Politics is a source of chronic stress in many of our lives. It often produces sustained negative emotions that harm our wellbeing. In this episode, Dr. Brett Q Ford shares her research on emotional regulation in political contexts. Her published research suggests that many of our coping strategies help us feel better but also reduce our motivation to engage politically, resulting in a tradeoff where individual wellbeing is enhanced at the cost of collective action or vice versa. However, new research suggests that acceptance and cultivating positive emotions may enable us to overcome this tradeoff so that we can promote wellbeing while remaining politically engaged.

In this episode, Brett and I discuss:

Politics as a source of chronic stress
Why politics generates negative emotions
How people use avoidance, distraction, reappraisal and suppression to cope with negative emotions that arise from politics.
How those strategies can promote wellbeing at the cost of reduced political engagement
How new evidence suggests that acceptance and cultivating positive emotions avoid this tradeoff. They both promote wellbeing without reducing engagement, and cultivating positive, socially rooted, emotions actually increases engagement.
The defensive mechanisms that we often rely on when politics threatens our sense of goodness.
How acceptance and a growth mindset can enable us to maintain relationships and become better citizens in response to information about our goodness.

Many of the practices developed by our guests incorporate elements of the emotion regulation strategies that Brett recommends:

Acceptance: See Sharon Salzburg’s election meditation and The Class (which is offering a free 30 day subscription for our listeners)
Cultivating positive emotions: See Staci Haines on noticing small joys.
Cultivating social rootedness: See David Gungor’s Mutual Flourishing Playlist and Sharon Salzburg’s loving-kindness meditation.
Staci Haines’ somatic centering exercise opens us up to the full range of emotions so helps with both acceptance and cultivating positive emotions.
Marvie Corbett’s workbook provides CBT exercises that you can use for reappraisal for both negative emotions and challenges to goodness.

These are available on our page on Spiritual Practices for Political Engagement page.

Connect with Brett on her website or through X @brettqford.

Connect with me at katie@thiselection.org or on instagram @katie.m.cochran.

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