Some people are naturally strong and can harness inner strength repeatedly in bleak situations. On the other hand there are a few for whom enduring hardship is not a God-given-gift but through their determination and commitment, they manage to develop these qualities from within. Challenges and setbacks can be of multiple types.
You can lose a job, face a life-threatening disease or lose a very dear person. But if you are living it means you need to make the most of the time you have in hand and instead of dwelling on lost things, you need to move ahead and take up what is being offered with positive mindset. People who do not have strong resilience keep thinking about the problems from their past constantly and feel victimized. This makes them incapable of handling the situation and some even turn to unhealthy mechanisms for coping problems such as drug abuse and alcoholism. In some, it can even lead to mental problems.
Why should you increase resilience?
Just because a person is strong emotionally does not mean that he doesn’t face any problems in life or his problems simply goes away. He has the same problems like everyone else, but his positive attitude helps him see things with a different perspective so that he can find a solution to the problem much earlier than expected, and ensure that such stressing moments do not make him vulnerable to lose the enjoyment in his life. If you are not a resilient person, instead of trying to find a solution you will keep thinking only about the problem and that will greatly affect the way you live life.
Understanding what is resilience.
The ability to adapt to adversity, stress, tragedy and trauma skilfully is resilience. This means that even in dire situation, you remain stable and are capable of taking good decisions. This also means that even if you are facing chaos or disruption your physical and psychological functioning remains unaffected. With good resilience ability, you can lose sleep for some nights if the situation is grave, but even then you keep on doing your daily tasks and optimistically try to find ways to overcome the situation. With this temperament, you do manage to bounce back and get the situation under control.
Many people confuse resilience to coldness and unfeeling, rather, resilience makes a person very sensitive to other people’s problems. People who have strong resilience reach out to others in distress and never hesitate to ask for support. They keep on communicating with their near ones and believe them to be their greatest support system.
Tips to improve resilience.
- Increase contacts
Having a strong and positive relationship with friends and family members helps you gain a strong support system in times of need. Being an active member of civic groups, forums and faith groups or a volunteer of NGO organizations gives you the benefit of knowing more people who can be of great help to you during crisis. Fulfilling relationships always keep you on the right track even during serious crisis. - Humour is the best medicine.
Be positive and try to cultivate a liking for humour and satire. Finding humour in different activities of daily life, keeps you happy all through the day even if a big problem is looming in front of you. - Be ready for change.
Things keep on changing in life and hence if you have lost a particular job, take it up as a new change in life and start searching for another one without dwelling too much, upon what you have lost. - Understand your feelings.
As you grow, your requirements, liking and feelings undergo lot of change. Hence from time-to-time find out what you want from life and whether you are doing what you have always wanted from life. Connecting to self is the best way to gain inner strength.
