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Coping Skills to Get You Through the Day

An overview of some simple things to brighten your day.

By Michael JaredPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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No one can say they’ve had the perfect life when, at one point or another, they've felt bad about themselves. Whether it be family issues, bullying, uncertainty about the future, or anything else; we have all been there. You can be your worst critic and your mind can destroy your hope. It’s important to learn and do things that can get you past your lowest lows to make it to see your highest highs. In this post, I’ll share a few things that I have done to keep moral up for myself to make it to my highest highs.

Read in Your Free Time

My favorite thing as a kid were the Scholastic Book Fairs that happened in elementary and middle school. Most of the time I would grab the more entertaining things they had on display, like toys, but I would also grab some of the more colorful books with pictures. This led to me grabbing for more novel-type books in my free time when I would go to the library, and eventually I built a love for books that has lasted me ever since. Sometimes in reading these books, I could transform and go to a different, more creative place in my mind. I would read a book for hours and it would only feel like minutes. For some of you, this might not be the case, but there are all kinds of books for anyone and everyone. Find a book that interests you and just begin to read it. If nothing else, it’ll give you something to do in your free time rather than being in your own head. This will be a recurring theme throughout these coping skills to find anything to do instead of sitting alone with your thoughts.

Invest More Time and Effort Into Your Job

In high school I constantly struggled to find motivation to keep giving it my all. Dealing with issues at home and dealing with the constant drama that high school involves was draining to me. I found a job as soon as I turned 16 and it was one of the best things to happen to me. The job was not the best, if I’m being completely honest, because it was McDonalds. It was not a great job, but it probably was the best thing to happen to me while I was in high school. Not only was I able to meet so many new friends that worked there, but I also just found a new escape away from home. Very quickly I invested all the time I could into my job, and even going to school still, I was able to rack up 30-35 hour weeks. I’m not saying you have to get a job at McDonalds, just find anywhere that gives you the option to work as many hours as you want. You might not like the job but you might still love it, because your new job also doubles as an escape from all the other things in your life.

Find a Hobby You Enjoy

I talked about how reading could be a coping skill, but any hobby can be a way to cope. In high school, I would write small stories. Sometimes these would be mysteries, other times they would be sci-fi; nonetheless, I loved doing this. A hobby could be anything from writing and drawing to maybe collecting bottles and building toy trains. Nothing is off limits, because everything will have the same result. When I finished a new story and read it back I would feel a renewed sense of excitement for what I was doing. Also I was able to connect to other people who enjoyed writing as much as I did.

Don’t Be Afraid To Cry

To start this out, I just want to include a quote from a researcher in Psychology, Jerry Bergman, who said, “Tears remove some of the chemicals built up in the body from stress, like the endorphin leucine-enkephalin and prolactin that affect mood and stress tolerance. Suppressing tears increase stress levels, and contributes to diseases aggravated by stress, such as high blood pressure, heart problems, and peptic ulcers.”

For many people, they believe that crying is a sign of weakness that promotes self-pity. I, however, think the opposite, because every time I have cried, within the next few hours I start to feel so much better. Imagine a bathtub is about to overflow and you see it; are you just going to let it overflow, or are you going to pull the plug? Most of us would pull the plug, and that’s just what crying is for our bodies. Our emotions start to build up to the point of overflowing, but our body presents us the chance to pull the plug and stop it from becoming a bigger mess. Crying can be the biggest coping mechanism that we all have, but don’t use that an excuse to cry rather than seek help from other people if there’s a bigger issue at hand.

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