What are some cognitive coping skills?

Here are some cognitive coping skills:

  • Positive Self-talk: Positive self-talk is a great way to talk yourself through difficult situations positively. You can tell yourself things like "I get to go to class today" instead of "I have to go."

  • Positive Mindset: this is similar to positive self-talk, a positive mindset is when you see the good in yourself and your life. This type of thinking will help you boost your self-esteem because you’ll be more confident about yourself and your circumstances.

  • Challenge: this means challenging the automatic negative thoughts ("ANTs") that come up. For example, you may think, "I am stupid," but the challenge would be to refute that statement by saying why it is not valid.

  • Reframing: this means looking at a negative event from a positive perspective. An example would be being jealous of another person's accomplishments and feeling wrong about it when you should feel happy for your friend.

  • Self-soothing: When something wrong happens, try to calm yourself down by comforting yourself. An example would be being nervous about an upcoming test; telling yourself that if you studied hard for the class, then chances are high that your performance will reflect studying well and therefore you will do well overall.

  • Reappraisal: this means thinking differently about a situation to find a new perspective on it.


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