How to Survive the Aftermath of the Election
Most of us have family members or friends on the "opposite side" of our own political point of view. Now we must make a choice: Are we going to create a bridge with those people or feed the division?
I challenge you to sit and listen to people on the "opposite side" with whom you are close. Ask them to explain their point of view and truly just listen, whether or not you agree. Try to understand what they are saying from their chair. Then ask them to do the same for you. Even if you don't agree, the fact that you have civilly expressed and heard each other creates a bridge and crosses the divide back to being connected.I found a CBS News article, "How to Deal with Post-Election Emotional Roller Coaster," that describes the emotional aftermath of this long and drawn out election and what to do now.Ken Yeager, associate professor of psychiatry and director of The Ohio State University Stress, Trauma and Resilience Program said, "fear and anxiety are normal feelings after such an unsettling campaign season — even for people whose candidate won. If their choice was a so-called ‘lesser of two evils' vote, they may still have reservations about what the future holds despite the win." He also told CBS News, "On either side, whether you win or lose, the idea is to be a gracious winner or loser."James Maddux, professor emeritus of psychology at George Mason University, said:
"There's a concept in psychology known as emotional forecasting which is concerned with our ability to predict what we're going to feel if certain things happen to us. It's largely based on the research of Daniel Gilbert at Harvard. It finds for the most part, that generally speaking, we are very bad at predicting our own emotions, how good we're going to feel about something or how bad."
Maddux said we usually over-predict both. "When the good thing happens, we don't feel as great as we thought we would. And if we feel bad, we get over it rather quickly."Having done therapy for 25+ years, I can tell you we are more resilient than we know. I have seen clients go through painful losses, divorces and deaths. I've seen people who were unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer and HIV. If someone told them ahead of time that these events would occur, they might likely say, "I don't think I could survive." In reality, when we are faced with even the most difficult tragedy we tolerate a lot more than we imagine we ever could have. Why? Because we don't have any other choice. That's when we learn about our resilience.As a country our resilience is now being tested. And I have no doubt we will survive, even if it doesn't feel that way. Read the full article, "How to Deal with Post-Election Emotional Roller Coaster." It will make you feel better no matter who you voted for. And it has some great tips on how to cope with the difficult emotions most of us are feeling.Thank you for being part of our relationship community! We appreciate you!We are available to work with you and/or your partner. You can call us at 410-363-2825 or email. We would be delighted to help.Image Copyright mettus