20 1 / 2012
A personal coping technique
Whenever I’m stuck in a situation that I know I can’t
a) leave,
b) bail on, or
c) escape
I trick my mind a little bit. I set myself a time limit. For example, it’s 3:30pm. My class goes for another hour. I really want to leave because I’m uncomfortable or nervous, so I say “at 3:45pm I will allow myself to get out to walk around”. By the time 3:45 rolls around, I think to myself “I need to be strong. I’m feeling fine right now, but if it gets worse, I will allow myself to get out to walk around at 4pm”. Before I know it, it’s the end of the class, and I didn’t have to leave once. This also has worked for me when I don’t want to go to school. I will say to myself the night before, “I will stay home tomorrow if I don’t feel well”. But when tomorrow morning comes, I feel fine.
It’s an effective little trick of the mind that I use when I find it hard to get through situations. Hopefully this made some sense…
