I’m watching a video on how chronic stress reduces your adaptation to things like exercise. It’s down on passive coping strategies, such as “seeking out alcohol, watching TV, procrastinating, talking to friends, [and] moaning about the problem.” Instead the video recommends “active coping strategies, such as “actually deal[ing] with the problem,” and recommends such things as “if you have a problem with somebody, talk to them.”
And I’m like, “Okay, that’s a big nope.”
I mean, it’s not wrong… “This is what the stress energizes you to do. So you want to take advantage of that fight-or-flight mode? Seek out what the root cause of your problem is, what it is that is giving you stress, and then tackle the problem head on.”
Except I do not want to take advantage of that fight-or-flight mode, except that I do want to flee if at all possible.
And those passive coping strategies? I’m all-in. I mean, moaning about the problem is like 90% of my whole personality.
Ashley, on the other hand, is totally down with both fight and flight responses:
We can learn a lot from our cats and dogs. 99% of the time Pushkin is very very happy. The tiny percent of the time he isn’t has been when he goes to the vet, and even then he knows I love him. Whenever I see Ashley she has a HUGE smile! It’s always nice to see her :)
Pushkin is a very good boy, and Ashley is a very good girl.
Talking to friends and family and moaning about problems are great active stratagies. And if you do them with a cocktail even better. And watching TV is a very appropriate flight response when fight is either useless or not worthwhile.
All true! Very perceptive!