Resilience Skill: Re-Write Your Story

Resilience is the new happiness. Being mentally well does not mean being happy all the time. The constant pursuit of happiness can lead to disappointment and sadness. You can’t always control what happens in your life and the world, and sometimes what happens is awful.

Rather than pursuing happiness, cultivate resilience. Resilience is a skill. Like a muscle, it can be developed and strengthened at any time. You are in control. Resilience helps us heal ourselves. Resilience improves mental health.

When you build resilience, you are better able to not only bounce back in the face of adversity, but to learn, grow, and become even stronger.

One way to build resilience is to “re-write your story” when your old “story” or beliefs don’t serve you.

Here are five powerful ways to re-write your story.

1. Change your thoughts, change your life. Pay attention to the thoughts running through your head that are interfering with your goals and who you want to be. Look into your past for an old story or limiting belief, and replace it with a positive, yet realistic thought. Look for evidence of contradictory information to that limiting belief to prove to yourself that it’s not true, and look for evidence that the positive thought is true.
2. Get in touch with your feelings related to your new story. While positive thoughts are wonderful, they’re not enough. You need to feel. The positive thought becomes more powerful when you can attach feeling to it.
3. Develop actions that become habits. You need to do more than change your thoughts and feel in order to re-write your story. You must take action. Take small yet purposeful action toward your new story. Take this a step further and take action with regularity so that it becomes habit.
4. Harness the power of your relationships. Share your goals, dreams and “new story” with those you trust. Ask for support. Surround yourself with people who are working toward their own goals. Forgive those who have not been there for you. Maintain a positive relationship with yourself which may include forgiving yourself for believing your “old story.”
5. Gratitude. The most powerful way to invite what you’d like into your life is to express gratitude for what you already have.

The month of June in Feeling Good with Dr. Peggy is about engaging in the factors demonstrated by research to foster resilience. At a time when people are experiencing difficulty accessing quality mental health care, I offer this affordable mental health program for $19/month.

You may join FEELING Good with Dr. Peggy by clicking HERE