3 Strategies for Election JOY!

In EBT coaching and groups, I'm feeling the rumblings of anxiety about the upcoming 2020 elections. I hope these three ideas that are straight from brain based health will ease your mind and brighten your spirits.

Strategy #1

Accept the Essential Pain that there are no Opt-Outs or Do-Overs

Regardless of whether you decide to go door-to-door in swing states and plaster banners and stickers for your candidate everywhere or turn a blind eye to the entire spectacle, you are IN. Not voting is a vote of its own. Organizing your life around the elections, watching the news, and following the polls, you are not opting out, but how far "in" is healthy, stopping short of encoding (or reactivating) a survival drive that messes up your relationships, work, and life? The election is happening to all of us and what we do or do not do will impact our nation for years to come.

Strategy #2

Separate Love Relationships from Politics

Whether we are gay, straight, undecided, or fluid, we choose partners because they are at our same set point, and have some things in perfect harmony with us, but others that are polar opposites. If you and a loved one are polar opposites on politics, check if political fights (along with name-calling, screaming matches, and the like) are good for your relationship. If they make GREAT foreplay, keep discussing. If not, see your opposing views of ONE MORE REASON you are a perfect match for each other!

Strategy #3

Play the Set Point Game on Candidates

There is no real accountability in politics, and when someone takes over a powerful position, new wires are activated. The candidate may be quite different than the elected official they become. The lower their set point, the more extreme, radical, and unstable their positions, and the more easily they are corrupted by power, money, and more. As you look at the ballot, ask yourself, "Which candidate has the highest set point?" That person just might be your best choice.

As the media swings into action as the election year begins, keep your sense of humor, and be grounded in the importance of your decisions about your "relationship" with politics. If you get triggered, use the new Brain Based Health by EBT app, and spiral up to Brain State 1. The stress of this election will deepen the grooves in your brain's resiliency pathways. No matter who wins, you will bounce back faster!