Does the contentious presidential race have you feeling stressed? Then perhaps volunteer to help out with the election or turn off the TV and practice some stress management techniques, advised Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Laura Kubzansky in an October 20, 2016 Harvard Gazette article.
“I think this election has generated an immense amount of uncertainty because the candidates are so very, very different … and so, if it goes one way, America as we know it will look quite different from if it goes another way,” said Kubzansky, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Kubzansky studies the effects of stress and emotion on cardiovascular disease.
Kubzansky was discussing an American Psychological Association survey released October 13, 2016 in which 52% of the participants reported finding the election stressful.
“If people feel really passionately that they want it to go one way or the other, then volunteer some time. Volunteering generally enhances one’s well-being,” she said, “and it will give them a sense of doing something or taking control.”
Read the Harvard Gazette article: The stressed-out electorate
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Happiness & health (Harvard Public Health)