Your Best Coping Mechanism or Tool

I was just sitting around this afternoon, when this thought entered my mind. So, I was wondering what people's all-time best, most useful, or favorite coping mechanism or skill was. If you could only choose one, what would that be? I thought about all the things I do. Meditation, mindfulness, breathing, walking, yoga, NA and AA meetings, support from friends or family, and a whole lot of others. Personally, I don't consider receiving healthcare really to be a coping skill, so you can leave out things like meds, therapy, and pdoc visits. Everybody does those. Well, almost everybody.

Mine would have to be prayer. I do not even know how many times I pray each day, but it is a lot. It's my go-to coping skill. What is yours? What couldn't you live without?

For me it would have to be cycling. It's physical exercise and it's meditative.

For me it's coloring.

I like hard physical labor, sweating and getting dirty and sore. It brings me back down to Earth and reconnects me to my body and gives me a boost of confidence when i am feeling helpless. Getting something done, even something as basic as taking out the trash, really helps to restore my confidence in my own efficacy. I can get stuck feeling so helpless. It also burns off any anger and nervous energy. Anger is very energizing. That's why my dad was such a hard worker: because he was angry so often. The man moved mountains around our home, busy all day long. My mom too. They were big thrifty do-it-yourselfers, stopping only just short of churning our own butter! I didn't know what a frozen dinner was until i went to university! Physical labor really restores me to a feeling of well-being and health. Exercising for no purpose other than physical fitness doesn't have the same benefits for me. I find exercise without getting anything done is dull and i never stick with it. Exercising while keeping my home ship-shape and my freezer stocked chock-full of healthy homemade meals is the way to go for me!

For me prayer or being spiritually mindful is a go to. It helps me to redirect my thoughts and bring my energy back into a preferable state. I say prayers and focus on what I would like to create for myself, but I also turn my focus to others in need. This helps me to forget for a bit about my own struggles and helps me come back to baseline.

Watching favorite shows is a close second. Grey's Anatomy is a favorite.

Reading !

Reading and walking help me a lot. Also journaling and talking through my issues really help. It doesn’t have to be a therapist I talk to. A kind friend is really good to talk to.

Reading, watching movies, talking with friends, blogging.

Going for a long walk! It releases the endorphins and has the added bonus of helping me lose weight and feel more in shape. I feel more control of my body when I don't have control over much else.

I walk my dog. Shame, sometimes I drag him out too long and far because I am needing the work to burn off emotions, but he's coping, lol.
I am thinking of joining the gym. It'll take time out of my otherwise quiet day, and also hopefully the physical exertion will also help.

Laughing/humor - I laugh a lot and find humor in many things. I like all types of humor. I entertain myself a lot. Does this completely shut out stress and frustration? No, but it's still the most helpful thing I know, and I do have a number of other coping tools/mechanisms up my sleeve, as well.

I hate to admit it but its going outside to smoke a cigarette, guess i need to work on my skills lol

It's hard to choose I have so many I use on a daily basis that are extremely helpful. My top 3 though would have to be reading, drawing, and listening to music

music, I guess.

used to be journalling, but I've not journalled for ages

I have different ones for different times, but I find getting out in nature always helps me pretty much right away. I can go from totally panicking to calm.

I think smoking is also one for me. It gets me out the house and even just the short work may be enough to snap you out of a panic attack - long enough to allow you to reason with yourself

Listening to music is a major one for me. I also pray too. It helps me.

Tool. The band. I listen to their music and it always calms me down. Especially their new album. Maynard's vocals are amazing. I also journal or write articles for my blog. All that just calms my way down. Especially with my anxiety.

Music I guess...