Coping With Rough Weather
Overview
- In this unit, you have the opportunity to practice a mindfulness moment scripted by yourself or a classmate in your discussion board group (from your Session 6 bridge exercise).
- This unit introduces ways of coping, controllability, and spheres of influence.
- This unit defines adaptive coping and positive and negative methods of coping with stressful situations and asks you to think about which strategies are most effective for certain scenarios.
Unit 8 focuses on coping with life stress and negative events or “bad weather” in the sailboat metaphor.
Bridge Exercises
Why This Matters: Coping with uncertainty about the future is something everyone faces. Whether you’re unsure about college, jobs, or life in general, there are ways to help you navigate the uncertainty.
Recall the differences between active and passive coping:
- Active Coping: Taking direct action to deal with a stressful event and reduce its effect.
- Passive Coping: Taking too little direct action to cope with a situation that isn’t completely out of your control.
- Brainstorm 10 active coping strategies you can use this semester as you continue your transition to college (or can use in other transitions or in life generally). After you complete your list, share your ideas with a family member or peer and discuss the difference between active and passive coping.
Why This Matters: Coping with stress, especially during a busy or overwhelming week, can be tough — but manageable. This program has taught you practical tips to help reduce stress and get through the week more easily.
Recall the different methods of coping:
- Adaptive Coping: Responding thoughtfully to stressful situations in a way that promotes emotional well-being. This often requires understanding what aspects of a situation are within your control and accepting that some aspects aren’t in your control.
- Active Coping: Taking direct action to deal with a stressful event and reduce its effect.
- Passive Coping: Taking too little direct action to cope with a situation that isn’t completely out of your control.
- Surrender or Acceptance: Actively and intentionally admitting that the situation is beyond your control and being at peace with that.
Over the coming week, note three times that you use a coping strategy to manage stress. Explain whether each strategy is active or passive and why you used that strategy.
Remember, there isn’t one “best” way to cope. However, there are more effective and less effective coping strategies. Typically, active coping and surrender or acceptance are more useful methods than passive or overcontrolling methods.
Why This Matters: Coping with stress, uncertainty, or challenges is often a theme in pop culture. Many characters go through tough times, but they find ways to deal with those situations — and you can find inspiration in these examples.
List examples from movies, shows, music, or books that illustrate each of the coping strategies. The examples can be positive or negative. Rememeber that the categories of coping are not mutually exclusive. Adaptive coping is an umbrella term for coping where you are considering what is in your control and what is not in your control and the various enviornmental factors at play. A coping strategy could be both adaptive and active, for example. The four categories of coping behaviors are:
- Adaptive coping
- Active coping
- Passive coping
- Surrender or acceptance
Unit 8 Survey
Answer the following questions about your experience with Unit 8.
This survey has been completed