We have always valued a strong mind and heart. But is it more important to consider it now? Why mental and emotional resilience is more important than ever? Let’s find out.
The resilience of any kind is beneficial to us when handling some important issues. We try to enjoy the benefits of resilience with an open mind and heart. Besides, it is also more like armor, safeguarding our mental and emotional stability.
But in recent years, unpredictable events have not given us enough time to recover on our own. Now, it is just a matter of choice, whether we want to preserve our sanity or not.
For instance, the pandemic has already put us into a mental and emotional delusion about our vulnerabilities as human beings. Moreover, the growing concern around the world has affected us in many unimaginable ways.
But our concerns are not going to solve anything. That is what I realized when I was in a terrible state, as I heard about the casualties that were reported every day in my country.
A better and improved way to deal with such situations is mental and emotional resilience. Nothing is beyond the power of a stable mind and heart ready to face any circumstance.
However, it isn’t easy to develop a sound mind and heart. One needs to handle a lot of things that might not align with his worldview. We have to decrease the degree of neuroticism and emotional instability to deal with the circumstances.
But, “How can we acquire mental and emotional resilience?”
“Why mental and emotional resilience is more important than ever?”
Let’s find out.
Why is mental and emotional resilience more important than ever?
There are times when we have to utilize most of our natural defenses, no matter how small or insignificant they seem to us. To face the challenges of reality, these defensive stands are more important to make wise and sound decisions.
Now, things have changed a lot since the beginning of this year. For instance, my family was very much worried about our safety at the onset of the coronavirus, especially mine. It is not easy to face something we are not aware of. The contagious virus instilled fear in the hearts of many people.
That is why we need to be emotionally and mentally stable. All we have is our resilience towards the weaknesses we possess. Hence, we do not actually have a reason to put off or run away from situations without facing them head-on.
So, “Why is mental and emotional resilience necessary?”
Well, here are 3 strong and convincing reasons why it is important to acquire mental and emotional resilience.
1. A strong defensive mechanism to deal with our issues:
It is high time we had a defensive mechanism to deal with depression, sorrow, and anxiety. We cannot afford to lose more time wallowing about the uncertainty of life.
Anything that demotivates or instills fear in us helps us to be strong. The reason why people are suffering so much is that they lack the defensive mechanisms to prevent emotional and mental breakdown.
Hence, a good defensive mechanism concerning the mind and heart is important, which is mental and emotional resilience.
2. The growing concerns of the worsening state of humanity:
Let’s be honest.
We are not safe. We were never safe. The dream is over, and we have to face the reality as it is, which tells us the worsening conditions of humanity. Nothing is going the way it should.
The growing cases of violence, abuse, and emotional manipulation are responsible for adverse effects on our peace and stability. Even if we have laws and protocols against them, they never fail to terrify us about ignorance.
Hence, to deal with it we have to realize the significance of mental and emotional resilience.
3. Our helplessness in these tough times:
The pandemic has already caused much harm than good. Besides, the assumptions of many more upcoming viruses have made us quite handicapped and helpless in recent times.
Our helplessness has forced us to live with the virus with proper sanitization and cleanliness. We can curb the worst of chaos and crime, but tackling a pandemic effectively is not at all easy. It has almost been a year, and we are still lagging in producing a vaccine against it.
Therefore, we are helpless in these tough times, and we have to attain mental and emotional resilience.
Now, we have discussed the need for mental and emotional resilience.
But, “How do we develop it?”
“How can we acquire mental and emotional resilience?”
Let’s find out in the next section.
How can we acquire mental and emotional resilience?
We have discussed a lot about mental and emotional resilience. In the above sections, we have seen why developing mental and emotional stability is important.
But, this is where things can be complicated as it is not easy to balance your mind and heart to its highest limit possible. In other words, it takes a good amount of time to attain mental and emotional resilience, especially in the face of fear and danger.
So, “Is it possible to attain the mental and emotional wall?”
“How can we acquire mental and emotional resilience?”
So, here are 6 counterintuitive ways to build mental and emotional resilience:
1. Stop engaging in negative thoughts and feelings:
The first and foremost thing one should do is to organize his thoughts and feelings. After all, they are responsible for most of our fears and insecurities. Overthinking and over feeling are completely pointless if you want to develop a strong mental and emotional resilience.
Besides, they also lead to depression and anxiety that is harmful in the long run for both mind and heart. Instead, try to engage in positive thoughts and feelings about what you can learn from these circumstances and how they can positively influence your life.
Hence, we should stop engaging in negative thoughts and feelings.
2. Try to find out what troubles you the most:
One of the necessary steps to free yourself from mental and emotional stress is to find out what troubles you the most. It is a healthy way to get an idea about how things can overwhelm us and make us sad or unhappy.
We are so much concerned about many things in our lives that worrying about something else doesn’t help at all. Moreover, we also remain dissatisfied until we fix it. For instance, a busy woman might have many chores to do, and she may not get time to identify what is troubling her.
Hence, it is important to take some time out and identify what is troubling you the most so you can deal with it.
3. Spend time with experienced people:
To make yourself resilient enough to face any situation, you have to be very experienced and stable. The experience provides us with a lot of valuable lessons to learn. With stability, it becomes even easier to deal with it.
In fact, stability is a by-product of the experience. Therefore, it is important to gain experience from a valuable source. It can be a situation that has affected you the most or a person who can influence you the most.
Now, everyone doesn’t get to face situations to make them resilient. As a result, it is better to engage in an insightful interaction with experienced persons.
4. Put yourself in complex situations deliberately:
It is important to put yourself in situations that help you deal with stress and pressure. Having the ability to deal with stress helps you overcome many unfortunate circumstances that, otherwise, would have been difficult to deal with.
But, these situations do not come to you, rather you have to face them yourself. Now, I do not mean that you should invite trouble, but it is better to face them head-on than being so dismissive about them.
Hence, it is better to put yourself in complex situations deliberately.
5. Practice peace and calmness of mind and heart:
I know it sounds more like a technique to acquire mental resilience, but believe me, there is a thing called peace of heart. When a person becomes a victim of too much emotional turmoil, he loses peace of heart.
Besides, the emotions more often take the best of us. It is not at all easy to control the intense feelings of nervousness and fear. Sometimes it also makes us very neurotic and immature.
Therefore, we must practice the peace and calmness of mind and heart to acquire mental and emotional resilience.
6. Lastly, realize your true potential:
True potential?
“What does true potential have to do with this?”
Our potential is the determiner of who we are and what we can achieve. Now, this isn’t to say that we can only attain resilience with the realization of true potential. But, coming to terms with who you are, makes you mentally and emotionally resilient.
Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist and one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology, has explained in his hierarchy of needs about the final achievement of self-actualization.
He said that when a person achieves his true potential, he becomes self-aware with good mental and emotional resilience and is not affected by anything that challenges him.
Hence, we must realize our true potential to manage emotional and mental resilience.
Final Words:
To sum up, it is important to acquire mental and emotional resilience as much as possible to tackle many inevitable circumstances.
Developing resilience is more important than ever, and we now know how to acquire it with wisdom and maturity. The above counterintuitive ways also help us in balancing our lives for good.
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