The US has just finished electing its new President.

There are reported incidents of protests, added stress, and increase tensions due to election results. Since elections, both at a local county level or at national level happen, almost round the year, therefore, they can create stress in our life.

Whatever the results, election results are always the cause of stress.

For many of us, a sudden change in the world due to election results is often hard to digest and understand. We feel that the world may not be like the one we wanted and stress becomes a direct result.

Here are some ways you can cope with stress that comes from election results:

1. Learn to breathe

Probably the most effective method to deal with stress is to do guided breathing exercises.

If you use Apple Watch, it has a small app that can remind you to take some deep breaths during the day. This guided breathing slows down your mind and allows you to take a necessary pause to shift your focus. A simple focus on your breath while thinking good positive thoughts can help you to shift your focus away from the mind chatter created by election results

You can also simply focus on your breath and inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth to take some deep breaths to soothe your nerves and begin to accept the election results.

2. Distract Yourself

If you are living in a country like India and you are reading the opinion poll online, your life may not be that impacted by the polls because online opinion polls are not as sensational in nature. But if you are living in a country like the US where election results are closely followed, you are surely going to acquire a lot of stress.

When the last US election results came out, the internet was abuzz with talks on the impact of results on our mental health. To effectively deal with this, learn to distract your mind. Whenever you are gripped with the election fever, take time out and go on a mini-vacation.

Some other ways you can distract yourself include:

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1. Going to church, or any place of worship, where elections are not discussed.
2. Going for a vacation in a country that is on a different continent and is less concerned about the results of elections in your country.
3. Finishing some of the long overdue chores at your home, such as cleaning your chimney or going out to repair your car.
4. Having long sessions of sleep instead of watching TV.

Also, avoid talking politics with your friends or neighbors. Differences in views only prove to increase the post-election stress you feel.

3. Learn to be good loser

One of the negative impacts of social media on the current US election results is that many people have openly shown their resentment. In such a scenario, people who were friends but voted to different candidates were at odds with each other. If you face any such scenario, whether you win or lose, try to be a gracious winner or good loser.

Learn to accept defeat and live with a larger reality. Focus on the positive sides of the results and accept what you cannot change.

4. Learn to let go and meditate

Probably the most effective tip to deal with the election results is to let go and meditate. Meditation has been scientifically proven to benefit the mind, body, and spirit. It quiets the mind and allows you to concentrate on being mindful. Letting go aids in whatever positive effects meditating creates.

If you are too stressed due to election results, do some periodic meditation sessions.

Above are some simple and effective tips on how to deal with the election results and deal with the new and changing reality. In every type of stress condition, these simple tips can help you easily cope with the stress and live a stress-free life with your family and kids.

Featured photo credit: ABC News via abcnews.go.com

Let’s face it.  We are living in a digital age, and there is absolutely no turning back. One of the biggest influences on society these days is social media. It affects us both positively and negatively. Social media was originally designed for people to share interesting facets of their lives with their friends, but it has become so much more than what it intended to be. It is now a medium for information to pass around the globe. In many cases, people first learn about current events through Twitter or Facebook before hearing about them from conventional news sources.

We also rely on technology for nearly everything we do. People these days seem as if they can’t go anywhere or do anything without their smartphones, tablets, or laptops. They need to be in constant contact with others via electronic devices.

However, there is also a downside to be too connected to social media and electronic devices. We are too dependent on them, which make us oblivious to what we are doing to ourselves. Being too connected can have a negative effect on our lives and the society as a whole. Here are 10 true illustrations that show how our society is negatively impacted because of the use of technology.

1. Facebook is eating away at your time.

How much time do you usually spend each day on Facebook or other social networking sites? Is it hindering your productivity? Do you find yourself wasting time to a point where you don’t even know where it goes? If the answer is yes, Facebook might have eaten away at your time.

2. We’ve become “Likeaholics.”

When you are posting something on Facebook, are you doing it just to see how many of your friends will give it the proverbial thumbs up? This illustration shows that some people are treating “Likes” on Facebook as if it was a drug they needed to inject into their bloodstreams.

3. Our electronics have priority over our lives.

Given a choice between your dying phone battery or you dying, which will you choose? In this case, the man in this illustration chose to charge his phone over to sustain his own life. As a society, we need to be more careful of our priorities.

4. Our devices are ruining intimacy.

Have you and your loved one ever spent time together where each of you is on your phone instead of communicating face-to-face with each other? Has society reached the point where we can’t even be intimate with each other without being on our phones at the same time?

5. Families aren’t spending quality time together.

Here is a mother making holiday cookies, but what are the kids doing? They are not making cookies with their mother. Instead, every one of them has their faces buried in their own electronic devices. Television used to be what parents use to babysit their kids. Now, it’s a tablet, phone, laptop or video game that does the job.

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6.  We’d rather record someone than help them.

A lot is happening in this illustration. A black man is drowning and asking for help. One person has a gun pointed at him. The other person has their iPhone pointed at him and is recording the scene, but is not interested to help this man.

7. Society is sleeping, it’s sleeping its life away.

Time is money. After we have wasted the long period of time on social media, we are losing the most valuable currency we have – our time in this world.

8.  Despite all the technology we have, we still want what someone else has.

There’s an old saying that goes, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” This illustration shows that despite all that we have, we are still not satisfied with our lives.

9. Sensationalism still sells.

With the information overload that exists today, the media still looks for sensationalism. Here’s a woman who feels she has something important to say, but the media only cares about her because she is naked. Would the news media still have microphones in front of her if she wasn’t standing there topless?

10. In the end, with all of this, we are still killing the planet.

This last illustration argues that despite all of our technological gains, we are still polluting the earth as if we have a virtual gun pointed at Mother Nature. As we build bigger cities and higher technology, how much more damages can we continue to do before putting our lives at risk?

Featured photo credit: Michael Summers via flickr.com