Coping

In the midst of finals and the holiday season, we’re all coping as best we can. Coping is how people deal with unpreferred environments, both physical and conceptual. The general mechanism by which coping works is through manipulating, usually limiting, the flow of information or how it is perceived. This can be done in many ways, but I will discuss three broad methods of coping - territory, community, and interpretation - and offer some tips of how to use them in your life.

Territory allows one to cope better in difficult situations because it is a familiar, predictable environment where one has some degree of control over the information flow. People retreat to their territories, physical or intellectual, because they have well developed understandings of their territories, and there they feel safe and will not be overwhelmed by immediate environmental factors. Territory can allow people to rest and restore themselves. When confronted with a troubled relationship, an expert may bury themselves in their work or a teenager might barricade themselves in their room. When writing a daunting paper, a student will probably find themselves opening new tabs and browsing favorite internet sites instead. All of these of these are examples of coping with territory.

Tip: When you’re feeling stressed, it’s natural and even beneficial at times to go to your territory and relax - just be aware that you’re doing it, and don’t let it keep you from accomplishing other things. Plan to work or study in a preferred and familiar location, or make time in the evenings to read a favorite book instead of browsing Facebook all day.

A second category of coping techniques is coping with community. Community allows one to cope by offering both security and increased understanding. Community often goes hand-in-hand with territory, because community members often share an environment which they are familiar with and which they control access to - a house, a club, a clique, an office, etc. In a community, shared territory is guarded by all members of the community - a larger group controlling the flow of information in and out means that any one member doesn’t have to have their guard up at all times. Communities allow for individuals to be vulnerable and rest, which is important for coping with stress. Communities also foster greater understanding through the sharing of relevant information. If the entire community is coping with the same situation, then members will usually share relevant and helpful information around within the community, whether in the form of warnings, analysis, answers, etc. If a single member of the community is coping with something, community members will still usually share relevant information if they become aware that the individual is dealing with something. Community offers safety and support.

Tip: When coping something, any community is beneficial and supportive. For the biggest benefit, try figuring out which of your communities will have the most shared experience with whatever situation you’re dealing with. For example, if you had the option, you wouldn’t approach your emotionally-intelligent poet friends with car trouble, nor would you go to your auto-shop community with your relationship problems.

A final category of coping methods is interpretation. Interpretation is the re-framing of a situation, thinking about it in a new and actionable way. We’re interpreting our environments all the time, but coping with interpretation require becoming aware of those existing, likely unhealthy interpretations, and supplanting them with more useful ones. Intentional interpretation is another way of controlling information flow, or at least information processing, allowing you more control over which information is relevant to you. Interpretation allows one to find the next step and the motivation to take it. An example of interpretation might be to think of a college education as an incredibly special privilege, rather than a terrifying and exhausting obligation - in the new framing, next steps become clear.Interpretation is helpful because it is highly portable, and not dependent on any place or people - you can cope with situations anywhere simply by re-interpreting them in more actionable ways.

Tip: Try asking your community for helpful interpretations of difficult situations - interpretations are easily shared and useful ones stick around as stories. Remember that the story you tell yourself actually does shape your experience of reality - interpretations are how we interface with the world. Change yours today!