A Dose of My Own Medicine
Stress management in the next 100 days of Trump's presidency.
At 6:30am on day 8 of Donald Trump’s presidency, I woke up to the radio—an NPR report on President Trump’s immigration ban—and within moments of opening my eyes, my heart pounded. He can’t do this. What will he do next? What if no one can stop him? Pulse racing, I made my way to the kitchen where I fired up the coffee pot with my left hand, while scrolling through my Facebook
feed with my right. The sunlight streaming through the window was as
bright as the news streaming through social media was dark. I was
outraged at the President’s tweets. Outraged that he tweets. As
I turned on the shower and felt the hot water, I became aware of the
knots in my back, tension in my neck, and lift of my shoulders. I
carried a frenetic, invasive fear.
According to the Stress in America survey,
more than half of Americans are stressed about the current political
climate. But as a clinical psychologist, it is usually my job to help others when they feel stressed out, afraid or bombarded by uncontrollable worry.
In the early days of the Trumpian age, I started using what I know best—therapeutic strategies for coping with anxiety—to coexist with my worry and harness its positive properties. And you know what? Taking a dose of my own medicine helps.
First, I am doing quick diaphragmatic breathing exercises, putting one hand on my belly and the other on my chest, taking a deep breath in and being sure to feel the hand on my belly move rather than the hand on my chest. It’s a strategy that I teach people who are experiencing anything from mild stress to profoundly debilitating anxiety and is a tried-and-true way to help the nervous system nudge the body towards relaxation.
I scatter this and other mindfulness exercises throughout my day, taking quick nature breaks—walks in the park or even just around the block. I focus on my breathing or my senses, what I hear, smell, and feel as I move. I find five minutes to stretch and picture the strength and flexibility achieved through my motion translating from body to mind. At the end of these exercises, Mr. Trump is still president, but at least I feel calmer.
Breathing is not nearly enough though. I also had to change my behavior. I believe deeply that making even minor adjustments in behavior can have a huge impact on overall mental health for my patients, and for myself. In behavioral terms, my morning routine was habitual—no longer rewarding in and of itself. Habits are complex chains of behavior. Once the first Domino in the chain falls, the rest follow with little mental effort. Change must come at the earliest possible point in the sequence.
For me, that meant saying goodbye to my morning routine—waking up to the news on NPR, checking Facebook while making coffee. I still have the coffee—the caffeine high is a pretty potent reward—but no more NPR or Facebook first thing. I wake up to music instead. That buys me the space I need to consciously decide whether I want to listen to the news. Because reflexive Facebook-checking was a problem at all hours of the day, I removed the app from my smartphone. Social media is not banished from my life, but making it harder to check my feeds allows me to evaluate if I really want to know my friends’ musings—political or otherwise—at any given moment.
Behavior change at its best is not about avoidance; it’s about moving towards what feels important. In my case, learning more about government and taking action.
No longer paralyzed by panic, no longer a passive receptacle for the news, I instead actively choose what to read and listen to, and when. I seek out a wider breadth of news sources. With action comes empowerment. Nearly one-hundred days into his term, I am thinking more about what I can do as a citizen, rather than solely about what President Trump might do.
Social connectedness is a means to feel less alone with fears, so I gravitate towards activism that’s social. I have crafted posters with a friend to take to march for women and science (and women in science!), participated in political phone banks, started an “action-a-day” ritual with a colleague, and joined activism efforts in my local community.
I expect the path forward to be paved with emotional ups and downs. The process of feeling better and handling feelings better is rarely linear. For now, I start each morning moving to the music and ready myself for the next hundred days.
Source: Unsplash/Pexels
In the early days of the Trumpian age, I started using what I know best—therapeutic strategies for coping with anxiety—to coexist with my worry and harness its positive properties. And you know what? Taking a dose of my own medicine helps.
First, I am doing quick diaphragmatic breathing exercises, putting one hand on my belly and the other on my chest, taking a deep breath in and being sure to feel the hand on my belly move rather than the hand on my chest. It’s a strategy that I teach people who are experiencing anything from mild stress to profoundly debilitating anxiety and is a tried-and-true way to help the nervous system nudge the body towards relaxation.
I scatter this and other mindfulness exercises throughout my day, taking quick nature breaks—walks in the park or even just around the block. I focus on my breathing or my senses, what I hear, smell, and feel as I move. I find five minutes to stretch and picture the strength and flexibility achieved through my motion translating from body to mind. At the end of these exercises, Mr. Trump is still president, but at least I feel calmer.
Breathing is not nearly enough though. I also had to change my behavior. I believe deeply that making even minor adjustments in behavior can have a huge impact on overall mental health for my patients, and for myself. In behavioral terms, my morning routine was habitual—no longer rewarding in and of itself. Habits are complex chains of behavior. Once the first Domino in the chain falls, the rest follow with little mental effort. Change must come at the earliest possible point in the sequence.
For me, that meant saying goodbye to my morning routine—waking up to the news on NPR, checking Facebook while making coffee. I still have the coffee—the caffeine high is a pretty potent reward—but no more NPR or Facebook first thing. I wake up to music instead. That buys me the space I need to consciously decide whether I want to listen to the news. Because reflexive Facebook-checking was a problem at all hours of the day, I removed the app from my smartphone. Social media is not banished from my life, but making it harder to check my feeds allows me to evaluate if I really want to know my friends’ musings—political or otherwise—at any given moment.
Behavior change at its best is not about avoidance; it’s about moving towards what feels important. In my case, learning more about government and taking action.
No longer paralyzed by panic, no longer a passive receptacle for the news, I instead actively choose what to read and listen to, and when. I seek out a wider breadth of news sources. With action comes empowerment. Nearly one-hundred days into his term, I am thinking more about what I can do as a citizen, rather than solely about what President Trump might do.
Social connectedness is a means to feel less alone with fears, so I gravitate towards activism that’s social. I have crafted posters with a friend to take to march for women and science (and women in science!), participated in political phone banks, started an “action-a-day” ritual with a colleague, and joined activism efforts in my local community.
I expect the path forward to be paved with emotional ups and downs. The process of feeling better and handling feelings better is rarely linear. For now, I start each morning moving to the music and ready myself for the next hundred days.
