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Coping Strategies

Writer's picture: Kristine Callahan, CPCKristine Callahan, CPC

Updated: Jan 7, 2024


How are you coping in the face of uncertainty?



Spring greetings of renewal and hope to everyone reading this. I’m grateful for your interest. This was supposed to be my first newsletter to share tips, events and classes. Due to obvious circumstances it’s now a blog.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to not only remain grounded through life’s most challenging times, but how do we grow and expand ourselves? Who weathers the storm? If you aren’t one of those people with a strong faith, close ties with friends and family, and solid resources can you stay balanced? Where do you turn for support when you are social distancing? Friends in other states are on lock down. Churches and Synagogues are closed. Our alternative healing practices for self-care and pain management are shut down. Here are some thoughts on remaining grounded and finding personal growth during this time of isolation.

To back up a bit first, I’d like to share with you what’s happened in my life, the first 23 days of March.

I experienced the birth of my niece Shannon’s second child, by her side as her doula/birth coach. With the virus separating us I rely on pictures, videos, Facebook and daily texts in order to feel connected to them. It hurts to be apart so I pray and meditate to get through those sad feelings. In my geriatric work as a Placement & Referral Specialist for 2Sisters Senior Living Advisors, I helped transition a few clients to assisted living options. Some seniors were moved prior to the restrictions and others right in the thick of things in spite of bans. I was able to stay on task and remain a positive resource to them with daily grounding techniques.


Personally, I made a major breakthrough in dealing with past events I thought I had resolved long ago. That’s a longer story for another time…I earned my certification in professional coaching, and disaster recovery coaching. All of this while preparing my mother’s home (where my family lived since 1974 till her death in October of 2019) to go on the market. It's being shown privately with precautions. Crazy right?


Living with chronic pain when your acupuncturist closes her office, difficult but not impossible. I have found a number of ways including CBD products to help me through this. My gym is closed, I’m walking my dog Sasha three times a day and taking Kava Root to help manage anxious feelings.

Everything I mention has happened in the first 23 days of this month of March 2020, I will never forget it. You likely won’t either. Where are you now? Do you feel safe? Are you struggling with keeping a positive mindset? What are your coping strategies?

Many people I have connected with are being negatively impacted and emotionally jolted out of balance. Some are self medicating. Others are embracing the restrictions and making the best of it. They are spending quality time with their loved ones and doing things they didn’t have time for during a typical work week. These people are hopeful that things will turnaround quickly and leave us all more evolved from this experience. What is the difference in the lives of these two groups of people?

The first group may have a lack of emotional support from friends and family, unresolved trauma, grief, chronic illnesses, financial burdens, and care-giving burdens. They aren’t aware of some of the self-care tools to keep them in balance.

They are being triggered by the sudden, harsh reality of COVID-19. Fear is their baseline. They may lack hope and the motivation to get through hard times. That used to be me too. Even my dog that I rescued has reverted back to old anxiety behaviors because her whole routine has been upended. All the dog parks are closed!

The second group has likely moved past any previous negative experiences, find themselves surrounded by strong support systems, like friends, family, employers and spiritual leaders. They are firmly rooted in their mindset that all will be well, this too shall pass. Have they always been this way? What got them there? How do people in the first group, become more like the second group?

If you’re going it alone the path is long, and often uphill. This is where coaching comes in, and what I have personally experienced as well. Years ago I tackled my healing with slow progress, I never asked for help, I read tons of self-help books and engaged in my spirituality solitary style. After feeling stuck, I knew I needed to trust people to help me. A strong commitment to change my life helped boost me out of that slow stuck phase, but it took way too long. If I had a coach years ago, I know things would have been very different.


Regardless, I’m looking back with gratitude for the teachers that presented themselves on my path, the lessons I learned, and the healing that transformed me. Now I’m employing this method for my clients. Right now, separated from my clients I’m working on my dog Sasha. Two dear friends are running with her, something I cannot do because of knee injuries. Without the dog park to run in a safe gated place, she had spikes of anxiety and vomiting from a nervous belly no doubt. The running has helped, and we all pulled together to support her. Thank you ladies!

As we navigate this trying time to a new normal please consider who you know in your life that may need your support. Check in with friends and family that rarely ask for help, they could be silently struggling. Log onto a Facebook live yoga class, or crystal bowl meditation. I share these all the time on my page. https://www.facebook.com/ReikiCapeCod

I will be sharing more self-care tips to staying balanced as the days roll on in this new normal, two weeks sheltering in place. Please consider how professional coaching can help motivate you to strategize solutions to your challenges, set new goals and hold you accountable to achieving them. Doesn't everyone want to live a more balanced joy filled life? I hope to be a part of your healing journey. Stay safe and well.

Bright blessings,

-K




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