Building Mental Strength

July 6th 2016

 

Here are 15 practices that can help you build mental strength and resilience. You can teach yourself to do each one with a bit of effort.

 

1/ Be grateful.

 

Being thankful for what you have in your life will help you keep perspective and elevate your mood. A good practice to get into is to write down daily what you are grateful for. This will help cement it in your mind.

 

2/ Take responsibility for your life.

 

That means both your good and bad decisions and actions. It makes you feel much more in control and powerful if you look at yourself and how you are impacting situations rather than external factors and other people. Own it! It feels really good.

 

3/ Say yes to challenges.

 

We grow in confidence and self-belief when we face and tackle adversity. It is proof of your strength.

 

4/ Don't let the negativity of other people drag you down or hold you back.

 

5/ Focus on what you can control not what you can't.

 

It is a waste of time and energy worrying over things we cannot change. Put effort into what you can actually do even if its simply managing your reactions to a situation.

 

6/ Say no if you want to. Never be afraid to do so.

 

7/ Acknowledge you will need to step outside your comfort zone and take risks sometimes if you want to achieve your goals.

 

8/ Let go of the past.

 

Reflect on it, forgive and move on. If you dwell on the past it will affect your future.

 

9/ Learn from your mistakes and view them as a learning experience not a failure.

 

10/ Persevere

 

But also be prepared to acknowledge when something isn't working and be proud of giving it your best shot.

 

11/ Don't compare your success to other people's.

 

Recognise it's a personal journey and define it in your own terms. Be happy with other people's success and encourage them. Don't see it as somehow diminishing yours.

 

12/ Be comfortable with being alone.

 

13/ Challenge your limiting beliefs and change them. Question why you are holding yourself back. Is it really that you cannot do something or is it merely a belief?

 

14/ Tolerate feeling uncomfortable or uncertain. We don't have all the answers and cannot control everything and the more you can learn to be ok with that the stronger you will feel.

 

15/ Always keep perspective over your problems. Is it really that awful? Is this the worst thing ever? Can you really not deal with it? The more you can step back and look at a situation the more powerful you will feel in the face of it.