In collaboration with Turning Point Behavioral Health Care Center, Lake Street Church hosted “Coping with Election Anxiety” on Wednesday to offer the Evanston community spiritual and practical strategies for reducing stress related to the upcoming presidential election.
The Rev. Michael Woolf said he noticed an abundance of election anxiety this year during weekly worship, especially regarding former President Donald Trump. This prompted Woolf to provide a forum for the community to learn coping strategies and manage fears.
“Whatever your political persuasion, (even) if you like Donald Trump, then most people who like him would still admit that he causes a lot of chaos and that stability is not his main drawing point,” Woolf said. “He is a person who is about changing things … burn it to the ground and rebuild it, and that’s scary.”
During the event, Turning Point’s Chief Growth Officer Joe Flint led the group through a 4-7-8 breathing technique, where the individual inhales through their nose for four seconds, holds their breath for seven seconds and exhales completely for eight seconds. Flint said the exercise utilizes counting as a means to divert the individual from the thought they are anxious about.
He said the technique is beneficial when handling one’s “Anger Iceberg,” an ideology where more emotions are hidden under the surface while they are angry.
“Often people have a lot of anger about things like elections or laws that are passed, or new societal (circumstances) and situations, and they get caught up in a place in which that comes out as anger with people,” Flint said. “Anger is an expression of anxiety, often because of not being able to control the situation.”
In addition to breathing exercises, the event taught meditation techniques.
Despite resenting the practice at first, Woolf said meditation was his “big gateway towards real mental health” aside from religious exercise. Since then, Woolf has introduced several people to meditation, where it has had a profound effect on them, he said. He encouraged attendees to try different meditation tactics, from online applications to meditation candles.
“It’s like magic. It is also (a) sort of skill that you have to develop. And it’s sort of painful at the start to develop this skill, sitting with silence, noticing what thoughts come up and not. I think a lot of people get discouraged as they try to sit,” Woolf said. “If you actually go into it thinking that you’re going to win meditation, then that’s the only way that you can lose meditation.”
Attendee Sandra Atkinson said when participating in elections in the past, she voted for candidates with whom she was politically aligned and whose policies she believed in.
However, she said a potential second term for Trump worries her about the future of elections and American society.
“I never really been in an election before where I thought that one of the candidates put fear in my heart,” Atkinson said. “I have that feeling now, and I’m afraid and I’m stressed, and so that’s why I came here.”
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Evanston’s new “Living Room” provides mental health crisis support
— The Daily Explains: A guide to voting in the 2024 presidential election for NU students
