Election stress? You need a pattern interrupt

Hey, guys, this is Dr. Nicole here. And, oh, my gosh, it's election time. Right? And by the time I got out of bed this morning, I had over 50 unread text messages waiting for me. And some were from friends updating on the election, others were from robots about the election. And there was a smattering of totally unrelated texts. But how many texts and instant messages and tweets and articles and other social media posts have come your way in the last 24 hours? A lot. Right. And with the volatility of the news coverage, alliances are divided. Friends are being broken up all over social media. And with the politicians and all of this uncertainty, it's no wonder that we're feeling frazzled and completely overwhelmed and anxious. And actually, there's a study that was conducted by the American Psychological association that said that over 54% of Americans reported being significantly stressed out by the election, which is a huge number of people. And I don't know about you, but my specific flavor of stress is that I go into analysis per paralysis, and my brain starts to try to find a semblance of control in a world where I feel completely out of control. And so then I find that I start to read more and I look at the news and I scroll and I scroll and I scroll, and that just makes the stress worse. And so for you, my loves, what is your particular flavor of overwhelm stress? What are signs that maybe you're getting stuck in that record groove of election anxiety? And today I want to talk with you about what we can do instead of getting into a doom scroll, instead of getting overwhelmed, instead of getting anxious and going into your particular flavor of frustration. I'm Dr. Nicole Cain, and I'm an anxiety freedom warrior. And I am all about helping you to find answers and solutions to get your life back. And today we're going to talk about strategies for election stress. And so if you're anything like me and you're finding yourself in this compulsion to just doom scroll and to just try to get as much information as possible, but it's making everything worse, then don't worry. I have some solutions for you that you can start employing right now. So the first thing is that if you're consuming content, I want you to consume content mindfully. And so that means to turn off your alerts, turn off notifications, silence big groups that you're on, where people are constantly sending all of these text messages and inundating you. Close your Twitter windows, close your social media, close your Instagram, close your Facebook, close Everything. Close the news sources and then just focus on the matter at hand, focus on the task at hand and then intentionally choose your resource to go and get updates at pre allocated times. This will help prevent your nervous system from going into the doom scroll where we just can't stop and we just need more and more and more of that dopamine to get more information. And it will help reduce your sense of stress and overwhelm. An example for me is that I just went and I did a pattern interrupt and I just walked shiva my cavapoo and we put away the phone, we put all the way all screens and we just went outside and we spent several minutes outside together just doing a walk and doing a lap. And so for you, what can you do to remove yourself from all of that social media, to remove yourself from those triggers so that you're not getting stuck in that spiral? And so the second thing is similar. It is a pattern interrupt. And so it's one thing to remove yourself from those social media and news triggers and to consume mindfully, but the second thing is you have to then tell your nervous system in your mind where to go. Instead, you have to do a pattern interrupt. And so sometimes it's enough to distract ourselves with another mentally engaging activity. Other times, if our brainstem is getting really activated and involved, we have to do something that speaks to the brainstem. And remember, the brainstem is most responsive to things that are physically stimulating, like taste or touch or smell or sight or scene. Right. And so going outside and going on a walk, I was changing the scene, I was changing what I saw. The air temperature was different than it was in my home. I was bilaterally stimulating, which is a very important form of therapeutic intervention when we're overwhelmed and stressed. So walking, you're bilaterally stimulating your feet with every step. So we have a pattern interrupt in itself that stimulates the brainstem. So when you're doing a pattern interrupt, think about what is reasonable that you can do throughout the day. If you catch yourself wanting to go and hit that refresh and hit that reload button and check all your messages and data, what can you do that will be an effective pattern interrupt that will help you get back on track with what you're choosing to mindfully do today with your time. Maybe it's going to the bathroom, maybe it's doing a lap around your building, maybe it's making a phone call or maybe it's calling a friend, maybe it's smelling an essential oil or maybe it's taking a drink of A cup of tea or it's something that is stimulating your brain stem in enough of a way that it will help you interrupt that cycle. If your anxiety is really amplified and you're feeling incredibly frazzled. We have tons of information in our video about making a panic pack. And there's lots of things in there that are really good for specifically interrupting anxiety and overwhelm. That's getting to the brainstem, that's getting into your body and causing overwhelm and stress. If you're finding that you don't know what to do with yourself, you don't know what to do with your time. Be intentional to create something to do. So last night, all the election was happening was voting. I decided to paint. I am not a painter, as you can see, but it was something where I was able to use my creativity. It was something that was distracting. You're using your muscles, you're using your senses. And so I sat down with a couple of girlfriends and we did a zoom paint class. And. And so what is something that you can do? What is a pattern interrupt that you can do? Being creative is a great strategy. Another strategy is, is there somebody that you can support? You can volunteer, you can cook someone a meal, you can walk your dog, you can probably hear mine is out barking. And so think about what you can do that will help you with the election stress. Fill your cup, do something that brings you joy. And also remember to breathe. Four count. Breathing is hugely important. It will supercharge the breathing. If you can breathe through left nostril, the research shows that that has a stronger impact on your autonomic nervous system. It's just the nervous system that is sending you into that overwhelm of fight flight response. So if you want to do the breathing, you can supercharge that by breathing in and out through your left nostril. And then make sure that you breathe in four counts, hold for four counts, breathe out for four counts, and then hold for four counts. So I'm gonna go grab Shiva. We're gonna go on another little walk. She's expressing that she needs a pattern interrupt. And so what can you do today to help reduce your stress? What can you do today to redirect your mind? Because right now we don't have the answers. We don't know exactly what's going to happen. It's all conjecture. And so we have to do things that help us feel safe, to help us with our time, to help us with our stress so that we can be equipped for whatever's going to happen, whatever's going to come in the next chapter. This has been Dr. Nicole I also want to refer you to the one week anxiety freedom challenge. This has 14 tips with videos and beautiful booklets free and so to get the 14 day the 14 point challenge, the seven day challenge is get into our free anxiety freedom warriors group. We have tons of information in there and resources. It's all for free and it's my way of giving back to the community and to help you to start turning the page in your anxiety freedom journey and so do your election strategies to get in that group. Get that free booklet and access to all the videos and I will see you next time. This has been Dr. Nicole to learn more about my practice and to learn more about what we have going on here you can check out our website@drnicolecane.com all right my loves, thank you so much for being here and I will see you soon. Bye.