How to build resilience in your life

How to Build Resilience in Your Life

Resilience: Do I have what it takes?

At some point, you will face adversity; today may be that day. You may be struggling with thoughts of how to bounce back and stay strong through this challenge you now face—wondering how to build resilience. Martin Luther King Jr. teaches us through his legacy what it means to have strength in the face of adversity and a clear picture of how building resilience helps in navigating tough times. 

Resilience, by definition, is the ability to withstand and recover quickly from difficult situations. Building resilience works like anything else being built: step by step. While resilience may come naturally for some, it can be learned and applied to your life

How to build resilience

Building resilience is possible. Take a look at some steps to get a better idea of what skills are needed to adapt to a resilient life. 

Engage an Open Mind

Learning to open up to your life and being a little more flexible day by day creates a pathway to becoming open-minded. In return, open-mindedness allows you to begin to embrace change and be open to new ideas, opportunities, and solutions.  

Live in the Present 

It’s so easy to dwell on past mistakes but the reality is that until you can focus on the present situation, you aren’t learning from those mistakes. The way to move forward and learn from those mistakes is by focusing on what you can do and what you can control now, in the present. Making this an intentional part of the process of overcoming a difficult situation is how to build resilience for the future. 

Patience, Kindness, and Gratitude

Just like it is easy to dwell on the past, it is also just as easy to ruminate over the negative situations and thoughts that happen throughout your day. A pathway to building resilience relies on mindfulness of being patient, kind, and grateful to those around you. More importantly, practice being patient and kind to yourself along with mindfully thinking about the things you are grateful for.

Build a Support Team

We were not made to walk through this life alone. Learning how to build resilience begins by feeding off of others’ wisdom, guidance, and energy which sustains us through good times and bad. Learning to build relationships with friends or family is beneficial for mental health but if you find that challenging, forge new relationships through support groups or hobbyist groups with others that enjoy the same things you do. 

Set Obtainable Goals

Goals can be complicated but they don’t have to be. Building resilience works when accomplishing the smallest of goals. Start by thinking of some goals that are easily obtainable. The feeling you get from accomplishment begins to shape and grow resilience. 

Self-Care

Being surrounded by people and relationships is important but making time to be alone with yourself is just as important. Looking for opportunities for self-discovery opens many doors for ways to take care of yourself. Self-care and discovery can be setting aside time for meditation, yoga, reading a book, learning a new coping skill or physical life skill, and many, many other ways that bring about rest to your life.

Walking in Resilience 

Friend, you have what it takes to learn how to build resilience and luckily we have many mentors throughout history, like Martin Luther King Jr., to learn from. We also have dedicated mentors, counselors, and therapists to walk beside us today. Building resilience will give you a great sense of hope when trials arise because you will have confidence in your ability to move forward.

Our therapists at Greater Houston Counseling Services are ready to walk with you through all of life’s challenges. We are here to listen and guide you to a path of resilience. Set the first building block of resilience today by booking an appointment with us today.