Healthy Coping Skills for Uncomfortable Emotions

10 Things You Can Do right now If You ’ re Feeling Lonely Whether you ’ ve been dumped by your date or you ’ ve had a boisterous day at the office, having healthy coping skills can be key to getting through baffling times. Coping skills help you tolerate, minimize, and conduct with nerve-racking situations in life. Managing your try well can help you feel better physically and psychologically and it can impact your ability to perform your best .

But not all cope skills are created equal. sometimes, it ’ south tempting to engage in strategies that will give quick relief but might create bigger problems for you down the road. It ’ mho important to establish healthy coping skills that will help you reduce your emotional distress or rid yourself of the nerve-racking situations you face.

Verywell / Emily Roberts

Problem-Based vs. Emotion-Based

When you ’ rhenium palpate distressed, ask yourself, “ Do I need to change my situation or do I need to find a way to better header with the situation ? ” then, you can decide which type of coping strategy will help you best continue .

There are two main types of coping skills : problem-based cope and emotion-based cope. Problem-based header is helpful when you need to change your position, possibly by removing a nerve-racking thing from your life. For model, if you ’ re in an unhealthy kinship, your anxiety and sadness might be best resolved by ending the relationship ( as opposed to soothing your emotions ) .

Emotion-based header is helpful when you need to take worry of your feelings when you either don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate want to change your position or when circumstances are out of your control. For exercise, if you are grieving the loss of a love one, it ’ d be important to take care of your feelings in a healthy means ( since you can ’ thymine switch the context ) .

There international relations and security network ’ metric ton always one best manner to proceed. alternatively, it ’ s up to you to decide which type of coping skill is likely to work dependable for you in your particular circumstance .

The pursue are examples of nerve-racking situations and how each approach could be used .

Reading Your performance review

You open your electronic mail to find your annual performance recapitulation. The follow-up states that you are below average in several areas and you ’ re surprised by this because you thought you were performing well. You feel anxious and torment .

• Problem-focused coping: You go to the boss and talk about what you can do to improve your performance. You develop a clear plan that will help you do better and you start to feel more confident about your ability to succeed.
• Emotion-focused coping: You spend your lunch break reading a book to distract yourself from catastrophic predictions that you’re going to be fired and become homeless. After work, you exercise and clean the house as a way to help you feel better so you can think about the situation more clearly.

Getting a adolescent to Clean

You have told your adolescent he needs to clean his bedroom. But it ’ mho been a week and clothes and trash seem to be piling up. Before heading out the doorway in the dawn, you told him he has to clean his room after school “ or else. ” You arrive home plate from solve to find him playing videos in his messy room .

• Problem-focused coping: You sit your teenager down and tell him that he’s going to be grounded until his room is clean. You take away his electronics and put him on restriction. In the meantime, you shut the door to his room so you don’t have to look at the mess.
• Emotion-focused coping: You decide to run some bathwater because a hot bath always helps you feel better. You know a bath will help you calm down so you don’t yell at him or overreact.

Giving a presentation

You ’ ve been invited to give a presentation in front of a large group. You were indeed flatter and surprised by the invitation that you agreed to do it. But as the consequence approaches, your anxiety skyrockets because you hate public speak .

• Problem-focused coping: You decide to hire a public speaking coach to help you learn how to write a good speech and how to deliver it confidently. You practice giving your speech in front of a few friends and family members so you will feel better prepared to step on stage.
• Emotion-focused coping: You tell yourself that you can do this. You practice relaxation exercises whenever you start to panic. And you remind yourself that even if you’re nervous, no one else is even likely to notice.

healthy Emotion-Focused Coping Skills

Whether you ’ re feel lonely, skittish, sad, or angry, emotion-focused coping skills can help you deal with your feelings in a healthy way. goodly coping strategies may soothe you, temporarily distract you, or help you tolerate your distress .

sometimes it ’ mho helpful to face your emotions head-on. For model, feeling deplorable after the death of a love one can help you honor your loss .

so while it would be significant to use coping skills to help relieve some of your distress, coping strategies shouldn ’ thymine be about constantly distracting you from reality. other times, coping skills may help you change your mood. If you ’ ve had a bad day at workplace, playing with your kids or watching a funny story movie might cheer you up. Or, if you ’ re angry about something person said, a healthy cope scheme might help you calm down before you say something you might regret. here are some examples of healthy emotion-focused coping skills :

• Clean the house (or a closet, drawer, or area)
• Color
• Cook a meal
• Do yoga
• Draw
• Drink tea
• Garden
• Give yourself a pep talk
• Go for a walk
• Engage in a hobby
• Exercise
• Listen to music
• List the things you feel grateful for
• Look at landscape photos that help you feel relaxed
• Look at pictures to remind you of the people, places, and things that bring joy
• Meditate
• Picture your “happy place”
• Play a game with your kids
• Play with a pet
• Practice breathing exercises
• Pray
• Put on lotion that smells good
• Read a book
• Reframe the way you are thinking about the problem
• Squeeze a stress ball
• Smile
• Spend time in nature
• Take a bath
• Take care of your body in a way that makes you feel good (paint your nails, do your hair, put on a face mask)
• Think of something funny
• Use a relaxation app
• Use aromatherapy
• Use progressive muscle relaxation
• Write in a journal

Get Advice From The Verywell Mind Podcast

Hosted by Editor-in-Chief and therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares how to face uncomfortable emotions, featuring comedian Paul Gilmartin .

Follow Now : apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts / RSS

healthy Problem-Focused Coping Skills

There are many ways you might decide to tackle a problem head-on and eliminate the reference of your try. In some cases, that may mean changing your behavior or creating a plan that helps you know what action you ’ re going to take.

In other situations, problem-focused header may involve more drastic measures, like changing jobs or cutting person out of your life. here are some examples of healthy problem-focused coping skills :

• Ask for support from a friend or a professional.
• Create a to-do list.
• Engage in problem-solving.
• Establish healthy boundaries (tell your friend you aren’t going to spend time with her if she makes fun of you).
• Walk away (leave a situation that is causing you stress).
• Work on managing your time better (for example, turn off the alerts on your phone).

unhealthy Coping Skills to Avoid

good because a strategy helps you endure emotional pain, it doesn ’ thyroxine hateful it ’ s goodly. Some coping skills could create bigger problems in your life. hera are some examples of unhealthy coping skills :

• Drinking alcohol or using drugs: Substances may temporarily numb your pain, but they won’t resolve your issues. Substances are likely to introduce new problems into your life. Alcohol, for example, is a depressant that can make you feel worse. Using substances also puts you at risk for developing a substance abuse problem and it may create legal issues, financial problems, and a variety of social issues.
• Overeating: Food is a common coping strategy. But, trying to “stuff your feelings” with food can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food—and weight issues. Sometimes people go to the other extreme and restrict their eating (because it makes them feel more in control) and clearly, that can be just as unhealthy.
• Sleeping too much: Whether you take a nap when you’re stressed out or you sleep late to avoid facing the day, sleeping offers a temporary escape from your problems. However, when you wake up, the problem will still be there.
• Venting to others: Talking about your problems so that you can gain support, develop a solution, or see a problem in a different way can be healthy. But studies show  repeatedly venting to people about how bad your situation is or how terrible you feel is more likely to keep you stuck in a place of pain.
• Overspending: While many people say they enjoy retail therapy as a way to feel better, shopping can become unhealthy. Owning too many possessions can add stress to your life. Also, spending more than you can afford will only backfire in the end and cause more stress.
• Avoiding things: Even “healthy” coping strategies can become unhealthy if you’re using them to avoid the problem. For example, if you are stressed about your financial situation, you might be tempted to spend time with friends or watch TV because that’s less anxiety-provoking than creating a budget. But if you never resolve your financial issues, your coping strategies are only masking the problem. 

proactive collar

Coping skills are normally discussed as a reactive strategy—when you feel bad, you do something to cope. But, inquiry shows that proactive collar strategies can be an effective room to manage the future obstacles you ’ re likely to face .

For model, if you have worked hard to lose weight, proactive cope strategies could help you maintain your weight after your weight loss program has ended. You might plan ahead for circumstances that might derail you—like the holiday season or dinner invitations from friends—to help you cope .

You besides might plan ahead for how you ’ re going to cope with emotions that previously caused you to snack—like boredom or forlornness. And you might prepare a mantra that you ’ ll repeat to yourself when you ’ re tempted to give in to temptation .

proactive header has been found to be an effective way to help people deal with predictable changes, like a decline in income during retirement. however, coping can besides be used to help people deal with unexpected life changes, such as a major transfer in health. A 2014 study found that individuals who engaged with proactive hook were better able to deal with the changes they encountered after having a accident .

Another study found that people who engaged in proactive header were better equipped to manage their type 2 diabetes. Participants who planned ahead and set realistic goals enjoyed better psychological wellbeing .

so, if you are facing a nerve-racking animation consequence or you ’ ve undergo a major change, try planning ahead. Consider the skills you can use to cope with the challenges you ’ re likely to face .

When you have a toolbox ready to go, you ’ ll know what to do. And that could help you to feel better equipped to face the challenges ahead .

Find What Works for You

The cope strategies that work for person else might not work for you. Going for a walk might help your spouse calm down. But you might find going for a base on balls when you ’ re angry causes you think more about why you ’ rhenium mad—and it fuels your angry feelings. So you might decide watching a fishy video recording for a few minutes helps you relax .

It ‘s crucial to develop your own toolkit of coping skills that you ’ ll find useful. You may need to experiment with a kind of coping strategies to help you discover which ones work good for you. You might find that certain cope strategies work well for particular issues or emotions. For exemplar, engaging in a avocation may be an effective way to unwind after a long day at work. But, going for a walk in nature might be the best approach when you ’ re feel deplorable .

When it comes to coping skills, there ’ sulfur always room for improvement. so, assess what early tools and resources you can use and consider how you might continue to sharpen your skills in the future .

source : https://nutritionline.net
Category : Healthy