10 Resources for dealing with election Anxiety

Just about everyone I know has some anxiety surrounding the upcoming election. Here are 10 resources I hope you'll find useful if anxiety, not to mention outright fear and terror are weighing you down as the election approaches, in the days after (because I doubt we will know who the winner is immediately as was the case four years ago), and once a winner is declared.

1. Unitarian Universalist Association's Community Resilience Hub

2. The United Church of Christ  “Don’t be Scared, be Prepared: What to Expect in the 2024 November Election”  

3. The Trevor Project  “Coping with Intense Emotions Around the Presidential Election” 

4. Psychology Today – “12 Tips for Managing Election Anxiety” 

5. Time Magazine – “How to Survive Election Season Without Losing Your Mind” 

6. American Psychological Association – “The impact of election stress: Is political anxiety harming your health? “ 

Psychological science shows that politics can harm our physical and mental health, but the positive aspects of political engagement can lead to greater well-being 

7. NPR Morning Edition segment –“Stressed about politics? Here are 5 ways to take care of your mental health” –    3-minute listen 

8. MEET UP McPherson Clinical Counseling host “Election Fatigue & Stress: Navigating the 2024 Election Season” Online Meet Up 

   
   

9. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder - The book or a great concise summary.

   
   

10. Sources of accurate information about voting and the election:

Multiple federal government agencies are also working to protect your vote:

• Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Election Security

• Election Assistance Commission (EAC) on Election Security

• FBI on Election Crimes

• National Association of State Election Directions (NASED) on Election FAQs

  
  

mending meditation: a spiritual challenge

Our theme this month is REPAIR and my challenge to you for the month is something I call the “Mending Meditation.”  It has three parts and each part involves a different type of mending or repair work: 1. Mend something that physically or mechanically needs repairing. 2. Mend something about yourself. 3. Mend something in the world around you.

First is to find something that physically or mechanically needs repairing and fix it. Some things will be beyond most of us. If you’re not a car mechanic, or HVAC technician or computer IT person, perhaps look for something you can do already or you may be able to learn with a lesson or two from a family member, a friend or YouTube.  Manageable repair tasks might be things such as a sock with a hole in it, a pair of jeans with a rip or tear, a squeaky door hinge, a flat bicycle tire, or even a dead battery in a television remote.  The physical act of fixing it yourself is a meditation. Be present to it. What did you have to do to mend something that was broken? Did you need to learn a new skill? Was it frustrating? When you fixed it and it was repaired, how did you feel?

Next, repair something about yourself.  No one is perfect. There is probably something about you that could use a tune-up. This could be something physical, something emotional, or something spiritual. It might involve your physiology or mental health. It might be an attitude or a skill. Perhaps you’re already doing this. Those of us living with physical or mental illnesses engage this type of mending daily.  Maybe choose something about being nicer to a family member or friend who gets on your nerves. Maybe finally learn to use Google Docs or go back to yoga class or take up tai-chi.

Finally, do something to repair the world. Tikun olam is Hebrew for “world repair.” Although the term is found in the Mishnah (compilation of oral Jewish law circa 200 C.E.), since the 1950s it has come to mean doing social justice work in more liberal Jewish circles.  How you repair the world takes many forms.  Sometimes it’s as simple as acts of loving kindness toward family, friends, and neighbors.  Sometimes it’s more involved such as volunteering for a social, racial, or environmental justice organization.  It could be as simple as voting or donating money to a worthy charitable cause.  

The challenge is to practice each of these three types of repair this month and reflect on the commonalities and differences of these three ways to mend things.  Rev. Laura Everett, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches says the spiritual practice metaphors of mending are rich and tactile. Experience these for yourself this month.  As you do reflect on how mending something, including yourself, is as Rev. Everett reminds us “a validation of worth.” 

As always, if you take on the challenge, I’d love to hear about your experience with it.  

mend The Things worthy of repair

Some years ago, the stitching on a favorite pair of slippers let go. I noticed when I nearly stepped out of it while carrying the laundry. “Damn!” I thought, “I need to get some new slippers.” I stepped out of the slippers, put the laundry basket on the bed and began folding the laundry. Then I remembered something. “Wait! I don’t have to throw the slippers away. I can mend it! And I did. Instead of creating trash and spending money on slippers, I kept the slippers and spent a few dollars on a set of needles and various types of thread. This was my first opportunity to take up a spiritual practice I had learned about a few weeks prior at a workshop called “Mending Church,” led by the Rev. Laura Everett at a Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship retreat at First Unitarian Church in Worcester, MA.  Rev. Everett had spoken about mending as a spiritual practice and made connections to church, faith communities, and ministry, noting “the metaphors are rich and tactile.”

And indeed they are. I need mending, you need mending, the church needs mending, the country needs mending, the world needs mending, just about everything needs mending.  And all of us have the ability to mend. We can all learn to mend. Rev. Everett explained that just as we have actually lost the art of mending clothes in our culture, we have in many ways also lost the art of mending ourselves, our relationships, our families, and our communities. Rev. Everett writes (https://religionnews.com/2019/04/10/the-spirituality-of-mending/):

We learn to look for the places that need repair. We discover holes at the elbows and fraying at the cuffs. We see stress at the seams. We notice the places of friction and instability often need the most repairs. Sometimes we find that the garment was not well created to begin with and thus, prone to tearing. We learn to look carefully and ask, “Is this worth fixing?” I find myself asking this often about my neighborhood, my city, my church, and my country.

The act of physically stitching my slipper back together brought me to that place where the Spirit teaches me lessons. I couldn’t find an exact matching thread, so I used something close in color. My life is like this, I thought, I am not always a perfect match and I repair myself as best I can. I am not like I used to be. I am worn and used – I’ve been through parenting, divorce, depression, and cancer. I’m full of patches and mends that don’t perfectly match. I am not the shiny new shoe or garment I once was, but who is? Like my slipper, I am worth repairing. Heck, I loved my odd little slippers, they were warm and cozy and broken in to fit my feet. I loved them the way they were, even with the repair stitching that didn’t quite match. Those slippers finally fell apart to the extent that no more mending would hold them together. It was then I got some new ones. And now I mend those!

Sometimes I get mad at myself for not being a famous designer brand three piece suit. Over and over I have to get used to the fact that I am an off the rack jeans and cotton T-shirt. That’s who I am. And not a top brand at that. But I’m me and me is enough. Worthy. Lovable. And when I break down, I am worth fixing. “Mending,” Rev. Everett says, “is a validation of worth.”

The looming presidential election rents our minds and hearts with anxiety.  Civil discourse is ripped apart and needs mending. The supreme court needs mending.  Congress needs mending.  The constitution and democracy need mending.  Health care needs mending, reproductive freedom needs mending, education needs mending, the social safety net needs mending, immigration policy needs mending, Gaza needs mending, Ukraine needs mending. So much seems ripped apart, worn out, and broken. 

But it’s worth mending. All of it. Just like you and me.   I can’t afford to buy new things all the time. I need to mend and repair.  I can’t make a new me when I feel broken, I must work on mending and repairing myself.  I can’t afford to tear down my country and culture and start from zero, so I am going to go about mending it as best as I can.  I hope you’ll join me.  

Shine on,

Rev. Tony