You are going to face tests and challenges throughout your life. Building up your resilience is best done when life is relatively stable so it becomes a way of life and you are equipped if difficulties do come. Here are some, thoughts, behaviours and attitudes to start working on now:
- 1 Change is an essential part of living so you need to embrace it and find effective ways of coping rather than trying to keep everything the same.
- 2 Realise that most crises are not insoluble problems even if they feel insurmountable at the time. Your thinking styles may also be making things worse.
- 3 Build caring, supportive relationships inside and outside the family. You won’t always be able to go it alone. You need to engage with people now in order to have access to help, support and good listeners when you are faced with life’s challenges. You of course will be giving these in return, too, cementing relationships.
- 4 Practise hope. Develop an optimistic outlook. Believe in a better future and then work like fury to make it happen.
- 5 Use any challenge as an opportunity for self-development and growth. Work out what your strengths are and how you have coped in the past as this will build your confidence to face challenges.
- 6 Take decisive action as soon as you can. Don’t just pretend it isn’t happening.
- 7 Make sure that your plans are realistic and map out all the steps you will need to take.
- 8 Look after yourself. Recognise your own needs – body, mind, heart and soul and make sure you nurture yourself with good food, rest, relaxation, emotional outlets. Women are prone to thinking of their own needs only after everyone else’s have been taken care of. Remember -put your own oxygen mask on first!
- 9 Learn from the past. Do the One door closes and another door opens exercise – think about past experiences, how you overcame them, how hard they felt at the time and how quickly you actually got over them.
- 10. Take the long view. Imagine how all this will look in 5 or 10 years time. Determine how great the significance will be in the overall scheme.
