it was wonderful, or ideal, but they persevered, and we can call on their strength, resilience, guidance and wisdom in these times. Journal a letter out to them, just telling them the truth: how you feel; what you’re scared of; what you hope happens; how they could help you. If writing to your ancestors doesn’t resonate, write the same sort of letter or journal entry to whatever does — your higher self, the universe, Jesus, the unknown, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Send up a prayer, invoke help and wisdom, and know that you are supported and loved from the invisible and unseen world. 

And a couple of good other links:

All Will Be Revealed Or: What To Do Instead of Worrying About The Election from Nora McInerny - a nice roundup of ideas and activities and resources.

How not to freak out about the US election from Oliver Burkeman, very wise words as usual from him that have a more philosophical bent.

And that’s what I’ve got for you. Trust, I will be employing my own wisdom on this one, friends. I’m there, too. I’m nervous. I’m worried. My nervous system is nervous. But I’m also hopeful, resilient, grounded and ready to take care of myself and my mental health so I can be present and ready for whatever may be next. I hope you find whatever way works for you to do that, too; you deserve it.

Let’s go.

See you on the flip side.

xo
Catherine