Badly Torn During Struggle For Some Time: Strengthening Your Resilience in the Face of Difficult Times Building resilience may help you manage stress, overcome hardship, and look forward to brighter days ahead, regardless of whether you’re dealing with a global or personal Crisis. The tension and anxiety it causes can leave you feeling powerless.
Experimenting under adversity and hardship: The globe seems to be going through a series of crises at the moment. There has been a global epidemic, drastic changes in daily life, economic uncertainty, and political and social unrest, along with a wide range of natural disasters. In addition, people are dealing with their own traumas, such as the death of a loved one, a deteriorating health condition, a divorce, or a violent crime. We are living in a tumultuous moment for many of us. Living through difficult times can have a significant impact on your emotions, health, and outlook, regardless of the source of the disruption.
It’s possible that you’ve lost everything, that you’re swamped with mixed feelings, or that you don’t know how to proceed with your life. You may even believe that you have no control over the course of your life and are helpless to stop whatever is about to happen. Despite the fact that we cannot avoid suffering, we may calm the rough seas and recover a sense of control over our lives. It’s the ability to deal with life’s unavoidable changes and losses, such as death, divorce, and illness, that makes a person resilient. A strong sense of self-confidence and the ability to bounce back from adversity might help you adapt better to life’s ups and downs.
Acquainting yourself dubious losses
Pauline Boss, Ph.D., a family therapist and professor emeritus of social sciences at the University of Minnesota who specializes in “ambiguous loss,” notes that as a lifelong overachiever, I’ve felt particularly dejected and adrift as the months have dragged on. High achievers, she argues, have a tougher time of it. If you are used to solving problems, getting things done, and following a routine, it will be more difficult because none of it is possible right now. When you feel hopeless and helpless, that’s a bad thing.
An unforeseen catastrophe: Since March, the phrase “adapt to the new normal” has been repeated endlessly. To what extent can you adapt to a constantly shifting environment, when the “new normal” has no known end in sight? According to Masten, this is an unparalleled calamity for the vast majority of us that has a tremendous effect on our everyday routines. However, it differs from a hurricane or tornado in that you can see the damage from the outside. For the most part, the destruction is imperceptible to the average person. Because so many systems aren’t functioning regularly right now, most of us are facing drastic changes in our daily routines at work, school, and home. There is a new level of uncertainty for everyone right now, including those who have experience in disaster recovery or the military.
What Makes You Feel So Bad Is That Your “Surge Capacity” Is Running Low: I was fine even though it was the end of the world as we knew it. When I saw my psychiatrist on March 16, just a few days after our children’s school district extended spring break due to the coronavirus, I told him exactly what I had just said. At my April 27 appointment, several weeks after our state’s stay-at-home order, I expressed the same sentiment. Even though I had a kindergartener and a fourth grader doing impromptu distance learning, I was barely keeping up with my work, and it was exhausting.
And being cooped up at home all day, rushing to place supermarket delivery orders before they filled up, and hunting for toilet paper was exhausting. Because of this, I was able to perform well in high-stress emergency circumstances. It’s an exhilarating experience for my ADHD brain. During the 8.0-magnitude Peruvian earthquake that killed hundreds, my husband and I helped those in need while searching for water and food with a first aid bag we carried about. Then, armed with my camera, I set out to photograph the wreckage and interview survivors for my hometown newspaper in broken Spanish.
Keep your spirits up
The development of virtues such as perseverance and endurance is a vital component of dealing with adversity and making it through difficult times. Even if hard circumstances don’t persist forever, they rarely pass fast. You need to discover strategies to stay motivated and endure as you construct a path through the night.
One step at a time, take care of your issues. In order to cope with a situation that is too large at once, try breaking it down into manageable chunks. Even if it appears that there is no way to resolve your issue, you may still take action by making a list, doing further research, or asking a trusted friend or loved one for guidance. Celebrate even the smallest victories. Keep your spirits up in the face of adversity by taking time to appreciate your tiny victories. There is no substitute for securing a position at a company, but receiving an interview is an encouraging step in the right direction. You can take a breather from all the tension and negativity you’re experiencing by noticing these minor victories.
During difficult times, it is possible to find joy in the midst of adversity: Maintain a positive frame of mind. Even while it’s difficult to have a good outlook in the midst of a crisis, many of us prefer to exaggerate the severity of our problems in our minds. Try looking at your circumstance from a different perspective. You’re looking for beams of optimism, aren’t you? Think about what you’d like to happen instead of focusing on what you don’t want to happen.
Lookout for new and old activities that continue to bring you joy
The pandemic’s irony is that so many of our “self-care” activities have been taken away: pedicures, massages, coffee with friends, a trip to the amusement park, a kickboxing class, swimming at the local pool—these activities remain unsafe across much of the country. This is a frustrating irony. As a result, when we have the least desire to take care of ourselves, we must find innovative ways to do it.
“When we’re forced to reassess our alternatives and extend out what we think of as self-care, sometimes that constraint unlocks new ways of living and thinking,” Masten explains. The worldwide pandemic is out of our hands, but we do have influence over our daily routines. You can put your attention on the important things in life, such as making plans for the future. It’s hard to deal with being unable to conceive. However, we may also make things more difficult for ourselves. Of course, this was not done purposefully or consciously. It’s possible we’ve never considered the alternative.
We may not even be aware that we’re self-sabotaging. When it comes to reproductive issues, there are a few things you need to cease doing in order to live a healthier, fuller life. Gratitude should be expressed. As cliché as it seems, even in the midst of adversity, there is always one thing to be thankful for—the affection of a pet, for example, or the beauty of an autumn sunset.
Taking a moment to express thanks for even the tiniest of blessings can help alleviate tension and improve your attitude. Embrace self-compassion. Change and turmoil affect everyone in different ways. Don’t judge your coping mechanisms or berate yourself for every blunder. Go easy on yourself because self-compassion is a crucial element of growing resilience.
