No matter what your political affiliation, you can probably agree on one thing: politics have gotten stressful.
If the midterm elections (that you’ve already voted in or place to vote in, right?!) have made your life a little more stressful than usual, the app Headspace might be able to help.
Headspace, a leading meditation app is offering for free a "Politics Pack," comprised of meditation resources "designed to help you breathe, de-stress and reset."
Cope With Midterm Election Anxiety Better With This Meditation App's 'Politics Pack'
The guided meditation sessions are geared toward helping people deal with stress they may feel around the upcoming midterm Congressional elections.
Headspace was used on the heels of the election of President Donald Trump by a number of staffers at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, who met for daily group meditation sessions.
For voters freaking out over the midterm elections and the rest of the increasingly polarized American political scene, there's an app for that.
The pack includes 3-minute-long "SOS" guided meditation sessions for dealing with sensations that can arise from seeing political news, such as "Feeling Overwhelmed," "Losing Your Temper" and "Panicking."
Other sessions that will remain free until next Wednesday — a day after the midterm elections — are geared toward "Patience," "Transforming Anger," and "Difficult Conversation."
None of the exercises are expressly political, nor do they cater to a specific political position. Instead, they offer ways to cope with some of the feelings you might experience when reading political news. Here’s a rundown from the app on the individual exercises:
The goal behind each one is to help you deal with the situation in front of you and help you de-stress and reset. It’s not going to make you forget about the disaster our country is becoming, but it can potentially help you cope with it a tiny bit better.
Headspace, which was co-founded by the England-born Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe, says there's plenty of reason to believe people will need such meditative relief this election season.
The company cited an American Psychological Association poll in February 2017 that found more than half of Americans — 57 percent — said the political climate then was a "very" or "somewhat significant" source of stress. Some 49 percent of respondents said the outcome of the presidential election was a source of those levels of stress.
In fact, a week after the 2016 presidential elections, Headspace said it saw a 44-percent surge in the usage of its sessions. The company also noted a whopping 300 percent surge in the use of its "Feeling Overwhelmed" session, around the date of the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
"We saw that people were coming to our app in time of high stress," said Headspace spokeswoman Britta Franson. "So this time, we wanted to proactively give people a resource."
Franson said the company's customer experience team assembled the sessions in the Politics Pack "by looking through emails and social media posts from our customers saying what they have been finding helpful for political stress."
In promoting the pack, Headspace did not mention any specific politicians or issues by name.
But the app was used on the heels of the election of President Donald Trump by a number of staffers at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE), who met for daily group meditation sessions.
Walter Schaub, the former director of the OGE, told CNBC earlier this year that staffers at the office, whch helps government officials avoid conflicts of interest, began using Headspace in part because "we weren't prepared for the chaos in this administration."
"We weren't prepared for the assault on us," said Schaub. "The world, it was just crazy in 2017."
Schaub said meditating each day helped the small group of people who gatherered for the 10-minute sessions.
"Uniformly, everybody seemed to think they were more refreshed than they would have been," Schaub said. "Afterward, people felt like, 'OK, this is still miserable in what we're going through, but we can get back into the ring for another round now.' "
If the midterm elections (that you’ve already voted in or place to vote in, right?!) have made your life a little more stressful than usual, the app Headspace might be able to help.
Headspace, a leading meditation app is offering for free a "Politics Pack," comprised of meditation resources "designed to help you breathe, de-stress and reset."
Cope With Midterm Election Anxiety Better With This Meditation App's 'Politics Pack'
The guided meditation sessions are geared toward helping people deal with stress they may feel around the upcoming midterm Congressional elections.
Headspace was used on the heels of the election of President Donald Trump by a number of staffers at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, who met for daily group meditation sessions.
- Headspace, a leading meditation app is offering for free a "Politics Pack," comprised of meditation resources "designed to help you breathe, de-stress and reset."
- The guided meditation sessions are geared toward helping peope deal with stress they may feel around the upcoming midterm Congressional elections.
- Headspace was used on the heels of the election of President Donald Trump by a number of staffers at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, who met for daily group meditation sessions.
For voters freaking out over the midterm elections and the rest of the increasingly polarized American political scene, there's an app for that.
The pack includes 3-minute-long "SOS" guided meditation sessions for dealing with sensations that can arise from seeing political news, such as "Feeling Overwhelmed," "Losing Your Temper" and "Panicking."
Other sessions that will remain free until next Wednesday — a day after the midterm elections — are geared toward "Patience," "Transforming Anger," and "Difficult Conversation."
None of the exercises are expressly political, nor do they cater to a specific political position. Instead, they offer ways to cope with some of the feelings you might experience when reading political news. Here’s a rundown from the app on the individual exercises:
Letting go of tension
Political situations might leave you feeling angry, or devastated, or scared. If your emotions are overwhelming, try one of these 3-minute, stress-reducing, in-the-moment SOS meditations:
•Feeling Overwhelmed (to step back and take a breath)
•Losing Your Temper (to release frustration)
•Panicking (to restore calm)
Difficult conversations
Difficult conversations with loved ones, friends, or strangers may arise—in person or on social media—so consider these meditations as a potential salve for before or after any particularly tricky chat:
•Breathe mini (to foster spaciousness of mind)
•Refresh mini (to wash away any built-up tension)
•Difficult Conversations single (to encourage a less reactive mindset)
Shifting perspective
Reframing our approach to politics can be helpful. These 10-day meditation courses are not intended to change your opinions but to help you relate differently to the feelings of stress:
•Patience (to help recognize and let go of impatience)
•Transforming Anger (to channel it in a healthier way)
The goal behind each one is to help you deal with the situation in front of you and help you de-stress and reset. It’s not going to make you forget about the disaster our country is becoming, but it can potentially help you cope with it a tiny bit better.
Headspace, which was co-founded by the England-born Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe, says there's plenty of reason to believe people will need such meditative relief this election season.
The company cited an American Psychological Association poll in February 2017 that found more than half of Americans — 57 percent — said the political climate then was a "very" or "somewhat significant" source of stress. Some 49 percent of respondents said the outcome of the presidential election was a source of those levels of stress.
In fact, a week after the 2016 presidential elections, Headspace said it saw a 44-percent surge in the usage of its sessions. The company also noted a whopping 300 percent surge in the use of its "Feeling Overwhelmed" session, around the date of the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
"We saw that people were coming to our app in time of high stress," said Headspace spokeswoman Britta Franson. "So this time, we wanted to proactively give people a resource."
Franson said the company's customer experience team assembled the sessions in the Politics Pack "by looking through emails and social media posts from our customers saying what they have been finding helpful for political stress."
In promoting the pack, Headspace did not mention any specific politicians or issues by name.
But the app was used on the heels of the election of President Donald Trump by a number of staffers at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE), who met for daily group meditation sessions.
Walter Schaub, the former director of the OGE, told CNBC earlier this year that staffers at the office, whch helps government officials avoid conflicts of interest, began using Headspace in part because "we weren't prepared for the chaos in this administration."
"We weren't prepared for the assault on us," said Schaub. "The world, it was just crazy in 2017."
Schaub said meditating each day helped the small group of people who gatherered for the 10-minute sessions.
"Uniformly, everybody seemed to think they were more refreshed than they would have been," Schaub said. "Afterward, people felt like, 'OK, this is still miserable in what we're going through, but we can get back into the ring for another round now.' "
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