The Fundamentals of Living Your Best Life After Adversity
Lately, it seems like the world is enduring one crisis to another. This pandemic has resulted in dramatic changes in our everyday lives, as well as economic instability and political and social unrest, leaving our minds dazed and our hearts unrest.
As we get older, the word resilience can become more meaningful than ever. Why? Because as we gradually grow older, we also open our minds to reality. This means that everything happening in our lives can get to us deeply, affecting us emotionally and mentally. Building resilience may help you manage tension, overcome adversity, and appreciate the better days ahead, whether you’re battling a global or personal crisis—or a combination of the two.
Living through trying times may have a negative impact on your emotions, health, and perspective. Stress and worry may leave you feeling helpless and overwhelmed. You may be in agony over what you’ve lost, overwhelmed by a torrent of unpleasant, conflicting feelings, or unsure of how to go with your life. While there is no way to prevent sadness, misfortune, or pain in life, there are methods for smoothing the turbulent waves and regaining control. Here are some ways on how you can do it:
Make Some Significant Changes
Strive to be more direct and forceful with others. If you believe others are placing unfair demands on you, be willing to tell them how you feel and say no. Employ relaxation techniques and make time to do activities that soothe you, such as taking a bath, going for a walk, or listening to music. In other words, you need to develop interests and hobbies that make you feel like yourself. It can also benefit you if you spend time with family and friends and tap into your support network. Check on your sense of balance in your life. If one area is eating up all of your time, create some room for other things.
This can also include making healthy changes in your physical health. Small changes at a time will work best, like getting a good night’s sleep and working on developing improved sleeping habits. Try to be more physically active and exercise regularly.
Reward Yourself for Progress
Progress is progress. No matter how small, find time to applaud and thank yourself for your accomplishments. You can always begin by addressing previous or ongoing issues—this can be challenging, but settling fights or finding a new path ahead with a friend or loved one will help you achieve peace. Forgive yourself if you did not reach your goals or believe you made a mistake. Try not to punish yourself too harshly and realize that no one is perfect.
Get yourself a glass of wine, or you can buy a nice meal for yourself. You can also get an excellent book to accompany you with your healing journey. James Forker’s book, The End of The Rainbow, is perfect. It details a family’s journey through leukemia, proving that love is unconditional.
Don’t Try to Hide Your Emotions
Emotion may put you in a vulnerable position, and it’s natural to want to avoid revealing your weaknesses to others. Sometimes, emotional repression can’t become an issue as long as you work through it in a healthy, constructive way. However, it may become an issue if it becomes a routine and impairs your capacity to speak truthfully. Emotional awareness is recognizing and embracing feelings as they arise, even if you choose not to express them right away. Thus, it would help if you practiced mindfulness.
Have the Will to Become Better
If you are willing to become better, you can surely do everything right. Take the time to discover your willingness and ponder what motivates you in life. Resilience is adapted most of the time. It happens at different points in our lives, and usually, it is brought about difficult times. That is why you need to find some inspiration to keep doing things to make you feel better, like looking at people who have survived difficult times. From there on, you will want to have the same redemption as them.
You will face really difficult moments from time to time. It happens to everybody. So keep in mind that whatever occurs to you, in the same or a similar form, happens to practically everyone.