Got The Post Election Blues?

This presidential election seemed to go on forever. We rode the democratic roller coaster with Obama and Clinton. We watched John McCain carry his own suitcases when his campaign ran out of money. We marveled at the stamina of the three major candidates. We gasped in horror as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee was announced. We monitored so many polls we lost track of their meaning. We felt we personally knew the cable news and political commentary anchors. We felt energized. We felt drained. We bit our fingernails. We resubscribed to magazines and newspapers for information out of date by press time. We searched the Internet and googled and yahoo-ed constantly.
And now it's over. Our man won. Our initiative failed to fail but that's another story and another birth of a civil rights movement.
So here we are. Exhausted with time and energy on our hands. There are no more polls to monitor, no more campaign sound bites to analyze. Why do we feel so tired and sad and drained? Why do we stare at computer or television screens as though they had only moments before arrived from another dimension? Why do we feel so sad despite having gained so much?
Why?
Because it's over.
Anytime we focus and sustain energy and attention and passion and creativity for an extended period of time, we feel a post project, post birth, post election, post creation let down. With enough severity and time, those feelings could become actual depression.
Best way to combat them?
Get passionately involved again.
Care enough about something to, say, sit down in the intersections of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards along with several hundred other people and watch the traffic at rush hour stop.
Care enough about something to, say, pick up a sign in protest of injustice.
Or, if it's too soon for any of that, get some exercise. Or laugh. Both activities initiate the release of serotonin which make us feel a whole lot better.
And know that what you're feeling is natural and okay. These post election blues are the price we pay for the passion we felt.