A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Resilience
It’s Summer Owens here, your go-to gal for all things resilience, confidence, leadership, and life. Let’s face it, life is a roller coaster, filled with ups, downs, twists, turns, and those occasional moments where you feel like screaming, “Stop the ride, I want to get off!”
But guess what? You’ve got a secret weapon – resilience!
Today, I’m dishing out a step-by-step guide to building your resilience.
Step 1: Embrace the Bumpy Ride
Life is never a smooth sailing ship; it’s more like a pirate’s ship with a mind of its own! Embrace the ups and downs. Realize that challenges are part of growing, learning, and becoming the fabulous person you are.
Think about babies learning to walk. They fall, tumble, and laugh all the way until they strut like tiny bosses. You were once that baby constantly falling, but today you probably don’t remember ever falling. So just keep getting back up!
Step 2: Surround Yourself with Sunshine People
You know those people who light up a room when they walk in? Yep, those are your sunshine people. They lift you up and cheer you on! If you don’t have those people in your life, embrace them online (I hope I’m one) and start to cultivate relationships with those types of people in person too!
Ever had a friend who called just when you needed them? That’s no coincidence; that’s a sunshine person in action! And here’s a bonus tip…Be a Sunshine person too!
Step 3: Find Your Happy Place
Whether it’s church, a garden, your favorite coffee shop, or a cozy spot on the couch with a fuzzy blanket, find a place that makes you feel warm, happy, safe, and secure. It’s like a recharge station for your soul.
My happy places are beaches where I can soak in the sun, feel the sand between my toes, and listen to the water crash against the shore. What’s yours?
Step 4: Build That Mental Muscle
Think of resilience as a muscle. The more you flex it, the stronger it gets. Challenge yourself, step out of your comfort zone, and say “YES!” to new adventures.
Remember when you rode a bike for the first time without training wheels? You were flexing that resilience muscle like a champ! Now you’ve probably experienced much more. More pain, more heartache, more disappointment. Maybe even more trauma. Keep flexing that muscle and the weight of all that get lighter and lighter because you’re getting stronger and stronger.
Step 5: Laugh, Dance, Repeat
Sometimes, the best way to face challenges is to dance them away. Literally! Put on your favorite tune and shake it like no one’s watching. For people who really know me, you know that I love to laugh (and smile). Tough situations can really bring us down, but there is always something good and usually something you can laugh about to ease some of the pain.
I always allow myself to feel the (negative) feelings, but I don’t allow myself to stay there too long. Even in the midst of the hurt, my mind immediately goes into solution mode to figure out how I can feel better or even fix the situation if I can.
Life is too short to be anything but fabulous. So next time you’re facing a challenge, put on your resilience hat, strike a power pose, and say, “SO What! Bring it on!” Because, darling, you’ve got this!
Share your toughest challenges and how resilience got you through them. We all have those defining moments that shape us, and I can’t wait to hear yours!
