Election Day meditation flash mobs bring voters much needed zen at polling places
Now that Election Day is finally here, we thought we’d be excited. But in truth, the intense, often negative election climate has knotted us up into a ball of stress as we prepare to cast our ballots. Luckily, some fabulous people decided to bring meditation to polls to ease election stress, and we bow down to them.
The geniuses at Elevate the Vote have noticed our lack of Election Day zen, so they decided to bring “meditation flash mobs” to nearly 1,000 polling locations. And they’re not the only ones trying to bring us a little calm. The Weather Channel is airing calming videos for Election Day. Also, plenty of businesses nationwide will offer you special treats for voting.
According to the American Psychologically Association, feeling stress this Election Day is pretty common this year.
#ElevatetheVote's #meditation flash mobs across the country aim to help voters achieve #ElectionDay inner peace: https://t.co/sFyWVvqnDv pic.twitter.com/dX2OLb6rKm
— Spectrum News SA (@SpecNewsSA) November 8, 2016
One therapist even coined the term “Election Stress Disorder.” Therefore, Elevate the Vote set out to bring some zen to voters as a way to combat their stress. One of the organizers of the event, Jacob Devaney, explained that they wanted to heal some of the divisiveness.
“People are pissed off, they’re angry, they’re hurt and they feel hopeless ... So we thought, why not really try to hold a space for healing the divide that came from this whole bitter process?
We could definitely use a little bit of that in our lives.
Elevate the Vote even organized a massive meditation in Texas, which looks amazingly relaxing.
@unify is preparing to #omthedome with its latest synchronized meditation at 5pm #electionday for #ElevateTheVote #texasstatecapitol #Austin pic.twitter.com/C9G4hs1mhx
— Elevate The Vote (@ElevateTheVote) November 8, 2016
Elevate the Vote’s organizers found inspiration in the country’s motto, “E Pluribus Unum.”
"Out of many, we are one."
That’s the kind of thing that we need to hold with us today, when things feel so divided.
Just looking at these photos and reading about their message, we feel calmer.
We hope anyone who got the chance to participate felt empowered and unified.
