6 ways to stay mentally strong in the face of challenges
Everyday life is full of situations that require us to stay mentally strong . From asking for a raise to preparing for an exam or a competition, to dealing with a break-up, no adult is immune to these kinds of challenges that test our ability to cope with complex problems.
Now then… how can we manage to keep a cool head in these contexts? Fortunately, there are some psychological tricks that predispose us not to avoid problems and to orient all our actions towards the achievement of objectives. Let’s see what they are.
Creating a problem-resistant mentality
The strategies and exercises you can see below are ways of training to become mentally strong, which means doing our part to think and make decisions in a constructive way , instead of taking refuge in oneself and hoping that everything will turn out well just by luck.
You can alternate between these simple exercises, or focus on those that best suit your needs. But keep in mind that the effectiveness of these strategies depends on you, and if you do not want to make certain sacrifices to change, they will not work. To reach your goals, at least, you have to get out of your comfort zone.
1. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a set of exercises and a style of thought closely linked to the various forms of meditation that have existed for thousands of years. However, beyond the traditional value of this kind of habit, Mindfulness has proven to have the power to modify our way of thinking and perceiving things.
In particular, it has been seen that it serves to lower stress levels and that it also allows better support for physical pain, among other advantages. Similarly, it helps to avoid relapses in episodes of depression.
The effectiveness of Mindfulness has made it a tool increasingly used by elite athletes, to help them manage anxiety, and in nursery schools, to train children to better manage their attention, something that in adults can also serve, for example, not to be distracted from the goals and avoid procrastination.
2. Find allies
Having people who are supportive even for short periods of time has dramatic effects on mental performance and also on the ability to maintain determination to achieve a goal. Whether these people are able to give advice or not, what matters is their company .
3. Take a distant view
In the face of the hardest and most complex problems in which it is difficult to make decisions due to the great amount of emotions that are linked to this process, adopting the point of view of an external observer helps to choose the best option . The idea is to visualize oneself as a fictitious third person, someone who has all the information necessary to know what is happening but who is not so emotionally linked to the events.
In fact, it has been proven that approaching the situation one experiences by referring to oneself in the third person helps to reduce the anxiety that, in excess, can paralyze us.
4. Direct your thoughts to victory
There are many ways to think about a challenge or a problem, but there is only one way to do it so that we become mentally stronger and more capable of achieving our goals. The trick is to always keep in mind that our goal is to win , not to lose with dignity or to strive conservatively so as not to put too much at stake.
In fact, even if there are only two possible outcomes in a game (win or lose), it has been seen that facing the challenge thinking about avoiding defeat is not the same as doing it aiming for victory; in the second case the chances of success are greater.
5. Rest well
No one can maintain mental strength without adequate rest. The simple fact of sleeping the recommended hours and switching off from time to time allows the brain to rest and deal with problems more effectively. Otherwise, attention problems and poor memory can make it very difficult to achieve your goals.
6. Fantasize about meeting the target
Daydreaming, recreating in our imagination what we experience when we get what we want, helps us to achieve that goal, because keeps motivation high .
Moreover, if we not only imagine the victory but also include in this “mental simulation” the process by which we have obtained it, we will be overcoming much of our fears in the imagination, so that at the moment of truth we will be more confident and will have foreseen more possible problems and our reactions to them.