Managing Election Stress

Managing Election Stress

C1 >> welcome back, is it the contentious presidential election weighing on you?

A survey by the american psychological association after the last presidential election says 57% of people said they were stressed.

Americans admit they are anxious about tonight's results and the reaction of the parties if it doesn't turn out in their favor.

Founder of the human improvement project and happiness expert, matt martinson is here with six tips to manage stress before and after the election.

>> thank you for having me.

>> six tips.

Can you get it done in six tips?

Easy tips, right?

>> there's two categories.

Strategies tonight and some of the stress the election has brought on.

One i think to prepare mentally that the results will be delayed.

A lot of us are excited one way or another about how it's going to turn out and we may not know tonight.

Mentally prepare yourself for that.

Another one is to really double down on your healthy stress reducing habits.

Watch a show if the pressure gets too high or other habits like that.

Don't beat yourself up too much if you end up snacking too much.

It's a stressful time for everyone.

Another one is to be careful of the how much news you consume.

It can be overwhelming.

It might be helpful to take a break.

Channelling your stress into something productive.

Go out and run or exercise on some sort or work on a hobby or a yard.

Something to take your mind off of it until the results are in and you can process what happened.

Another one that's setting boundaries around the conversations you have.

Emotions will run high.

So we want to be careful particularly for people who have different political opinions about how that goes because we want to be careful that we don't further damage relationships.

And then throughout the process, try to find signs of hope no matter what happens.

Just psychologically happy for us to look for positive elements.

What is happening is frankly out of our control.

What will happen is probably going to happen.

It's better for us to find the positive in that going forward.

So those are probably the tips for getting through today.

>> so pundits are saying this is the most highly contentious election since the 1930s.

What can you tell us about what this is going to mean after the election for people with stress.

>> well, so our institution just in the last week did a survey of 819 people and asked how this relationship has impacted their relationships.

As an institute that focusing on the science of well being, we know that other than genetics there's only two things that make up most of our long-term well being and one of those is relationships.

So we asked a question about how have your relationships been impacted, your closest relationships and distant acquaintances and we found 45% of people lost or materially weakened their closest friendships.

We know that is detrimental to our well being.

Because of that, we think it's really important for people to realize those relationships need to be repaired.

People that are family members or loved ones, we really have, it's in our best interest, it will increase our long-term well being if we repair the relationships and we need to sort of make an effort to get past