The Opinions - Have Election Anxiety? These 5 Minutes Can Help.

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Today, many of us are ruminating on an unknowable future. Eliza Barclay, a climate editor for New York Times Opinion and a certified mindfulness instructor, is here to help with that. In this 5-minute mindfulness meditation, she aims to help listeners ease their fears and anxieties about the election by drawing their attention to the present moment.Thoughts? Email us at [e-mail]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times Opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it. I'm Eliza Barclay. I'm the climate editor with Opinion, and I'm also a certified mindfulness teacher. I've been teaching meditation on and off for about five years. I've been practicing meditation for over 10 years and have gotten a lot out of the practice. Today is Election Day, and I'm guessing that a lot of people woke up. This morning feeling very anxious with lots of thoughts swirling around their heads. I guess there's nerve-ridden, stressed out. Is resignation and emotion?

A sense of heightened anticipation about what is going to happen tonight. I feel confused. And in the days to come. I am feeling sick to my stomach. It's a challenging day to focus on anything. We have a lot of uncertainty. We really don't know what's going to happen. I like a good mystery.

That can drive a lot of rumination in the mind. But this is kind of like a nerve-wracking mystery, not like a good novel that you're reading on a vacation or anything. That rumination can feel productive, but there's also a fair amount of suffering that accompanies it. It's kind of like a beginning of a toothache. We feel it in our bodies. It's like having a tense muscle like that just won't go away.

All-time high, super stressed. We feel it, of course, in the mind. If you've already voted, then you've done your part. And there's probably not much else you can do. At a certain point, we have to let go and recognize that additional anxious thinking over the course of the day is not going to change the results of the election today. And so given that kind of mind state that so many of us may be in, there's an opportunity actually with mindfulness meditation practice to create a little bit of space.

between all those fearful thoughts, the concerns, the worries, anxiety, and create a little bit of calm by just paying attention to the present moment. This is a basic meditation for beginners. You don't have to have any experience to try this. I recommend you just find a somewhat quiet space to do it in and a comfortable place to sit. Bringing a sense of upliftedness to the upper body. and just beginning by doing a brief body scan, starting from the top of the head and just scanning down,

noticing any tension, any gripping, any clenching, in the face, in the shoulders, in the hands, and just inviting the entire body to relax to relax, just relax here in stillness, in the sitting posture, and bringing the attention now to the breath, noticing sensations, perhaps in the nostrils, or in the movement of the belly, and just tracking those sensations, feeling the breath coming in, feeling the breath going out,

just trying to stay with the breath, not trying to control the breath, make it speed up or slow down, just feeling, whatever rhythm it's flowing in in this moment. We may discover that the mind is very busy, very active. Lots of thoughts arising, pulling our attention away from the breath.

It's not a problem we just simply label this mental activity as thoughts. Just allow them to pass away and bringing the attention back to the breath. Just feeling it moving. in and out of the body. We just do this over and over, just coming back to the breath again and again. Simply noticing as thoughts arise, pulling our attention away from the breath, noticing without judgment, just one aspect of our experience, observing thoughts, passing away, drifting away, coming back to this anchor of the in-breath and the out-breath.

feeling this breath in this moment of now feeling this out breath and this final moment of meditation just resting here in stillness in presence thank you for practicing with me today

and know that in the coming hours and days you can always return to this practice a way to come out of swirling thoughts and overwhelm and tension in the body, a way to find a little bit of peace and stillness and presence. Be well. If you like this show, follow it on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. This show is produced by Derek Arthur, Sophia Alvarez Boyd, Veshaka, Fibili Lett, Christina Samuoski, and Jillian Weinberger.

It's edited by Kari Pitkin, Alison Bruzek, and Annie Rose Strasser. Engineering, Mixing, and Original Music by Isaac Jones, Sonia Herrero, Pat McCusker, Carol Sabarrow, and Afim Shapiro. Additional music by Amin Sahota. The fact check team is Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker, and Michelle Harris. Audience Strategy by Shannon Busta, Christina Samuiluski, and Adrian Rivera. The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.