THE RESILIENCE MANTRA Trusting our inner self

Many of us fail to recognize the power of resilience within ourselves. As humans, we are blessed with the ability to bounce back amidst stressful, challenging situations and life adversities. We have the power to observe, analyze and reflect upon ways to find loopholes and solving challenging situations. Our thoughts processes is so vast that we perceive each and every situation differently relating to our power of perception. Each of these powerful virtues are imbibed into our own self which often determines our inner strengths and weaknesses. 

How to build resilience is key to finding our inner strength. As humans we have the power to think, process and act on our thoughts.

1. Be Grateful - Gratitude helps you to forgive, recognize the good in others and allows you to self-actualize in the process. Practicing daily gratitude promotes psychological wellness as we tend to build on positive emotions and thoughts in the process. It allows you to get over negative circumstances and helps you in finding the good out of it. Remember to be grateful for your life. The simple act of breathing and waking up everyday is an achievement in itself. Focus on the little joys of life and be grateful for every moment. 

2. Celebrate little joys - When was the last time you actually celebrated yourself? Amidst a stressful routine, we often tend to forget to celebrate our little joys. You have grown into this wonderful being, you have strived to be where you are today both on a personal and professional level. Learn to be proud of yourself and celebrate your little achievements. Focusing and celebrating upon short-term goals is more fulfilling than longing to celebrate on long-term goals. 

3. Focus on self-growth- Focus on your own self first, acknowledge your worth, your potentials, your attributes. Self-care is important to build up resilience. It allows room for introspection, helps you analyze your own strengths and weaknesses. Learning how to prioritize your own self is a healthy development to build a robust sense of self. 

4. Daily Affirmations - To allow self-change, affirmations are key to develop self-inspiring behaviors. It allows you to believe and create the change you desire. Daily affirmations help you build positive attitudes and in creating daily vibrations, it magnifies your possibilities in drawing positive changes in your life. The simple act of practicing and writing daily affirmations makes you receptive to boosting up resilience and enhances your daily task-related performances. 

5. Practice Forgiveness -  Forgiveness is key to a more satisfying living. It requires a lot of social skills to forgive but the simple act of forgiving makes you more empathetic and resilient. Muster the courage to face the pain, understand the actions of the wrongdoer's, build in the strength and choose to forgive. Remember we are only humans and to err is imbibed in us by default. We make mistakes but we also need to learn how to acknowledge them as well. 

There are undoubtedly several ways to build resilience and as humans we have the power to control our own thoughts, emotions and behaviors. The more we build on positive emotions management, the better we can live a more fulfilling life. We are imbibed with positive virtues be it character strengths, optimistic emotions or constructive intuitions. It does take a lot of skills to acknowledge these potentials in us but if it helps us in adopting a better self, why not give it a try. 

Anandini Kistamah 
Clinical Psychologist 

(BA, MA, Msc Clinical Psychology)