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Coping skills that build resilience


A person exercising in the park in the sunshine

Are there any particular coping skills that build resilience? Coping is a response to stress and good coping skills is the third building block of resilience. Some coping strategies can be healthy, and some can be unhealthy. Unhealthy strategies tend to feel good in the short term but will generally lead to long term consequences.


The human experience is a combination of negatives and positives. When faced with negative events, you will respond in a particular way. Responding to life’s challenges is called coping. This refers to the strategies that you will use to manage stressful situations. Your strategies are performed consciously or unconsciously to deal with stress or uncomfortable emotions.


Unhealthy coping strategies.

  1. Drug or alcohol use

  2. Overeating

  3. Procrastination

  4. Sleeping too much or too little

  5. Social withdrawal

  6. Self-harm

  7. Aggression

Coping skills that build resilience.


Long terms coping strategies may not feel good in the short term. But with ongoing, conscious practice, they can lead to long-lasting positive outcomes. When coping strategies and habits are healthy, they will allow you to better prepared. You can overcome future challenges and can help facilitate growth. If are you not well prepared for the negative events, it makes it hard to cope with these challenges.

  1. Talk about the problem

  2. Seek professional help

  3. Engage with your social supports

  4. Exercise

  5. Engage in useful problem-solving techniques

Things you can do to facilitate coping

  1. Analyse your current coping habits. Would you consider them to be healthy or unhealthy? A better way to frame this is as follows: do these mechanisms allow you to solve problems using your resources, or do they lead you to avoid?

  2. What supports do you currently have in place in order to help you cope? What are things that may seem like supports but may lead you to avoid?

  3. Are  there coping strategies that other people utilise that you can use in order to cope in a healthy manner?


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