Politics needs us and it’s important to learn how to get involved without having to subject ourselves to things that aren’t healthy. One of the essential tools is learning how to prevent getting chronically overwhelmed.
An important note, the information here is not meant to provide mental health advice.
How to Recognize Overwhelm
We all feel overwhelmed sometimes. We might even be overwhelmed so often, we don’t even recognize it. Adding politics to the mix might be the final straw. We want to avoid that.
Pay attention to your moods and other signs your subconscious is giving you. Are you feeling the weight of the world? Maybe you find yourself bouncing between excessive energy about politics and then reaching total burn out. You may be struggling to manage the overwhelming nature of politics.
Feeling overwhelmed may manifest itself in different ways, but ultimately if you find yourself constantly unhappy in your efforts, you may find some of these strategies helpful to maintain a better balance.
Impact of Conflict
Conflict takes a lot of energy and can have a huge impact on our mental and physical health. Most of us are well aware of the negative impacts of conflict, so we just avoid it. In politics, however, it’s not always possible to avoid conflict. We can manage the amounts we absorb. We can discover personal strategies for decompressing. We can learn skills that can help us manage conflict better.
While we are learning all of these wonderful strategies, learn to recognize the signs that you’re starting to get overwhelmed by the conflict you see in politics. Learn to detach before you reach your breaking point. Find activities that help you recover and recharge. Maybe it’s a physical activity or a creative outlet. If necessary, research additional strategies to reduce stress. Reducing stress can help you recover from the negative effects of conflict.
Content Management
Politics touch a lot of aspects of life. That means we need to enjoy a wide range of experiences and gather a variety of information in order to maintain a healthy perspective. In fact, having a wide range of knowledge and experiences can help us come up with better solutions for our political challenges.
It can be tempting to focus our “political energy” on political topics. This can easily lead to being overwhelmed or simply having a skewed view of the world. Mix it up. Add in light-hearted content and a variety of subjects.
Time management
Politics can be addictive in its own way. There is a constant stream of information, activities, conversations and commentary, laws and policy. It can take up big chunks of your time. Depending on your personality you might need to impose occasional breaks to help you stay balanced.
Finding the Balance
It’s hard. There’s a lot of work to do to heal our political system and we need your specific set of experiences and skills to help. But that shouldn’t mean you have to offer yourself as a sacrifice in order to see any improvement. We’re all in this together. Everything doesn’t rest on you, it doesn’t rest on any one person. It’s worth finding the balance so we can do our part and lift together.
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