That’s 2/3 of Americans feeling the effects of stress specific to an election. Keep in mind that the effects of stress are not obvious to most of us until they reach critical levels. But it’s important to understand exactly what stress DOES to the human body and mind, whether we’re consciously aware of our stress or not.
The most important thing you need to know about stress is that it causes a release of cortisol into the bloodstream. This important hormone can save your life in a truly dangerous situation. But it has its cost. Cortisol has an extremely corrosive effect on the arteries that carry it, causing millions of tiny little cuts as it passes through. The scar tissue that forms in its wake encourages plaque buildup, leading to heart attack and stroke. It has similarly detrimental effects on every body system, but this is one of the most well-known, well-studied results. The science is in. Stress kills.
More than that, studies have shown beyond all doubt that cortisol releases have a major impact on brain function, disrupting executive functions such as reasoning, attention, memory, and impulse control, just to name a few of the more immediate results. Over time, critical injury to the hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex can lead to impaired judgment and learning ability on a permanent basis. The brain becomes trained to expect stress and release another flood of stress hormones and associated neurotransmitters with little provocation, leading to shrinking and paralysis of those regions of the brain.[2]
Just as an aside – when you see those horrifically ugly comments at the end of an article, understand that you are witnessing the result of a brain injury.
So what can you do about all this?
Unplug.
When there is a great deal of uncertainty, most people seek information that creates a sense of certainty. But it’s important to recognize that the information we are being fed – whether on the internet or through our regular programming – is carefully filtered to reflect views and beliefs we already hold. As a rule, it’s presented in a way that is designed to make us feel that our beliefs are under direct attack from “the other side,” which becomes a faceless, amorphous, and extremely threatening enemy. They aren’t just attacking the foundations of your government. They are attacking YOU, at your psychological core. No wonder the comments section of the article is so filled with rage. The 24-hour news cycle will go on with or without you consuming it. You can wait until tomorrow to find out what happened last night. You’ll sleep better, and we know that even a one-hour loss of sleep has an enormous impact on how well you function – not just the next day, but several days out. Poor performance at work and home leads to… you guessed it. More stress. It’s a vicious cycle. If you’re feeling stress around politics, government, and the recent election, you’re well-advised to limit your screen time and redirect your attention toward the actual people and activities of normal, daily life.
Get outside.
Sunlight is a great disinfectant. It also brings you into contact with a natural world that is going on all around you, unfolding in a way that brings a sense of comfort. Babies are still being born, dogs still bark, the sun still rises, and most of the people you come into contact with are perfectly friendly and helpful. This will do more to reassure you that the world is a safe place than anything else you can do. Get out there and discover it.
Smile.
When you get outside, I want you to run a little experiment. I want you to smile at every third person you see. And keep a count. Find out for yourself how many people in your personal experience will automatically smile back, nod, wave, and even speak to you when you simply offer them a smile. And keep a mental note of how much better YOU feel when you just do this one simple thing. There is no greater reassurance available to you than a friendly smile from a complete stranger, without having any information about that person’s political preferences or religious beliefs or whatever.
Practice mindfulness.
As my friend used to say, “Don’t just DO something, sit there.”
Just think about this for a moment: All of the upset we experience revolves around things that have already happened or things that have not yet happened. The past and the future contain all of our upset. The deeper we move into the present moment, the more difficult it becomes to locate our discomfort. Try it. You don’t have to sit any special way or have an ideal environment or a mantra, or use anything you don’t carry with you 24/7.
If you are breathing, you have all the equipment you need. Spend a few minutes focusing on your breathing, just noticing the air moving in and out of your lungs. Notice the sounds going on all around you. Detach from them; they don’t require a response from you 99.7% of the time. They’re just evidence that ordinary life is going on all around you, just as it should. Relax. Notice tension in the body and just release it. Spend 5 minutes doing that and nothing else. Set the timer on your phone and just do it. You CAN find 5 minutes to take your thinker off the hook. In this moment there is nothing you have to DO. And what you’ll find is that you emerge from that exercise with a sense of relief that encourages you to do it again. Follow that advice. Do it frequently. Just pay attention to what’s happening in the moment.
This is meditation. You’ll have thoughts. That’s okay. That’s what minds do – they think. Just notice the thought and then notice the breath again. Keep doing that until the timer goes off. You cannot do this incorrectly. But you can do it for longer and longer periods of time until you work your way up to 15 or 20 minutes at a stretch. Most of us naturally emerge from meditative states in that time frame.
If you practice this every day, you will find that you are significantly less stressed, more creative, more satisfied with life, and less prone to catastrophize about upcoming events. You’ll be less reactive in general, and more compassionate. Better organized, less distracted, and with much greater short-term memory.
Also, your arteries will thank you for it.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-15/americans-just-broke-the-psychologists-stress-record
[2] http://www.edudemic.com/stress-affects-brain-learning/
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