Coping Strategy: Stop and Be

Coping Strategy

From my Hope for Healing monthly newsletter Coping Strategy section:

I want to share one coping strategy a month. These are strategies I use (or have used) in my own life as I travel the healing journey. I hope they bring you tranquility, as well!

STOP AND BE

This is a strategy I utilized along my own healing journey. STOP AND BE. At first it was . . . well . . . terrifying. Trying to simply allow and notice the panic symptoms was difficult for someone, like me, who has a propensity for avoidance of feeling scared, anxious, or uncomfortable. Learning to feel comfortable in my own body was a challenge. But, I used my learned coping skills and very quickly developed the skills necessary to simply “stop and be”.

Coping Strategy: Create a Safe Space

Coping Strategy 

Borrowed from my February, 2019 Hope for Healing Newsletter.

I want to share one coping strategy a month. These are strategies I use (or have used) in my own life as I travel the healing journey. I hope they bring you tranquility, as well!

 Create a safe space for yourself.

This can be a safe space in your mind where you can go when feeling anxious. Mine is a cozy little nook, surrounded by books and filled with a snuggly bed with lots of pillows and blankets, looking out a ceiling to floor window over a brilliant blue ocean, with a calming breeze flowing through the room, and sunlight streaming from behind a lone white cloud. Use as much detail as you can muster. What does the space smell like, what’s the temperature, what’s there in the space? Are you outside or inside? Remember, this is YOUR space. Fill it with you and everything that makes your heart happy. 

Or an actual space. Filled with all things comforting, supportive, love-infused, and joyous. Make it about you and your needs. What makes your soul happy? Fill YOUR space with THAT.

Me in my sacred writing space . . . where I blog, record The Healing Place Podcast, edit videos for my YouTube channel, finish my book manuscript, and hang with our dogs, Sammie & Max
Beautiful reminders in my writing space

God saying “hello” while lighting up my “be brave” reminder