“Conceal it. Don't feel it. Don't let it show," – Elsa, Frozen (2013). Ever find yourself smiling and saying, "It's fine, I don't mind!" when you secretly feel frustrated or resentful? That experience is called suppression; the conscious  effort to bottle up and hide your true emotions. While making sacrifices for your partner is crucial for a strong relationship, contemporary research found a huge catch: if you swallow your negative feelings instead of dealing with them, the

"I drink out of desperation. Life is too dreary to endure. The misery, loneliness, crampedness - they're heartbreaking." ~ Ōba Yōzō, No Longer Human (2019) Worry is a universal experience, common in childhood and throughout adult life. We can understand worry as having two main types. One type is a realistic kind of fear, which comes from a clear, external threat: a physical danger. The other, more troubling type is an inner anxiety that stems not from the outside world, but

" Dopinder, you're the greatest Uber driver a superhero could ever have!" -Wade Wilson, Deadpool 2 The greatest benefit of using humor as a coping tool is its ability to connect us with others. When we use playful language or funny observations to talk about a serious issue, we never exclude the people around us. In fact, humor invites them in, sharing the burden and creating a bond. Unlike isolating mental retreats, this kind of coping is social: it encourages shared underst

"Out with the old, in with the new." -       Maya Hawke, Inside Out 2 (2024) Many deeply rigid and exaggerated attitudes are actually attempts to completely block out or deny certain unwelcome impulses or inner pressures. This is the core of a strategy known as reaction formation. In this process, a person adopts an attitude or behavior that is the exact opposite of an unacceptable inner urge (Elzer & Gerlach, 2018). For example, if a person harbors feelings of hostility towa

"If I can stay alive, I can still fight." We all have powerful urges and feelings, like a surge of anger after a bad day or a flood of passion for a personal cause, that feel too intense or disruptive to express directly. Instead of bottling up that emotional energy until it explodes, imagine channeling it into something constructive and satisfying. This process is called sublimation, one of the most effective and mature ways we cope. You can often spot it in action: the furi

“Conceal it. Don't feel it. Don't let it show," – Elsa, Frozen (2013). Ever find yourself smiling and saying, "It's fine, I don't mind!" when you secretly feel frustrated or resentful? That experience is called suppression; the conscious  effort to bottle up and hide your true emotions. While making sacrifices for your partner is crucial for a strong relationship, contemporary research found a huge catch: if you swallow your negative feelings instead of dealing with them, the

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Want to raise resilient kids? Start with this A functioning family is a well-oiled machine, and the oil is its routines. Rather than...