Dare I say that time has taught me that coping is possibly overrated? (And as someone already commented, needs to be redefined!) My current coping strategy however is reading 20 year old pop culture gossip on Reddit instead of actually writing on Substack though, so I probably can’t comment. 🤭
Great topic and lots of food for thought as usual! I can absolutely relate to holding myself to an impossible standard of resilience even when things are objectively shitty and exhausting. 😭
Coping is a funny concept, I think just getting through life is enough sometimes. That said, I have nothing on my plate compared to most and I still go to pieces if I need to do more than 3 basic tasks in a row.
I have a feeling that introspective people (hello, hi) tend to take struggling to cope badly, because we've previously made our ability to cope/function a core part of our self-conceptualisation. We believe that who we are is a person who gets stuff done. So when we can't, it feels like it's a personal, moral failing, not just life being hard. Add in being self-employed (esp. right now), where there's significant financial pressure to get back to coping, right now, and it all becomes a vicious circle.
All of which to say, be gentle with yourself. You're doing masses (parenting, running a business, newsletters, launching a conference!!) even doing a quarter of that would be hard enough.
Thanks for the shout out Ellen!
Dare I say that time has taught me that coping is possibly overrated? (And as someone already commented, needs to be redefined!) My current coping strategy however is reading 20 year old pop culture gossip on Reddit instead of actually writing on Substack though, so I probably can’t comment. 🤭
Great topic and lots of food for thought as usual! I can absolutely relate to holding myself to an impossible standard of resilience even when things are objectively shitty and exhausting. 😭
Coping is a funny concept, I think just getting through life is enough sometimes. That said, I have nothing on my plate compared to most and I still go to pieces if I need to do more than 3 basic tasks in a row.
I have a feeling that introspective people (hello, hi) tend to take struggling to cope badly, because we've previously made our ability to cope/function a core part of our self-conceptualisation. We believe that who we are is a person who gets stuff done. So when we can't, it feels like it's a personal, moral failing, not just life being hard. Add in being self-employed (esp. right now), where there's significant financial pressure to get back to coping, right now, and it all becomes a vicious circle.
All of which to say, be gentle with yourself. You're doing masses (parenting, running a business, newsletters, launching a conference!!) even doing a quarter of that would be hard enough.