Were you dreading yesterday’s Election Day in the United States? Or perhaps you feel disconnected from local and national politics. Either way, Election Day tends to bring some trepidation for most people, and the results can ease that dread or make it worse.
So today, what are you feeling? Unsettled or relieved? Even if you feel relieved today, chances are you were feeling some stress over the last several days or weeks. Moving your body can help clear any leftover stress hormones. If you woke up stressed because your candidates didn’t win, you likely still have stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline coursing through your body.
Your nervous system is likely responding in one of four ways to election results.
- Calm. You were pleased with the results. You feel settled and safe as you think of the political future. You anticipate a better quality of life because your favorite candidate will be in office, or maybe you voted on a referendum and you are pleased with the decision.
- Fight. If election results weren’t what you were hoping for, you may feel unsettled and anxious. Your body is making stress hormones to prepare itself to defend you because it doesn’t feel safe.
- Flight. Because the perceived threat isn’t tangible (please don’t trade punches with your newly elected officials), your body moves from fight to flight. Running away seems like the safest way to protect you.
Chances are you aren’t fighting or running from anyone right now, but your body is activated and ready to move. This may feel like anxiety, racing thoughts, irritability, inability to sleep, loss of appetite, body temperature changes, a pounding heart, or inability to sit still. The fear feels like a knot in your stomach you can’t get away from.
For either fight or flight, take time to move your body. Go for a walk or dance to some music. Use your muscles in a different way, since they are prepared to fight or flee. I also recommend reducing your caffeine intake today. Caffeine is a stimulant that increases the production of stress hormones and keeps you stuck in fight or flight longer.
But if you can’t fight or run and you can’t discharge all the survival energy that has built up, your nervous system will transition into...
- Freeze. You are familiar with this instinct modeled in opossums. If they can’t fight or run to safety, they play dead. Humans do the same thing, but it looks a little different. Freezing can look like lethargy, apathy, depression, making yourself small, or wanting to hide. It can feel like numbness and sluggish thinking. You may even look fine on the outside, but inside it is all you can do to keep going because you just want to curl up in a tight ball.
To move out of freeze, I recommend starting by sipping something warm and comforting. Again, avoid stimulants like caffeine, which are jarring to a frozen nervous system. (Have you ever been disoriented by a loud noise that woke you in the middle of the night? Stimulants feel like that to a frozen nervous system.) Sit in front of a window and let the sun shine on you. Do some gentle stretching. Rock a baby to sleep, because rocking helps regulate the nervous system. Wrap up in a blanket or snuggle with a child. All of these are ways to gently bring your body out of a frozen state.
Calming your body is one part of the answer. The other is where you place your trust. We know that election results are not a surprise to the Lord. He knew about yesterday’s results before the United States was founded 250 years ago.
We can be like Daniel, who recognized that the Lord sets government officials in place and removes others, and who still praised God for his justice (Daniel 2:20-23). Even though Daniel’s future was dependent on the whims of royalty, his trust was in the character of God.
Whether we celebrated election results or bemoaned them, we can rest in God’s character as well.
- Good. The purity of God means that no evil can influence His goodness. He is not tainted by politics, deception or immorality.
- Just. God always acts with justice. He doesn’t miss or turn away from wrongdoing. His timing may not be our timing, but God always deals with evil.
- Patient. God’s endurance is much longer than ours. He gives people plenty of time to see and understand truth.
- Loving. We are created in God’s image and loved by Him. He persistently woos us to Himself and desires all people to be saved.
- Faithful. We can trust God’s promise that He will never leave nor forsake us, whether in times of ease or times of difficulty.
There is peace in trusting God. Good leaders may fail us, and bad leaders may harm us. We may have seasons of prosperity and seasons of scarcity. We may feel like rejoicing, or perhaps we want to weep. But we can confidently say with Daniel, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.”
