You might remember the movie Soul Surfer about the professional surfer Bethany Hamilton. In 2003, when Bethany was a teenager, a 14-foot tiger shark bit off her left arm. Bethany’s story is exemplary not only for her bravery but also for her use of healthy coping mechanisms to deal with the trauma she experienced. Following […]
Stress feels different for everyone. Some people are overtaxed by stress, collapsing on their bed at the end of the night in exhaustion. Others run on espresso, ignoring their body’s signs that it is stressed. They continue to go, go, go, and may not even realize that they are overwhelmed until they have already burned […]
Stress is an inevitable part of life. What counts is how we deal with it — or in other words, our coping mechanisms. Coping mechanisms are the strategies people use to deal with painful emotions and adjust to stressful life events. Naturally, some of these strategies are more effective than others; in fact, some may […]
When we face difficult situations in our lives, we rely on our coping mechanisms to get us through. When we have to handle trauma, stress or difficult emotions, we turn to the coping strategies that we’ve learned and developed over our lives to help us to adjust. While in some cases those coping mechanisms are […]