Day 13: Your Coping Mechanisms Are Keeping You Stuck
September Rentrée Series
🍂 Welcome to the September Rentrée! Every weekday this month, you'll get one bold, bite-sized piece to spark reflection, shift your habits, and help you design a life that feels good in real life. 1 month. 20 bold truths. A life-changing September. In France, la rentrée (the return) is a national event. It's about fresh routines, new ideas, and intentional renewal. And that's exactly the energy we're bringing here!
We all have coping mechanisms.
The glass of wine after a brutal day.
The mindless scrolling until midnight.
The "I'll just push through" mantra that leaves your body buzzing.
They work…in the short term.
They soothe. They distract. They numb.
But here's the catch: They don't solve the stress. They just hit pause.
And when the stress is still sitting there, your nervous system stays in overdrive.
You're never actually completing the stress cycle. You're just shelving it for later.
Stress builds up like pressure.
If you don't release it through movement, breath, connection, or rest, it leaks out in other ways: fatigue, irritability, anxiety, burnout.
Numbing isn't relief. It's a holding pattern that keeps you trapped in the same loops, recycling the same stress, never really resetting.
The real question is: Is this coping strategy giving me actual recovery? Or am I just hitting snooze on a problem that will wake me up again tomorrow?
Your next move isn't to judge yourself.
It's to experiment with healthier exits from the stress cycle.
Ones that actually move your body and brain back to safety.
A walk. A laugh. A hug. A breath.
Because coping should set you free, not keep you stuck.
With love,
Noemie
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