And yes, whilst this is something that psychologists can help with, often people already know what they might need to help them cope. Sometimes, the process of questioning in therapy helps uncover this need. And sometimes, people already know very clearly, but feel stuck about how to create this in their lives.

If you haven’t thought about it explicitly:

What do you need to cope?

Or, What do you need to feel better or happier?

If you can identify your need, you can also begin working on ways to meet this need.

Even if it seems too hard or unachievable, there are often small or creative ways to bring this into your daily life, which can improve your coping and emotional state.

For example, if you would cope better with getting daily exercise but can’t see how you might fit this into your busy life: Write a list brainstorming 10 different ways you could fit in some type of small, daily exercise.

Even if it’s not how you imagine it in your ideal world:

List all possible ideas without evaluation; the purpose is to be creative. (You’ll need to move away from the unachievable gym class that you can’t get to anyway, unless you’re brainstorming solutions as to how to get there!)

And somehow, within your list of 10 ideas, there will likely be several ideas that you can use most days.

Make a (written) plan to start using some of these steps- because even though they aren’t your ‘ideal’, something is better than nothing, particularly when it comes to improving your emotional state.