A psychologist shares 5 tips on how you can be resilient and happy during these difficult times

Difficult situations challenge us to relook, reassess, re-evaluate and rethink the ways in which we have been navigating our lives. They bring us into a space where we must reflect and introspect about how we cope with situations and maintain our cognitive and emotional agility to accommodate new experiences.

There has hardly been a time more difficult than what 2020 has handed to us. And even though negative news keeps mounting around us, there are some things we can do to stay optimistic.

In fact, you can maintain your resilience through the plethora of emotions and challenging situations by adopting these methodologies:

1. Avoid getting stuck with the problem

The more you stay focused on the problem, the more it compromises your well-being—impacting your resilience in a negative manner. This happens because you compromise with your vantage point when you are relentlessly focused on the problem.

2. Become emotionally self-aware

To maintain your resilience, you need to be aware about the emotions you experience and the effect they might be having on you. A greater level of self-awareness facilitates the process of being able to step back and making informed about how you want to manage your thoughts, feelings, and responses.

3. Practice being agile

Being adaptable requires maintaining a modicum of flexibility and agility–both in your thoughts and actions. Being willing to relook at things and situations and maintaining a stance of openness is critical to managing yourself through difficult circumstances.

4. Embrace what you are experiencing

Don’t attempt to run away from your experiences. It is important to embrace your emotions and thoughts instead of wanting to negate them or discard them. It can be difficult but in acceptance also lies the capacity to change the way in which you are relating to them, thus allowing you to maintain your resilience.

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5. Be compassionate towards yourself

It is easy to fall prey to tendencies to judge yourself and in doing so activating immense guilt and shame towards your emotional experiences. Be kind to yourself and refrain from forming harsh judgments about what you are going through. Also allow yourself the space to do things differently from how you are used to in order to maintain your state of well-being.

You can sustain positive emotions that help you be optimistic and resilient when you surround yourself with the right people—people who are invested in your well-being. It is important to create effective support systems and continually invest in them to ensure that you can maintain your own resilience too.