Some days you feel like you could handle anything. A bad day at work, spilling coffee on a new white shirt, a failed test? You can laugh it off and look at the big picture. But some days, even getting your sweater caught on the doorknob can send you spiraling. What’s the difference between these kinds of days? Mental strength!
Mental strength is what helps you weather the circumstances of life. It helps you tackle challenging days without losing hope. The good news is that mental strength is something you can work to develop. Read on to learn more about mental strength and how to develop this vital skill.
What Is Mental Strength?
Mental strength is a cognitive skill where you’re able to reframe the circumstances of your life to deal with the ups and downs effectively. It’s different from mental health, which describes your mental wellbeing. This is a skill that can be learned. These are some of the key characteristics of someone who is mentally strong:
- Resilience: The ability to bounce back from setbacks and handle stress effectively
- Emotional Control: Managing emotions and maintaining a balanced perspective under pressure
- Adaptability: Flexibly adjusting to changing circumstances and overcoming challenges
- Positive Mindset: Maintaining a hopeful and proactive attitude despite difficulties
- Self-Discipline: Consistently pursuing goals and resisting negative impulses
How Mental Strength Helps You
Taking the time to develop mental strength is only to your benefit. Having this kind of fortitude can prepare you to take on challenges and help you feel ready to tackle any kind of day. These are some of the great benefits of mental strength:
- Enhanced Resilience: Better ability to recover from setbacks and handle stress
- Increased Confidence: Greater self-assurance in facing challenges and making decisions
- Emotional Balance: More effective management of emotions and reactions
- Better Problem-Solving: Enhanced ability to think critically and overcome obstacles
- Greater Adaptability: Flexibility in adjusting to change and uncertainty
- Healthier Relationships: More effective communication and empathy with others
- Less Stress: Reduced impact of stress on daily life and well-being
- Increased Motivation: Greater drive to pursue goals and overcome challenges
How to Develop Mental Strength
Developing mental strength is a bit like improving your physical fitness. It’s all about the daily habits and effort you put in. Doing a little bit consistently can help you create intense mental strength over time. Here are nine tips to help you cultivate mental strength:
Practice Self-Care
One of the best ways to boost your mental fortitude is to make sure you’re taking care of your well-being. Having a relaxed body and mind sets the stage for successful mental strength. To do this, prioritize physical health, rest, and relaxation. That means exercising regularly, eating well, and getting enough sleep. It also includes spending time on things just for yourself, journaling, doing yoga, and meditating.
When you’re feeling good, you’re going to be better able to weather any challenges that come your way.
Set Realistic Goals
Establishing clear, achievable objectives and working towards them can help you stay motivated. They’ve been proven to empower you to take control of your life. However, to really develop mental strength, try to keep all of your goals realistic. Try not to set any that are too much because that can ultimately just lead you to feel like you’re failing. Choose goals that push you but are very possible.
Challenge Negative Thoughts
The way you think can shape how you end up perceiving the world. So if you’re constantly telling yourself that you aren’t good enough or can’t do something, you could end up creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Replace that self-doubt with positive affirmations to shape a positive reality. For example, instead of thinking about how you can’t do something, think about what steps you can take to be able to accomplish that task.
Ultimately, being able to challenge your negative self-talk and change it to something positive will help you when you hit obstacles. Those kinds of thoughts empower you to work through problems and not to shut down.
Build Resilience
Life is always going to be full of ups and downs. Things will inevitably go wrong. Learning to bounce back from these moments is what will help you really build mental strength. Embrace setbacks as learning opportunities and persist through adversity. Failure doesn’t mean it’s time to stop. Instead, view it as a chance to learn what you can do better next time.
Develop Emotional Awareness
Learning to identify and work through what you’re feeling is another way to strengthen your mind. When something bad happens, sit with those feelings and try to identify exactly what you’re experiencing. Once you have figured out what makes this feel so upsetting, try to determine exactly how you’ll manage those emotions.
Seek Support
Learning to develop mental strength doesn’t have to be something you do alone. Engage with mentors, coaches, or support networks for guidance and encouragement. You can talk with your friends about the skills you’re working to develop and learn what they do to improve their mental strength.
You can also work with professionals. Coaches and therapists can provide you with personalized strategies to help you learn exactly how to become mentally strong.
Cultivate a Growth Mindset
There are generally two kinds of mindsets people have: fixed and growth. A fixed mindset dwells on failure and views challenges as stopping blocks. A growth mindset considers obstacles as learning moments and failures as a chance to grow. To cultivate this kind of mindset, try to reorient the way you think next time you have a setback. Consider what your initial reaction was and then adjust it to be oriented toward growth.
Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Take on new challenges to build confidence and adaptability. There’s no better way to practice flexibility than to put yourself into situations that might make you uncomfortable. That might be trying to make new friends, taking a class, joining a club, starting a new hobby, or even traveling somewhere new. All of that can force you to strengthen your mental state.
Build a Routine
While trying new things is helpful, also establishing a routine can be beneficial. A routine helps you develop good habits that serve you well when things get rough. Structuring your life can also give you something to rely on when times get hard. For example, on a challenging day at work, it can help you stay mentally strong by eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, and exercising. That little bit of routine fortifies you for the day ahead.
Reframe Your Mindset
Mental strength helps you manage the ups and downs of life and having a broader perspective gives you more choices. More choices mean more options and greater flexibility.
Reframe is a technology that expands your awareness of choice by reframing your perception. This will benefit your mental strength and will open you to receive greater abundance. Download Reframe and put it to work for you.
