A wise strategy to battle despair, stress, and anxiety

For many, the daily influx of news has created a state of distress and despair. Exposure to what feels like an onslaught of troubling news can result in prolonged activation of our stress response systems, resulting in hormonal changes and increased metabolic rates that elevate the risk of illnesses, both physical and psychiatric.

The antidote to such stress is in finding balance. However, staying in balance when the world around you feels as though it is off its axis is no easy feat!

Here’s where it can be helpful to look to those wise psychotherapists and psychoanalysts who have come before us to see what they suggested. In doing so, we see that in wise thinking, we incorporate aspects of cognitive control and affective steadiness.

The Law of Opposites is often a very good first-line go-to when one is in psychic turmoil, as it is a natural guide to psychic functioning and often upends well-formed assumptions. Its action helps restore a sense of balance. You can find it in almost all schools of psychotherapy.

Psychoanalysts speak of turning passive into active; the idea is that the ego (self) grows via its own activity. Behaviorists note that avoidance grows anxiety, and they suggest that to reduce anxiety, one must walk toward rather than away from unrealistic fears. In mindfulness practices, the “chattering monkey” mind is redirected to the quiet of the breath. Environmental treatments, too, have relied on the Law of Opposites: Light is suggested to treat the depression of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is often caused by the darkness of the changing seasons.

There have been many good ideas suggested for these stressful times online and in the press. They include self-care, distraction, and limiting one’s intake of news. In an opinion piece in The New York Times, researcher Adam Grant noted that while the future is uncertain, one cannot assume that they know how the future is going to play out. As an example, Grant notes, “No one could foresee that a driver’s wrong turn would put Archduke Franz Ferdinand in an assassin’s path precipitating WWI.” Here, the Law of Opposites would be expressed by bringing the unknown future into the known present.

If you catch yourself thinking about all the potential frightening possibilities that may happen during the next several years, try to change your “What if…” into “What is.” Be in the present moment.

The many changes that are happening in Washington and the climate disasters that seem to be occurring all too frequently are leaving many people feeling stressed, anxious, and despairing. By utilizing the Law of Opposites, those distressing states can be ameliorated. Remember that even in personal darkness, there is still joy and a feeling of lightness.

If despairing, ask yourself what your joy is. Note it to yourself and share it with others. Ask those in your life what their joys are. Ask your neighbours, friends, or family what brings them happiness in a text chain, or post your joy on your social media network of choice and ask to hear about and see others’. This shores us up with a sense of community and also activates us in positive ways.

Feeling anxious because you don’t have a sense of control with all the changes going on? Try the Law of Opposites: Take control in small ways in your own life. Express your sense of agency in constructive ways, either in the personal and/or political arena.

The goal here is to stay in balance as things shift and change. Keep your head above water and your footing steady. This stance will aid you in coping constructively with whatever the future will bring. Remember this: Wisdom is expertise in uncertainty, and these are most definitely uncertain times.

Routinely utilize the Law of Opposites: Find light in the darkness and control in the chaos. And when you do, it is likely that your heart rate, respiration, muscle tension, and cortisol levels will be positively impacted.