Keeping Mentally & Emotionally Fit

I know it’s been a while since I wrote, and this was the last entry, but I didn’t feel like I had enough information to write something cohesive so I didn’t post anything. I also think I was struggling with my own kind of stress and anxiety over the election and I had to kind of get myself straight so I could talk about this in a way that was meaningful and comprehensive, but also not through the lens of my own anxiety. I had to take care of me.

I did not want to respond through the lens of my own anxiety. In the social media circles, we see a lot of memes and posts about not being in fear, being empowered, getting ready to dig in and do the work and there’s just a whole lot of over positive reinforcement. Which is not a terrible thing. What it is that was a trauma response. This election is terrible. The consequences for so many things to harm the maximum amount of people is really high. For many the consequences are really dire. Many people have just begun to get out of the rut they were in from Covid and the Trump years before this. It’s unfortunate people aren’t patient. I understand why. Yet patience would’ve gotten us through to a much better place if we would just have stayed the course.

One of the first things I want to talk about is trauma response. A trauma response has a lot of ways that it manifests. It can be full-blown depression, anxiety, rage, sadness, mania, etc. it can also be obsessive compulsive behavior such as you know the fear of lack and running out of things so storing and hoarding things. It could manifest as the urge to run to react to leave to vacate. I can bring up feelings of agoraphobia and not wanting to go outside not wanting to interact with other people because you don’t trust how these people are gonna be or if they are trustworthy.And the profound sense of being overwhelmed by just the sheer magnitude of something you feel helpless against. That creepy hopelessness that you can’t shake.

And the profound sense of being overwhelmed by just the sheer magnitude of something you feel helpless against. That creepy hopelessness that you can’t shake.

For me right around December 15th I crashed. I couldn’t really function. I was feeling all of the scary depressive feelings of just being completely overwhelmed and in shock that we could be entering into a dangerous authoritarian period of time here in the United States. I wasn’t watching a whole lot of news. Watching just enough so I wasn’t completely ignorant of what was unfolding, but even that little bit of news for me was infuriating. Everyone appeared to be bowing down to this guy. No one was addressing the fact that he is such a horrible human being. That is gaslighting on a grand scale. He has people believing (or pretending to believe) his racism, unhinged ramblings, his power-hungry revenge. And these lies and these and this normalizing makes people feel unsafe for all the same reasons you’re crazy drunk, uncle or your abusive family made you feel unsafe. And don’t be fooled into thinking you’ll ever feel safe as long as he is in charge. Any adult child of an alcoholic will tell you that you never feel safe.

I don’t want to dwell in what we know the issues are. What I wanna talk about is how to develop mental fitness in this period of time. One of the best things to do is to create stability in your world so whether that’s in your house or your home or in the rituals that you do every day find grounding, stability, and what you can do on a daily basis. This could be as simple as going for a walk. Doing yoga Qi gong. Some general exercise. Dancing. Moving the body actually helps the brain get out of the fog and the funk that it’s in. It doesn’t have to be a lot. It just has to be consistent. If you did something for 10 minutes six times a day instead of doing a whole hour workout. The thing is to just do it.

The next thing to do is to find things that you can do that bring you joy. That can be writing or reading or maybe watching movies, knitting things. These kinds of activities, bring your focus out of your thoughts and feelings. Creativity is a powerful mind reset. For example I like to draw that’s my happy place so I plan to do a lot of drawing in the next four years.

One of the ways that our mental health can slip and we can go into those dark places is if we feel isolated and alone. That is something that authoritarian regimes try to do is to divide us so we feel isolated alone. The cure for that helping others. Getting outside of yourself and just doing something for others. Showing up. It is going to fundraisers, soup kitchens, or helping the homeless or showing up to be a mentor. Doing the things that build connections. Start community art projects. Community project

I think this next part is fundamentally one of the more important things to consider, and that is to not consume alcohol or drugs recreationally. I understand the attraction to escape, but it also puts you in a place of not being aware and vulnerable. That could have unintended consequences. The other part of that is especially with alcohol. It is a depressant, and it tends to amplify or override our sense of reason and push us into irrationality. I’m not gonna get into the weeds about mushrooms and pot or any of that stuff, I myself don’t do any drugs or alcohol. I feel much better in my life. I don’t partake in anything that alters my mind. Yet, if that is your path and it is something that you enjoy doing, I suggest you seriously consider the who? What? Where? Why? And how it could make you vulnerable in situations that could lead to situations you did not intend.

And how it could make you vulnerable in situations that could lead to situations you did not intend.

Eating healthy is another piece of good mental health. I’m not saying go crazy. Consider eating a more balanced diet. Don’t eat lot of sugars and salt. Eat food that you know is nutritious. Start taking supplements. Thiscan go a long way with just keeping your mind fit. Try to stay away from going to extremes or trying to eat clean food or anything that’s gonna make you more stressful. If we could see disruptions in our food supply that could get very difficult if we limit ourselves to just certain kinds of food.

And the last thing I wanna talk about with mental fitness is hygiene, which might seem an odd thing for mental fitness yet our hygiene is really important to our sense of how we feel about who we are in relationship to others. It can often be an indicator that someone is struggling with mental health as well. Hygiene translate not only to the body, but to where you live how you cook how you maintain your life in general. So even if the world is falling apart to be able to kind of control your house and keep it neat and tidy can often just help us feel good about who we are and at least know that we are doing something good in the world. The great Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, often spoke about when you’re doing something be fully present in it. If you’re washing the dishes, wash the dishes. If you’re driving the car, you’re driving the car. If you’re folding the clothes, etc… It is these simple acts of being fully present, embracing the moment that can help stabilize feelings of unrest and depression, feelings of not being in control.

And I want to be clear I’m not giving mental health advice and I’m not trying to diagnose anything with this blog. I am simply presenting techniques that can help you if you begin to feel like your mental health is starting to slide. It is also important that if you recognize it is something you cannot help yourself that you reach out and seek professional help. There are plenty of therapists and counselors that can guide you through some of those darker thoughts in those darker moments. They’re also healers and alternative complementary medicine people who can help you as well. But make sure you get the right help for whatever is coming up for you. You might also find going to 12 step meetings can help give you a support system.

I’m going to finish this blog off by saying it’s really important to have a core group of people that you can connect with on a regular basis throughout all of this. Trust is probably the most important thing for mental fitness. If we feel like we can’t get to a place where we feel safe or that there aren’t people we feel safe around our mind doesn’t do well with that. I know right now there’s a movement to get off of Facebook and I think that’s wise I think for some people you might need a long runway to get off and that’s OK too. Just recognize that at some point it’s going to evolve into a very scary place where we won’t know what is right or what is real , it fill be filled with hate and other kinds of divisive speech. There are other emerging social media networks like Bluesky and Mastadon and a few others. I suggest finding something that works. They are not like Facebook and some of them are pretty unsophisticated. That is something we’re just going have to evolve forward into.