Stressed over the presidential election? Here’s how to cope

If the high-stakes presidential election is causing troublesome thoughts, existential dread or rifts with loved ones, there’s no need to white-knuckle through it. Take a deep breath. Literally.

Meditation and mindfulness teacher Rosie Acosta says focusing on each inhale and exhale can help regain that grounding sense of control that may be drowned out by the spiraling uncertainty of election season. Experts like Acosta — who works in Southern California for Headspace, a mental health company and app — want people who are struggling to know there are ways to lighten election-induced stress and navigate related tensions.

“I can control how I’m breathing. … I can use my mindfulness practice and stay in the present moment, instead of worrying about what the outcome is going to be with an election,” says Acosta, who contributed the guided meditations “Surviving Dinner Table Debates” and “Compassion During Campaign Season” to Headspace’s “Politics Without Panic” collection.

“You forget how much power we actually have over this tension and this anxiety,” she adds.

This year’s campaign has already witnessed unexpected twists and turns with President Joe Biden’s exit from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris’ quick ascendance among Democrats as well as  assassination attempts targeting Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump.

Roughly 3 in 4 American adults  believe the upcoming presidential election is vital to the future of U.S. democracy, although which candidate they think poses the greater threat depends on their political leanings, according to a survey from The  Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Mindfulness and setting boundaries

Acosta recalls how, in 2016, political divisions seeped into a Christmas family gathering, turning an occasion for joy, connection and nostalgia into a “ground for verbal war.”

In navigating the aftermath, she says she learned to establish boundaries in the relationship with a relative and to focus on things that brought them together, rather than drew them apart. That could mean saying, “We’re not talking about this right now; let’s talk about something else,” disengaging from an unhelpful conversation, ignoring a sent political meme or bringing up a shared memory, instead of discussing the latest news, she says.

“Mindfulness and meditation really help us reframe our relationships — our relationships in general but, specifically, our relationship to our thoughts,” Acosta notes.

Headspace has also partnered with When We All Vote, a national nonpartisan voting initiative created by former first lady Michelle Obama, to provide eligible voters with free resources to ease election-season anxiety. There’s a stress quiz to determine if you’re “the collected constituent”; “the overwhelmed optimist”; “the weary worrier”; or “the politically panicked.” The partnership also includes a voting registration portal.

“This is really intended to reach folks regardless of political affiliation or points of view,” Headspace’s president, Christine Evans, says. “Regardless of who you are, you deserve mental health and support when you need it.”

Skills for disagreeing better

The Rev. Cynthia O’Brien often sees people getting especially nervous around Thanksgiving.

“Thanksgiving is people you love, but you might not see all the time,” she observes. “I hear people saying, ‘Oh, my relatives in Texas think I have gone off the deep end, that they won’t talk to me,’ or ‘My sister-in-law and I aren’t speaking,’ and it’s simply the political polarization that has come between.”

One suggestion is not to have such conversations at the dinner table and opt instead for one-on-one chats, she says.

O’Brien is no stranger to being in a room with people of different ideologies.

Based in Oregon, she’s the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Woodburn and Aurora Presbyterian Church, with small congregations that include conservatives and progressives.

She’s also a national debate chair and a workshop moderator with Braver Angels, a nonprofit that does depolarization work. Workshops she moderates include ones teaching skills for disagreeing better.

“We’re not trying to smooth over differences. We’re teaching skills to bring out the differences in a responsible, loving, caring way,” she says.

Goals include having more understanding of the values and concerns of those who differ politically. Workshop participants are taught to listen carefully, acknowledge the other’s view before sharing their own, pivot to signal they’re about to share theirs and exchange perspectives by perhaps sharing a personal story behind their viewpoint or the source of information for their position.

They’re instructed to let go of the expectation of convincing others that they’re wrong.

“Our democracy requires us to talk through the disagreement and not just to shout at each other,” O’Brien says.

Normalizing the experience

“People who feel particularly anxious about the election should rest assured that they are not alone,” says Dr. Petros Levounis, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

He stresses the importance of taking care of one’s physical health, getting enough sleep, eating well and exercising regularly. While such practices may sound “a little banal,” he says, “they’re just so central to our well-being.”

Also, make time to relax and “perhaps having some breathing exercises, meditation, mindfulness — these are things that people have found quite helpful.”

Levounis cautions against relying on alcohol to calm nerves, saying it “invariably increases anxiety in the long run, and I’m not talking about months and years. … A few hours after heavy consumption of alcohol, the anxiety increases.”

In the cases in which anxiety becomes debilitating and is interfering with work or life at home, he recommends talking to a mental health professional or one’s primary care physician.

Taking action and being mindful

Some universities have also been providing students with resources to manage election stress.

“We definitely have some students that really think a lot about politics and are aware of how that impacts them,” says Shauna Olson Hong, director of counseling services at California State University, East Bay. Those include some from LGBTQ+ communities or who are undocumented or have family members who are, she says.

The counseling center has been offering tips online. These include limiting news intake, being especially careful about checking news immediately before sleep, vetting news sources to follow reputable ones and being mindful of social media use.

Other suggestions include seeking support and thinking about ways to be engaged and to effect positive change while maintaining balance.

“Just sitting around and worrying and feeling like I don’t have any control over what’s going to happen to me is a terrible place to sit, and I think that really builds our anxiety,” Hong says. “So, try to take realistic action to speak out for what we believe in.”