Which President, Which Mood?
So with the primaries over, and the campaign for President revving up, here are some suggestions about using this inescapable event to your benefit. The Wild Moods, depression and anxiety, have multiple factors that influence them, and though our recent bias is towards “brain chemistry imbalance,” the storms of culture cannot be taken lightly.
Big cultural/political events are something of a Rorschach test for one’s own relationship to the macro world we live in. Take 911: although grief and anger were common (if not ubiquitous) responses, people differed radically in how they responded to the event. Some sunk into profound depressions, unable to go about their normal routines. Others developed or flowered an anxiety that verged on paranoia, on seeing dangers in the smallest events. Others felt motivated to become politically active. Some made art. Some supported the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; some supported the hijackers.
Radical differences, in feeling and action. Less traumatically (one hopes), this presidential race is likely to also stir up different feelings/moods and calls to action (or inaction). Some will get depressed-“Look, politics as usual”-and others will get excited-“Here’s a chance to make a difference!”
So as an event that most will have about as much tangible impact on as a rain storm, consider using the presidential race to see into yourself, to deepen your wisdom about your own habits of mood and interpretation. Knowing that depression and anxiety feed on unexamined habits of mind (and body), especially when those are habits of rumination, see what your responses might have to teach you.
Consider these thoughts as entrances to inquiry:
–“When I consider the American political system as a whole, what are the first thoughts? How do I feel? What do I feel in my body?”
–“Politicians are ____, and when I think of politicians as a class of people, I feel what? What happens in my body? Is my mood pulled up or down, or remains stable?”
–“If Obama wins, that means what to me? What story do I tell about a future with Obama as president? Considering that future, what emotions do I recognize? Sensations? What is my mood?” (Repeat for McCain.)
–“If I am to feel safe with American politics, what needs to be true? And if it’s not true, is it possible to feel safe nonetheless?”
–“What are the duties of a citizen, in my eyes? Am I living up to my own standards and expectations? Considering my own citizenship, what do I feel? What sensations? What mood?”
–“What do I feel towards the candidates? Hate? Love? Excitement? Gratitude? Loathing? Considering that, what do I feel? Sense in my body? What does it seem to do to my mood?”
–“If I were to have my mood affected only positively by the presidential race, what would be my attitude? What, if anything, would be different from now, inside of me?”
The flow of these questions is, really, the flow of transforming the wild moods: first the information about patterns, and then the realization that we are creating mood within us, and therefore have the chance of recreating it. The last question could be asked of virtually anything in our lives, if we replaced “the presidential race” with, say, relationship, or finances, or whatnot.
Even something as large and out of our direct control as this race can be used for our own wisdom and healing, a principle behind all successful taming of depression and anxiety.
