Stress Management Strategies for Professionals During Election Season

3 research-backed strategies I’m using to manage my emotions on Election Day: ___ 1/ I’m practicing “psychological distancing” You know how it’s easier to give advice to other people than to yourself? That’s because you have distance between yourself and their problem. Psych distancing is about intentionally creating space between yourself and your problem. One way to do so is to speak about yourself in third person: I might say, “How is Evan going to stay grounded today?" As funky as this is, it activates the machinery in my brain that I use to help others. Psychologist Ethan Kross has found that this drastically reduces the strength of your emotional reaction. ___ 2/ I’m going for a big old run Author Haruki Murakami has run for an hour a day for 30 years, participating in at least one marathon per year. The main reason he runs? For the neurological benefits. When you engage in aerobic exercise, you produce a rapid increase in the number of neurons in your hippocampus. This lasts for 28 hours. During that time, your neurons wait for intellectual stimulation. If you give it them, your neurons connect with the existing networks in your brain, broadening and densening your brain in the process. This heightens your ability to learn and remember things. ___ 3/ I’m leaning on the people close to me Research shows that you can literally outsource your negative emotions to those you’re closest to, minimizing their impact. In a study at the University of Wisconsin, researchers put people in MRI machines and threatened to shock them at random. There were three groups of participants: 1) People who were alone. 2) People who held the hand of a stranger. 3) People who held the hand of a loved one. The researchers measured fear activity in each person’s brain, and they found something incredible in the third group. → Participants’ brains were much less active. That’s because they could literally offload some of their fear to their loved ones. ___ TAKEAWAY Election Day is an incubator of stress & anxiety. Which makes it the perfect testing ground for some deeply nerdy emotion management strategies. ___ P.S. follow me, Evan Watkins, for more posts about emotions & EQ. ___ Sources: 1/ "Self-Distancing: Theory, Research, and Current Directions" by Dr. Ethan Kross 2/ "Novelist As A Vocation" By Haruki Murakami 3/ "Lending a hand: social regulation of the neural response to threat" James A Coan et al ___ #emotionalintelligence

You don’t eliminate stress in a high performance life. You design around it. Pressure is part of ambition. Deadlines Decisions Visibility. That doesn’t go away. What changes is whether your structure supports your nervous system or silently works against it. Most stress advice focuses on surface-level tools. Meditation, breathing.. Structural stress management looks deeper. 1. Calendar Design & Deep Work Constant task switching keeps you in low-grade activation all day. Reactive calendars fragment attention and elevate stress load. Protect deep work blocks. Reduce context switching. Design cognitive intensity, don’t scatter it. 2. Boundaries, People Pleasing & Immune Load Chronic relational vigilance is physiological stress. Difficulty saying no sustains HPA activation and increases systemic burden. Practice saying no in small stakes situations first. Boundary capacity is built, not declared. 3. Creative Art Therapies (CATs) Music, journaling, creative visualization and non-output creativity shift you out of threat monitoring. High performers live in execution mode. Creative recovery restores cognitive bandwidth and nervous system flexibility. 4. Nature Exposure Even 10 minutes in nature can reduce cortisol and perceived stress. The deeper the immersion, the stronger the effect. Trees and wilderness regulate physiology better than concrete and traffic. 5. Morning Cortisol Control How you wake up sets the hormonal tone. Aggressive alarms and immediate phone exposure create an unnecessary spike during natural cortisol rise. Use light, temperature, sunlight. Delay screens. Protect the first 20 minutes. 6. Magnesium & Micronutrient Repletion Chronic stress increases magnesium demand and loss. Low magnesium amplifies sympathetic tone and impairs recovery. Strategic repletion supports regulation, especially under sustained pressure. 7. Energy Management Perpetual dieting and excessive training stack stress on top of stress. Periodize intake. Align training load with total life demand. Energy availability is resilience. Stress is unavoidable in a high performance life. Burnout is not. Which part of your structure needs attention right now? Follow Tom Waite for posts that help you live and lead longer.

Using Emotional Intelligence to Manage Election Day Stress Election Day can stir intense emotions, often because political topics touch our core beliefs and identities. Emotional Intelligence (EI) can help you stay centered, calm, and resilient. Here’s how: 🔹 Recognize Your Triggers Identify the core beliefs at play. Emotions can feel intense because the issues matter to us personally. Naming what you’re feeling—like “I feel anxious because I value fairness” or “This feels threatening to my freedom”—helps create distance from the reaction. 🔹 Self-Regulate Election Day conversations feel urgent, but EI teaches us to pause and choose how to respond. Step back, breathe, and decide on a response that aligns with your values. 🔹 Practice Empathy Remember, others also feel deeply about their views. Instead of debating, share why something matters and invite others to do the same. This often leads to more constructive, values-based conversations. 🔹 Set Boundaries With news everywhere, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Limit media consumption and take breaks to recharge. Beyond Election Day These EI skills aren’t just for high-stakes days—they’re helpful every day. Practicing self-awareness, Empathy, and self-regulation enriches our interactions and strengthens resilience, no matter the situation.

Feeling the stress today? You're not alone. 69% of Americans are anxious about the outcome of today's election and 77% worry about the future of the country. The result: Lots of distracting thoughts. In a recent Fortune article, a trio of psychologists offered a simple playbook to stay grounded and focused on election day. Here it is: ——— 1️⃣ Limit News Consumption It’s easy to get sucked into updates, but constant news-checking fuels anxiety. Instead, pick specific times after work to catch up on trusted sources. ——— 2️⃣ Acknowledge, Don’t Engage, with Anxious Thoughts When a stressful thought pops up, recognize it, then let it drift by. Fighting it only makes it stronger. ——— 3️⃣ Practice Grounding Techniques Deep breathing or a quick walk can help calm the body and refocus the mind. The more you practice, the easier it gets to switch out of “stress mode” and back to productivity. ——— 4️⃣ Set Boundaries in Work Conversations If political talk with colleagues feels overwhelming, it’s okay to say, “Let’s stick to work topics today.” A quick reset goes a long way in reducing tension. ——— 5️⃣ Focus on Immediate, Tangible Goals Ground yourself in work you can control. Small, achievable tasks can be a helpful distraction and give a sense of progress, helping you steer through the uncertainty. ——— How are you managing stress today? P.S. This is a post about reducing political anxiety, so no politically-charged comments please. There are plenty of other places for that.

Political Burnout? Election Season Burnout? Debate Talk Burnout? Is burnout become like pumpkin spice - like, we're adding it to everything? Yes, but I LOVE pumpkin spice. And yet, despite what you may have read or are feeling today, a political debate cannot cause your burnout. BUT. It can cause stress levels to rise and fluctuate (a friend of mine posted her stress tracker stats from during the debate watching time - they were GIVING FLUCTUATION, folks). When your stress levels have been chronically elevated, experiencing the tension of anything from high drama non-reality television to the tension between candidates at a debate can throw your body into a tailspin. So, how can you keep yourself healthy during this election season? You must remember, as Amelia Nagoski and Emily Nagoski taught us, to close the stress cycle. Here are the suggestions they offer in their book: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking The Stress Cycle (and yes, you should own it and read it) 1. Move That Body: Exercise is the most effective way to complete the stress cycle. Moving your body, whether through walking, running, dancing, or stretching, helps release the pent-up energy caused by stress. 2. Control Your Breathing Roll: Slow, deep breathing can help signal to your body that the stress is over. #Whoop researcher Kristen Holmes teaches us that a breathing pattern of a full inhale, followed by taking an extra sip of an inhale before exhaling is the most effective way to breathe to manage HRV levels. (I call this, Just the Sip breathing because that makes me laugh) 3. Connection: Being with others, even through small, positive exchanges like smiling at someone, can help reset your nervous system and signal safety. 4. Release A Guffaw: Genuine laughter helps to release stress by activating your parasympathetic nervous system. Watching something funny, joking with friends, or sharing funny memories can help. 5. Hug It Out: Safe, affectionate touch, such as hugs, cuddling, or even holding hands, releases oxytocin and can help you feel connected and safe, completing the stress cycle. The Nagoski sisters suggest a 20-second hug or 6-second kiss with a loved one. 6. Let Those Tears Flow: Emotional release through crying is another way to close the stress cycle. It can relieve the buildup of stress and help your body return to a state of calm. 7. Make Some Art: Engaging in creative activities like painting, writing, music, or any form of artistic expression can provide an emotional release and help you process stress. 8. Fun and Play: Playful activities, whether with children, pets, or in games, allow the body and mind to experience joy and release tension, completing the stress cycle. Picture from: Sky News AU X Account