How to Start Your Day to Beat Election Stress

If the first thing you do in the morning is reach for your phone, election season can mean you've read three headlines, checked two social feeds, and absorbed somebody else's outrage before your feet have touched the floor.

Then you're supposed to get up and have a normal Tuesday.

You don't need an elaborate morning routine to prevent election coverage from setting the tone for your entire day. You need a little space between waking up and letting the outside world decide what gets your attention first.

I originally created this article during the 2024 election cycle as part of a series on election stress. My perspective comes from approximately 25 years as a paramedic, including years of clinical emergency practice, along with my current work as a certified Brainspotting practitioner. Both have taught me to pay attention to what is actually driving a response before deciding what to do about it.

This article is practical education, not medical or mental-health treatment advice. Feeling stressed during an election is not, by itself, evidence that you have a mental-health condition or need deeper intervention.

Key Points

• You don't have to begin your day with election news just because it's available.
• A short period without news or social media gives you a chance to establish your own focus first.
• A useful morning routine can be simple: check in, move, eat or drink something, identify what matters, and then decide when to engage with the news.
• The goal isn't to avoid reality. It's to choose when and how you engage with it.
• If a specific stress response keeps taking over despite practical changes, Brainspotting can be an appropriate next tool for some people.

Don't hand your morning to your phone

Your phone can deliver more information in five minutes than you could realistically do anything useful with all day.

During an election cycle, that information is also designed to keep updating. There's always another poll, prediction, reaction, clip, argument, headline, notification, or person explaining why the last thing you read wasn't alarming enough.

If you start consuming all of that before you've even checked in with yourself, you're beginning the day by responding rather than choosing.

So give yourself a buffer.

It might be ten minutes. It might be thirty. It might simply be a rule that you don't open news or social media until you're out of bed, dressed, and drinking your coffee.

The exact number of minutes matters less than the boundary.

The goal isn't to become uninformed. It's to stop making the news the first thing that gets to decide what kind of morning you're having.

A simple morning routine for election stress

This does not need to become one of those morning routines that requires waking up at 4:37 a.m., buying seventeen supplements, journaling for an hour, and becoming a different person before breakfast.

Keep it practical.

1 Check in before you check the news

Before you open a feed, notice how you're actually starting the day. Are you rested? Tired? Already thinking about the election? Thinking about work? Hungry? Fine until you remembered there's an election?

You don't need to analyze the answer. You're simply establishing your own starting point before adding everyone else's input.

2 Do something physical

Get out of bed. Stretch. Walk outside. Feed the animals. Take a shower. Make breakfast. Walk the dog. Do a short workout if that's already part of your routine.

The point isn't to complete the perfect wellness activity. It's to begin your day by participating in your actual life rather than immediately becoming a spectator to the internet.

3 Give yourself some daylight when you can

If your schedule and circumstances allow it, spend a few minutes outside or near natural light in the morning. Even if you're simply drinking coffee on the porch or walking to the mailbox, you're giving yourself a different first input than a glowing screen full of election coverage.

4 Eat, drink, and take care of the basics

Stress-management advice sometimes gets unnecessarily complicated while skipping the obvious. If you haven't had water, haven't eaten when you normally would, slept badly, and have been staring at your phone since you woke up, start there.

Basic needs aren't a glamorous intervention. They are still basic needs.

5 Decide what matters today

Before the day's information starts competing for your attention, identify what actually needs yours.

Maybe that's work. A client. Your family. An appointment. A project. Rest. Something you've been putting off. Something completely ordinary.

Pick one or two priorities. Not because an election doesn't matter, but because your entire life doesn't stop existing during an election cycle.

6 Choose when you'll check the news

Instead of vaguely promising yourself that you'll "stay off your phone," decide when you're going to engage.

Maybe you check reliable news after breakfast. Maybe you wait until lunch. Maybe you check once in the morning and once later in the day.

A specific boundary is easier to follow than repeatedly deciding whether this particular notification deserves your attention.

Your morning doesn't need to be perfectly calm

A morning routine isn't a guarantee that you'll feel serene while an election is happening. That's not the standard.

You may still be concerned. You may still disagree with something you read. You may still have strong feelings about an issue, candidate, outcome, or uncertainty.

The useful question is whether your routine helps you stay engaged with the rest of your life instead of getting pulled into election coverage before you've done anything else.

After a few mornings, ask:

• Am I checking election news less compulsively?
• Can I concentrate better once I start work?
• Do I feel more intentional about when I consume news?
• Am I still getting the information I actually need?
• Does the stress settle once I redirect my attention, or does the same response keep taking over?

That last question matters.

If changing your habits changes the problem, that's useful information. You probably needed a better boundary or routine.

If you've changed the practical pieces and a specific response keeps showing up anyway, that's different information.

Where Brainspotting fits in

Brainspotting fits in when the issue isn't simply that you're consuming too much news or starting your day without useful boundaries. It can be useful when there's a specific recurring response that continues even after you've made reasonable practical changes.

You may understand exactly what's happening and still feel the same reaction take over. You may know that checking again isn't helping and still feel pulled back into it. Or a particular topic, image, conversation, or uncertainty may activate a response that feels much bigger than the information in front of you.

Brainspotting gives us a way to work directly with that recurring response. Rather than only adding another coping strategy, we can target the pattern that keeps getting activated and work toward changing the response itself.

I'm a certified Brainspotting practitioner with extensive experience using Brainspotting, and I spent approximately 25 years as a paramedic, including years in clinical emergency practice. I'm comfortable assessing what I'm seeing, recognizing what is appropriate for my scope, and recognizing when someone needs a different level or type of care.

You do not need to diagnose yourself before contacting me. I'll help determine whether what you're experiencing is an appropriate Brainspotting target for practitioner work or whether you need assessment and treatment from a licensed mental-health professional instead.

If therapy is what you need, I'll tell you. If Brainspotting with me is an appropriate fit, I'll tell you that too.

Learn more about Brainspotting with Jennie →

Start your day before you start following the election

You don't have to pretend an election doesn't matter in order to protect the beginning of your day.

Wake up. Check in with yourself. Move around. Take care of the basics. Decide what matters today. Then choose when you're ready to let election news into the room.

That's not avoidance. It's a boundary.

And if a simple boundary solves the problem, excellent. Use the simple solution.

If it doesn't, that's information too.

Suggested Reading

Your morning routine is one piece of managing election stress. These articles cover what to do during the rest of the day and when practical tools aren't enough.

8 Proven Ways to Beat Election Stress and Anxiety
Start with eight practical ways to stay informed without letting election coverage consume your attention. Quick Mindfulness Techniques to Ease Election Stress
Try short techniques you can use when election stress starts pulling your attention away from the present. Using Brainspotting to Relieve Election Anxiety
See what to consider when better boundaries and routines still aren't changing the response.

Protecting your morning is only one piece of managing election stress. Visit How to Deal With Election Anxiety: Election Stress Resources to find practical help.