blog-special

Strategies to cope with stress

by Jay Stone

Posted on March 9, 2025 7:46 AM

How to cope with stress? For one thing, stay grounded.

There are several terms for it – earthing, touching dirt, touching grass – but the idea is to put your bare feet on the ground, and in doing so, give your brain a brief pause from stress.

Grounding is one of several tactics noted during a breakout session titled “Cultivating Resilience: Empowering Leadership in Farm Family Mental Health” at the 2024 GFB Convention.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jennifer Dunn of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) discussed ways to cope with stress.

Dunn travels around the state promoting DBHDD services and coaching groups in the basics of dealing with crises, whether they’re money-related, people-related, weather-related or something else.

The coping strategies often involve communicating. 

“My message, if you don't hear anything else we say, is that connectivity is the key,” Dunn said. “So long as you're connecting with people, that is the key to me. Isolation is what kills us.”

Dunn mentioned several other tactics:

• Distraction. Dunn said this may include entertainment or hobbies.

• Exercise. It’s well-known that regular exercise is a major tool in managing stress. “It’s the most helpful, but the least-used,” Dunn said.

• Maintain healthy sleep habits. 

• Hunt/fish. Rural Georgians enjoy their outdoor activities. Hunting and fishing are two major ones. Dunn noted that both are good for meditation and reflection.

• Acts of service. One attendee noted his experience stepping away from his job duties following Hurricane Helene. He went out to help people face-to-face, delivering meals or helping with recovery efforts. 

“That helped me a lot because I was stressed out because I couldn't figure out how I was going to get everything done that we needed to get done on the farm,” he said. “You get out and see kids that their trailer, their whole house is gone. You realize that, and it puts things in perspective.”

• Meditation. Dunn has started working meditations into her work with groups. 

“I had 60 or so school nutrition workers in one of them and some fell asleep,” she said. “They enjoyed it so much. Sometimes just shutting your brain off for a minute can be so helpful,” Dunn said. Obviously, do not do this while driving or operating heavy machinery.