List of healthy coping skills
I’ve been wanting to make a post like this for a long time. When I went to treatment, I learned all kinds of awesome things you can do to help with anxiety, depression, or any other things you may be going through. (Feel free to add on!)
The reason for this is to ground you and bring your mind back to reality, and out of those nasty thoughts you may be experiencing. You can do this in a number of ways.
- Listen to music or relaxing sounds
- Listen to guided meditations (you can find these on youtube, or you can use a smartphone app like Stop, Breathe, Think or Headspace)
- Light a candle or some incense
- Put on your favorite scented lotion
- Take a bath with bubbles
- Put essential oils on your wrists or neck (essential oils are just that! essential!)
- Take a stuffed animal and play with it in your hand
- Silly putty!! is!! so!! fun!!
- Play with a pet
- Wrap yourself in a fuzzy blanket
- Make something! Craft or draw a picture! Bright colors also engage your sense of sight!
- It’s easy to forget to eat when you’re sad, but comfort food is a life saver!
- Drink warm tea or anything that makes you feel all nice inside
- Pop a peppermint or some gum in your mouth
- Please don’t forget to eat!!
- Taste and smell are very closely connected! Many of the things you do to engage your sense of taste do the same for your sense of smell.
- Go outside and appreciate the scenery
- Play relaxing games on your phone or computer
Phone: I personally like Dots, Zen Koi, Auralux, Viridi and coloring book apps.
PC: Meadow is available on Steam and is very cute and relaxing and nice
Getting out your emotions in any way can help you identify them and their cause. Once you know what they are and why they’re happening, you can start working through them. You can do this by venting to someone or writing in a journal. Getting those emotions out is very important. Don’t bottle things up!
Sidenote: Working through emotions is a skill. You have to practice it.
Sidenote 2.0: Venting to someone does not equal asking them to help you. Unless you feel necessary, no advice is required from the other end. Sometimes you just need someone to tell you, “That sucks.”
Sometimes, nasty feelings can come up while we’re not in a position to just start crying or vent to someone about how awful we’re feeling. While I was in treatment, I made a containment box. The purpose of the box is to write down what you’re feeling (just a short little note) and put it in the box to deal with later. THIS IS NOT BURYING EMOTIONS OR PUTTING UP WALLS. This is putting nasty feelings elsewhere to work through later. I understand that sometimes, that is not easy. This is also a skill that will take practice, and something I haven’t even perfected yet. And sometimes, you won’t have your physical box with you (which I encourage you to make! Engages your sense of sight and touch!), so I usually just imagine a box in my mind and literally put my emotion in that box to store it away for later consideration. This is a mindfulness technique and does not work for everyone. But it’s always worth a shot.
This is a skill of its own. And I hear the cries of the audience, “But Anus! I breathe every day! If I didn’t, I’d pass out!” and I get that. I really do. At first, I thought this was really dumb. But taking mindful breaths is very, very helpful when you’re feeling anxious or worked up about something. I like to use gifs to time my breaths to, like this one!
I hope this helps! Stay happy, friends.