Mindfulness, meditation can help calm American political anger

Twelve years ago, before the MAGA movement emerged on the right and the streets erupted in progressive protest from the left, we noticed something troubling in Congress: Our colleagues and constituents were getting angrier.

We saw it in the flushed faces at our town halls. We heard it in expletive-laden phone calls opposing the Affordable Care Act. We felt its toll in the increasing turnover of our burnt-out, battle-fatigued campaign workers. Most of all, we sensed it in the changing behavior of our House colleagues, who drifted away from one another and toward their own moral high grounds.

Political anger is not a new phenomenon. The marble steps leading to the House Chamber are still splattered with the bloodstains of former Rep. William Preston Taulbee, who was shot there by journalist Charles Kincaid in 1890. The Old Senate Chamber is where abolitionist Sen. Charles Sumner was beaten with a cane by pro-slavery Rep. Preston Brooks.

But recent events feel different. An American slow boil is poised to erupt if we can’t turn down the heat.

We were both in office in 2011 when our colleague Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot at a constituent outreach event. One of us (Tim Ryan) was still in Congress in 2017 when Rep. Steve Scalise was shot at a practice for the congressional baseball game. And now there has been yet another violent episode in our politics, as former President Donald Trump has been shot by an assassin who killed one rally-goer and seriously injured two others.

In Congress, we joined together to confront this rising tide of anger. Tim Ryan had studied meditation and wrote a practical book on how mindfulness can reduce personal stress and be a solution to many of our intractable social problems. His research showed us how we can get ourselves out of fight-or-flight mode and literally change our brains to be more resilient to anxiety. Steve Israel chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and sought new ways to develop resilience in campaign workers and political operatives.

Our work took us to the Pentagon, where we learned that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, had approved a study that brought mindfulness training to two battalions. The commanders of one battalion prioritized the practice, while another battalion did not. When compared, the battalion that trained the mind as much as the body produced better-performing Marines.

If it worked in a life-and-death military environment, why couldn’t it work in politics?

We both left Capitol Hill, but our collaborations continued. Last spring, we taught a course together at Cornell University. One day, we offered an optional session on “Leadership Resilience” to students. They’d be guided through a meditation and learn the basics of stoicism. We bought pizza and booked a small room on campus, hoping to lure a dozen students.

To our surprise, nearly three dozen came, revealing a healthy appetite not just for pizza but for new strategies to cope with political anxiety. The next day, we tried again. Midway through the session, we gave our 70 students a choice to take a 20-minute break or participate in a guided meditation. We expected a flood to leave the room. Instead, nearly all the students gave up their break to calm their minds. So popular were these impromptu sessions that we are organizing an expanded series next year.

In the months ahead, political anger may reach levels that harken back to the sixties (pick one, the 1960s or the 1860s). The American amygdala, where fight or flight burns, will be tweaked and triggered. We’ll clench our fists and thrust out middle fingers.

But there are better models: not entrenching further to the left or right, but deeper inside yourself, exploring the mind-body exercises that transcend the angry moment.

We’ve also taken to the teaching of classic stoicism. It helped Roman emperors, George Washington, Nelson Mandela and others more calmly navigate existential challenges. It can help you, too.

No matter who wins this election, we must provide the next generation of leaders with the skills to make America peaceful again. Our citizens will always have disagreements. Luckily, our system is structured for us to have a deliberative process to find not a Democratic path or Republican path, but an American path forward.

For our system to work, we must teach Americans to open their hearts and minds to handle conflict with civility. As endless junk is pumped into our brains from the media we consume on our smartphones, we must remember that we still control how we respond to it all. We need to relearn the patience and deep listening that social media has trained out of us.

At Cornell, we are going to create a model to teach young citizens the skills foundational to quality leadership. Our path to a prosperous future begins by reconnecting young people to the wisdom and practices of the past.

Steve Israel represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight terms and was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2011 to 2015. Tim Ryan represented Ohio in the House for more than 10 terms and runs the pro-democracy group We The People.