Wise Resistance: The Role of Mindfulness in the Trump Era

by Joel Groover

Helen Barnes Vantine is seeing a new syndrome of sorts among her psychotherapy patients in Atlanta—an upwelling of anger, anxiety and sadness stirred by thoughts of President Donald Trump. “A number of my patients just cannot stop talking about how upset they are, their outrage and what they’re going to do about it,” Vantine said. “People are experiencing almost a chronic stress reaction to the election. They’re getting lost in thought and ratcheting up strong emotion.”

Stephanie Swann reports much the same of patients at her Atlanta-area psychotherapy practice. “Certainly in my therapy sessions—and especially among my clients who have a history of incest or other forms of sexual abuse—I have never seen them triggered as they are right now,” she said. Swann and Vantine are not alone: As noted in a Feb. 9 Bloomberg report (“In the Therapist’s Office, Trump Becomes a Hot Topic”), mental health professionals see signs of politics-induced stress among their patients. The response is more likely among those who voted for the losing side, but the intensity of political conflict these days—everything from Trump, to Brexit, to the rise of populism across Europe—is such that anyone could be affected. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken just before the U.S. presidential inauguration, 39 percent of about 6,500 respondents reported arguing with family and friends over politics. One married couple reportedly split up after 22 years. The husband had voted for Trump; his wife saw this as a “deal-breaker.”

Both Vantine and Swann, who are certified instructors in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), see mindfulness as a potentially powerful tool for those who are struggling in the Trump era.

The business partners co-own the Atlanta Mindfulness Institute, which brings a range of mindfulness-based programs to the public. While the proven benefits of the practice do include stress relief, mindfulness could also help activists stave off “resistance fatigue” and stay engaged in the political process, they say. And by pausing to pay careful attention before speaking or acting—a fundamental training in MBSR—meditators stand a better chance of furthering peace at a time when conflict is running high.

Swann, for one, has been heartened by the stability, calm and resilience her advanced meditation students have shown since the inauguration. By contrast, she says, some of her therapy clients have had a harder time. “Without a way to get some distance from the feelings and mind states that are arising, we kind of collapse into them,” Swann said. “That’s why I’m seeing a bit more paralysis among the folks who are in therapy but who don’t practice mindfulness.”

Keeping ‘resistance fatigue’ at bay.

On a Facebook page for Georgia activists, a woman from Fayetteville posts about getting into an altercation with her uncle, who had urged her to “Zen out” and stop posting about politics so much. “I got mad,” she writes. “I asked him if he would ever tell my brother (his nephew) how to conduct himself on FB.” The woman recounts her daily routine of listening to NPR, poring over The New York Times and calling her representatives about the latest outrages. “Every SINGLE day something else happens in our government,” she writes. “Never has there been such turmoil, at least that I can recall in my adult life.”

Just a few weeks into the Trump administration, some activists are already fretting about the possibility of “resistance fatigue”—burnout brought on by obsessively checking the news, posting about it on social media and generally ruminating about the fate of the country. As they engage in resistance to policies they see as unjust or harmful, activists could use mindfulness to help them recharge and avoid becoming overwhelmed, say Vantine and Swann. “One of the most important things we can do right now is self-care, because this frenetic pace will take you down,” Swann said.

Ruminating about an imagined future is rarely constructive, Vantine says. “It is very easy to get into almost a fantasyland about what is going to happen,” she said. “You can grasp onto articles that lean to the extreme and then believe them to be the truth.”

The alternative is to mindfully attend to what is happening now. You might focus on the feeling of sitting in a chair, breathing peacefully and listening to birds chirping outside your window, as opposed to, say, live-streaming the latest Sean Spicer press conference on CNN.com. While activists do need to stay informed, Vantine says, it is possible to do so without constantly following the news in real time. “You might be better off just reading a print newspaper at the end of the day,” she said. “It gets you off of your phone.”

Both Vantine and Swann encourage people to take time out each day to practice mindfulness of breathing or a technique like loving-kindness meditation. “You can take 30 minutes a day where you actually let your mind rest,” Vantine said. “It helps you reestablish a sense of proportion, and it’s an antidote to stress and catastrophizing—worrying about the future and feeling like the sky is falling—which is gripping a lot of people in the country.”

Embracing community, without tribalism.

When people throw themselves into political resistance, it is natural to focus on outcomes—trying to stop the congressional approval of a particular cabinet member or force the administration to backtrack on this or that policy. But as Swann sees it, focusing overmuch on results can be draining. Instead, she encourages people to attend to the positive feelings and sense of empowerment that can come from organizing and taking action. Practicing in a group has been particularly supportive of late for students at the Atlanta Mindfulness Institute, Swann says. “They feel a level of stability and comfort from meditating with other people,” she said. “There’s a sense of gratitude that comes from knowing that there are other people who are definitely like-minded and like-practiced.”

Many people felt encouraged and uplifted by the sense of solidarity they experienced at events such as the Women’s March on Washington. However, in joining political groups or protests, it is important to avoid the false balm of tribalism, which furthers conflict in the world and can actually lead to more stress, said Dr. Saki F. Santorelli, executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. By being mindful of our own internal states, he says, we can avoid becoming snared by notions of us versus them.

“I notice how easily and often I assume or take for granted that people think or feel like me, and, if they don’t, that they are wrong or misguided,” Santorelli said. “This kind of duality-based thinking is driven by mental habits that are always creating—and are often enough feeling comfort and taking solace in—these opposites. But dualistic thinking is itself a trap because it is a falsehood, a conditioned view of a much larger reality.”

Triggered by an uncle’s Facebook post or seething over the latest political story on CNN, it is easy to act from this place of dualism. But does lashing out actually help? “I would go so far as to say that if you’re really reactive to something, it is never going to be constructive action,” Vantine said. “Generally speaking, reactivity leads to unskillful, unwholesome actions. There’s enough of that right now. Do we need to add to it?” Swann, too, cites the value of acting from a place of clarity. “Is this a good time for you to take this action?” she said. “How activated are you already? It’s helpful to be very clear about where you are before you act.”

Toward that end, Santorelli suggests paying close attention to the whole range of body sensations, thoughts, and emotions that can arise in moments of potential conflict. The goal is to observe, feel and stay with this process, he says, rather than to suppress it or be caught by it. “Sometimes, I do get sucked into these reactions,” he said. “In those instances, when I am really present to them, experience has taught me over and over again that it is best for me not to act.”

But this is not the same thing as being passive in the face of injustice, Santorelli says. “I am not passively resigned to the situation,” he said. “I do not feel helpless. I do accept that I cannot accept certain ‘orders’ or ‘decisions,’ actions or conditions. When this is the case, the question then becomes: How shall I meet and, if need be, resist those forces wisely, without creating more polarization, more ‘them and us,’ more suffering?”

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