b'DAYTODAYAVOIDING AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR Avoidance is a coping mechanism. Our nervous system gives us powerful signals to avoid danger to increase our chances of survival. But coping mechanisms can be overused and become maladaptive. Cognitive avoidance happens when we divert our thoughts away from something (also known as denial). Behavioral avoidance happens when we move to keep away from something or avoid action. We tend to avoid uncomfortable thoughts/feelings, pain, discomfort, conflict, uncertainty, difficult people, hard realities, challenging tasks, and difficult conversations. Avoidance may make things easier now, but over time things can fester, and get much worse. Writer and facilitator Greg Vanourek offers a few strategies to reduce or stop avoidance:Recognize your avoidance behaviors.Seek the root causes (ask why until theres no deeper why).Engage in selfcare activities.Get support from a friend, mentor, therapist.Process through emotions by talking or journaling.Divide tasks into more manageable chunks.Start with something easy to generate momentum. Reward your accomplishments.Reframe a situation to highlight the positives.Quiet your negative selftalk.Practice assertive selfadvocacy.Set deadlines and goals. Since avoidance can lead to frustration, anxiety, conflict, bad habits, numbing behaviors, and a loss of confidence, work at recognizing your avoidance tendencies and systematically eliminate them.WHAT MAKES A GREAT PRESS RELEASE?Seventy percent of journalists spend less than a minute reading a press release. These tips from the All Business website help you to make an impression quickly and get that coveted press coverage: Newsworthy contentSeveral factors can influence whether a press release is truly newsworthy, including timeliness, the organization or company size, and the impact the event will have on the community as a whole.Strong headlines Relevant adjectives and succinct details that offer some insight into why your story matters will grab a journalists interest more than a dry, formal headline. Journalists will make quick judgments about whether your content merits their time. Cover the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, and why + how) Follow the inverted pyramid style of newswriting, providing the information in a four or fiveparagraph press release, with the most important information at the beginning so readers scanning copy quickly will get what they need right away. Relevant to the target audience Determining your target audience in advance can also help you hone in on which details to focus on in the press release. Adjust your language based on your audience to increase your relevance. 50 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022'