If you are in a stressful situation, or struggling with stress overall, what do you normally do to calm down that feeling? A lot of the time, whether they realize it or not, people have unhealthy coping mechanisms and it’s not a good way to calm down stress. In fact, it probably makes it worse. There are a lot of ways to relieve stress and deal with whatever you may be feeling. A good coping strategy can be sitting down and listening to music, or writing down your thoughts, maybe even both! If not that, then maybe even things that require more energy may help, such as dancing, singing, and exercising, or even socializing. Let someone know how you feel and communicate that with them, talking about feelings can really help a person. If you don’t want to, at least stay calm and don’t let the stress overwhelm you. Maybe do something you like; it could be baking, sleeping, drawing, painting, coloring, anything. You can play a game, hang out with friends or family, read a book, take a shower/bath, do a puzzle or play some board games. It doesn’t matter whether the coping mechanism is a “smaller” one, if it makes you feel better then that is all that matters. If you find yourself dealing with stress a lot, then it’s good to take a step back from it and relieve yourself every now and then but it should not get to the point where you use your coping mechanisms as a way of avoiding it, and not facing it. It’s not always good to avoid the way you feel, and acceptance is a very important part in coping. You should not always hide behind your hobbies/coping mechanisms just to avoid and forget the way you feel because that can actually be unhealthy for you. It’s important to set a balance when it comes to how much stress you should be having, and the ways you deal with it.