Election Insurrection: Rising-Up Against the Stress Effect
By Fran Bieganek, Licensed Psychologist and Neurofeedback Practitioner

 

I think it’s fair to say that the 2020 U.S. Presidential election has been one for the history books. And, we, the people, find ourselves divided in who we are hoping will fill the office come January, 2021. Divided though we may be, we are all united in one common denominator of this election: it is causing us a great deal of stress! This leaves us all vulnerable to the consequences of high levels of stress. We know that stress triggers the release of the “stress hormone”, cortisol. Research has shown that high levels of cortisol in our system can negatively affect mood, fear response and motivation. Many of us are already noticing this – we feel anxious, we’re having trouble getting up the energy to attend to all the typical tasks we have to complete, we have less patience, our fuses are short. And, all of this stress is taking a toll on our bodies, too. We feel fatigue, we feel wired, we have more headaches, we feel more aches and pains. 

So, what’s the antidote to the stress effect of the election? Election Insurrection. Insurrection is defined as “rebellion”, “revolt”, “uprising”. The key to managing the stress of the election is to rebel against the tendencies of an anxious mindset and all of its implications. Taking action to rise up against the pressure posed by the anxiety response is your opportunity to find calm and clarity in the midst of a frenetic environment. When your whole system experiences the threat posed by stress it exhibits some natural responses. It goes into fight, flight or freeze mode. Fight or flight responses are generally experienced as an increase in activation responses – you feel anxious, chest tightness, racing heartbeat, agitated (physically and emotionally). Freeze response, on the other hand, is generally experienced as more of a depressive, numbing, dissociative response – you feel powerless, hopeless, disconnected, “checked out”.  The root of these responses is a nervous system that is out of balance – it’s overly activated.

A central feature of the human nervous system is the vagus nerve network. The vagus nerve is the largest nerve in the body, extending from the diaphragm all the way to the brain stem, crossing over nerves in the lungs, neck, throat, vocal cords and eyes. This system is associated with the parasympathetic branch, the calming part of the central nervous system. There are two parts to the network: the ventral vagal network and the dorsal vagal network. The ventral vagal network, sometimes referred to as the social nervous system, dampens the body’s regularly active state by allowing activation in a more nuanced process – it regulates the fight or flight response. The dorsal vagal network is associated with survival responses – shutdown (freeze) when faced with stress. When you activate your vagus nerve you also activate your prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain that deals with logic and reasoning. When you are able to reason or apply logic to a stressful situation it becomes much easier to think of ways to calm yourself, thus reducing stress. 

Earlier I mentioned the vagus nerve originates in the diaphragm and crosses over nerves in the lungs, neck, throat, vocal cords and eyes. Actions that involve those parts of the body will send messages to the brain. We can use this knowledge to inform us about ways to send let the brain know that it’s okay. Here are a few actions you can take to calm your brain when it’s stressed (this is your insurrection guide!):

Rise-up Action:  Deep, mindful breathing. Breathe from your diaphragm (imagine watching a baby breathe when it is sleeping), expanding your diaphragm when you inhale and contracting it slightly when you exhale. 

Effect: Breathing from your diaphragm directly stimulates the ventral vagal nerve system. This, in turn, activates the calming part of your nervous system and can result in a quieting of the stress response.

Rise-up Action:  Gargle.

Effect: Gargling will stimulate nerves in your throat. In turn, the vagus nerve will be stimulated because it crosses over nerves in the throat. The vagus nerve will activate the calming part of your nervous system.

Rise-up Action: Hum. Hum often. Hum while you work. Hum while you drive.

Effect: Since the vagus nerve passes through the vocal cords, it will be stimulated by the vibration of the vocal cords as you hum, resulting in a quieting of the stress response.

Rise-up Action: Tune into your nervous system when you’re calm and get a “baseline” for the state of your calm nervous system. Do this by sitting quietly and bringing your awareness to your physical body. Then notice how calm feels in your body. For example, you may notice that in your chest calm feels like spaciousness.

Effect: When you have a general sense of your body’s baseline it will be easier to notice the ways stress is impacting you physically. For example, you might feel your chest tighten when you read the news about the election. Noticing the tight chest will allow you the opportunity to relax using one of the strategies mentioned in this article.

Rise-up Action: Smile or look into someone’s eyes. Looking at yourself in the mirror works, too!

Effect: Social connection with other people or through “compassionate attention” (Aundi Kolber) to yourself stimulates the ventral vagal network. This can cue your body to relax.

Rise-up Action: Visualize someone you trust and imagine feelings of safety and connection. You could visualize a partner, a friend, a child, a pet or yourself.

Effect: This is another form of social connection, which can stimulate the ventral vagal nerve and lead to a sense of calm.

Rise-up Action: Engage your senses. Go outside, listen to birds, smell flowers or essential oils. 

Effect: These are all “grounding” activities and they have the potential to activate the ventral vagal network.

Rise-up Action: Engage in some kind of intentional movement: bike, walk, run, do yoga, dance, etc. Any of these options is available to you: go outside and move, go online and find a yoga class or a dance class (check into the offerings from our friends at Heart of Dance!). Do this when you first notice the anxious energy. Don’t wait until you’re experiencing a hijacked amygdala – by then you’ll have lost connection to your ventral vagal network.

Effect: When your system is in fight or flight mode it wants to move (“I need to “get out of here!”). Healthy movement will dissipate the naturally chaotic energy of the fight or flight response.  

Rise-up Action: Be intentional in your choice to notice the moments when your world feels okay. Maybe it doesn’t feel fantastic and maybe you have no idea how you’ll manage in the next few weeks, but right now, in this moment you feel okay. Acknowledge this, give this attention, allow yourself to be fully present with it.

Effect: This will counteract threat messages your brain may be receiving when you engage in worrying. If the brain doesn’t perceive threat, it won’t engage the fight-flight or freeze response.

Rise-up Action: Find awe – that feeling of being small, but connected to something vast. Examples might be looking out a window at a scene of nature or the night sky or a sunrise or sunset, finding nature scenes on your computer, listening to music, or looking at art, either around you or on the computer.

Effect: Awe, by its very nature, counteracts a sense of threat. No threat, no fight-flight or freeze.

Rise-up Action: Practice gratitude. Make note, with intention, daily of at least 3 things for which you are grateful.

Effect: Research has shown that the act of gratitude regulates stress hormones, wires and fires neural networks that are connected to the brain’s bliss center, stimulates secretion of dopamine and serotonin (neurotransmitters that influence our mood, make us feel better), and promotes positive thinking.

Rise-up Action: Limit social media interaction.

Effect: There’s just so much potential for the fight-flight-freeze system to kick in with these interactions! So, it’s truly not worth your time and effort!

It’s time to rise-up, revolt against the tyranny of stress. While you can’t change the fact that there will always be environmental factors (like volatile elections) that lead to high levels of stress, you can affect how the stress impacts you. This November seems like the prime opportunity for you to put into play some practices that will help you to manage chronic, high-level stress. I invite you to set the intention to participate in the Election Insurrection! 

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Fran Bieganek is a Licensed Psychologist practicing holistic psychotherapy and neurofeedback at Bhakti Wellness Center. She has been practicing for over 20 years and currently specializes in the areas of trauma, anxiety, depression, grief and loss, stress management, developmental transitions and well-being.  She works with both individuals and couples. In addition to her therapy practice she teaches Psychology courses at a local college. Fran can be reached at 612-564-9947 or by emailing her at: franbieganekmslp@gmail.com.