Exploring Coping Mechanisms

The world is in a constant state of change and you have experienced many challenging circumstances, particularly during the last decade. From the global financial crisis, to Brexit, to a global pandemic, to unexpected and extreme weather conditions and war, you are experiencing a constant state of flux in your dynamic, global home. These times are unprecedented. In modern history, you would have to go back to war time before you get even close to the environmental circumstances you have experienced in recent times.

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The system that is leading your experience is the portal of the media. You are hearing and reading reports and opinions on a daily, or even hourly basis, if you are a social media scroller! Reports and opinions seek to lead and control your responses, primarily by installing fear, and it’s the same story every time you switch on the TV and immerse yourself in social media. So how can you take control of your world, rise above the chaos and view your reality from the heights of self-generated coping mechanisms?

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Here are some tips that you can adopt immediately and change the way you think and indeed, feel about the world that you reside in right now.

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If you can’t change something directly, you need to change the way you think about it. The easiest way to begin thinking differently is to change the language that you use, both in your self-talk and the language you choose to convey your thoughts outwardly. For example, using the word “crisis” to describe the world creates a certain feeling. In recent times you are frequently hearing about a ‘fuel crisis’, a ‘food crisis’, ‘financial crisis’, ‘crisis in the Middle East’.

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The standard definition of the word ‘crisis’ is, ‘a time of intense difficulty or danger’. When you hear that, you feel a certain way, and the representations that you create in your mind are generally negative and unresourceful. One negative word automatically and unconsciously generates a disproportionately negative response. Here’s something to reflect on, if the way the situation was presented to you changed, would you respond differently?

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The interesting element of the word ‘crisis’ is its root. The word comes from the Greek ‘krisis’ or ‘decision’. In 17th Century Middle English the word ‘crisis’ held the meaning of decision point. So, if we reframe the word ‘crisis’ and take it back to its root meaning, then we can consider a crisis as a time to make empowering decisions for change.

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The way you think about reports and opinions and how you chose to construct your model of the world will dictate your ability to cope.

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Coping refers to your ability to respond to the stressors in your environment in a way that allows daily functioning to continue in a positive and productive way.

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Adapt to your new environment and you will thrive.

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Human beings are hard wired to be adaptable and flexible, that’s how we have survived and evolved to where we are now. You must respond to changes in your environment in order to continue to thrive and grow. By environment, I am referring to the economic world, your local environment, your social surroundings, your business situation as well as the physical environment as you understand it. No matter how much you wish for things to be back the way they were, change is a fact of your life and inevitable. How are you going to respond to it? With change comes wonderful opportunity, so engage your radar, be present in your world and proactively seek a new way of operating that fits your environment. Empower yourself to rise to the top of the natural selection tree and bring others that you know along with you.

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If you are not able to change what is happening in your world right now, or unable to control it, adaptation and flexibility are key to turning your experience into a positive one.

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Take back control of your life.

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You may have heard so many people catastrophising about the world, your world. As people adopt this unresourceful pattern of thinking, they are more likely to give up and lose everything. We get it! You want everything to return to ‘normal’ and be the way it was because in that world you were comfortable and could function. Change is here and there is always a way to do things differently and adapt. Have some fun by thinking of crazy new ways of making life work for you and you will come up with some highly motivating new ideas. Expand your comfort zone and you will quickly become used to the new ‘normal’.

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The only investment you can rely on is investment in yourself.

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Flexibility and adaptability come with personal development and growth. Everyone is going to experience some level of personal growth over the coming months. The only sure-fire investment with a guaranteed return, is an investment in yourself. If you seem to be convincing yourself that you can’t afford to be trained or coached, then think again. Can you afford not to grow, develop and adapt? Everything that used to work is no longer working, so you need to change your behaviour. To change your behaviour, you must expand and enhance your capability and knowledge, generate new skills and embrace new thinking, it’s the only way to become the plant that grows strong and healthy in the desert.

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Empowerment comes with belief.

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If you believe you can then you will, if you believe you can’t then you won’t. It’s a simple statement that has been proven time and time again over millennia of human existence. What you believe to be true about your world doesn’t describe your world, it creates it. Your beliefs become self-fulfilling prophesies and so your reality is evolved out of your thinking.

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If you believe you can’t get through a period of change, then your experience will be difficult. Ask yourself, “OK, what can I do to make this work?” and you will begin to have new realisations that you can adapt and respond positively.  

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You need to be the change you want to see.

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Complaining about change is understandable. Yet with negative thinking, you are only damaging your internal state and making it completely unresourceful. If you focus on keeping a positive internal dialogue, you keep yourself on track to achieve what you want right now. If you really want something, you will eventually achieve it, even if what is happening right now acts as a perceived barrier. Use this time in a productive way by thinking creatively and taking action, it will pay off.

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How can we help you? If you really want to get to grips with coping and creating success in challenging times, then joining our Enhanced NLP Coach Practitioner Certification Training is a really easy and fun way to get empowered and ready to succeed, no matter what your environment looks, sounds and feels like. We can bring you the positivity needed in difficult times and you can also get one to one coaching to ease your journey through your own change trajectory.

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So, are you going to experience the journey as impossible, difficult and unpleasant or are you going to change the way you think and ease your journey, employing robust coping mechanisms as you go? This is a matter of choice.

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