My Survival Strategies
Some days we feel like we are just surviving and hanging on by a thread. On these particular days we tend to use survival strategies that help us get through the day such as:
- Withdrawing from people
- Being strong
- Being controlling
- Being compliant
- Saying yes, when all we want to do is say no
- Alcohol or drug use
- Using sex to cope
- Avoiding or escaping feelings
- Keeping busy
This exercise will help you become aware of the survival strategies that you use to cope with your grief. I want you to allow love and compassion to gently bring you to this awareness.
Sit quietly for a few moments and read through the above list and using your journal, I want you to write down the survival strategies that you use to cope with your grief. (Think outside this above list, there are so many things that we do to survive).
Once you have made your list, I want you to reflect on each one of them and make some notes on how you see that particular survival strategy impacting your life. Are your survival strategies helping you or hindering you?
If you come to the conclusion that one or more of your survival strategies are hindering you, using compassion maybe you can consider how you can work towards understanding these strategies and empowering yourself to use less of them with the ultimate goal of changing and healing.
For example: if you are always being strong, then find someone that you don’t have to be strong with and fall apart with them.
