What do you know about being mentally strong?
It sure isn’t for the faint of heart or for the weak.
Moreover, I’m sure you’ve experienced pain and disappointment many times in your life leaving you feeling disappointed and downright pissed off.
Besides that, the people in your life can’t ever seem to get it right, and neither can you.
The feeling is heavy.
Your emotions take over your life.
And your feelings leave little time for your brain to think, and rather you’re just reacting to life and its scenarios.
Now…
…before you make your mind up … that you are a slave to your mind and that you will never get your feelings under control or get better at this thing called life…
Just imagine…
Imagine that your mind was only there to serve you. That you could tell it what to do and it actually listens.
Imagine that you could exercise restraint no matter what the challenge or nonsense life threw at you.
Furthermore, visualize yourself having the power to not react but respond.
To feel true power and control in everything you do and everyone you interact with because you’ve trained your mind to do so.
When you face tough times, when you face loss when you face challenges and failures, your mind naturally has the ability to come to your defense to comfort you instead of criticizing you.
Alternatively, instead of judging your feelings, your inner conversation can be shaped to sound much kinder and much more liberating in tough times.
And it’s not uncommon to feel this way or want these types of results.
The truth is everyone wants power and control over their lives and mental resilience and perseverance are a monumental place to start.
I’ll show you how you can become mentally strong starting today.
1. Get Prepared for the Fight
You never rise to the occasion, you revert back to practice.
You fall back into habits when things get tuff.
Thus you need to develop good habits.
From a mental standpoint, consistently consume positive and encouraging content.
In particular, make sure you’re doing so more than negative, violent, and discouraging content.
To demonstrate…
- Listening to motivational speakers vs watching Netflix (erday)
- Open up YouVersion (Bible App) vs Social Media
- Reading personal development books vs romance novels.
Now I’m not saying don’t indulge in what you enjoy.
If watching CNN helps you to relax after a long day at work (I find that very interesting) but it’s cool.
But when you’re in hard times I doubt you want to hear the words of the Netflix show you binged watched playing in your mind.
You want to hear positivity, love, and words that feed the spirit. And that comes through feeding your soul what it needs.
Indeed, that’s what your subconscious mind and spirit will deliver to you in times of need. Rely on habits and systems, not willpower, inspiration, or motivation.
Fasting is again another great way to prepare the mind for challenges as it teaches discipline while exercising extreme control. Read more about the benefits here.
2. Don’t Be surprised by Frustration
Let me be very clear. There is no easy way around this. No detour.
Certainly, people become mentally tough because they’ve gone through various things in their lives that have strengthened and sharpened them.
Expect resistance with change. Wherever there is growth, there shall death be also.
Likewise, life is bitter-sweet. And we must recognize and acknowledge this.
Expect to feel frustrated some days. Expect anger.
Moreover, be ready for the days that you will not have the words and your tears will speak for you.
There is always pain with growth. Be prepared. Becoming mentally strong is a process.
3. Desire to Master Your Emotions
Emotional mastery is such a trickster.
It’s just when you think you’ve got your crap together is when life proves to you…
“you’ve got a long way to go sis.”
Let this be an ongoing mission for you.
Note that as a woman and as a human being it is totally natural to have feelings and to express those feelings.
What’s even more natural is what we may perceive as negative feelings such as self-doubt, fear, and anger.
In fact, all of the feelings that you may experience play some rational part in your existence.
View your feelings as symptoms. They are there to tell you when something is wrong.
Listen to your heart.
For a deeper understanding of how to manage your emotions successfully simply tap here.
4. Have Wild Optimism
Yes, think positive sis.
You need to have a certain mindset in order to be mentally strong.
Alternatively what your mind likes to do is present you with the worst possible scenario that could ever happen.
If I were you I would serve life its crap right back and instead of accepting its offer ask…
“What’s the worst that can happen anyway?”
The mind loves to play it safe.
Despite this, we must live life fearlessly and without concern for things that don’t truly matter.
Act with the boldness and the authority that we’ve been given by The Creator knowing and holding onto the promise that we are in His hands and everything will be worked out for our good.
Even when it may not look that way.
Focus on His strength, not yours.
Then, focus on His view of your problem (bird’s-eye view) not your little 2-dimensional view of the problem.
Remind yourself of how big God is. What can’t he do? Who’s side is He on?
5. Love & Embrace Your Inner Child
Part of becoming mentally strong lies in your ability to show compassion and love to yourself in the not so great moments.
There will be times you mess up, there will be times you lose it.
On the other hand, other times you will wonder why you didn’t blow up and let him or her have it.
Always remember you are a child at heart.
See yourself as a two-year-old child and ask yourself…
- What does your inner child need?
- How are you going to treat that child?
Truly, you’re not going to yell at or criticize a two-year-old.
On the contrary, a child needs love, compassion, and nurturing.
That part of you that needs that never dies.
We will always need encouragement, we need compassion, and we need to know that when we make mistakes it’s okay and we shouldn’t be frightened.
Hence, keep the image in your mind of you as a child. Place that image in your heart.
6. Expose Your Inner Critic
The inner critic has negative connotations on deck ready to be deployed at any moment.
Just allow yourself to do something that is outside your level of expectation or within the realm of not meeting other people’s expectations and you’ll see what I mean.
Without a doubt, the inner critic is a silent killer. And you must be on high alert for whatever nonsense it may wish to tell you such as…
- You’re not good enough.
- You can’t do that.
- You’re not pretty enough.
- You’re not confident enough.
- Every other lie in the (best selling) book.
When it comes to negative messages we must scrutinize every single one of them.
Therefore, if they do not come from a place of love, truth, and of pureness then it must be false.
It must be a lie and we can’t lay down to take this beating of our inner critic, we must stand. We must fight back.
With every negative message, we ask why.
We ask is it reasonable.
We ask if it’s true.
Even so, with every negative message, we create two positive ones.
Speaking life, speaking blessings, speaking prosperity over our lives.
For more ways to silence the inner critic take a peek at this post: 4 Compelling Secrets to Quiet the Mind Instantly.
Wrapping it up
Becoming mentally strong is all about what you do in the downtimes.
Life doesn’t constantly have its foot on your neck.
Equally important, The Creator never gives you more than you can handle.
But also realize it takes pressure to manifest a diamond.
Iron sharpeneth iron.
For this reason, prepare yourself for the hard times, for the disappointments, for the failures, for the loss that is naturally a part of life and that reoccurs like the seasons.
Consistently feed yourself positively, encouraging, and loving words and images, and the Word.
Don’t expect to always feel joy and abounding happiness, life is like the seasons, it always changes.
Above all else, remember to be optimistic and remember who you are and whose you are.
Bear in mind who came before you and what you’re made of.
Keep the image of your inner child at heart and fight your inner critic until positivity takes over the mind, the spirit, and the soul.
Until Next Time With Love,
