Claire Dunworth-Warby, a Personal, Business and Education Coach, discusses how to incorporate coping strategies into your everyday life to ensure that you view your life moving forward in a more positive light.
For those of you with teenagers, spring can herald that dreaded season – the time of year when examinations loom large on the horizon. However, preparation laid down from now on to cope with any negativity could pay dividends for both them and you (as the one who has to deal with their angst, stress and panic).
For those of you who regard spring time of year as the season of new beginnings, having a few coping strategies up your sleeve to bat away any negative thoughts that pop up uninvited and hold you back from enjoying this special season, would represent perfect timing.
And for those of you who need no excuse to adopt a more positive attitude to life, or have come to the realisation that a negative state of mind is serving you no purpose, and you wish to make a meaningful change in your life, then using coping strategies in your life would help to neutralise such negativity.
So, the trick is to build up a library of positive statements that you can use whenever one of those irritating negative thoughts sneaks into your mind – demoralising you; shaking your confidence and paralyzing you into inaction.
Write these positive statements down to ensure that you remember them, can reaffirm them at any time and add to them as and when ideas come to you. Positive statements that are captured and noted down in this way become much more powerful and are able to defeat any negative ones.
Positive statements are very personal, but some ideas to set you off on this more positive path are:
- I have faced this problem before and coped, so I can be sure I am strong enough to do it again
- I feel proud of myself that I coped with this situation in the past and can gain confidence from this proof of my resilience and my abilities
- I will try my best and be proud of myself as I will have ‘had a go’, overcoming any fear or anxiety I might have been experiencing beforehand
- I will acknowledge all that I have achieved in this situation, instead of just focusing on what I struggled with
- I notice how, little by little, I am getting better at coping with new and/or difficult situations and the knot of worry in my stomach and/or mind is getting smaller and smaller as I grow more and more confident
As these positive ideas become a staple part of your everyday thought process, they will naturally spring to mind more readily when you need a coping strategy…and a more adventurous you will emerge – ready to face a challenge and not be hampered by negativity. Enjoy!
Claire Dunworth-Warby of Aspire Associates Coaching is a Personal, Business and Education Coach working with individuals and organisations one-to-one, over the phone or online and leading workshops across the UK. Training the trainers is also available.
For more information or a free taster session contact her on 01746 218298 or visit www.aspire-coaching.biz
