Let’s Talk About Coping Strategies

With finals quickly approaching, some of our sisters are graduating, some may be preparing to start a new internship over the summer or studying abroad, and others have life changes that may be occurring. It is never too early to think of coping strategies that might work for you! Coping can help us adjust to and tolerate difficult events or changes in our life while also keeping our positive emotional equilibrium. We want to provide you with a few easy skills that may assist when life gets hard or feels overwhelming! If coping strategies is a new topic for you, read more about some very simple yet effective strategies that can work for you! 

To start off, what is a stressor? This can be any event, situation or demand that causes stress in an individual. Knowing what stressors you have is important because there are many impacts of stressors on our bodies. For example, stressors can cause a physiological response in your body such as elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, muscle tension and changes in mood. It is important to know what these are so you can best prepare and pinpoint when these stressors arise so you can effectively cope with these stressors.

When looking at how we can effectively cope with a stressor, there are many different strategies. Some coping strategies can be as simple as meditating, deep breathing, journaling and participating in yoga. A lot of these strategies can have extreme benefits when feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of all the types of coping strategies. There are many types of strategies that we will not go into detail on such as counseling or therapy, talking to a friend and exercise for example.

Meditation

For some people, the thought of meditation can be intimidating. They do not know where to start or even how to meditate. However, meditation can be easily accessed online with a simple 10-minute meditation Google search and plenty of different video options to select from. It takes 10 minutes to go from being overwhelmed to calm, cool and collected. Just look at this graphic below to see the many benefits of meditation.

 (Leary, 2023)

Deep breathing

Deep breathing can be a very helpful coping strategy, and it can be a strategy that has many benefits. There are many techniques with deep breathing such as box breathing, lions’ breath, progressive muscle relaxation, equal time breathing in and out and breath focus. Here are the ways you can use each of these techniques:

• Box breathing
  • This is a relaxation technique that involves slow, deep breaths with equal intervals between inhalation, holding, exhalation and holding again.
  • Example: Breathe in for five seconds, hold for five seconds, breathe out for five seconds, and then hold again for five seconds. Repeat for as long as desired.
• Lions’ breath 
  • Breathing exercise that involves inhaling through the nose and exhaling with a forceful “ha” sound.
  • Example: Inhale through your nose, open your mouth wide and extend your tongue downward towards your chin, exhale forcefully with a “ha” sound, and relax your face and take a few normal breaths. Repeat exercise a few times.
• Progressive muscle relaxation
  • In this technique, you breathe in as you tense a muscle group and breathe out as you release it. Progressive muscle relaxation helps you relax physically and mentally.
  • Example: Lie comfortably on the floor, take a few deep breaths to relax, breathe in while tensing the muscles of your feet, breathe out while releasing the tension in your feet. Progressively work your way up your body and tense each muscle group.
• Equal time breathing in and out
  • With this exercise you will match how long you breathe in with how long you breathe out.
  • Example: Breathe in through your nose and count to five, breathe out through your nose to the count of five. Repeat several times. Once you feel comfortable with breaths that last five counts, slowly increase how long you breathe in and out. 

(Upham, 2023)

Journaling

Journaling can be a great way to get your thoughts and stressors out of your head onto paper or wherever you decide to write your thoughts. There are many different types of journaling that you can use to help with de-stressing. 

• Gratitude journaling
  • Writing down what you are thankful for, which can help reduce stress and increase feelings of optimism and motivation 
• Art journaling
  • Using colors, images and patterns to express your thoughts and feelings 
• Nature journaling
  • Recording your observations of nature, such as birds and leaves, along with illustrations 
• Reflective journaling
  • Writing down your thoughts, feelings and experiences and making meaning for each of them. This can be a great way to get your anger or stress out from the day.
• Morning pages
  • Writing in the morning about whatever you want, such as hopes and aspirations for the day.
• Stream of consciousness
  • Writing down your thoughts as they come to you to help clear out your mind

Yoga

Like meditation, yoga can be an intimidating process to start. You might not know where to start or even how to start. However, yoga like meditation can be accessed online with a simple 10-minute at home yoga for beginners Google search and plenty of different video options pop up. There are a variety of options to choose from.

Take a look at this graphic for more information on how yoga can help with your mental health.

 (Azami et al., 2018)

You can also check out our Protect Your Shell resources on our member page! These are many resources available to you for various topics, including Stress and Anxiety Management. You can access this by logging into member.deltazeta.org and scrolling down, clicking on Wellness – Protect Your Shell and selecting Stress and Anxiety Management. We hope that these examples of coping strategies are helpful for you, as final exams start piling up, your potential job search starts, as you prepare to start a new internship or as you find yourself getting overwhelmed!

References

Azami, Milad, et al. “The Effect of Yoga on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in Women.” International Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 9, no. 1, 21 Feb. 2018, p. 21, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5843960/, https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_242_16.

Leary, J. (2023, October 20). The Brain Health Benefits of Meditation. Airmid Wellness and Counseling Center and Yoga Studio, Warminster, PA. https://airmidwellness.com/the-brain-health-benefits-of-meditation/

Upham, B. (2023, April 10). 6 Possible Health Benefits of Deep Breathing. EverydayHealth.com. https://www.everydayhealth.com/wellness/possible-health-benefits-of-deep-breathing/

‌Written by: Kyra Mymo, Learning and Development Graduate Intern Spring 2025