As we now know, that wasn’t the case.
“I believe this is what some call ‘self-care.’
It turns out, it’s pretty great,” Clinton says.
Timothy A. Clary/Getty Images
Here, 16 ways Clinton says she practiced self-care in the aftermath of the 2016 election.
Immediately after giving herconcession speech, Clinton headed to her home in New York and changed into comfy clothes.
“That day, the sight of our front gate was pure relief to me.”
But she realized this wouldn’t be usefulat least not right after the election.
“I couldn’t handle it,” she says.
She went to bed early.
“I could finally do that,” she writes.
She showed up to the former and stayed home for the latterand she let herself be OK with that.
“I wanted badly to join the [Women’s March] crowds and chant my heart out.
“After that first day of laying low, I started reaching out to people,” Clinton writes.
“I knew…I’d need my friends now more than ever.”
She visited her daughter and grandchildren in Manhattan more often.
She hosted a huge group of people onThanksgiving.
She also spent more time with her husband, Bill.
On the Friday after the election, Clinton threw a party for everyone who’d worked on her campaign.
“Under the circumstances, it was great,” she says.
“To help matters, there was an open bar.”
After the election, Clinton began doing yoga a lot more.
Clinton recommends repeating this cycle a few times, alternating nostrils, until you feel calm and focused.
“It may sound silly,” she says.
“But it works for me.”
For literature, that meant mystery novels and Maya Angelou’s poetry.
Sometimes, she yelled at the television.
Other times, she considered throwing things while reading the news.
And you know what?
She was OK with that.
The day after her concession, Clinton headed to a forest near her home.
She read daily devotionals and talked to a reverend she’s friends with.
“I can almost see the cynics rolling their eyes,” she writes.
“But pray I did, as fervently as I can remember ever doing.”
Her friends sent her books, paid her visits, and took her to plays.
“I could just say ‘Yes!'”
Before too long, Clinton realized part of her was thankful for what happened.
She writes about attending her granddaughter’s dance recital and feeling a twinge of relief.
“I had been ready to completely devote the next four or eight years to serving my country.
But that would have come with a cost.
“Now I had those back.
That’s more than a silver lining.”
“Writing [this book] has been cathartic,” she says.
ButWhat Happenedhelped her process and find solace in last year’s election.
“And [I] found myself thinking more about the future than the past.”
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