I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.
Today’s tip is to find fun ways to distract yourself from unhelpful thoughts.
We likely all have negative and unhelpful thoughts. I know I do on a regular basis. While I can be upbeat and positive, I can also feel stressed, sad, or angry about different things. Working to actively change your thoughts is helpful at times to coping.
One thing that I’ve done is spend a few minutes doing something that requires some focus. For me, that usually falls into one of a couple areas:
- Guitar
- A quick game
- Duolingo
These are not in any order, but I have found that I can take a couple minutes to strum a song, open Duolingo and go through a lesson, or pick a game that makes me concentrate. I tend to use things like Sudoku or recently, Water Sort Puzzle, as a fairly quick way of timeboxing. A round here takes 2-3 minutes, which is about what a song or a lesson take.
I’m slightly running away, but I’m distracting myself. Time is a great healer, and often a short break gives me a slightly different perspective. I can start to cope with my fears, anger, sadness, or whatever in a better way, or at least a more calm way.
It might take a few rounds of thought, distraction, thought, distraction, etc., but it’s helpful for me.
A HUGE CAVEAT: I am not susceptible to depression, at least not as I see it in other friends/family. My coping is much different than I might do with someone who might be more susceptible or have a mental illness that makes it hard to cope. If you have challenges in this area, please seek out others, especially professionals. Illness is illness, and needs treatment at times to ensure you cope and thrive in life.