My husband has just been let go from his fourth job in five years. The first time it happened was during Covid when he was laid off, but it seemed to start a pattern.
We tend to think of the five-day workweek as a law of nature, as certain as the rising of the sun. But it's nothing of the sort. The five-day workweek is a human invention that was introduced just over a century ago to solve the specific problems of the industrial age. By now it's so ingrained in our lives that we've forgotten we created it in the first place-but we did create it and we can also un-create it.
Distress tolerance is the perception and ability to tolerate emotional discomfort without allowing it to derail your actions (or your relationships). When we believe we can make space for challenging emotions, our behavior isn't focused on getting rid of them. This then opens us up to responding in ways that align with our values.
When we think about getting help for our mental health, therapy is often the first-and sometimes only-option that comes to mind. Therapy works, and for many people it is essential. But it is not the only effective path. Emerging evidence suggests that well‑designed coaching -especially when delivered inside an adaptive, stepped‑care model-can help people feel better faster, build emotional skills, and relieve pressure on an overburdened clinical system (Sagui Henson et al.).