Coping Skills: Strategies to Handle Stress, Emotions, and Life Challenges

You might have heard the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”? It is an oft-used phrase to encourage optimism in the face of life’s adversities. In today’s fast-paced world, there can be one too many lemons in the form of life challenges that lead to stress. So, how do you make lemonade, so to speak?

Preparing this lemonade requires tools. One of the main tools you need to have in your arsenal is coping skills. While everybody develops certain coping strategies to deal with life’s challenges, these can be healthy or unhealthy. Unhealthy coping skills lead to troubles of their own, like substance abuse and mental health challenges. On the other hand, healthy coping skills will lead you toward a peaceful, brighter life.

In this blog, we shall learn all about the healthy coping skills that you can develop and incorporate into your daily life.

Stress is commonplace, and you can experience stress for several reasons - an upcoming exam/deadline, a fight with a friend, and other everyday things. This is short-term stress or eustress, which can be good for you. Think about it - if you do not experience a certain amount of stress before an exam or a deadline, you may not be motivated enough to go out there and do better. However, when stress becomes ongoing, it takes a toll on your mind and body. This is known as chronic stress.

Chronic stress leads to a weakened immune system and a number of other physical and mental health challenges, like headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, substance use disorders, chest pain, heart attack, and stroke, among others. Therefore, developing healthy coping mechanisms to manage stress before it can get its claws in is beneficial for your mind and body.

The common healthy coping skills that you can develop for positive outcomes are as follows:

Effective Problem-Solving:

You identify the problem, come up with different options to solve the problem, choose the best possible option, and implement the plan of action.

Time Management:

You prioritize your tasks, attend to the ones that need your immediate attention, schedule the other ones for later, and delegate those that do not need your expertise. For better understanding, you can follow the Eisenhower Matrix.

Establish Boundaries:

Personal boundaries will prevent you from overcommitting yourself and getting overwhelmed by being pulled in different directions.

Regular Physical Activity:

Exercise is good for your body. It is also good for your mind, and it releases endorphins that heighten your sense of well-being.

Relaxation Techniques:

You can engage in relaxing exercises like deep breathing exercises, meditation, and mindfulness by devoting a few minutes of your time to them every day.

Developing healthy coping skills will allow you to effectively manage and tolerate stress while also keeping unhealthy behaviors at bay. On the other hand, unhealthy coping skills are akin to putting a band-aid on a rather deep wound. You experience temporary relief, but in the long run, they can jeopardize your health and well-being. For instance, if you reach out for a drink or any other kind of psychoactive substance when you are stressed out, you will feel better. At the same time, you also risk developing a substance use disorder.

Stress can come up with some of the most inconvenient ways of disturbing life and reducing well-being. In these cases, simple coping skills like the 5 R’s will help you manage everyday stressors to a great extent:

Relocate:

Remove yourself from the environment that is making you feel stressed out and take some time off. Maybe go out, take a brisk walk, or do a quick run.

Redirect:

Redirect your thoughts toward something fun or creative. For instance, engage your mind in solving puzzles, coloring books, or other creative activities.

Reframe:

Reframe negative thinking patterns into healthier, productive ones. For instance, if you are thinking about all the negative outcomes possible to a given task, focus your thoughts on action-oriented patterns that will mitigate/negate any negative outcomes.

Relax:

Use relaxation techniques that will relax the mind and body. For instance, deep breathing exercises or meditation help you relax and de-stress.

Re-Center:

When emotions seem to be running away in unhealthy directions, re-centering brings them back into a more peaceful place. Techniques like mindfulness and yoga can help with this.

Coping skills are basically of two types - problem-focused coping skills and emotion-focused coping skills.

Problem-focused coping reduces or removes stressful events and circumstances from your life. For instance, if you are in a highly stressful job and see no end in sight, problem-focused coping means you will put your efforts into proactively looking for other jobs and shifting as soon as you get one.

Emotion-focused coping manages and/or reduces the negative emotions associated with stressful events or circumstances in your life. It is especially useful when certain things cannot be changed. For instance, the death of a loved one cannot be reversed, so dealing with the emotions in a healthy manner becomes important.

Problem-focused coping skills are healthy coping mechanisms you can use to reduce or eliminate the problems giving rise to stress. Some of the healthy problem-focused coping skills:

• Engage in effective problem-solving.
• Manage your time better. You can begin by creating a simple to-do list.
• Establish personal boundaries. Be clear about what you can and cannot do.
• Seek help. You can ask for support from your family, friends, or any other trusted member when it is becoming difficult for you to manage. You can also seek therapy.

Emotion-focused coping skills are healthy coping mechanisms that will allow you to manage your emotions during stressful events or circumstances in life. Some of the common ones are:

• Delve into your interests. For instance, a hobby that can keep you interested and distracted is a good starting point.
• Care for yourself. Do something more. For instance, taking a hot bubble bath or going to the spa will allow you to feel pampered and relaxed.
• Exercise daily. Not only does it energize you to go out there and carpe diem, it will also increase your sense of happiness.
• Relax your mind and body. Use relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and journaling, or you can even take some time out to play with your pet.
• Do not forget mindfulness. It will ground you and keep you connected with the present while also removing your focus away from negativity.

We all have coping strategies we turn to from time to time. They relieve stress and pain, sure, but it is not always the case that they are healthy. Some unhealthy coping skills you need to steer clear of are as follows:

Substance Misuse:

It is too common to use substances like alcohol and illicit drugs to numb the pain and suffering in times of stress. While they do provide relief, it is like having temporary arms of comfort around you. In the long run, they will only damage your health and quality of life.

Emotional Eating:

Also known as stress eating, it is when a person uses food to deal with their feelings. It can lead to overeating and an unhealthy relationship with food while not exactly resolving the problem at hand.

Retail Therapy:

It is when a person shops with the explicit purpose of enhancing their mood. Unfortunately, it can lead to overspending and financial troubles.

Venting:

While it is common to get frustrated and vent to others sometimes, venting too much can only deter well-being. It can also have a negative impact on the person(s) you vent to.

Avoidance:

While avoidance can come in handy sometimes, avoiding every problem or overlooking its existence will not make it go away. In fact, it can even exacerbate it in many ways.

Healthy coping mechanisms will protect you from stress before it becomes chronic and severe. By engaging in problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, you can customize coping skills to your needs and circumstances.

However, if you are finding it difficult to incorporate healthy coping mechanisms, we urge you to reach out to a mental health practitioner who can collaborate with you and develop new skills that will lead you toward a peaceful, healthy tomorrow.

The NuView Treatment Center is a leading treatment center where we provide personalized care tailored to your needs and goals. When you reach out to us, we will understand your background, challenges, needs, strengths, and objectives to connect you with a licensed and skilled mental health provider who will collaborate with you and enable you to foster healthy coping mechanisms for a brighter, more productive tomorrow.