Dr. Jim Raines of Kaiser Permanente joined KCRA 3 in studio on Monday, sharing tips for how to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the election cycle.
“We get so focused on those things we can’t control, which is always going to be an issue. And it’s a human nature for us to lean in, lean in, so being able to figure out how we can achieve some type of balance is very important,” Raines said.
Raines said finding out what you can have control over can be key to avoiding some of that stress.
He also shared a number of tips to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
“Albert Ellis had this great line, which was, ‘The problem isn’t that you get upset, it’s that you add to your upsetness,'” Raines said. “Being able to knock it down a tiny bit, and again get that balance.”
Here are several other tips shared by mental health professionals:
- Focus on what you can control
- Recognize your emotional response
- Take breaks from the information
- Prioritize your self-care and routine
- Focus on the bigger picture
Keeping a routine helps by giving you something you can control.
“It gives us a sense of agency to be able to just have the same thing going day in and day out,” Raines said.
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