Guest Post: How to Be Mentally Strong by Jenni Taylor

These days our lives are being filled with constant changes and our minds are being challenged. With the outbreak of the coronavirus consuming the way we live, play, work and take care of ourselves, we’ve been having to come up with new ways to do things. People across the world are now staying at home, quarantining and practicing social distancing. Not being able to go about “our normal routines” has proven to be difficult on peoples’ social and mental status. It’s important that we find out how to become strong mentally in order handle everything and go on with life itself.

On November 1, 2002, I was in a car accident that forever changed my life and the way I would go about doing things. I sustained a C-1 C-2 spinal cord injury, am paralyzed from the neck down and on a ventilator. At the time I was a teenager, just 16 years old and at the beginning of learning how to manage things on my own. Not knowing my fate to come was just the peak of my relearning a new way of living along with loving myself for who I had become.

With my situation now, I feel like it’s prepared me to be mentally strong, especially given the circumstances of our lives at this time. Not being able to move, I’ve had to think of other creative ways in order to go about living a proactive life at a time where I rely solely on my mind to do the work. It’s been difficult, but I did so by remaining positive and thinking outside the box. I chose what path I wanted to follow, and by doing so it’s allowed me to be who I am along with showcasing others there’s more to me than my disability.

That being said: how do you make yourself mentally strong? Some people find it difficult to recover from setbacks and failures, while others seem to quickly bounce back. According to Lolly Daskal, “When the time is needed, you can manage your emotions, adjust your thinking and choose to take positive action whatever the circumstances. However, like physical strength, mental strength doesn’t just happen. It’s something that needs to be developed.” In order to keep the muscles strong, you need to continue to do exercises, building those habits and beliefs.

Some ways in which to develop mental strength may include: Exercise your mind. Stretch your mental endurance by taking on a daily task. This will help you through a bunch of small victories. Focus on the moment. Don’t ignore or procrastinate on a given situation. Do not let life get you down; think positive. There will be many obstacles that you come across. You have a choice on which way you want the outcome to be.

Don’t overwhelm yourself with tackling too many things at once. Start with one change you want to make and go from there. You can have goals anytime of the year, not just as a resolution. Think about how you train physically. Just like that, mental strength training is about becoming better every day throughout the entire year.

Finally, as we come to term with our lives at this time, the COVID 19 pandemic can be stressful for people. It can be overwhelming and may be strong on emotions. It may cause fear and worry about your health and the lives of those you care about. However, think back to the ways in which you can practice mental strength. This may help you to get through it no matter what the circumstances.

– Read her blog: The Site That Breathes