When stressed out, we gain weight, we sleep badly, we are tense, we argue with our partner, we raise our tones at children, performance at work decreases, and many other problems can occur. As the list goes on, we tend to justify all these problems through the prism of stress.
Because some strategies may not help, or worse, they may even cause harm in the long run, it is important to learn what has proven to be effective for other people.
Types of coping and boosting your well-being
Strategies to cope with stress can be divided into several categories, with specialists focusing mainly on differentiating emotion-centered coping vs. problem-centered coping and active coping vs. avoidance coping. In short, when we apply a problem-centered strategy, we try to find solutions so that the problem disappears or minimize its impact, and when we apply an emotion-centered strategy, we focus rather on managing the emotions that result from the stressful problem/ event.
For example, if we have financial problems and feel anxiety about it, a coping focused on solutions would be to reduce expenses, and a coping focused on emotions would be writing in a journal the thoughts and emotions experienced. Likewise, active coping involves directly addressing the problems that cause stress, while passive coping means “moving away” from the problem, practically any behavioral, cognitive or affective response that aims to avoid the stressor.
Most of the time, we use a combination of these types of coping and, depending on the context, we can choose which of these are more suitable. Exercise is important when done safely, for overall vascular health look to https://miva-medical.com/ for treatment options.