How to Cope With Life's Many Challenges
On both a personal level, as well as on a
global scale, we all have to continually face challenges and hardships
that test our emotional strength: illness, injuries, grief,
unemployment, death, divorce, or even a brand-new venture with
completely unknown outcomes. However, despite how brutally Lady Luck
might treat you, there are always a number of strategies that can be
employed to help carry you through, and here are seven of the most
effective ones:
1. Turn to Face Reality
As human beings, we are masters of avoidance, and very often end up
turning away from life's challenges instead of facing them head-on.
However, if you really want to enjoy life to the full, then you'll need
to start getting used to owning up to the truth. Once you learn to stop
avoiding each of life's hiccups, you'll eventually find that life
becomes easier, less scary, and a lot more manageable. Once you start
seeing such a positive change in your life, you'll then have even
greater confidence that you can grow even further, and partaking in such
journeys of personal growth is the backbone of living a satisfying
life.
2. Embrace the Way Your Life Actually Is
According to the Buddha, the secret to life is not to want what you
don’t have, but to actually want what you have. There is an immense
feeling of freedom associated with taking life as it comes. Once you
learn to simultaneously embrace the positive and negative aspects of
your life, you'll then have a real chance to enjoy life to the full and
to value everything that the world has bestowed upon you. You'll find
that surrendering to the reality of who you really are truly gives you
the opportunity to live up to your potential.
3. Don't Rush Through Life
We've all heard the saying 'slow and steady
wins the race,' but not many of us realize how important this approach
to life really is. By constantly being in a hurry, we actually end up
compromising our own success. If we get ahead of ourselves, then we're
bound to make a lot more mistakes. If we cut corners, we're sure to end
up paying a price for it later on. It is only through disciplined and
incremental growth that we can make positive and lasting changes to our
lives.
4. Be More Grateful
Many of us tend to count our worries a lot more often than we count our
blessings and privileges. However, possessing such an attitude will
diminish your ability to lead a happy and fulfilling life, since you'll
constantly be weighed down by negativity. An efficient recipe for
emotional health and well-being is to recognize all the good that your
life contains and to receive it with gratitude.
5. Stay Close to All of Your Feelings
Many times, we find our feelings confusing,
terrifying, or hard to bear, so we try our hardest to keep them at a
distance. However, by putting up a wall and choosing not to feel, we
usually end up draining ourselves of the psychological energy that makes
life pleasurable and meaningful. If we cease to feel anything, then we
don't only deprive ourselves of the growth that can come out of negative
emotions, but we'll also end up sucking all the fun out of life's more
positive experiences. Quite simply, when we stop feeling, we cease to be
human beings and end up simply going through the motions...
6. Accept Success and Failure as Parts of Life’s Journey
Everyone who's alive is constantly learning, no matter how old they are.
That's why it's important not to be too hard on ourselves, and to
accept that trying, succeeding, failing, and trying again is the only
real way to instill lasting confidence in ourselves. No matter how
successful or mature we become, our inner child will always require
friends and mentors who'll help see us through.
7. Take Care of Your Loving Relationships
Relationships don't just appear and disappear magically since they
require a great deal of hard work and attentive care to help them grow
and to keep them sustained. Mature love involves honoring our
differences yet overcoming distance on practically a daily basis. It
accepts the reality that every relationship will have its fair share of
pain and suffering, but it also accepts that the only way to stay on
track is through unyielding compassion. Learn to be more understanding,
and your love will shine through, brighter than ever.
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