If you're not feeling anxious, you're probably not paying attention.. Here are some suggestions from our journalist-rabbi-meditation teacher in residence. Stay til the end for a mystical dishwashing experience.
Thank you. I have been feeling like half the country might just keel over from sheer anxiety in the next week! Some ways I've been coping: I've started taking Sundays off social media and news, which is hard in the moment but I do feel calmer for it, at least until yesterday morning when I unwisely read about the MSG rally before I even got out of bed, might be a good idea to extend that time off by an hour or so. I've already voted. I have a pile of books about tyranny and freedom and trends in the evangelical world that I ought to be reading, and instead I seem to be taking refuge in Joan Aiken's amazing Wolves Chronicles. I'm sewing a wedding quilt for my kid and being very careful about the points of my flying geese blocks. If I just keep busy enough, maybe I'll survive the week...
I forgot to add stitching to my little list of coping techniques up there, but YES. That act of love for your kid will outlast this current crisis, for sure!
Thank you, Jay. Much needed. I just put a big pot of beans on to simmer. When I feel out of control and angst-ridden, I turn to cooking comforting, nourishing meals. I will return to your post over the coming days.
Me too - I cook for my family most nights, and totally agree. There's the "thing I can control and do well" part, the physically nourishing part, the emotionally nourishing part, the everyday mindfulness part. Plus yum.
This is really good. Strangely, I have not felt as much anxiety as in the past, as for example in 2016, or during Covid. I think that's because I live in a rural red county, and by now, I know my neighbors. I know that 80% will vote for Trump, and yet they're not terrible people. They're just very conformist people who like to be part of their group, and everybody they know is a Christian Republican and thinks that God is too. Some of them are not very smart.
It's hard to break out of this mind-set if you live here, and the people who do are usually the more honest people who can't deny that the worldview taught to them at school and at church does not match reality.
We live in a country where the electoral college system disenfranchises a lot of voters, like me. My vote in the presidential election literally never matters, because all my states' electors will go to the Republican candidate no matter what I do. My vote matters a little more in our state's Senate race, where I will vote for Gloria Johnson, a gun violence prevention activist. But it's very unlikely that she or any other local Democrats will win. My state, Tennessee, is now a one-party state.
But even this does not make me especially depressed or anxious, because I understand that this has happened all over the world in many countries: this is fascism. Reading the work of Timothy Snyder on this issue has given me some perspective. I understand how it happens, and it happens in part because of human tribalism, human love of authoritarian regimes, human inability to sort out bad information from good information, and a certain amount of human sadism. Snyder calls it sado-populism. I am used to the fact that my old friend Suzanne, for example, seems like a sweet old lady but is actually full of hatred for certain kinds of people.
Half the people in our country are confused like this. If you want an even more complicated picture of how confused and then dangerous people can become, listen to the podcast series "We Live Here Now" about some women who are advocates for "justice for J6 prisoners." Sometimes they call the prisoners hostages! These women used to be apolitical and "normal." Now they are zealots. But they're still kind of normal in some ways, as Hanna Rosin found out when they became her neighbors. She tried to find out their back story, and it's fascinating what ensued. They are not as predictable as you might think.
I'm not saying that "just listening to the other side" works in some way to make you feel better. These women are still deplorable and terribly confused. But that's how half the people in our country are. Get used to it.
Well said, Shannon, and I definitely feel you. Greetings from bright red rural Missouri, where my neighbors sound so much like yours. I'm coping by donating to Lucas Kunce's campaign to unseat Josh Hawley and feeling glimmers of optimism. I'm leaving little notes on patriotic themed post-its in suburban public restrooms reminding women that their vote is their own business regarding our reproductive rights ballot initiative. Ruby red Kansas did it, and we can too!Tiny little acts. Cooking, meditating, feeling the breeze on my face. Laughing at the absurdity of it all while trying to feel connection with like-minded folks like you around this great country. Be well. Keep the faith. Persevere.
And thank you, Jay, for all of your wise words and this opportunity to create community. It is truly a comfort during these trying times.💙
Thanks for your typically wise insights. I'm volunteering here in Pennsylvania--canvassing, phone banking and mobilizing my fellow Jewish voters through this organization, of which I'm a board member: www.djop.org. Meditation also helps, a lot. Nonetheless, I will be happy when we're able to move beyond this election as a nation, and I'll be able to focus more on other activities that bring me fulfillment.
Thank you for articulating all the emotional turbulence packed into this election and offering way to hold it. An antidote of mine is to watch the clip from LOTR where Gandalf confronts the Balrog, “You cannot pass!”
Thank you Jay. The reminder that we all do our best, and in the end, a homemade brisket simmering in the slow cooker, a glass of red wine, a warm fire and hugging our children soothes our ragged hearts.
My partner and I are desperate to take breaks from the news, so we’re listening to The Lord of the Rings on a digital recording. It’s amazing how relevant it feels.
Oh so wise. Thank you. There is real truth here and it is so helpful to me and I will do what I can to help others this week. Plus contribute a little more money to the campaign.
Thank you. I have been feeling like half the country might just keel over from sheer anxiety in the next week! Some ways I've been coping: I've started taking Sundays off social media and news, which is hard in the moment but I do feel calmer for it, at least until yesterday morning when I unwisely read about the MSG rally before I even got out of bed, might be a good idea to extend that time off by an hour or so. I've already voted. I have a pile of books about tyranny and freedom and trends in the evangelical world that I ought to be reading, and instead I seem to be taking refuge in Joan Aiken's amazing Wolves Chronicles. I'm sewing a wedding quilt for my kid and being very careful about the points of my flying geese blocks. If I just keep busy enough, maybe I'll survive the week...
I forgot to add stitching to my little list of coping techniques up there, but YES. That act of love for your kid will outlast this current crisis, for sure!
Thank you, Jay. Much needed. I just put a big pot of beans on to simmer. When I feel out of control and angst-ridden, I turn to cooking comforting, nourishing meals. I will return to your post over the coming days.
Me too - I cook for my family most nights, and totally agree. There's the "thing I can control and do well" part, the physically nourishing part, the emotionally nourishing part, the everyday mindfulness part. Plus yum.
Jay, thank you for this. I shall share and return to it daily. May you be free of suffering. May we all.
Thank you. Sadhu sadhu sadhu
This is really good. Strangely, I have not felt as much anxiety as in the past, as for example in 2016, or during Covid. I think that's because I live in a rural red county, and by now, I know my neighbors. I know that 80% will vote for Trump, and yet they're not terrible people. They're just very conformist people who like to be part of their group, and everybody they know is a Christian Republican and thinks that God is too. Some of them are not very smart.
It's hard to break out of this mind-set if you live here, and the people who do are usually the more honest people who can't deny that the worldview taught to them at school and at church does not match reality.
We live in a country where the electoral college system disenfranchises a lot of voters, like me. My vote in the presidential election literally never matters, because all my states' electors will go to the Republican candidate no matter what I do. My vote matters a little more in our state's Senate race, where I will vote for Gloria Johnson, a gun violence prevention activist. But it's very unlikely that she or any other local Democrats will win. My state, Tennessee, is now a one-party state.
But even this does not make me especially depressed or anxious, because I understand that this has happened all over the world in many countries: this is fascism. Reading the work of Timothy Snyder on this issue has given me some perspective. I understand how it happens, and it happens in part because of human tribalism, human love of authoritarian regimes, human inability to sort out bad information from good information, and a certain amount of human sadism. Snyder calls it sado-populism. I am used to the fact that my old friend Suzanne, for example, seems like a sweet old lady but is actually full of hatred for certain kinds of people.
Half the people in our country are confused like this. If you want an even more complicated picture of how confused and then dangerous people can become, listen to the podcast series "We Live Here Now" about some women who are advocates for "justice for J6 prisoners." Sometimes they call the prisoners hostages! These women used to be apolitical and "normal." Now they are zealots. But they're still kind of normal in some ways, as Hanna Rosin found out when they became her neighbors. She tried to find out their back story, and it's fascinating what ensued. They are not as predictable as you might think.
I'm not saying that "just listening to the other side" works in some way to make you feel better. These women are still deplorable and terribly confused. But that's how half the people in our country are. Get used to it.
Well said, Shannon, and I definitely feel you. Greetings from bright red rural Missouri, where my neighbors sound so much like yours. I'm coping by donating to Lucas Kunce's campaign to unseat Josh Hawley and feeling glimmers of optimism. I'm leaving little notes on patriotic themed post-its in suburban public restrooms reminding women that their vote is their own business regarding our reproductive rights ballot initiative. Ruby red Kansas did it, and we can too!Tiny little acts. Cooking, meditating, feeling the breeze on my face. Laughing at the absurdity of it all while trying to feel connection with like-minded folks like you around this great country. Be well. Keep the faith. Persevere.
And thank you, Jay, for all of your wise words and this opportunity to create community. It is truly a comfort during these trying times.💙
Thanks for your typically wise insights. I'm volunteering here in Pennsylvania--canvassing, phone banking and mobilizing my fellow Jewish voters through this organization, of which I'm a board member: www.djop.org. Meditation also helps, a lot. Nonetheless, I will be happy when we're able to move beyond this election as a nation, and I'll be able to focus more on other activities that bring me fulfillment.
Thank you, Jay.
Thank you for articulating all the emotional turbulence packed into this election and offering way to hold it. An antidote of mine is to watch the clip from LOTR where Gandalf confronts the Balrog, “You cannot pass!”
Thank you Jay. The reminder that we all do our best, and in the end, a homemade brisket simmering in the slow cooker, a glass of red wine, a warm fire and hugging our children soothes our ragged hearts.
My partner and I are desperate to take breaks from the news, so we’re listening to The Lord of the Rings on a digital recording. It’s amazing how relevant it feels.
Oh so wise. Thank you. There is real truth here and it is so helpful to me and I will do what I can to help others this week. Plus contribute a little more money to the campaign.
your clarity and the energy you have to work through these thoughts so carefully and methodically is AWESOME.
Thanks friend.
Thank you Jay. You are my Rabbi and anchor through this maelstrom ! ❤️
thanks Jay. I saw you're speaking at the Harvard psychedelic therapy conference in March? looks a good event.
Co-convening, in fact! Let's connect about it -- would love to have you there. Sorry for not reaching out sooner.
Not at all! Sure, would be great to connect there or elsewhere. Glad to see Steve hassan speaking