These 7 Key
Principles Will Make You Mentally Resilient To Adversity
“Success is walking from
failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”-Winston Churchill
Pain,
suffering, failure, obstacles, adversity, and struggle are all apart of the
human experience.
It’s
through these experiences that we become adaptable to future challenges and how
we build a mental resiliency towards the tougher parts of life.
My mom
died about five years ago shortly after I graduated high school to the battle
of cancer. This event completely changed the way I looked at the world and
myself. At that moment I realized that deathis a very real thing.
For
about a year after she passed away I was in a dark place mentally and
spiritually because I felt lost, confused, uncertain, and scared about my
future. I didn’t know how I could handle more of my loved ones passing on or
people I cared about.
By
dedicating most of my time to personal development and self improvement, I have
been able rebuild myself. Every day will be a battle between positive and
negative beliefs but the more you interfere with the negative patterns the
easier they become to change.
These 7 key pillars will help you develop a warrior
mentality:
Stay Self Aware
The
key to becoming a mental warrior is by developing and strengthening your self
awareness muscle. Self awareness is the ability to understand your thoughts,
emotions, beliefs, and behaviors. Why is that important?
By
improving this trait, you’ll be able to:
·
Identify why you’re feeling a certain emotion
at any given moment
·
How to change your thoughts immediately
·
Identify negative habits, beliefs and
behaviors
How
can you improve this skill?
This
skill can be developed by asking yourself better questions, journaling,
meditation, massage, exercise and anything that forces you to focus on your
inner thoughts and how you’re feeling overall.
You
become the master of yourself by developing self awareness and developing a
deeper understanding of your inner world. You spend the most time with yourself
and it’s important to make your inner dialogue positive and encouraging.
Keep A Positive Attitude
“You cannot stop the
waves, but you can learn to surf.”
I know
many people bash on positive thinking and on keeping a positive attitude but
when you face a real tragedy, it’s what keeps your head above water.
My
mindset and belief about life after my mom passed away was very pessimistic and
negative. I’ve learned from other great individuals who have faced hardships
who say if you continue to focus on the event then you can live there forever
mentally and physically if you don’t move forward.
As a
massage therapist I can assure you that the human body definitely carries past
stress, trauma and pain. People carry stress in different areas of the body and
some of these areas trigger emotional releases if its from old trauma or
injuries. Massages help you become very aware of your body and how it feels.
The
reason I’m writing this article today is because I’ve been able to maintain a
positive attitude in mostly every situation in my life after my moms death. I
definitely have my moments of anger, frustration, sadness, and irritation but I
know I’m becoming highly aware at noticing these toxic emotions or thoughts.
The
more aware you are of toxic thoughts and emotions, the easier it becomes to
change them in the moment. The key is not allowing negative emotions or
feelings to be your main focus of thought. This will make you bitter or
frustrated for the rest of the day or week if you don’t change your thought
patterns.
Keeping
a positive attitude makes you feel much happier about life and more people want
to be around you. If you go through life constantly thinking about the bad
outcomes and focusing on everything that’s not going good then that’s all
you’ll experience.
Focus
on the good and the good gets better.
Move Your Body
A very
practical way to overcome the bad times of life is by doing some kind of
physical activity. This can be done by walking, hiking, yoga, biking, lifting
weights, squats, running etc. It’s all considered a type of exercise and these
activities will get you out of your head and make you feel better.
The
goal for these activities is to take you out of your head and to focus that
energy somewhere else. Research shows that spending ten to fifteen minutes
walking outside can increase your mood and greatly reduce stress. One point for
nature.
When
the negative emotions or feelings start to arise, that’s a sign for you to
start moving your body. Immediately go for a quick walk, do some jumping jacks,
pushups, or begin stretching. Go the bathroom and splash cold water on your
face. It’s always refreshing and feels like your doing a mental cleanse.
The
mind body connection is a very real concept and if you can discipline the body
you can discipline the mind.
Discipline
the mind, discipline the body.
Listen to inspiring content
Can I just say…game changer.
One of
the biggest contributors to my overall happiness and success is listening,
learning, and absorbing hundreds of hours of inspirational content. They are
compilations of inspiring speeches, audiobooks, keynotes, and conversations of
the most successful and influential people in the world.
Some
of the most inspiring people I’ve come across are:
Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Brendon Bouchard, Gary
Vaynerchuck, Tim Ferriss, Eric Thomas, Les Brown, Zig Ziglar, and Jack Canfield
just to name a few. Please go study and research these remarkable human beings.
All I
can say is thank you Youtube and thank you to all the powerful pages that have
reprogrammed my mindset for success, happiness, and prosperity in every area of
my life. When you start having bad thoughts and feelings check out these pages:
You
become the conversations you have, the books you read, the music you listen to,
the television you watch, the shows you watch, the pages you follow on social
media, the comments you read on facebook, and everything you pay attention to
and spend your time on.
Surround
yourself with motivational, positive, inspiring, influential, and encouraging
books, articles, people, music, quotes, videos, podcasts, and audiobooks.
Everything around you should inspire you to grow and improve.
Express gratitude
There
is certainly a power in showing or expressing appreciation for things, people,
experiences, and memories that you already have. You can’t be grateful and
angry at the same time. This is why gratitude is your power and your anchor
when you feel upset or frustrated.
One of
the key habits of highly successful and positive individuals is their
relationship with gratitude. If you can get into a state of gratitude firstthing
in the morning, you will ownthe entire day. Feeling grateful puts
into perspective how blessed you alreadyare which makes you feel
confident.
Success
is not a destination it’s a journey. This means you become
successful through continuously overcoming challenges everyday and
building resiliencyto the adversity of life.
Be
grateful for the hardships of life because it allows us to be thankful for all
the good we do have. Tell yourself “I am thankful for the strength and courage
to overcome my biggest life obstacles”. This trains your brain to start looking
for better solutions to your problem.
Journal
The
habit of journaling has truly been a secret power for me and it helps me
organize my thoughts and emotions in just a few sentences. I use it first thing
in the morning to write three gratitude statements before I jump into the day.
If you
don’t have a journal I recommend getting one. Some of the greatest minds in
history journaled everyday including Marcus Aurelius and Benjamin Franklin.
When
you’re facing a difficult situation or you’re having a hard time trying to
understand your emotions, write down whatever is on your mind on paper. Don’t
think about it, just write your thoughts onto paper.
This
will help you gain some clarity on how you’re feeling and immediately takes you
out of your head. The secret sauce to overcoming negative circumstances and
situations is by trying to understand what you can learn from it and if there’s
a way you can immediately start moving forward.
The
exercise described above is called mind dumpingand it’s super
helpful when you’re feeling uncertain about something or just need to get out
of your head. Personally, I stay in my head sometimes by staying too
concentrated on negative situations which puts me in a bad mood.
The
key to moving the needle forward is by changing your focus and transferring
that energy into something else. You will remarkably increase your
self-awareness through journaling and you will gain a deeper understanding of
who you are.
Life is short
The
main thing that my moms death taught me is that life is short and everyone is
on the life clock. My perspective about life has changed forever. I don’t want
to leave this world without leaving an impact because I feel that is my
mission.
We
should all work towards inspiring others to take action on their dreams and
never give up, no matter the adversity. You don’t want to be eighty years old
regretting your life because you didn’t take action on your dreams.
I’ve
been able to turn my adversity into my motivation to take urgency on my goals
and relentlessly work towards them each day. I use that experience to remind me
that my time is very valuable and time spent on negativity is truly time
wasted.
Throughout
the day I’m constantly reminding myself that if today was my last day to live,
how would I act, think, and behave? Who would I talk to? Tomorrow isn’t
promised and you should be trying to become better every single day knowing
that.
The
people that you love and care about are not going to be here forever. Who could
you spend more time with? Who needs to know you appreciate them? I know there
are some things I wish I could of said to my mom but I don’t dwell on it. Tell
people you know you appreciate them and care about them.
Stop
going through the motions of life and take charge of it by spending your
valuable time doing the things you love and enjoy. Take responsibility for your
life because you’ve been given the gift of choice. You can choose your
thoughts, emotions, beliefs and habits. Choose wisely.
Raul
Ballesteros
https://www.fastcompany.com/90264257/3-smart-ways-to-stop-email-from-taking-over-your-life
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