by Tana Tymesen

The 2016 election has been inflammatory and infuriating. If you’re not leaving work every day with a heart full of rage and your shoulders up to your ears, then congratulations, you don’t work in media! I hope this means you’re doing something you love.

That doesn’t mean you don’t need to take some time for yourself. Women are socialized to put others before ourselves, and power structures at work and often at home encourage and reinforce this expectation.

You may not think you have time for self-care. It’s hard to find space to think about how you’re going to treat yo’self when you’re working more than one job, or tens of hours a day, or taking care of your kids or parents. But you can’t take care of everything you need to if you don’t take care of yourself first. Audre Lord calls it “self-preservation” and “an act of political warfare,” and with less than a week before election day, we need both of those things.

There are a million reasons to practice active, regular self care, and in particular there is one very visible, blustery, offensive, unnaturally-tinted reason hollering at us from every corner of media. Here are a few ideas for Self-Care Weekend, Election Edition — this last sprint toward the exploding finish line in this burning garbage pile of a presidential campaign season. Try one, two or all of them this weekend!

Popularly known as “sleeping,” the act is crucial to well-being and vastly underutilized. We tend to overlook the relationship between sleep and mental and physical health, because nodding off means we’ll miss something (or because we work too much). You’re going to miss things! It happens. By all means, party your pretty little faces off and attend as many happy hours and dollar oyster nights as you can pack into your calendar; hit every birthday bar crawl and baby shower and surprise engagement event, too. But when you’re about to fall over or break apart, snuggle into your bed, cover your whole face with a blanket, quiet your mind, and let yourself sleep.

Get off social media this weekend, seriously. We are near Peak Panic and it is only going to escalate these last few days. Stay off of Twitter, especially, and try not to engage in Facebook arguments with your aunt’s neighbor’s cousin you met that one time and thought was fine until he started posting conspiracy theories or men’s rights nonsense.

Tell it all to be quiet and go away, and let your brain have a break, too. Your network and friends and every internet troll will still be there when you pick your phone back up.

Find a boxing class near you; go for a run (or a slow jog); lift weights; dance alone in your living room to Beyoncé. If you live in a place where driving is the preferred method of transportation, pick a road you’ve never been down and meander until you run out of road. Slather on some sunscreen and take a walk in the sun. The rays can help improve mood, and fresh air in the lungs is restorative. If solo exercise isn’t your fave, and there’s an activity you’ve

always wanted to try, consider asking a friend to join you on an adventure or check around to see if a local club near you offers that activity.

Adult coloring books have taken hold, but it doesn’t have to stop there. I’ve been chipping away at a quilt my grandma and I started, square by square, for two and a half years. Some nights, I have a deep desire to collage, and spend hours in scraps of paper and globs of glue. Grab a crayon and color with the kid in your life. Try to silence the critic in your head, turn on some music, and lose yourself in color and texture.

This obviously means different things to different people, but the best part is you don’t need to spend a ridiculous amount of money to fulfill it. Feel better when your nails are painted? Head to the salon, or if you are more coordinated than I am, set brush to nail yourself. Pick a color that makes your heart sing, add a design or glitter you think is cool, and live your best phalangeal life. A face mask or body scrub are also great ways to feel a little better, quickly. Inexpensive, prepared versions are quick and easy options, but if you’re up for it, you can make one at home, too. Smile at yourself and your glowy skin!

Do you work in a male-dominated industry? Do you ever just not want to hear male voices anymore? Podcasts can be really helpful for that. Katie Nolan’s Garbage Time podcast is my go-to for sports. For laughs, culture and Deep Thoughts, Another Round with Heben and Tracy is my absolute fave. If you don’t finish most of their pods with a smile on your face, you might actually be a robot. (Sorry.)

The internet isn’t only a tool for torture, which you might not know if you hang out on Twitter at all. There are some fantastic, hilarious writers doing fun things for various sites. Shea Serrano at The Ringer is reliably hilarious and one of the first writers I turn to when I need to decompress. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Twitter feed is essential for niblets of motivation and validation.

Conventional wisdom tells us that the best way to combat blues is to get out and be among people, but for many of us, the opposite is most helpful. If decompressing and de-stressing means you turn down an invitation from a friend to spend the night at home eating trash food and watching Luke Cage and Bob’s Burgers, try not to let yourself feel guilty about that. Showing up is an important part of adult life, and of maintaining friendships, but if your friends love and care about you, they will understand the times you need to excuse yourself and re-center.