Mindfulness suggests that we try to live in the here and now. But how do you navigate a season like this current election season that requires forward-looking thinking? We all have many strategies for dealing with everyday stressors. But what helps when stress is directed toward tomorrow rather than today?
Perhaps the answer comes from children. One of my favorite new studies asks the question, “How can teenagers grow into resilient adults?” In this study, teens were asked to watch videos of current teens living in Pakistan talking about current life issues, and then chat with them afterwards. Teens naturally started talking about their current life problems. But as we chatted, some of the teens started to drift away from the here and now. They moved away from talking about how decisions made today will directly affect tomorrow, and instead talked about how people’s decisions are influenced by their culture and beliefs, and how they change over time. We started talking about how things change over time. The teens moved away from talking about how in-the-moment emotions create in-the-moment reactions and instead started talking about how people’s lives are one giant cycle of ups and downs.
In other words, these teenagers stopped focusing on their current corner and started thinking about the messy big picture.
Five years later, the teens in the study with this more transcendental mindset had become the most resilient adults. This big-picture mindset predicted their future well-being more than their education, accomplishments, or financial security.
Here’s where it gets really crazy. Their brains were bigger. This growth was not correlated with SAT scores or level of education achieved. It correlated with their transcendental thinking.
So, as we navigate this stressful election season, for our own mental health, we may need to step back from the current moment and remind ourselves of the circumstances of great turmoil. Rather than focusing on our frightening current location, we may need to take a step back and look at the vastly blurred historical world timeline.
We may need to value our well-being in the distant future more than we value our opinions today.
Until next time,
Laura
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transcendent-thinking-teens-happiness_l_661001f5e4b083254eabf12a
