Rise in Resilience

How many times have you felt like life or business was hard and you wanted to give up! You feel you’ve poured your heart and soul into something, only to feel drained and depleted.

It is in the hard times that you build resilience which makes it easier to navigate life’s ups and downs. In the unpredictable rollercoaster of life, resilience is the ability to adapt, recover, and thrive in the face of adversity. Resilience is all about being able to bounce back from setbacks and adapt to the ebbs and flows of life while growing personally and emotionally during the process.

The great news is… life is everchanging and the hard times won’t last forever and resilience is a buildable skill. This means that you can increase your resilience muscle, strengthen your inner determination and decrease the reset time needed between challenges and success.

If you are currently feeling stuck in a rut or struggling with the demands of life, here are some strategies to help you shake it off and rise in resilience.

Stop the overwhelm! Take some time out of your day, for you. Turn off the phone and TV and tune into you on a deeper level. Often, when we are deep in high stress mode it can be easy to default to analysis paralysis and numbing out tendencies. All this does is delay the problem. I believe that what you can’t feel, you can’t heal. There is real reclamation of inner power by being able to face whatever you have been avoiding. If you stick your head in the sand like an ostrich, when you come out of this hole, you will feel like everything is so much worse and even harder to deal with. By facing the situation head on, you are taking control over the situation and being proactive as opposed to reactive.

Breathe – Breathe – Breathe! Your breath has the power to alter how you feel and deep, long, slow breathing can move you out of the shallow anxiety feeling into a state of calm. Your nervous system will reset and from this place of calm, it will be easier to regain mental clarity. The best part is… your breath is free and you can access this at any time!

Identify your triggers and stressors. When you know what situations, people or environments accelerate your stress levels, you can either avoid these or learn coping skills to be able to navigate this.

Flip the script! Reframe the negative looping spiral thoughts to positive ones. Your mind doesn’t know the difference between negative or positive words or commands, it will simply act on your words regardless. Your inner world; your thoughts and mindset, creates your outer world; your experiences and daily life and what you perceive, you receive. If you are not in harmony and equilibrium in your inner world, what you are experiencing in your outer world will reflect this.

Think of it like this… have you ever noticed that when you decide to buy a new car, you see that exact same model everywhere! It feels like all of a sudden everyone is driving your new car! This is your Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is like a control centre for your body and filters what information is important, needs attention or can be ignored. If you think about a certain thing, it draws your attention to this as your brain will deem this as important.

Building resilience is an ongoing process and the more you strengthen your emotional skills and regulation, the easier it is to recalibrate and reset during the challenging times.

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of CHOICES Magazine