Contending with Trump-induced anxiety

Greetings and salutations!

Lately I’ve read a lot in the news that there is a credible chance that Donald Trump will win the next election and, if he does win, there is a likelihood that he will become a dictator.

That’s a truly frightening prospect.

I’ve spoken a lot about the Little Emperor in past weeks and Donald Trump is a man who has given himself over so completely to his Little Emperor that the two are practically one. His threat is real.

We can’t allow ourselves to be consumed by this fear, however. Fear will only paralyze us at a time when we must take action.

To understand how to confront this situation, let me share a lesser example of how I’ve encountered a similar paralyzing fear of circumstances that appeared beyond my control.

Lessons of a street canvasser

After I left the monastic life I struggled to find work so I spent six months or so doing a job they would give just about anyone a shot at: I stood on a street corner asking for donations for a nonprofit.

It was probably the most egregious form of cutthroat capitalism I’ve ever been engaged in. Like, seriously. There was zero job security. You could raise thousands of dollars one week and be out of a job two weeks later because you didn’t make your quota.

They churned through canvassers at a crazy pace.

Because it took so little to slip, it was incredibly easy it is to worry out there on the street. If I wasn’t already close to making my daily quota by lunchtime, then I had to fight hard to stay positive that afternoon.

Once I started worrying just a bit, it would downward spiral fast.

At first I’d worry about that particular day. What if I just didn’t meet any other generous people that day? Soon I’d worry that I wouldn’t make my quota for the week. In no time, I’d be half-convinced I’d soon lose my job.

I call this Storm Approaching Syndrome, the state of mind you enter when you start worrying about future events that are beyond your ability to completely control.

Storm Approaching Syndrome

Storm Approaching Syndrome is a state of rumination. It’s a semi-conscious state where half your mind is given to turning over problems again and again.

Little negative messages surface and resurface in the back of your mind.  

It starts out small like, oh no, this isn’t working out. But it gets more intense over time.

All those thoughts spiral down into what Cognitive Behavioral Therapists (CBT) call catastrophizing—one of my all-time favorite words—which means you start envisioning the absolute worst possible outcome of a situation.

Soon you’re wondering what would happen if you get evicted and become homeless or some horrible scenario like that.

Even though such a catastrophe is unlikely, it gets lodged in your mind and cycles around and around.

The spiral doesn’t always go this far, of course. It may just be that you become convinced that it’s going to be a terrible day at work, or a bad date, or whatever the case may be.

Catastrophizing works hand in hand with another great concept from CBT, Fortune Telling: as if you have a crystal ball and can see exactly how future events will unfold.

Of course, calamities do happen—and we can’t have our heads in the sand about them. But if a catastrophe is impending, the way to address it is to take the time to figure out the best response to it and put your plan into action with a determination. Nothing is ever accomplished by allowing half-conscious pessimistic thoughts to circle around your mind all day.

The price of the syndrome

When I was canvassing for donations, if I got caught in a downward spiral, it was almost impossible to inspire people to give a donation. 

In fact, I often started to have downright negative interactions.

Because I assumed people would reject me, it made me negative towards them in a subtle way. They would feel that negativity and respond in kind. This, of course, confirmed my fears. After a while, it was incredibly difficult to get into a positive headspace.

When you’re in the syndrome, you court the very thing you try to fend against.

I shared a similar scenario last week when I spoke of how Elon Musk courted the thing he likely most feared by telling advertisers to go f*ck themselves. All the syndromes have that self-fulfilling prophecy quality of them.

The fact that negativity breeds negativity, however, doesn’t mean it all had to be that way.

The Syndromes of the Lost Self

Storm Approaching Syndrome is just one of the states of mind that I call Syndromes of the Lost Self. These are negative feeling states that cloud your psyche and use up tons of mental energy that could be used for positive outcomes.

The syndromes are all secondary layers of emotions that emerge that result whenever we push a more intolerable feeling out of sight.

It’s these illusory, secondary, feelings that give emotions a bad rap. They’re untrustworthy, unhelpful, and actually unresolvable on their own. You can spin around in these mental traps for days on end without getting anywhere.

Only when you enter the Labyrinth of Repressed Emotions, and uncover what is truly going on in your heart, will the syndrome get resolved.

What got me through my challenging hours as a canvasser was confronting my own fears of failure. Learning to comfort the frightened child within me—afraid not of one small rejection but of my own survival in this hard world.

What’s astonishing to me is how quickly and completely the clouds can part when you do resolve the real feeling that is beneath the syndrome. What once seemed like a great storm on the horizon turns into a clear, sunny day.

When I did this while canvassing, I found that almost immediately I would start meeting friendly, generous people.

The fear of Trump we must confront

I seriously doubt Trump has a chance of winning again. But defeating him won’t happen from a place of fear.

So please tend to whatever fears may be in your heart. This may be the most important first step toward creating a better society.

We live in a loving universe. There is justice in this world. We are all God’s children, equal in dignity and worth. There is plenty here for everyone.

To build a better world, those truths must be the foundation, not fear.

I don’t know what particular action you are called to take to build a better world, but I believe we will each uncover the action life is asking of us when we process our fears and greet the future with clear vision.

Peace,
Simon

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