Coping Mechanisms

Without fail, within an hour or two of you waking up, some shit hits the fan.

Something just doesn’t go as you’d like.

Sometimes it’s external: you bump into the door frame on your way out the door, spill your coffee, etc.

Sometimes it’s internal: you realize that you stayed up until 2am again scrolling your phone instead of getting your work done and now you’re behind, feeling anxious, and start to attack yourself, etc.

Or, everything goes as you would like (excellent!)

What do all of these options have in common?

They lead you to feel some sort of way.

And that feeling lies somewhere on the spectrum of very bad to very good.

But no matter where it is, it is on that spectrum.

And when you feel a certain way, it inherently means you must handle that feeling.

And since the above has been true for every day of your life up until now, it means that every single day you have handled the way that you felt.

Which means on a daily basis you cope with your emotions, whether you like it or not.

This is true REGARDLESS of if you have ever intentionally thought about how you handle them or not.

It’s just a fact of life.

And if you haven’t ever really put any thought into how you could positively handle your emotions, then it’s basically inevitable that you aren’t handling them in an optimal way.

Don’t lose me on the word “optimal” this isn’t about optimizing every area of your life.

But what about, say, the top 5 highest priority patterns that come up (the ones that happen every single day)?

For example, every single night (for you normal people out there), there is a moment when you decide you are going to go to sleep.

This may not be totally conscious.

It may be incredibly easy for you.

Or it may be something you constantly avoid.

There is an emotional response in this moment.

And it leads you to 1 of 2 options:

You either go to sleep…

Or you do not (you avoid).

If you are okay with procrastinating going to sleep every night, no changes need to be made.

But if you procrastinate sleep every night and you make no changes, you’re likely wasting between 7 and 21 hours of your life every week (1-3 hours procrastinating).

That’s a part time job… multiple books read per week… mastery of a new hobby you could enjoy… shoot, that’s 20 hours you could simply spend sitting listening to some calm music doing absolutely nothing but decompressing with a smile on your face.

And it’s yours for the taking, if you just recognize that you already have coping mechanisms.

It’s just that if you don’t intentionally choose them, then your coping mechanisms lead you away from alignment, and not toward it.