Coping strategies list


100 Coping Strategies for Anger, Anxiety, and More

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Coping strategies are techniques that help reduce negative feelings when someone is feeling under stress. Those feelings might be the result of anxiety, anger, depression, or just general day-to-day stress. Practicing coping strategies can help kids and young adults learn how to manage their emotions in a positive way.

Every child or young adult should have a “toolbox” of coping strategies that works for them. It’s important to recognize that what works for one person may not work well for another. For example, one student may utilize a stress ball quietly and calmly to reduce anxious feelings during a test. A different student may try to use that stress ball and find themselves unable to hold onto it without tossing it, only creating more anxiety about getting in trouble. That is why it’s important to have a large list of positive coping strategies that kids and young adults can choose from.

If you’re looking for a fun craft to practice and try out some of these coping strategies, try this Coping Strategies Fortune Teller Craft. First, students will identify their top coping strategies from the list or on their own. They will write those strategies in the printable. After coloring and decorating, students will then cut out their fortune tellers and then use the directions to fold their craft together. Let students practice their coping strategies by playing with their fortune tellers in partners or groups. Encourage students to read each others’ coping strategies and even practice them, when appropriate. This can be a great activity in small groups to discuss strategies and identify what works best for each individual student. Give it a try!

Get your free printable list of 100 Coping Strategies here. Use this quick guide to help teach, practice, and choose the best coping strategies for your students. It can a fun and positive activity to read through the list and choose coping strategies to practice.

Here is a list of 100 coping strategies for emotional management:

1. Take deep breaths

2. Do a positive activity

3. Play sports

4. Think of something funny

5. Take a quick walk

6. Practice yoga

7. Stand up and stretch

8. Listen to music

9. Take a time out

10. Slowly count to ten

11. Use positive self-talk

12. Say something kind to yourself

13. Talk to a friend

14. Talk to an adult

15. Close your eyes and relax

16. Say, “I can do this”

17. Visualize your favorite place

18. Think of something happy

19. Think of a pet you love

20. Think about someone you love

21. Get enough sleep

22. Eat a healthy snack

23. Read a good book

24. Set a goal

25. Jog in place

26. Write in a journal

27. Hum your favorite song

28. Doodle on paper

29. Draw a picture

30. Color a coloring page

31. Clean something

32. Meditate

33. Use a stress ball

34. Dance

35. Write a letter

36. Look at pictures you’ve taken

37. Make a gratitude list

38. List your positive qualities

39. Do something kind

40. Give someone a hug

41. Put a puzzle together

42. Do something you love

43. Build something

44. Play with clay

45. Hug a stuffed animal

46. Rip paper into pieces

47. Play an instrument

48. Watch a good movie

49. Take pictures

50. Garden

51. Write a list

52. Keep a positive attitude

53. Schedule time for yourself

54. Blow bubbles

55.  Write a positive note

56. Chew gum

57. Paint your nails

58. Write a story

59. Blog

60. Read a joke book

61. Write a poem

62. Drink cold water

63. Draw cartoons

64. Read a magazine

65. Write a thank you note

66. Count to 100

67. Make a list for the future

68. Read inspirational quotes

69. Compliment yourself

70. Visualize a stop sign

71. Laugh

72. Smile in the mirror

73. Smile at others

74. Do schoolwork

75. Look at animal pictures

76. Hyperfocus on an object

77. Notice 5 things you can see

78. Paint with water colors

79. Use a relaxation app

80. Watch a funny video

81. Drink some tea

82. Cook or bake

83. Plan a fun trip

84. Use an I-statement

85. Identify your emotions

86. Express your feelings to someone

87. Write down your thoughts

88. Identify a positive thought

89. Make your day’s schedule

90. List 10 positives about you

91. Ask yourself, “What do I need right now?”

92. Tell someone you are thankful for them

93. Pet an animal

94. Make a list of choices

95. Ask an adult for help

96. Organize something

97. Play a card game

98. Listen to nature sounds

99. Sit and relax all your muscles

100. Ask for a break

If you are interested in even more coping strategies, consider my Mindfulness and Coping Strategies Mega Bundle. With this resource, you will get over 600 pages of lessons, activities, crafts, task cards, posters, and more focused on practicing coping strategies and mindfulness.

Also, make sure you read up on one way I practice coping strategies with a craft! I’d love to hear what other coping strategies work for you and your learners!

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99 Coping Skills

Exercise.

Put on fake tattoos.

Write (poetry, stories, journal).

Scribble/doodle on paper.

Be with other people.

Watch a favorite TV show.

Hydrate.

Go see a movie.

Do a wordsearch or crossword.

Do schoolwork.

Play a musical instrument.

Paint your nails, do your make-up or hair.

Study the sky.

Punch a pillow.

Cover yourself with Band-Aids where you want to cut.

Let yourself cry.

Take a nap (only if you are tired).

Take a hot shower or relaxing bath.

Play with a pet.

Go shopping.

Clean something.

Knit or sew.

Read a good book.

Listen to music.

Try some aromatherapy (candle, lotion, room spray).

Meditate.

Go somewhere very public.

Bake cookies.

Create a vision board.

Paint or draw.

Rip paper into itty-bitty pieces.

Shoot hoops, kick a ball.

Write a letter or send an email.

Plan your dream room (colors/furniture).

Hug a pillow or stuffed animal.

Hyperfocus on something like a rock, hand, etc.

Dance.

Make hot chocolate, a milkshake or a smoothie.

Play with modeling clay or Play-Doh.

Build a pillow fort.

Go for a nice, long drive.

Complete something you've been putting off.

Draw on yourself with a marker.

Take up a new hobby.

Look up recipes, cook a meal.

Go outside for 15 minutes.

Create or build something.

Make a list of blessings in your life.

Read the Bible.

Go to a friend's house.

Jump on a trampoline.

Watch an old, happy movie.

Contact a hotline/your therapist, if you want, you can call us 1-800-448-3000.

Talk to someone close to you.

Ride a bicycle.

Feed the ducks, birds, or squirrels.

Color.

Memorize a poem, play, or song.

Stretch.

Search for ridiculous things on the internet.

“Shop” online (without buying anything).

Color-coordinate your wardrobe.

Watch fish.

Make a playlist of your favorite songs.

Play the “15 minute game.” (Avoid something for 15 minutes, when time is up start again.)

Plan your wedding/prom/other event.

Plant some seeds.

Hunt for your perfect home or car online.

Try to make as many words out of your full name as possible.

Sort through/edit your pictures.

Play with a balloon.

Give yourself a facial.

Play with a favorite childhood toy.

Start collecting something.

Play video/computer games.

Clean up trash at your local park.

Look at yourlifeyourvoice.org.

Text or call a friend.

Write yourself an "I love you because…" letter.

Look up new words and use them.

Rearrange furniture.

Write a letter to someone that you may never send.

Smile at five people.

Play with your little brother/sister/niece/nephew.

Go for a walk (with or without a friend).

Put a puzzle together.

Clean your room /closet.

Try to do handstands, cartwheels, or backbends.

Teach your pet a new trick.

Learn a new language.

Move EVERYTHING in your room to a new spot.

Get together with friends and play Frisbee, soccer or basketball.

Hug a friend or family member.

Search online for new songs/artists.

Make a list of goals for the week/month/year/5 years.

Perform a random act of kindness.

The best PC survival strategies

We live in a relatively safe time in a relatively safe place, but we continue to fantasize about what would happen if we were on another planet, in a different, more severe time, or some kind of global catastrophe happened. If you want to test your plan to save humanity, check out our list of survival strategies.

Often in survival games we take on the role of a character who fights for his life in the endless ocean, in a zombie apocalypse, on an island with cannibals and in other difficult conditions. But what if we take responsibility for the life of not one person, but several at once?

This is the main idea of ​​PC survival strategies, the best of which we will discuss in this article. In such games, your opponents, in addition to the army of units, will be hunger, mother nature, disease, cold, and even the wards themselves.

Frostpunk

One of the best games about the survival of society, showing a terrible picture of a glacial apocalypse. The only salvation of mankind in such conditions was a huge steam generator, the settlement around which you have to manage.

Everything can go wrong in this game: food is constantly scarce, revolutionary movements are brewing in the ranks of workers, a group of explorers can get lost in frosty lands, and every night will be colder than the previous one - and this is only on the standard difficulty level.

Buy Now

Rimworld

This fantastic strategy game tells the story of three colonists who survived the crash of a space liner and ended up on an uncharted planet. You have to establish a settlement, but the danger for it is not monsters and raiders (although they are too), but the inhabitants themselves - each has its own character, strengths and weaknesses that will affect life in the community. So, the colonist can suffer from drug addiction, be a cannibal or a psychopath, and even have “creepy breath” - the amount of detail in this game is amazing.

Buy Now

Oxygen Not Included

An isometric space colony simulator in which an asteroid is your home. Settling in its bowels, you will build a shelter, take care of the extraction of vital resources and explore its territory.

Meticulous controls have become a feature of the game - you will control literally everything, from excavations to the temperature of the rooms, and often you will create problems for yourself that will lead to the decline of the colony.

Buy

Dawn of Man

Dawn of Man sends us into the distant past and offers to survive on behalf of the first people on our planet - those who hid in caves, hunted mammoths and only learned the gifts of mother nature.

You will live through several eras, from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, and during this time you will have to build a settlement, collect resources, research "technologies", stock up for a rainy day and be afraid of unpredictable natural disasters.

Buy now

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress is the "old lady" in our selection since this game was released back in 2006. The author came up with the idea to cross a construction simulator with roguelike elements, resulting in a hell of a complex and addictive game about a settlement of dwarves who build a fortress and try to survive.

Do not look at the graphics - they are modest, but the game itself is full of gameplay mechanics. So, each inhabitant has character traits, and his body parts are modeled separately. You can lose here by ridiculous stupidity - for example, a conflict between two residents over nothing will develop into a mass brawl, and for you - into an inevitable defeat.

The game is temporarily unavailable on official digital services

Surviving Mars

We may be able to colonize Mars in the future, but so far this can only be done in video games. Surviving Mars is the best example of such games - under your leadership, people will hide in futuristic domes and will build settlements, study technologies, distribute supplies and make forays into endless deserts.

Survival on an alien planet is not without problems: power outages, lack of oxygen, dangerous sandstorms, depression of settlers - only a part of what awaits you.

Buy now

Factorio

Factorio is once again set on another planet, but you are more of a threat to it than it is to you. It's a manufacturing strategy focused on building factories, transport lines, robots, solar farms and other fruits of technological progress - as a result, you will have an entire mechanical empire. True, the locals will not be happy to exploit the resources of their planet.

Buy

Banished

In Banished, a hardcore medieval strategy game, you take care of a small village whose inhabitants will have to face hunger, cold, crop failures and other troubles. The main resource in the game will be the settlers themselves - they grow up, get sick, work, have kids and die when their time comes. Like the other games in this collection, the gameplay is filled with various survival mechanics and just a couple of mistakes can lead you to defeat.

Buy

They Are Billions

They Are Billions is a game about steampunk, post-apocalypse and zombies. Such familiar activities as construction, extraction of resources and taking care of the inhabitants become much more complicated when the walls of the base are constantly attacked by huge crowds of the walking dead and other monsters - the number of enemies can be hundreds and thousands of individuals.

Buy Now

Northgard

Already well-known Scandinavian myths formed the basis of the Northgard strategy, where you will try on the role of the leader of the Viking clan and try to settle in the new land of Norgard. The game has absorbed everything we know about this people of the bravest northerners - they have to survive very harsh winters, protect their families from the attacks of wolves and the undead, and also fight with the giants-jotuns, or make friends with them.

Buy

Planetbase

Planetbase invites you to become a futuristic architect - together with a small team of colonists you will go to build alien planets. Here you will test yourself as a pioneer - finding yourself literally with nothing, you have to use your mind, ingenuity and creativity in order to build a base with limited resources, take care of its inhabitants, start mining new resources and give rise to life in a strange place. True, these ambitions will be hampered by a lack of energy, meteorites, lightning, hunger, and much more.

Buy

Fallout Shelter

If in the Fallout games we can only observe what is left of the cozy shelters of people during the apocalypse, then in the Fallout Shelter strategy we are given the role of the caretaker of one of these and offer to develop it.

Everything is in the best traditions of the series and the genre - we control the consumption of resources, build new rooms, monitor the happiness of the inhabitants, cope with unforeseen situations and repel the attacks of raiders and mutants. Interestingly, you can play Fallout Shelter for free on PC and mobile platforms, and the progress will be the same.

Play

Colony Survival

Colony Survival is the black sheep in our selection, because in this strategy you control the hero from the first person, and the gameplay itself is similar to Minecraft (block building). But as soon as you have some kind of shelter, smart NPC colonists will keep you company.

Further, the scale will only grow - the house will turn into a village, the village - into a castle, and the number of inhabitants will only grow ... But with the advent of night, monsters will appear under the walls, the invasion of which the ruler must stop at any cost.

Buy Now

Craft the World

Like Dwarf Fortress, in this game you control a tribe of dwarves who have to survive, explore distant lands, gather resources and fight skeletons, orcs, ghosts and other inhabitants of the dungeons. But, unlike the same Dwarf Fortress, Craft the World is more friendly to gamers and does not try to kill their wards every second, so immerse yourself in adventure, enjoy nice graphics and develop a fabulous tribe.

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Becastled

Becastled will appeal to fans of medieval epic, as this game focuses on building massive castles and then defending them from hordes of monsters. Standard strategy mechanics are in place (mining resources, army training), but still, intense and epic base defense comes to the fore - get ready to face monsters and their marvels of siege equipment every night.

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Sheltered

An interesting mix of survival strategy and RPG, Sheltered is a game about how a family of four finds a safe bunker after the global apocalypse and hopes that it will become a new home. Like it or not - you decide, because your shoulders will be responsible for taking care of the wards, exploring the surrounding areas, security and other aspects.

From the role-playing game here - individual characteristics of each hero and a turn-based combat system.

Buy Now

Judgment

You will hardly have experienced such a cataclysm as in Judgment. In the world of this game, a diabolical apocalypse happened - hordes of demons poured out of the open Gates of Hell and destroyed people. The few survivors united, organized a settlement and gave battle to otherworldly creatures.

An interesting idea can be traced in the gameplay - in addition to the default survival, you will learn the occult, perform rituals and use magic. There are also real-time tactical battles.

Buy Now

Town of Salem

A multiplayer game based on the legendary Mafia. Once with strangers, you must find out their roles - mafia, defenders or neutrals, and also play your own. Although there are no mechanics that are standard for the genre, the struggle for life will be serious.

Town of Salem's features include a large number of roles (over 30), a familiar strategy perspective, customization items, and beautiful but undemanding graphics.

Buy Now

Atomic Society

The authors of Atomic Society offer their own view on survival in the post-apocalyptic conditions - a city-building strategy, a simulator where you need to rebuild the city and monitor its inhabitants.

A meticulous system of control over residents has become a feature of the game - in addition to the well-known care mechanics, systems of crime and various social problems (abortions, cannibalism, drug use) are implemented. You will try on the form of not only the ruler, but also the judge, and independently choose the punishment for the guilty.

Buy

Buoyancy

Survival strategies on PC should be appreciated because they offer non-standard situations and thus make the gameplay of their projects with some zest. Buoyancy was no exception, which offers to build a floating city in the middle of the endless ocean and take care of the inhabitants in unusual conditions.

You have to fight off pirate attacks, cope with diseases and even fires, extract resources scattered across the endless waters - all in order to keep the inhabitants full and satisfied.

Buy


What other interesting survival strategies do you know on PC? Share with us in the comments, and we will add games to the selection!

Survival strategy games are the best survival strategies on PC: winter, zombie apocalypse, etc.

common genre to become a single entity? It turned out that they can very well, giving rise to an exciting hybrid, which at the moment has taken shape in a special strategy/survival subgenre with some author's variations.

You can find out about the best survival strategies in this section further in the text.

Endzone: A World Apart

A new 2020 strategy game for PC that uses the classic post-nuclear post-apocalypse as the basis for the setting, and city building, settlement management as the basis for the gameplay (distribution of resources, solving all sorts of pressing problems, etc.) ) and survival. Everything takes place in the world of the remains of a human civilization that fell under the impact of intercontinental nuclear missiles.

Therefore, it is not enough just to rebuild a settlement from limited resources and random debris - you also need to establish its life support, distribute responsibilities among the settlers, send expeditions in search of supplies and figure out how to withstand the destructive sandstorms, acid rains and other misfortunes of the new post-nuclear world.

Another post-apocalyptic city-building and survival strategy, where you no longer have to deal with the consequences of a global nuclear war, but with millions of zombies that appeared as a result of a spontaneous outbreak of an unknown Z-virus. Most of the planet's population was turned into monsters, the rest, a small part, took refuge behind the walls of well-fortified cities. The management of one of these cities is the responsibility of the player.

A notable feature of the They Are Billions setting is the use, along with the post-apocalyptic, of characteristic elements of steampunk, expressed in the design of the environment, the presence of specific steam technologies and the same weapons. In addition, the entire environment is rendered with unusual, cel-shaded graphics, adding additional elegance to the visual part of They Are Billions. At the moment, the game has two main modes - "Survival" and "Campaign". The latter consists of a series of story missions, with a total duration of more than sixty hours.

Dawn of Man

Strategy game that combines the features of the genres of city-building simulator and survival simulator in the wild. At the same time, Dawn of Man has a very unusual, realistic and at the same time historical setting in the form of a primitive era. The player's task is to lead the life of the tribe, taking care of the life and health of each of its members. To do this, you will have to build various buildings, send savages to hunt and gather, fight off other savages and wild animals, study the primitive technologies of that time.

It should be noted that the Dawn of Man gameplay is not limited to the collection of resources and construction. The tribal survival system is also very well implemented. Every person here is subject to injury and disease, feels hungry and thirsty, gets tired and needs sleep. He can be killed on a hunt, die from illness or a lightning strike. In addition, he ages over time and also dies. Fortunately, you can replenish the number of the tribe both naturally and by accepting new random nomads into its ranks.

Frostpunk

One of the best survival strategy games released by Polish studio 11 bit studios in 2018. The player is invited to take on the responsibility of managing the last human city built around a giant steam generator in a new ice age, the projected duration of which is many centuries and maybe even millennia.

In order to save the city and all its inhabitants, the player will have to build the necessary buildings in a timely manner, correctly distribute responsibilities, send expeditions for resources and make very difficult and unpopular decisions, reacting to constantly occurring random events of an extremely negative nature. In general, a very beautiful and atmospheric game with a well-thought-out survival system and a good steam city management system.

Oxygen Not Included

Strategic simulator building a space colony in an extremely unintended place - inside a huge meteorite. This means that problems with survival and all sorts of difficult trials are provided to us. The main problem is to establish the production of oxygen and energy, as well as its competent distribution throughout the territory of the colony. Further - it is necessary to correctly distribute all the colonists with living places in an extremely limited space. And these are just the most obvious and initial problems that the player will have to face during the construction of his space colony.

Among the features of Oxygen Not Included, it is worth mentioning the 2D projection and nice hand-drawn graphics, as well as the development of events in real time, the reception at a fairly high pace, which forces you to make important decisions on the go. Of the minuses - the lack of co-op, which would fit well into the gameplay and theme of Oxygen Not Included.

MarZ: Tactical Base Defense

City-building strategy and alien colony simulator that combines elements of tower defense and survival simulator in the gameplay. In terms of gameplay, and in terms of setting, MarZ: Tactical Base Defense is a sci-fi game in which the player needs to defend a base located on Mars from constant attacks or alien zombies. In general, everything is confusing (where did zombies come from on an alien planet?), Interesting and unusual.

There are a lot of options for all kinds of buildings and technologies in MarZ: Tactical Base Defense, there are few resources for their construction, so the player will have to think over every step and be flexible when choosing a strategy for confronting the Martian undead. Plus, the game itself is very beautiful and atmospheric, so we strongly recommend it to all fans of strategies and survival games.

Northgard

Strategy, city-building simulator and original survival game about the Vikings who decided to settle in new lands with a bunch of unknown dangers. Wild places, harsh winters, scarcity of supplies, attacks by wild animals and all sorts of mythical monsters - these are just a few of the difficulties that the player will have to deal with in Northgard.

Northgard features both a story mode and multiplayer, allowing the player to compete or cooperate to overcome adversity and lead their Viking clan to success and prosperity.


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