359 – Coping Mechanisms: What they are, why you do them, and how to stop judging yourself for them

It’s been a week.

In this episode, my husband Rabbi Yonasan Reiser and I sit down to talk about something that’s been very alive right now: coping mechanisms in a real, honest, this-is-what-our-nervous-systems-actually-do way.

We talk about what coping mechanisms actually are, why we can’t just decide to stop doing them, and why the self-deprecation that comes after — the memes, the jokes, the haha-I-ate-everything — is actually just another coping mechanism sitting on top of the first one.

I share what my own coping has looked like during this war. My husband shares his. We get into soldiers and dissociation and bitachon.

And we close with the idea that during times of intense pressure, the small steps we manage to take — the tiny bits of awareness, the moments of trying — carry exponential weight.

Neurologically and spiritually.
The olive doesn’t reveal its light until it’s pressed.
This one’s for anyone who’s been a little hard on themselves lately for how they’re coping. Which is probably most of us.