Coping Strategies

How do you cope when you have a bad day?

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Are you going through a difficult time or having a bad day😥? If yes, what do you do to cope with it? Everyone reacts differently to stressful events. Some run away, some do certain things to deal with the stress. Today we would share two different coping strategies to help you get through the hard times.
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What are Coping Strategies?

Coping is defined as the cognitive and behavioural efforts that are implemented to solve problems and reduce the stress that these problems have caused. It is a capacity to respond and to recover from stressful events or difficult times. Coping strategies or sometimes known as coping mechanisms are means or ways that are used to manage stressful or traumatic events. There are no standards for coping strategies, they vary depending on a person's experience.

Importance of Coping Strategies

Coping strategies are important to an individual because it will help us to get through difficult times, manage stress, adapt, adjust, and deal with unpleasant situations. It is common for an individual to develop mental health issues or disorders during difficult times especially when they are unable to cope with the problems. Therefore, coping strategies will act as a prevention to reduce the chances of us developing mental disorders such as depression, and anxiety by maintaining a stable emotional well-being.

Types of Coping Strategies

There are two types of coping strategies:

🔸Problem-focused🔸

Problem-focused coping strategies refer to how people adapt the way they behave towards stressful events. People change their behaviour to relieve stress and be in control of the situation. It is often associated with the methods people use in dealing with the problem to manage stress. Below are three common examples of problem-focused coping strategies:

Seeking Support 👐🏻

You can seek help from people around you. Find someone that you trust to talk to 👭. It can be as simple as telling them how your day went, what you have gone through in a day. Seeking external support rather than self-isolating can make you feel better and significantly reduces the stress level.

Physical Activity 🏋🏻

Next, carrying out a physical activity such as exercising is a form of coping too🏃‍♀️. Exercise has been supported scientifically to claim to be effective in managing stress. It is a natural and healthy way of stress relief. Running, yoga, swimming, walking, dancing and many more are examples of exercise that you can try and sweat yourself out! When we exercise, our brain releases the endorphins (happy hormones) to help regulate our mood and will help us feel motivated after exercising.

Meditation 🧘🏼‍♀️

Lastly, meditate🧘‍♀️. Meditation is one of the relaxing activities one can do to slow down the mind and focus on the present. Meditation involves the most basic but also essential activity which is breathing. Breathing is what we do every moment and second, we tend to forget about it. Practicing mindful breathing while meditating would greatly increase our focus and attention as well as help us to be calm and relax.

Here’s an example of a breathing technique you may use (4, 2, 4). Breathe in with the count of 4, (1, 2, 3, 4), hold your breath for two seconds (1, 2), then breathe out with the count of 4 as well (1, 2, 3, 4). When breathing in, try to focus and notice the changes in your body such as the air going into your body, expanding the torso and belly. When exhaling, on the other hand, you can focus on noticing the feel of air coming out from your nostrils. This is useful in practicing our minds to stay focused and be in the present. People whose mind tends to be filled with overthinking and negative thoughts would be greatly beneficial from meditation and mindful breathing.

🔸Emotion-focused🔸

Emotion-focused coping strategies involve managing the feelings and emotions we have towards stress. Put simply “we adapt the way we feel about stress”. It is inevitable that we experience different types of feelings and emotions (mostly negative emotions) when we are under stress. We feel tired, exhausted, stressed, anxious, worried, and more. However, this strategy can help us to handle the feelings of distress caused by the problems. Below are three common examples of emotion-focused coping strategies:

Journal-writing 📝

Firstly, practice journaling 📖🖋. Write down the thoughts you have, and feelings you experienced on paper. Not only is it a safe way to express our emotions without hurting ourselves or other people, but it also helps to clear up your mind. Some people may find that putting their thoughts and emotions in words allows them to feel relief as if writing is clearing and removing the negative energy they are experiencing internally to regain themselves again. Besides that, we can also list out the pros and cons to help us evaluate the situation from a different perspective.

Music Listening 🎧

Next, you can also listen to your favourite music 🎶 to regulate and enhance your mood. Do you know that listening to sad music when you are sad actually helps you feel better? This is because sad music is often soft, slow-paced, and has low sound levels, it will calm you down and make you feel relaxed, hence removing the sadness in you.

Express your emotion out loud 🗣️

Lastly, learn to let your emotions out. Emotion is what makes us special, we feel about things, in a certain way. When you are stressed, you cry. It does not mean that you are weak, instead, it is a strength, a coping strategy of yours to let go of the emotion inside you. Suppressing your emotions not only is harmful to your mental well-being but also will put you at risk of developing mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. Thus, let them out and release them appropriately. If you feel like crying, let the tears flow and your emotion will follow too.

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In conclusion, studies have suggested that emotion-focused coping strategies are effective in dealing with stressful and traumatic events, whereas problem-focus coping strategies are great in solving the problems. As quoted by Jon Kabat-Zinn: “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” If the situation can't be changed, we can try changing our perspective and approach the matter differently to make a change.

So, what would you do when you are having a bad day? What helps you release stress? Comment and let us know🤩!