Your heart is a sensitive and powerful organ of pure muscle, constantly pumping blood and oxygen to keep you alive. The heart also does profound emotional work. We experience sadness in the chest as “heartache,” anxiety as a rapid heartbeat, love as a swelling in our breast filling us with joy and warmth.
Abnormal heart rhythms can feel like skipped beats or fluttering, jumpy feelings in the chest. After Election Day in 2016, my heart let me know that I was not doing well. I developed premature atrial contractions, a benign arrythmia. I was nauseated, had difficulty sleeping. I felt unreal, panicked, and stunned. As a doctor, I knew these were normal, adaptive responses of facing danger; our bodies react to fear with physical warning signs. We fight, we flee, we freeze. Most of my patients had similar symptoms; I spent many hours validating and explaining their reactions.
I knew my heart’s signals were accurate when the then President signed a travel ban for Muslims, leaving our nation of immigrants in peril. That night, I turned on the television and saw protesting crowds filling airports and lawyers flocking to court to challenge the ban. I allowed myself a to take a breath, to let the tightness in my chest ease, as I witnessed the powerful response of community.
Eight years later, we are back to the prospect of constant pinballing between terror and hope. Do we follow every lie and threat with fear and outrage, anticipating the consequences to our ourselves, neighbors, democracy and planet? How will we care for our hearts, without disengaging and/or doing real damage to ourselves? Moments of tempered optimism interspersed with anguish, staying hypervigilant for the next battle, impact the body. How do we protect our hearts?
What We Can Do Differently This Time Around
Does doomscrolling get your adrenaline going? What is it doing to your heart, both literally and figuratively; are you heartbroken and/or anxious? How is your blood pressure?
We should know how this works by now. There will be outrageous comments which are designed to distract us from the real issues. They get us in a tizzy over something which won’t occur but grabs the attention (especially of the media, which then mainlines it to us). For example, as Josh Marshall wrote the other day, “I don’t think we should be distracted by Trump’s nonsense about Greenland, the Panama Canal or bum rushing Canada into becoming a U.S. state…None of this stuff is going to happen…we shouldn’t get pulled into these outrage cycles or pretending any of this is a thing…” Suddenly, all the discussion about Pete Hegseth’s sexual assault accusations and alcohol use disappears as the media gets distracted.
Marshall then shares this wisdom, “the constant stream of threats and maybes, all of which create what in this case may not be a penumbra of fear so much as a penumbra of reaction. Absurd tempests in teapots, the effect of which is to have everyone else in a pattern of reaction.”
Reacting vs. Responding
Let’s review reacting vs. responding. As I wrote about in an earlier post, “Reacting to a stressor or event causes our bodies to go into emergency mode. Reaction originates from the mid-brain, where our lizard brains reside, the oldest part of our brain that knows how to respond to danger. The midbrain triggers the adrenaline and cortisol release, the sympathetic nervous system's fight/flight/freeze/fawn response.” That’s when our heart is impacted. Over time, a constant stream of danger signals can do damage, increase our blood pressure, or just plain leave us exhausted physically and emotionally.
“Responding, rather than reacting, is what we can do when we take information in, measure what it means to us, think about how we can take action. Responding allows us to channel those feelings through our thinking brain, or frontal cortex, and have a measured response. The feelings are an important part of the data, but not all of it. We can trust our gut, our emotions, but not let them control us. We can and will respond when there is something we can DO.”
Don’t give your precious attention to what you can’t control. Protect your heart.
There will be losses. Some, maybe all, of the unqualified and dangerous Cabinet nominees will be appointed. Be disappointed or angry and then move on. Lost battles do not mean the war is over. Staying stuck in bitterness and sorrow, hurting your own body in the process, would be a defeat.
Caring For Your Heart: A Heart Practice:
Both mindfulness teacher Tara Brach and self-compassion leader Kristin Neff suggest the physical practice of placing your hand on your heart when you are in distress. While this may feel awkward or even silly, these moves once again send the signal to your body that you are safe in the moment, allowing your body to relax, an imperative interlude in moments of perceived crisis.
Dr. Neff writes:
“Touch activates…the parasympathetic nervous system to help us calm down and feel safe… physical touch releases oxytocin, provides a sense of security, soothes distressing emotions, and calms cardiovascular stress.”
She suggests placing one or two hands over your heart while breathing slowly and deeply, noticing the warmth and touch. Notice if this calms or soothes you. The full practice can be found here.
Tara Brach takes a slightly different tack, suggesting that you place your hand on your heart as a “gesture of kindness.” She writes:
“…put your hand on your heart—letting the touch be tender—and send a message inwardly. It might be “It’s okay, sweetheart.” Or “I care about this suffering.” Or, “I’m sorry and I love you.”
Remember to use your attention discerningly. Notice when you find yourself doomscrolling. Are you:
a. finding useful information which will allow you to be informed and act,
or
b. making yourself crazy? (Sometimes both; we will do the best we can.)
Three Choices of Action for Right NOW:
1. Continue to call your Senators about the dangerous and unqualified Cabinet nominees. Once again, here is Jessica Craven’s suggested script: “I want the Senator to vocally oppose the confirmations of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and Kash Patel to run the FBI. We need leaders in these positions who understand how to protect Americans, both here and abroad, and desire to do so. None of these nominees meets those qualifications. Hegseth has virtually no management experience and a checkered history, Patel is focussed on vengeance for Trump, and Gabbard is a Russian stooge. These people won’t protect us. They will, in fact, put us in danger. I expect the Senator to vote no. Thanks.”
2. Consider signing up to write Postcards to Wisconsin for the April 1 election. They write, “There are many important local and judicial races across the state, including the WI Supreme Court — a win means we maintain the 4-3 liberal majority that helped put in place fair maps and rolled back…anti-union laws. A loss would put all the progress in jeopardy and further threaten women's reproductive rights.”
3. Check out the new, pro-democracy independent media project launched yesterday by Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen, “The Contrarian.” Many of your favorite writers and journalists are gathered there.