It’s Inauguration Day! Joe Biden is OUT of the White House and did as much damage as he could do (or so we think). We shall see celebrating and tears of joy at the thought the country is going to become the United States again.
There will also be tears and gnashing of teeth. Tears of grief and depression. Good news! Time magazine has some solutions for you.
I Just Can’t Resist!
The was a pre-inaugural Trump rally yesterday. And guess who performed with Trump on stage:
Joe Biden has moved out of the White House and took a plane to Delaware. He’s gone. But his administration did the best they could to sabotage the Trump administration.
- He pardoned or commuted the sentences of another 2500 felons. That brings his totals to more than 10,000 pardons or commutations.
- He has listed a huge portion of California as a national park, preventing drilling.
- He has banned drilling off the east and west coasts.
- Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote to all employees that he was giving them three days of additional vacation time to be used in 2025, in memory of him.
- The change that could have significant impacts on the agency’s budget had to do with allowing employees to attain significant pay raises through tenure, rather than merit.
- Biden said he would cancel student loans for more than 150,000 borrowers, which he doesn’t actually have the capacity to do and the Supreme Court said he could not do.
- The Biden administration issued sweeping extensions of deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of people to prevent President Trump from actually moving those people out of the country.
- President Biden signed a piece of legislation that gives full Social Security benefits to some public sector retirees who are currently receiving them at a reduced level.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-commutes-nearly-2500-more-sentences-final-days-presidency
https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-makes-11th-hour-moves-to-sabotage-trump-department-of-homeland-security?topStoryPosition=3
Dumbass of the Day
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881073198244278276
According to Time Magazine:
On Monday, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. For some, it’s a highly anticipated day of celebration. Others have been dreading it—and would happily finagle a deal with the universe to skip to some other day four years down the road instead.
Why so much distress after months of processing the outcome of this divisive election? Many people are probably catastrophizing, experts say, a cognitive distortion that involves fixating on the worst possible outcome and believing it’s bound to happen. The thinking goes like this: “‘Oh my God, if everything is going to have to be that way, and follow that thread, then we’re all going to die,’” says Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director at the University of California at Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.
Yet that’s not a helpful or productive way to pass Inauguration Day (and all the days that follow). “I’m very far from the kind of excessively optimistic person who just tries to put their head in the clouds and pretend it’s not happening,” Simon-Thomas says. “But I do think it’s worth remembering that this is one moment—this is one four-year term, and things change both quickly and very slowly. That kind of perspective can diminish that sense of hopelessness.”
We asked experts to share their favorite science-backed suggestions for how to spend Inauguration Day if you happen to be dreading it.
Give back
The fact that Inauguration Day falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day—a federal holiday, granting many people the day off work—is serendipitous, says Anindita Bhaumik, a therapist and certified trauma professional in Boston. Take advantage of your empty calendar by participating in a local service project, she suggests. Volunteering has been shown to reduce stress and depression, boost happiness, and enhance life satisfaction, motivation, social support, and sense of community.
“The cause of anxiety is often a desire to control the outcome,” she says. “We can’t control the outcome all the time, but what we can do is control what we do: ‘I’m going to go to a shelter and brush a horse or bathe a dog, and that will bring me joy for an hour and help someone else. This, I can control.’”
Unfortunately, most of these people don’t have nor want jobs, so that’s a problem.
Work out
Get creative
Spending time on creative pursuits—like singing, painting, ceramics, or cooking—is an excellent way to “get out of your head,” Simon-Thomas says. “For those who have the impulse, ‘This is going to be terrible. I’m so angry, I feel so violated,’ or whatever unpleasant emotion, can you sit quietly and do something or marvel or wonder or be curious or just extend your mind into something aesthetic?” No one’s able to pay attention to everything all at once, she points out, and if you focus deeply on something like drawing a picture, you’ll have less space in your brain to devote to the day’s events.
Don’t they really have to be creative to come up with the disasters that are going to come about during the Trump presidency?
One idea that might appeal to even non-artsy types: Make a vision board, suggests Julia Barzizza, a visual artist and sociology researcher in San Francisco. Brainstorm how you envision a peaceful, improved democracy: “For the queer community, it might be more queer representation; for BIPOC folks, it might be a different Inauguration,” she says. Then collect images that represent your vision, whether they’re your own drawings or cutouts from magazines or the internet. “The process is really about solidifying your ideas and getting clear on your perspective,” Barzozza says. “Once that perspective feels really solid and concrete, you should absolutely share it either on social media, with friends, or maybe up in your office.”
Do some forest bathing
Bhaumik just spent a week in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where she enjoyed counting the trees and observing their long, bare branches. She knows they’ll look different a few months from now, when green buds reappear, and again when their leaves turn yellow, red, and then brown.
On Inauguration Day, do your own forest bathing.
Spend five minutes journaling
Squeeze a short “brain dump” into your day, suggests Nicolle Osequeda, a therapist at Lincoln Park Therapy Group in Chicago. Set a five-minute timer and write down everything swirling around in your mind, no matter how scattered it might feel. Putting your thoughts on paper “helps reduce mental clutter and quiet spiraling thoughts,” she says. It can also help you identify patterns in your worries—which allows you to start brainstorming solutions. Osequeda likes ending journaling sessions with a simple affirmation: “I can take breaks from the news,” or “I choose to protect my peace.”
Since these people are too much in their own minds already, maybe this is a bad idea.
Go see a performance
Do something kind
Carve out a couple hours to write letters to friends—perhaps expressing your gratitude toward them—or take a gift to your neighbors, like a slice of banana bread. “There’s lots of evidence about the so-called ‘warm glow’, which is how your nervous system signals pleasure and reward when you see that something you’ve done uplifts the welfare of another person,” Simon-Thomas says.
Smile at other people
Dance it out
Cry with a friend
It might seem counterintuitive, but if you need to shed a few tears on Inauguration Day, it’s healthy to let them out with one caveat: You shouldn’t do it alone. “The grace and speed with which somebody recovers from grief if they have an opportunity to cry with the support of another person—someone who they trust and who they believe cares about them—is orders of magnitude improved,” Simon-Thomas says.
Zoom out
Inauguration Day is a good time to focus on gaining perspective—and to decide whether you want to merely withstand the next four years, or treat them like an opportunity. Switching up your mindset can feel daunting, Simon-Thomas acknowledges, but it’s a great way to overcome feelings of overwhelm and hopelessness.
She recommends a mental exercise that can help you zoom out: Start by imagining a trail marker on a long, winding path. “Back out a little bit and go, ‘Well, where is that marker, and where is the trail starting and where is the trail ending?’” she says. You might even travel back in time and think about where the idea for the trail originated and who actually created it, clearing brush and heaving piles of dirt.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/therapists-suggest-group-crying-forest-bathing-cope-stress-trump-inauguration-day
https://time.com/7207613/trump-inauguration-day-mental-health-activities/
