There will always be hard days, we simply cannot escape this. Have you ever woken up and felt so fatigued, but knew you had so much to accomplish that day? Or maybe your day was going well, and bam…you’re hit unexpectedly. It’s easy to feel defeated, but what would your day look like if you kept going?

Coping is the ability to deal “successfully” with a challenging situation. The successful part is the grey area. What does that mean to you? To me, successfully dealing with something hard is having a moment of clarity to keep going, even if it’s for a short period until we must cope again. It could also be continuing through our day-to-day while having something in the back of our mind that we are reminded of every so often.

So how can we cope with our challenges? Classic ways we often hear to cope such as going for a walk, journaling gratitude, and deep breathing are all great examples. However, everyone’s challenges are different, therefore how we cope will be too. This may work for some people but certainly not for all. Journaling, for example, is not something I want to do when I am having a bad day or in pain, but this may work for others.

Consider what activities or hobbies truly spark joy when you think about it. This may be a good place to start to discover how you can effectively cope. Next, be specific with it. For me, listening to music is my go-to coping skill. But not just any music, specifically 70s classic rock. This genre of music brings comfort and fond memories of my family.

Think of ways you can share that joy with others such as reaching out to a friend, participating in an activity together, or joining a support group. Remember that some days will be harder than others to be optimistic. However, there is always tomorrow to try again. With that, I’ll end with some of my favorite lyrics of Fleetwood Mac’s song, “Don’t Stop.”

“If you wake up and don’t want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You’ll see things in a different way.

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow,
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here.
It’ll be better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.”