Resilience: Reflection 4.1: Stress and Active Coping

What are the consequences of putting off a choice that makes us stressed out (e.g., writing a paper, having a difficult conversation, asking for help)?

If you made different choices in the previous activity, how might your stress levels have changed?

The options presented other than writing the paper might have been helpful coping strategies for you as an individual (e.g., nurturing social connections, knocking other items off your to do list), but choosing them repeatedly could be engaging in a form of procrastination called “productive procrastination”. Why is productive procrastination dangerous, even if we are doing things that are healthy or helpful to us in some way?

Although some coping strategies may be healthy for you, they may not be helpful toward reaching the goal which initially caused you stress, which means the stress is still going to be there. We are engaging in a short-term fix for long-term problem. While other items may get ticked off the list, and healthy behaviours like socializing and exercise may boost our mood and make us feel better, stressors that are not dealt with head on do not go away, and eventually all roads lead back to ‘this decision still needs to be made’.