Developing Mental Resilience During Tough Times.
Ever thought about how our grand-parents coped with tough-times? It was their mental resilience. Arguably, they were different times, but it does seem society works in 60-70-year cycles. So, here we are, again, facing one of the greatest existential threats to our way of life.
To rise through it, we must develop character and resilience, because, in life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you, it’s how you react to it, that is the key- “stuff” happens. The ability to getting through it all is somehow, try to keep moving forward, towards hope; then our resilience will naturally develop. Remember the Stockdale Paradox?
We WILL get over it! How do I know? When I ask my parents, who survived WWII, they keep reminding me, that this will pass, just like the War. The lesson here is: “nothing is permanent”. What’s good, turns bad, and what’s bad turns, good, and there is no pleasure with pain, the two go hand-in-hand.
We are facing unprecedented times, so the “rule book” has been thrown out, NOW is the time to create the future we have dreamed of for ourselves. For some of us those shackles have been broken, for others, it’s the “Chicken Little” approach. Now is the time to figure what REALLY matters. Those material possessions we have strived for, may not be relevant in the future, as many of us have come to the realisation, that external happiness is an illusion. It must come from within and for many of us, we now have that clarity of thought, (due to the Lockdown); it may be time to reboot. Just like the old Soul II Soul song, “Keep On Movin”, don’t stop!