Brain Science: Neuroscience, Behavior

Coping skills and strategies

Oct 21, 2019

The podcast discusses coping skills and strategies for managing emotions and struggles. They talk about SMART goals, the concept of HALT, and various emotional coping strategies like grounding, deep breathing, meditation, visualization, and more. They also explore the positive impact of marathons, shifting focus from outcomes to rewarding effort, coping with overwhelming emotions, and strategies for dealing with emotional charges and irrational thoughts.

48:56

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Quick takeaways

Effort is more important than specific outcomes when it comes to coping.

Grounding techniques and naming emotions can help manage overwhelming feelings.

Deep dives

Coping with Life's Challenges

Coping with life's unexpected and overwhelming experiences, as well as managing our emotions, is similar to learning how to surf. Avoidance as a coping strategy reinforces itself and can lead to a cycle of avoidance. Effort is more important than specific outcomes when it comes to coping. H.A.L.T. - being hungry, angry, lonely, or tired - can affect our coping abilities. Planning and front-loading tasks can help navigate overwhelming situations. Grounding techniques and naming emotions can help manage overwhelming feelings. Holding ice or using visualization can create a distraction and help regulate emotions. Effort-based coping and incremental progress are key to skill acquisition and growth.

Introduction

3min

Coping with Negative Emotions

16min

Strategies for Managing Emotions and the Role of Exercise

3min

The Positive Impact of Marathons and Experiencing Nature

2min

Shifting focus from outcomes to rewarding effort

8min

Coping with Overwhelming Emotions

15min

Coping Skills and Strategies for Emotional Charges and Irrational Thoughts

2min

Mireille and Adam discuss coping skills and strategies to use when managing the emotions and struggles of everyday life. We talk through some common ways people manage their emotions, strategies for emotional coping, as well as problem solving coping.

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Featuring:

Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

We discussed the concept of SMART goals — they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and based on a specific time frame.

We discussed the concept of HALT. Are you hungry, angry, lonely or tired? If so, coping will invariably be different, regardless of your age.

We also discussed several examples of emotional coping strategies:

Name it to tame it
Grounding - Our senses are real-time, so orienting yourself to what you can see, smell, taste, touch, or hear will give you a realistic view of your circumstances and environment.
Deep breathing
Meditation - Check out Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
Visualization
Ice — Allow a small ice cube to melt in your hand. It’s a distraction and a file for tolerating the “wave” of emotion.
Music — Listening to music or singing (various parts of the brain are involved).
Front-loading — Doing things in a certain way to conserve energy to allocate to other things.
Graduated exposure vs. Flooding

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