The slippery slope of election anxiety

I’m anxious about the outcome of the election and worried what might happen if my guy doesn’t win.

I’m not alone.

Tensions are high as we all wait for the outcome of the election. Yet if I allow myself to continue this way, I’ll be heading down the slippery slope of anxiety and fear.

Last night I was watching a YouTube video interview of Georgina Noel, a mindset and intuitive business coach, and what she said jolted me awake so to speak. She said that our thoughts create our reality and we can’t create the reality we want from our current mindset.

Her words reminded me that when I allow myself to ruminate and worry over something, that fear activates the animal part of the brain. And, when the animal part of my brain is activated, it goes on hyper alert causing the reticular activating system (the brain’s Google search engine and filtering system) to start looking for even more problems of a similar nature.

The animal brain does this because it’s trying to keep me safe.

Most of the time, though, it just makes me feel anxious and miserable.

Feeling any of these?

• Anxious over the outcome of the election,
• Frustrated with your job or career,
• Stressed because of money or finances, or
• Depressed because you’re not in a relationship or you’re struggling with the one you have?

It’s okay to feel these things. Yet we don’t want to stay in the muck. Because when we’re in the energy of the problem, we can’t see the solution. And, this is why we need to use our prefrontal cortex. It’s the part of the brain that is in charge of executive functions, so I like to call it the “Boss”.

Life gets better when we put the Boss (prefrontal cortex) to work.

We put the Boss to work when we tell our brains how we want to think and feel instead. I tell myself, “Okay animal brain, I see you’re worried about the election and you’re getting pretty clever at showing me all kinds of awful scenarios that could happen if things don’t go the way I want. But all this awful-izing is making me feel like crap. Here’s what I want you to focus on instead (the Boss is taking charge). I want to feel good. I want to feel like I can handle the outcome and be a force for positive change. I want to experience more peace, harmony, and respect for others and our planet. Brain, go look for more of that. Help me create more of that!”

The Boss loves a challenge. When I keep replacing my fearful thoughts with a positive directive, it activate the brains reticular activating system (RAS), and it starts finding more examples of this that already exist in my mind and life, and it helps me see where I can experience more of it in the world. It’s pretty cool really. But we have to consciously take charge of our mindset, which ultimately creates our emotional experience of our world.

Here’s my process step by step.

1. If I’m feeling strongly emotional about the circumstance or problem. I first spend some time with my hand on my heart or wherever I’m feeling that emotion most strongly in my body. I acknowledge whatever I’m feeling and let it be okay. I love myself, no matter what.
2. I acknowledge my current thought pattern, “Look at that, I’m thinking about crap again.” I remind myself that my animal brain has been triggered. It feels threatened and this is why it’s creating unhelpful scenarios (unhelpful use of imagination), which in turn keeps me stuck in the muck so to speak. I know it’s trying to keep me safe so I tell my brain, “Thank you animal brain for trying to keep me safe. I’ve got this now (the Boss brain is taking charge now and I’m going to start thinking with my prefrontal cortex).”
3. I think about what I want to feel and experience instead. For me it’s hopeful, optimistic, peace, harmony, love and connection.
4. Next, I tell the Boss (and its executive secretary, the reticular activating system) to start looking for evidence of these things in my mind and world. When I do this, I am turning my attention from dwelling on the problem to looking towards the solution and/or the experience I want to have instead. Energy flows where attention goes.
5. Lastly, I challenge myself to take at least one action towards creating the experience I want. I often do this by giving what I want to experience to someone else.

• If I want more love and connection, I reach out and connect with friends, volunteer or mentally/heartfully send love to everyone I see that day.
• If it’s financial stress, I might buy someone a cup of coffee, send a $5 bill to someone I don’t know, or simply challenge myself to notice all the abundance in the universe and appreciate that.
• If I’m feeling anxious over the outcome of the election, I recognize that my hope is for a more harmonious world and healthy planet. So I spend a few minutes visualizing how lovely a world like that would be. Then I remind myself to be the change I wish to see in the world. And, I take action on this by writing a local legislator. I make sure my communications on social media and in email are thoughtful and respectful. Or, I spend some time picking up trash on the side of the road in my neighborhood.

When we look at this way, the change that we want to see in America really does being in our minds’ first, and then when we take action, in our own little corners of the world. And, it eventually ripples out into the world.

I must admit that I don’t do this process perfectly, or even for that matter, consistently. Yet when I do, I find that each step in a more constructive direction helps me climb back up the slippery slope of a messy mindset.

And, when I do. I breathe easier, and oh boy, is the view better up here!

Wishing you peace and love,

PS: If you’d like to experience a deeper connection with the universe, check out my new guide, Sacred Messengers: How to Notice, Interpret and Work with Messages from the Universe. This 70-page guide is full of practical tips, strategies, worksheet exercises, and examples.