How to improve mental strength (2 TIPS)
Lets get clear on what mental strength is. Its about improving the regulation of your emotions. Managing your thoughts and behaving in a positive way. Of course, given certain life circumstances and experiences this can be a difficult thing to achieve. It can lead to the creation of downward negative spirals. Despite this however, cultivating and working on mental strength can also produce upward, positive spirals.
Step 1:
Mental strength isn’t about convey a facade of having a touch exterior, and thus the suppression of emotions. Instead its about being aware of them and really getting in touch with them and you’re your emotions are affecting your thoughts and behaviors. Techniques in which you can start to express your stored up emotions is through talking to one another. Another technique which isn’t often spoken about is about primal scream therapy / bio-energetics. Make your own conclusions and experiences whether or not you think that this is helpful.
Step 2:
They don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves. John Gardner ‘Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality’. Examples of this can include:
- Thinking that you have it worse than others
- You focus on what went wrong instead of went well
- Gratitude is a struggle
- You think others are blessed with easy lives
Can you see yourself in some of these examples? This self-pity trap will consume you and is one of the negative downward spirals that effects your thoughts, behaviors and emotions unless you take control of it. Self-pity is often the more comfortable option. It means that you don’t have to take responsibility for your life, you don’t have to perhaps write some wrongdoings or confront others to know about theirs. Although this is the comfortable option, there are an array of negative side effects of this self pity.
As we mentioned before, the self-pity does nothing to change the situation. Given the difficulty to acknowledge gratitude, your reticular activating system is only locked on to circumstances which fulfill the self-pity and the spiral spins further downward. It can wear on others and cause the relationships around you to weaken and even wither away. Therefore a change in behavior needs to occur.
Sitting around doing nothing, watching TV and playing video games will need to be replaced with something else. It is hard to feel sorry for yourself when you are laughing with your friends. Have a think about how you could replace these habits and comment them down below! Review the past and how you coped with adversity. Allow this to be a source of confidence that you can overcome the difficulty and reduce the self-pity The opposite of self-pity is gratitude, and focusing on this can help alleviate it and produce some positive upward spirals.
Here are some exercises that you can implement right now! Keep a gratitude journal and write down things you are grateful for Have a gratitude stone or pebble with you and when you go through your pockets or purse, see/hold the stone and embrace that feeling of gratitude!
