When problems reproduce faster than we can solve them, it is convenient to put our crisis plan into practice. Now, what is it?
How many times have you said to yourself: if I had foreseen it, would I have dealt with it better? Probably many. Perhaps every time an unforeseen event has arisen. However, it is not possible to have a plan prepared for each of the drifts that reality can take. Pretending to have a plan for each situation, of all the possible ones, is far from being profitable in psychological terms. Now, then, what is a crisis plan?
Crisis plans are the actions, generic or specific, that we carry out when we feel overwhelmed. They allow us to charge ourselves with energy to walk once more, they are the engines that guide people to continue moving forward in the middle of the storm.
The importance of having a crisis plan
How to develop a crisis plan? Can it be trained? Let’s explain it with a metaphor.
Imagine a water dam (your mind). When the weather is favorable and the rains are normal (the problems), the dam is maintained at adequate levels of water that are far from dangerous. Everything is going well or, at least, it is within the usual parameters.
However, the weather begins to be unfavorable and it rains a lot. So much so that the dam begins to fill up dangerously (we feel overwhelmed by problems). Now we can imagine two possible scenarios:
Without a crisis plan
The structure of the dam barely holds up, as cracks begin to form, revealing excess weight and pressure. On the first occasion, the dam holds the water. Nothing bad happens. That is, sometimes we are able to successfully face very stressful events “by force”. Without really knowing how to handle them, we handle them.
The problem ends and we, without really knowing why, have emerged victorious but exhausted. Exhaustion is an alarm signal indicating burnout.
Repeated wear and tear over time can reduce our coping ability and lead to problems related to a multitude of clinical entities such as anxiety, depression or addictions.
Imagine that the dam we are talking regarding has suffered a multitude of overflows and, consequently, has a multitude of cracks. In this sense, another day it rains abundantly once more, the dam is unable to continue maintaining neither the weight nor the pressure that the water exerts on it and it breaks. It explodes. It sinks. Consequently, it floods everything in its path generating great destruction. At this point of the metaphor we would like to ask some questions to reflect on:
Is it necessary to be under so much pressure without being able to give it a safe escape route?
Do we have to wait until it breaks to find solutions?
Can we do anything to prevent this from happening?
Sometimes it is inevitable that the dam breaks, but we can contribute to its stability and integrity with acts of self-care.
With a crisis plan
It rains once more, and the dam is dangerously full once more. However, the engineers who built it devised a security mechanism. When the dam is filled to a certain level (for example, 90 percent of its capacity), mechanisms are activated that empty it safely, allowing the water to escape gradually until it reaches a safe level. In this regard:
What mechanisms are yours?
What are the valves in your mind that allow you to release tension?
Do they release her on time?
In short, what is your crisis plan? Crisis plans can be as diverse as there are people, because they are ways of acting that adapt to each person.
If we transfer the metaphor that we have raised to the field of mental health, there are many gears that can compose our plan. Said crisis plan may include aspects such as:
Stop to disconnect. Sometimes the mere fact of stopping helps us to gain perspective. Taking perspective of the problems that happen to us implies temporarily distancing ourselves from them, like when we look at the outside of a house through a window. Mindfulness is a good tool for this.
Communicate. Talking regarding our problems with people who are significant to one is an act of self-care. It can help us find ways to focus on a fact that we had previously ignored. Two brains think more (or better) than one.
Split. Julius Caesar and Napoleon already said it. Breaking a problem down into smaller problems is the first step in solving it. In this sense, setting checkpoints in an ambitious goal will not only help us achieve it, but will also help us enjoy it more with those small reinforcers that we will obtain along the way.
Find your vanishing points. If reading, playing sports, or just throwing yourself on the couch to watch Netflix are valves that release your pressure, focus on them until the pressure drops enough to be able to face the problem once more. Ideally, a vanishing point involves an activity that is easily achievable, involves movement, and is rewarding.
These are just some of the elements that a crisis plan may have. You can add as many to them as you need. It is convenient to remember that a crisis plan is the succession of actions that will allow us to reduce the force and pressure with which stressful and problematic events burst into our lives.
Staying inactive implies cracking our mental dams. And in your crisis plan, what elements do you include?
The Mind is Wonderful.-
