3 Underrated Coping Skills

Coping skills are important to have, but many people over think them. So here are three underrated coping skills. The first one is cleaning. Cleaning is often underrated because people tend to think of cleaning as a chore or responsibility. In reality, the act of cleaning is a good way to release stress and tension. You can take your negative energy and place it into scrubbing and organizing. Moreover, it is a good distractor from negative thoughts and emotions. Then when you’re done you have a clean space and clear mind which creates a peaceful environment. Another underrated coping skill is coloring/painting. Coloring/painting allows you to express your emotions through art. Additionally, the somewhat tedious nature of the activity allows you to focus your mind on something else, often calming anxiety and destressing the individual. This is an especially good skill for adults. When plagued by the stress of adulting it can be good to do something child-like and less thought provoking to give yourself relief from being responsible all the time. Finally, the last underrated coping skill is deep breathing. Deep breathing is a highly recommended coping skill, yet it is still highly underrated. This is usually because people do one of two things. The first thing is going into it with the mindset that it won’t work. Many individuals believe that simply taking breaths isn’t a satisfactory way of finding comfort and relaxation. If you don’t believe you will be successful in the skill/task you defeat yourself before you start. The next thing many individuals do is that they simply perform the skill incorrectly. When deep breathing you cannot simply inhale and exhale really large breaths. It is important to take slow inhales usually taking about 5-10 seconds. Then, you want to hold that breath for about 3-5 seconds. Followed by slowly exhaling the breath taking another 5-10 seconds. Then you want to repeat the process at least 3 times. Just doing one minute of proper deep breathing each day can make a big difference in your mood and stress levels. So next time you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, and/or angry, give one of these underrated coping skills a try. Tell us how they work for you!