COPING TERRITORY

In our everyday lives we continually encounter stressors, obstacles, worries, conflicts, and have responsibilities and commitments. As a result, we must develop coping mechanisms to get through the stressful times. Coping itself is not a direct mechanism in which one can consciously decide to begin “coping” during stressful times. Coping is an intervention and manipulation of our environment that allows us to function more effectively during our most stressful or attention draining moments, even if it is only for a short period of time.

Although there are various forms of coping this blog post will focus on coping via the manipulation of one’s territory. To find a coping territory implies finding or changing our physical setting so that we can better control and process information. This territory should be restorative, meaning it should allow our directed attention to rest. Similarly it should not require much vigilance, and should be very familiar so that it is not too stimulating due to its strong level of understandability.

Prior to this exposure to this topic, I personally had not noticed the importance of territory when it comes to coping with stress. For example, the other day I found myself very stressed because I had a genetics exam, a paper due, and a presentation the very next day. After breakfast, I first situate myself at a coffee shop on main street with a few friends, somewhere I don’t normally study. After about an hour, I had barely even gone through 10% of the information on my genetics exam, and I realize now that may have been a cause of the low level of familiarity I had with that environment. The fact that I did not know that coffee shop well resulted in my being vigilant in this physical setting for I lacked the cognitive maps that would allow me to be able to easily predict about changes in this environment. Later on that same day I moved to the Institute for Social Research building, somewhere I study all the time. After getting all set up I zoned into my work that I didn’t even look up from my notes for hours. Being in a coping territory that did not require me to be vigilant restored my directed attention allowed me to be more effective studying.

The takeaway from this post should be that coping is an intervention in our environment that allows us to restore our directed attention allowing for better functioning during stressful times. This intervention is not always one of territory (or physical environment), as was exemplified above, however territory is one of the most important aspects to manipulate when coping.