These days I’ve been on edge more than normal. There are a number of factors that could be contributing to my anxiety. But I’m sure that first on the list is the election that’s only days away.
Not so long ago I became angry and frustrated after spending too much time in my political echo chamber of choice. My initial response was to rage around the house muttering and sputtering. Realizing that I needed a more constructive outlet, I stomped out to the mud room, put on my boots and jacket and charged down the hill for a three-and-a-half-mile walk.
And then something shifted. I began to notice where I was and what surrounded me. A few trees still clung to their orange and red tinged leaves. The crisp autumn air was invigorating.
My gait began to slow, to loosen up. My walk was less a forced march now than an easy trot.
Finally, my mood shifted, turning from a state of bitterness to a state of neutrality and ultimately peace. And by the time I reached the intersection at the end of the road my thoughts were focused on gratitude for the privilege of living in a place that provides this kind outlet when I’m frustrated.
Having recently read the book “Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle” by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski, I realized that my walk helped me to complete the stress cycle. In their book the authors break down into bite-sized pieces what happens when we feel stress. Generally, our response is fight, flight, or freeze. And working backward from the response, we generally try to identify the causes of our stress, then do our best to eliminate them so we don’t have to be in this uncomfortable place again. But we don’t need the latest self-help book to explain this.
However, what was completely new to me was the authors’ observation that dealing with our stressor isn’t the same as dealing with the effects of the stress. To do that we have to complete the stress cycle. Usually that is something physical. Like walking.
But there are other physical means to complete the cycle. Pretty much any form of activity can do the trick – like running, or a vigorous work-out, or putting on boxing gloves and hitting something (preferably a punching bag). But it also includes less obvious activities like dance, or yoga, or tai chi, or even cleaning.
I’ve discovered that the older I grow the more I rely on my walks. Walking helps me to feel less heavy – both physically and emotionally. It helps me to sleep better. Processing problems and internal struggles while walking creates a buffer around the thing that nags me, so that it loses its power.
It seems to me that we are living in a stew of collective anxiety. A great deal of change is happening around us and to us. The effect is to keep many of us feeling on edge. Often we’re not even aware of what’s stirring under the surface until something triggers a reaction that may be out of proportion to the situation. That’s not likely to change any time soon.
But we can choose how we come back to a more balanced place once we’ve been thrown off. We can recover more quickly if we can remind ourselves to complete the stress cycle – do something that will help us release the emotion that seems to overwhelm us in the short term. That allows us to handle our stressors more thoughtfully in the long term. It allows us to come to a place where we can take the necessary actions to make the changes we need to make in our lives.