Coping Tools That Aren’t Just Bubble Baths and Breathing Exercises

Real life ways to regulate emotions, especially when the usual advice doesn’t land.

Emotional Regulation

When we talk about coping skills, people often imagine things like deep breathing, journaling, or taking a bubble bath. While these can be genuinely soothing, they don’t always meet the depth or complexity of what someone is going through especially during anxiety spikes, low moods, emotional shutdown, or trauma responses.

Emotional regulation means helping your nervous system find its way back to a place of balance. But not everyone regulates the same way and not all tools work in every moment.

So let’s expand the list.

Why Don’t the “Classic” Coping Tools Always Help?

Because regulation isn’t one-size-fits-all.

For example:

• Deep breathing can feel suffocating if your anxiety is high.

• A hot bath won’t reach the root of loneliness.

• Journaling might feel inaccessible when your mind is foggy or numb.

Sometimes you need tools that are grounded, body-based, or even silly ones that meet you where you actually are, not where you think you “should” be.

Have You Felt This Way?

• Coping tools are too “soft” for how intense your emotions feel?

• Blame yourself when a recommended strategy doesn’t work?

• Struggle to find something that actually brings relief?

You’re not doing it wrong. You might just need a broader, more personalized tool kit.

What Can Help Instead?

Here are some realistic, diverse coping tools to experiment with:

Movement: Not just yoga, try shaking, stomping, dancing to one loud song, walking around the block.

Temperature shifts: Cold water on your hands or face. Warm drink. Icy washcloth on the back of your neck. These can reset the system.

Low - effort connection: Sending a meme. Leaving a voice note. Sitting quietly near someone. You don’t need to “talk it out” to feel less alone.

Naming + Externalizing: Saying “This is anxiety” instead of self criticism can create space from the emotion. Try giving it a character or shape.

Small acts of control: Tidying one drawer. Changing into fresh clothes. Organizing your phone home screen. Feels like: I can do this. I exist.

Play: Adult life can be rigid. Playfulness (silly videos, drawing badly, puzzles, even sarcasm) activates joy and regulation.

How Can Sessions Help?

The sessions offer a space where we experiment together what calms you, what overstimulates you, what brings you back to yourself. We explore which tools actually fit your unique nervous system and life, without shame or pressure It’s not about doing all the “right” things. It’s about finding what works for you, in the real world, with real emotions.