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6 Ways to Make Lemonade When Life Gives You Lemons
Improve executive function by nipping self-sabotage in the bud.
Two extremes of maladaptive coping are 1) obsessing in endless, repetitive cycles, amplifying distress for oneself and others, and driving compulsive behaviors and 2) using strong avoidance to remain — more or less blissfully — unaware by eradicating unwanted inner experience. Obsession and avoidance differ on the surface — deeper, the serve the same self-protective, yet self-defeating, functions.
Avoiding avoidance and obessionalism
Maladaptive defenses or coping mechanisms interfere with the development of self-efficacy, key for self-esteem. They reduce reality to an over-simplified caricature of itself devoid of real depth or vitality, side-stepping the rich complexity of life.
Suppression and rumination share similarities with avoidance and obsession, but are fundamentally different because they allow thinking to move forward. Suppression allows us to park issues, and return to them later. Rumination literally means chewing it over mentally, and is associated with resilient coping.
Proceed with caution
During those first moments of perceived crisis, we are presented with a hypothetical…
