Election Stress And 5 Ways To Ease It

 

With the upcoming election in the US I wanted to talk about the stress that many of us are feeling. I know it’s impacting us here in the US but it’s also being felt all around the world. Many of my international friends have expressed their concerns too – we are really connected by our humanity, feeling the challenges and joys of others no matter where we live. 

As sensitive empathic people we feel things deeply. We have many gifts of real compassion and understanding, so needed in our world, but we can easily get thrown off kilter.

I have to say in these pre-election times it’s easy for me to get really overwhelmed, feeling angry, frightened, and discouraged, even when I’m limiting my news consumption.

As empaths we so easily pick up the energy around us – a gift and a curse! It’s vital for us to practice good self-care at times like this so we can continue to hold the light for our precious planet, and be present for our loved ones and those we’re serving with our work. 

In tense times peace is possible. This may be hard to believe, but as sensitive empaths we have super powers of quickly shifting energy, and visualizing and tuning into the invisible help around us. We just need to take some time for practices that help us stay clear and light. Here are some simple things I’ve been doing to help with my election stress. I hope you find them helpful too!

In these tense pre-election times I wanted to share some ways I’m finding to help with the election stress. I hope you find them helpful.

1. Clean Out – Feeling easily overwhelmed I have to remind myself often that what I’m feeling mostly doesn’t belong to me. If you’re a sensitive caring person this is probably true for you too. I make sure to take time daily, sometimes twice a day, to sit, ground into the earth and release what doesn’t belong to me. I do this by creating a connection from my hips to the center of the earth that is hollow (can be a tree, column of light, etc.). I then set this on release and intend that all energies that don’t belong to me flow down this grounding cord into the earth. I can’t believe how quickly I can feel calmer when I do this.

2. Tap On It – EFT tapping can be also almost immediately helpful for election stresses. In less than 5 minutes you can ease the tensions in your mind and body with some simple tapping. There are many ways to use tapping, the simplest being just bringing your awareness to what you’re feeling in the moment – tensions, thoughts racing, heart thumping, etc. and tapping on the face and body points. Tapping immediately can start to return you to feeling calm turning down that flight/flight pattern.

Another way to use tapping is to use statements from Intention Tapping, a recently developed form of EFT. One of the key statements is “I release all of my emotional attachments to…” inserting what is upsetting at the end of the statement. You say the statement once and then tap silently around all of the points for some rounds noticing what appears, your next target for tapping.

One of my favorite ways I’ve used Intention Tapping for the election stress is “I release all of my emotional attachments to all of my fears of what’s going to happen” and “I release all of my emotional attachments to this shouldn’t be happening” or “… they shouldn’t be like that”.

3. Flower Power – Flower essences serve bring us into more positive and balanced emotional states by bathing us in the energetic qualities of the flowers. There are many that can be helpful right now but one I’ve been using a lot is Vervain which is for calming the “I’m right and you’re wrong” part of us, helping us to respectfully allow for others’ opinions and ways of living.

Vervain’s healing message is “I allow others to follow their own beliefs”, something we all can live by.

4. Shake It Off – Lately I’ve been playing with trying some shaking to help me release uncomfortable feelings. I’ve watched our dog shake it off after she has been really frightened and it’s amazing how quickly she returns to her normal happy self. My practice is really simple – I just tune into something that is bothering me and allow my body to move, twist, shake until I feel a natural place to stop. I can literally feel things moving through me. I invite you to try it but caution – it looks really weird so make sure you’re alone!

5. Put It In A Box – this is a wonderful resource I’ve been using for some years now. It’s simple – just find a box, preferably beautiful, and write on the top God Box, or whatever feels good to you. I have God/Universe/spirit helpers written on mine. Then write down your wishes, things you need big and little help with, and put them in the box. That’s it. God/the Universe, your spirit helpers do the rest. I can’t tell you how relaxing it is to do this and how many of my wishes, when revisited again, have come true!

Of course there are many more ways to help with stresses of these times but these are a few of my current favorites and I hope they help you with your election stress.

I would love to hear how it goes!