An Election Anxiety Survival Guide | 2 of 3

Choosing Hope Over Fear | Things that help me refocus my energy, regulate my nervous system, and regain perspective when it feels like everything is spinning out of control

I am blown away by the number of responses the first post of this series has garnered in less than 24 hours.

Clearly, we feel this one deeply. And my friends internationally do too. I’m just so grateful all of you are here.

To clarify, this is a mental wellness toolkit... Not a survival guide in the literal, physical disaster sense of the word. But it’s still a survival guide nonetheless.

Disclaimer: I'm an artist, writer, and creativity coach – NOT a licensed, trained therapist. So this is me sharing what is helping me and being a supportive friend, not offering therapeutic advice.  If you are struggling or feel at all unsafe, please reach out to a mental health expert. None of us have to do this alone.

On Choosing Hope Over Fear

After living the better part of a decade in an active conflict zone, I could write a literal survival guide as our contingency plans had contingency plans. I developed Olympic-level worst-case scenario planning skills.

All that to say, I am hyper-aware of the risk landscape. I read multiple publications and reports from a wide variety of domestic and foreign sources. Still, I am choosing hope over fear.

I am not choosing hope because I’m naive or unaware. To say we are in a tumultuous season globally is like saying the ocean is a smidge wet. The concerns are real.

But my Dad taught me something growing up that has saved my life multiple times over. He spent 2 decades in the active-duty Navy and then decades more in civil service. He was also a 6th-degree black belt and yet, he had the eye and soul of an artist.

I remember him telling me this one line when I was fearful about my safety after being stalked in junior high school.

The best defense is an unexpected response.

Those 7 words taught me that I could choose my response.

I might not be able to choose my circumstances or my emotions at the moment, but I can choose my response to the things in front of me.

In this landscape, there is very real fear. And it is easy to get sucked into its undertow. I have spent more of my time doom-scrolling at 2 AM than I’d like to admit.

A lot of the things I am recommending here are things I’m holding on to and they are built on the possibility of choosing a different response. On telling myself a better story.

And if you are struggling… please hear me when I say I am not suggesting you disregard your emotions or shove your feelings aside. I am also not saying you should pull yourself together and simply wrangle some form of toxic positivity into place. I simply want to highlight the fact we have more power than often we realize in the moment when things are overwhelming.

Regardless of what happens, we get to choose the story we tell ourselves.

And I am going to choose hope. I will feel all my feelings, but I will choose hope.

Here’s why…

Fear can only motivate us for so long until it exhausts and shuts us down.

Fear turns off the prefrontal cortex of our brains where proactive decision-making and learning happen and enlarges the amygdala (the brain’s fear center).

Neuroscientists have shown a prolonged fear state ultimately shrinks our brain’s capacity to think clearly, form long-term memories, and engage our creativity.¹

The good news… Brains grow and change all the time. It’s a concept called neuroplasticity.

When we choose different responses, like reframing a negative with something we are grateful for… we are helping our brain forge new pathways and connections.

Here are some more tools to add to your toolkit that might help you stay grounded and connected in a season that may be troubling and traumatic.

Again, I’m sharing what works for me. Some of these things may or may not work for you. But they can be starting points for you to think about your own ideas to explore.

Leaning Into Wonder as a Superpower

The Wonder Habit™ isn’t just a community on Substack where I write and share practical prompts to help you be more creative, feel less alone, and find wonder every day.

It is an actual framework for wholehearted living, built on the 5 core principles below:

✨ CURIOSITY opens us up to learn new things, helps us see old situations with fresh lenses, and provides greater ↓

✨ CONNECTION to ourselves, one another, and the world around us. Our brains are hardwired for connection and relationship, so...

✨ COURAGE grows when we are in touch with our own stories, and with one another. This courage looks like the ability to be vulnerable and it is the foundation for unleashing more ↓

✨ CREATIVITY in every area of our lives. In our personal journeys as well as our businesses and communities.

✨ COMPASSION for ourselves and others builds as we are able to view our world and circumstances with the empathy deeper creativity unlocks.

We are going to use The Wonder Habit™ framework to organize a veritable treasure trove of ideas you can add to your survival kit. And these ideas work in hard seasons when elections aren’t part of the equation.

Pencils at the ready? Here we go with our first 2 Cs!

✨ CURIOSITY

• Try seeing anxious feelings as invitations to become curious. I wonder what that feeling is trying to tell me.  Sometimes I interview my emotion. What story is it built on?

• Take a curiosity walk and look for 3 new things you haven’t noticed before. You can also snap a picture and use them as reference photos to create from.

• Plant micro greens. Watch how they develop. What questions could you ask about the process? 

• Have a playlist of documentaries you’d enjoy watching.

• Pick a new subject area you are curious about and read a book about it. Take notes on things that stand out to you.

• Follow a YouTube or Skillshare tutorial to learn a new skill. I’m learning to knit and crochet.

• If conflict happens in the course of safe conversations around hot topics with people you know, consider adopting a curious approach.  I’m really curious… how did you come to believe that? Wow, that’s an interesting perspective, could you point me at the sources you used?

• If you are into following the news, consider READING the news rather than watching it. I use Ground News (not sponsored) to help me easily see what all sides are saying on an issue. 

• Get curious about the limits and boundaries you need to set to preserve your energy and your peace.  Write them out so you can see them.

• Find fall leaves (or spring flowers!) and study their details like a botanist. Make a sketch based on your observations .

✨ CONNECTION

• Turn off social media & step away from screens filled with things you can’t control to help you connect to what is happening around you

• Declutter a drawer, organize a closet, clean a cluttered corner. When faced with anxieties about what I can’t control, controlling something I do have say over is hugely therapeutic for me. This election is going to leave me with a much more organized house. 😆

• Go outside and pull weeds in your garden or just sit under a tree. Connect with how solid the earth beneath us is.

• Write a letter by hand to your creative self with assurances you need to hear.

• Have an in-person coffee with a friend. We weren’t meant to do this alone.

• Pick 3 new recipes and make them. Focus on connecting to the sensory experience of new fragrances, textures, and flavors.

• Read poetry out loud. You aren’t just connecting to the words, you are connecting to the experience of saying the words and hearing the words. It creates an immersive experience.

• Create a photo essay of an ordinary day. Take photos with your phone from angles you wouldn’t normally use. Focus on connecting with daily moments of goodness and light, on the things important to you, on what brings you joy.

• Make a cup of tea and concentrate on the flavor and the warmth of the mug

• Read a fiction or descriptive nonfiction book slowly. Focus on the words and practice imagining what they look like. Build the scene in your imagination. Pick a book that will be enjoyable and not stressful… the goal is NOT to get you on the edge of your seat.

Tomorrow, I’ll send more ideas for the last 3 Cs. I recommend picking 1-2 things you want to try from each category.

Hang in there. Remember, you aren’t alone. This is a safe place to be who you are and I am so grateful we get to journey together.

All my love,

1. This is one of the best articles I have read in a very long time: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolyncenteno/2018/04/18/fear-shrinks-your-brain-and-makes-you-less-creative/