An election care package: coloring sheets, cocktails, and connection

Plus a costume + Taylor Swift Eras Tour pic

Tuesday, November 5th is the election in the United States. 

Please make a plan to vote.

If you’re like me, your stress level is through the roof right now.

This is our country’s third presidential election cycle navigating the intensity, vitriol, and divisiveness of a potential Tr**p presidency.

It makes sense that this moment may feel scary as hell.

I’m doing my best to both take gentle care of my highly activated nervous system and take action. A precarious balancing act, to be sure.

On Tuesday, I’m hosting

Cocktails and Coloring for the Cause:
Election Day Happy Hour

It’s an unapologetically progressive happy hour, featuring art by the incomparable Laura Sanders.

Plus, I’m hosting it upstairs at Capulet, a restaurant/bar where kiddos can come!

Poll workers—the lovely folks who check your ID and get you set up to vote—are a vital part of our democracy. Let's show them some appreciation in the midst of a very long day.

Even if you’re not in NOLA, consider coloring a note to thank your local poll workers

Expressing gratitude, feeling connected to community, and coloring all relieve stress.

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Also, my friend Lindsay Bryan Podvin shared her approach to the next several days with her readers, which I found wildly helpful. Here’s mine.

My Election Self-Care Plan*

Today

• Work in the AM

• Attend a massage + coaching session with Olandra Massage Therapy

• Phone bank with Lindsay at 5pm CT (Join us!)

Tuesday (tomorrow)

• Phone bank at 8am CT (Join me!)

• Drop off treats to a family member whose bday is Election Day.

• Host my Coloring and Cocktails for a Cause: Election Day Happy Hour,
  4:30-6:30pm at Capulet (3014 Dauphine St.)

• Strive to avoid news consumption

Wednesday

• Take an Election recovery day, limited work

• Limit my news consumption

Build Your Own Election Self-Care Plan

Your turn! Use this list to help you create your personalized Election Self-Care Plan, that includes a mixture of action-taking and nurturing. 

Take Action Items (AFTER you vote if you're eligible)

• Drive someone to the polls

• Phonebank

• Knock on doors

• Share local voting information/resources on your personal social media account 

• Watch a kiddo for a friend/neighbor/sibling so they can vote

• Share this written voter guide with an unsure friend

• Send your “I voted sticker” selfie to your group chat to remind everyone to vote

• Thank your poll workers and, if in NOLA, come to my party!

Radical Self-Care Items

• Nap

• Paint your nails or someone else's

• Walk, ideally in nature

• Listen to music

• Take a “complete the stress cycle” class, like kickboxing or dancing

• Go to the movies

• Take a bath and use all those products you've been “saving”

• Scream

• Read or reread something not news-y (I loved the book Counterfeit.)

• Snuggle a pet

• Rewatch a comfort movie/show

• Make or order your favorite meal

• Work on a puzzle

• Make or order your favorite baked goods

• Buy that little treat (I just bought an XL microwavable heating pad and a lavender eye pillow!)

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*Navigating Election Results

Lastly, as Jen O’Malley Dillon, Kamala Harris’ Campaign Chair, wrote to supporters:
“We may not know the results of this election for several days. But we must stay calm and confident during that period of time. We all have a role to play to ensure that our friends, family, and neighbors trust our electoral process.”

Our self-care plans and tools to regulate our nervous systems need to extend into the days (and possibly weeks) ahead.

Take gentle care of yourself, and I’ll see you on the other side.

Big love,
Lelia

Many of y’all know costuming is a coping mechanism for me. At the Taylor Swift concert here in NOLA, I was a Get Out The Vote Ghost, pictured here with my bestie Jim (in his Tim Walz Era).

Swifties gifted me Kamala, VOTE, and Harris Walz 2024 friendship bracelets.