Andy Hatz talks election-day feelings with a cat cameo, shares personal coping strategies for anxiety and curiosity, and urges civic participation while reflecting on what election results mean for future engagement.
Andy Hatz: Today is election day. He says he is feeling anxious, but also excited about the possibility of a woman as president. Hatz shares some ways to cope with election anxiety.
Whatever the results of the election, it's going to set the conditions of engagement with each other. Instead of fear, get outside where I am. I offer curiosity as an antidote to anxiety. For me, zest is being present and pleased.
So almost done here, Cadre, with this live stream. If you haven't voted yet, please go vote. There are races up and down the ballot. We'll have a lot more information next week. See you later.
Good morning, Cadre. I am here along with my friend and cat Nakatomi. Yes, for those of you who just raised your eyebrows, he is indeed named after the building in the movie Die Hard. His brother's name is Argyle. Argyle is the driver who picks up John McClane at the airport at the beginning Die Hard and then has some crucial scenes along the way. Argyle's not in this room, though, but Nakatomi really wanted to be here. And today is election day. That's a helicopter going overhead, if you can hear it.
There's a lot of helicopters. C. so a lot of helicopters go overhead. And I don't know what they're doing today, but bless their hearts, today is election day. So I hope everybody, if you haven't voted already, I hope you have a plan to go vote. If you do not have a plan, I hope you please create one. Whoever you're voting for, I want you to vote. That's more important actually, than who you're voting for is the fact that we get to vote. And to me, that's what I'm voting for this year. Oh, look at his little hand.
Yeah. Welcome, Andy Hatz. I'm so glad that you have joined. Put a word. If you're here and you want to put a word in this chat and let everybody know how you're feeling, that'd be great. I would appreciate that a lot. I am feeling anxious. There's another helicopter going overhead, a lot of helicopters today. I am feeling anxious. I'm also feeling a little bit excited because, oh, here he goes. He's leaving. Because as we get closer to the electorates work being done, as it potentially goes to, you know, election lawyers and organizations and such and judges that work.
And can we just take a moment to thank the election staff and volunteers at every city and every county in this country who are doing such good and hard work to make sure we have a free and fair election. I want to appreciate all of them. The city of Minneapolis has its own elections department, and I know how hard everybody worked, and I really appreciate that people do that work. And I have friends who are election judges and people who are being poll watchers today. Everybody, thank you. That is such.
Such important work. Why did I start talking about all of the poll workers today? That's how anxious I am. I'm a little scattered. I apologize. But I'm also excited, right? Because as we come to the end of our part of the work, our, you know, talking to each other, door knocking, lit dropping, phone bang, whatever it is, that people have been doing. It occurs to me, and this is for me, your mileage may vary. You do not have to agree with me politically. But I will just say that for me, I am finally willing to let in just the tiniest bit that there might be a woman as the President of the United States.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Right? I live through 2016, but it might happen and that would be pretty cool. So I'm excited about the prospect of that. I'm excited about the prospect of that. But I've been thinking, when I was thinking about today in the livestream, I just gave you an example of ways to cope with anxiety. And this for me today is election anxiety. But I have anxiety every day. This is just its own flavor of anxiety. And I was thinking about what are some tools to just get through a day like today where everybody's on edge.
I learned a few years ago I talked to somebody about the feeling I get on election day and how excited I get because it's amazing to feel the energy of all my neighbors near and far, deciding, coming together to decide who we're going to be as a community and who we're going to be as a city and as a country. And that's very exciting to me. It's a little more fraught in the last eight years, I will say. But that coach, he pointed out to me, he said not everybody gets. Not everybody can feel what it feels like to, you know, there's just this energy that I can feel.
And so today it's a little much because lots of people are very anxious. I'm not saying I'm clairvoyant or something. Maybe I just pick up on what I'm seeing online or whatever. I'm not trying to be too excessively woo woo with you. I'll do that on my own time. But, you know, I could, I could feel it, but I can also. That means feel the anxiety. So what can we do to ramp it down? What are some, like breathing exercises? You can look those up. A few things that I realized. One, I did my workout this morning.
As much routine as I can keep in place is really useful for my anxiety in general. But specifically today, I'm doing my Cadre slot. You know, I'm here with all of you. That's amazing to me. Being of service, that's a tricky one because so many people are codependent. But today I'm just going to say if you're in your worries and you're in your feels and you are tempted to doom scroll. Finding a way to be of service to someone else can be useful. It does not have to be election service. It doesn't have to be be a poll watcher or anything.
Check in with your friends, see how they're doing, listen to them for a while as opposed to just share how you're feeling. Right. Anything you can do to try and think about other people and get out of. I'll say, speak for myself, get out of my own squirrel brain is really useful. It's useful to be here and think about all of you. For example, I would suggest not watching the news like it's your job. Unless it's your job. I'm in dc. There are lots of people whose job it is to watch the news, but if you're not one of them, if you're not one of them, then don't watch the news like it's your job.
And you're on Cadre today, which is really good because I think everybody within the sound of Cadre's voice should be hanging out on Cadre today to help just get a dose of reality. Whatever happens tonight, thank you for the hearts and welcome. Luke, we're talking about election anxiety. Whatever the results, we may or may not know them tonight. We probably won't know them tonight. There's just too many ballots to be counted from mail in voting. But we're going to wake up tomorrow and people are going to still need each other, people are going to still love each other.
Work to build our lives and our community will still need to be done. Anything that's important to you today will still be important to you tomorrow. We may add to that list or subtract from that list, depending on the results of this election. But the most important thing, this is least for me, the most important thing that I remember. Yes, Luke, absolutely. An anxious day for many. That's why I'm talking about it today. The most important thing is that you will still love people and people will still love you and you will still love the things about your life that you love.
My cats are still gonna need to be fed. I will still love my community, I will still love my country. Whatever it is that's important to you, keep that close in your heart and maybe focus on that more than you're focused on the fear of Los something. I think that's what a lot of the anxiety is about. People are afraid of losing something. And for me, elections are about gaining more insight about who we've decided to be as a community and where we want to head with one another and what are the conditions of our engagement with each other from now on, whatever the results of the election, it's going to set the conditions of engagement with each other.
But there's a lot to be gained in that, not just things to be lost in that. And many people feel like things they care about are under threat. That is often what elections are about, is what am I feeling threatened by? And that's why it's easy to stoke the electorate with fear. But what is it that you love and what are you trying to express with your vote about what it is that you love and who it is you love and why it is that you love it and them and the principles that you stand for and the values that you stand for.
There's a lot to be learned from elections. This is somebody who's been on the ballot four times myself, and I won three times and lost once, but I have voted many more times than that. And every time, if we let it, it can be an agent for our own growth and a deeper understanding of who we are and who we are in community. So that perspective I offer you today. If we enter this election with curiosity about where we're at, where the systems are at, and how the systems have been created and formed and used, but who we are inside those systems and how we want to relate to them and what we're seeing about how other people relate to them.
I offer curiosity as an antidote to anxiety. I offer being present as opposed to dissociated as an antidote to anxiety and to be as pleased as you can with as much as you can. For me, zest is being present and pleased. And zest for me is the opposite of anxiety. I think I've talked about that before, so be of service to someone else, not necessarily in a codependent way, but let's worry less about that today than we would other days. Don't watch the news like it's your job. Shift your perspective to as much positive as you as we can.
Instead of fear, get outside where I am. It's a beautiful sunny day. I don't know what it's like where you are, but even a little bit of getting outside, seeing the sky, breathing fresh air, not looking at a screen, let your gaze go more than two feet, you know, more than a foot in front of you. Like let it go 20ft in front of you for at least quite some time. That's better for your eyes anyway. And your does good things for your brain. Get outside a Little bit. Do exercise. Oh, routine. We talked about routine as a key way to deal with anxiety today.
I also suggest that laughter is really good and really important. I have already laughed this morning with friends because being of service, I've been checking in with people, just seeing how they're doing and listening, but we've ended up joking with each other too, which I humor. I've said it before and I will say it again. Humor is one of the most important values to me. It is one of the most important life tools to me. And it's one of the best life perspectives that I carry. And it's a warning sign for me.
If I'm too scared to laugh, it means I need to tweak something. And so laugh. Watch a comedian, watch a cat video. Whatever it is you can do to get yourself laughing, do it. You know the movie for me, Liar Liar with Jim Carrey. Has anybody seen that movie? Even all these years later? The movie. Hello. Ball out one. Nice to see you. The movie Liar, Liar, still to this day, makes me laugh. I save it in case of emergency. It's like behind glass, you know, Break in case of emergency. Is the movie Liar, Liar.
Because I don't know why. It just really hits me just the right way. There are lots of things that hit me the right way, but it is very reliable. So I recommend watching Liar, Liar today. I remember the day of my first election. I was running for city council and I had done the morning shake hands at coffee shops and things like that. And I had. There was just. I needed a break. Everybody knew I needed a break. They sent me back late morning into early afternoon and I watched the south park movie with my friend Suzanne, who was my body person for the day.
We watched south park and laughed and laughed and laughed. And then I could just go out and do the rest of the day. Now, your mileage may vary. Not everybody loves South Park. I don't want you to me about south park, but it really helped. So that's what I got for you for election anxiety. But really for any anxiety, if I'm having a particularly bad day, these are the things that help. Routine exercise, get outside laugh, be of service to other people, change my perspective to focus on as much of the positive as I can.
And don't watch the news like it's my job because it's not my job. It used to be my job to watch the news about Minneapolis or have people do it for me and let me know, really. But it is not my job to watch the news. The results are going to be the results, whether I'm watching the news or not. So I want enough to have the information I need, but not so much that I feel completely hobbled by it. So almost done here, Cadre, with this live stream. Oh, and Cadre, that's the other tool that you have at your disposal today, is hang out on Cadre as much as you need to, to get a dose of perspective about reality and what's going on in the world and your place in it, and whether it's possible to feel okay even when things feel less okay than you would like.
And that's a general lesson, not just an election lesson. So any final thoughts in the comments, let me know. I appreciate all of you for being here. If you haven't voted yet, please go vote. Whoever you're voting for, it's really important that you do it. And there are races up and down the ballot, so please go vote if you haven't already. And let's go get them. I'll see you next week. We'll have a lot more information next week and I hope everybody is doing well. See you later, Cadre.
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