Coping in Good Times and Bad

No one thinks about how well they are coping with life’s daily stresses until they are not. Coping in Good Times and Bad brings together what we know about coping so we can create a life of health, joy, satisfaction, resilience and wellbeing, with an update on how to deal with the newer pressures of cost of living. ‘Coping’ and ‘resilience’ have become very commonly used words, especially in our world full of stresses, both big and small, along with the challenges that confront us, so what we need is a template for a good life. Decades of research, teaching and professional practice have provided psychologist Erica Frydenberg with intimate insight into how and why we cope well and not so well, and practical ways of developing and refining our coping strategies. Integrating coping with key proven ideas in contemporary psychology such as emotional intelligence, mindset, mindfulness and grit, she goes beyond focusing on particular kinds of crises—trauma, relationship breakdown, anxiety—to addressing the need for a framework that strengthens us through life, in good times and bad. ‘I’m impressed by the breadth of its scope and by the constant references back to the research that underpins it … I’m not sure if “masterpiece” has become an unacceptable term these days … I hope not, because that’s what [this book] is.’ Hugh Mackay