Mental strength is the ability to withstand life's challenges that cause a mental breakdown. Mental strength is made up of resilience to help manage stress, depression, anxiety, or any other mental challenges.
Please note that mental strength is not the absence of mental illnesses but the building up of suitable, healthy coping mechanisms to manage them. Every day, people go through lots of mental challenges, and if these challenges are not managed properly, they can lead to a disorder.
Working on your mental strength helps to improve your mental well-being. Mental strength detects when there is a mental breakdown. Mental strength manages the implication of constant negative thoughts by replacing them with positive ones.
Overwhelming setbacks like the loss of a job, failed relationships, loss of a loved one, or past traumatic experiences which suddenly come up to your mind, can cause both physical and mental challenges. Building mental strength is like creating muscles in the brain that will fight any setbacks that might cause mental illnesses.
Mental strength helps you feel, think and observe how you respond in an overwhelming situation. Such strength is very important when there is a lot of tension happening and you do not know what to do.
Maintaining mental strength is a continuous process. It is like eating healthy food all through life so you do not get sick. We also have to be very careful of what we read, watch, or listen to, as this affects our minds in various forms. You cannot be listening to negative people and assume their words will not affect you because you have a strong mind.
With mental strength, you can calmly analyze situations without your emotions getting in the way. Mental strength gives room for the use of our creative minds. Mental strength involves thinking, feeling, and action.
Factors That Lead to Loss of Mental Strength
Loss of mental strength affects the physical health of a person. Imagine a cancer patient told they might not leave for up to two years. In most cases, if the cancer patient does not have mental strength, they will not live up to a year. This is because certain factors hindered their ability to get hope.
These certain factors also affect mental strength, and they include:
Risk Avoidance: not everyone like to take risks. But those who take risks have the mental ability to handle disappointment when they come. Non-risk takers play it safe and live in their comfort zone. But when setbacks come, they cannot handle them so, they fall into depression easily.
Lack of Confidence: take for instance the business world, most people who deliver quality, do not have confidence in their product or service but, those whose products or services are sub-standard are the ones who do a lot of marketing and have more customers. Self-confidence helps in engaging in healthy competition and completing tasks.
Lack of Goal Setting: setting goals can be tasking, but it helps to achieve things you want to do in life. Setting high standers is tough, but meeting such goals makes you fulfilled and responsible.
Lack of Emotional Intelligence: making decisions in an emotional state brings regret later. It would help if you had a clear head to make decisions and not allow other person emotions to affect your decision. A good leader is one with great control of the emotional state.
Lack of Ability to Learn From Life: mental strength is when life throws you lemons, and you make lemonade. Not everyone can make lemonade, some do not know that life challenges can be a blessing or a lesson. Whichever it is, you have benefited in a way.
Importance Of Mental Strength to Mental Health
Mental strength helps improve not only mental health but also physical health. But here are sure ways that mental strength has impacted mental health positively:
Focus: mental strength has improved mental health by keeping your focus on one task before moving to the next. This type of focus reduces confusion and procrastination which is not good for our mental health.
Reduction in Stress Level: mental agility helps manage any form of stress. With focus and rest as factors that can boost mental strength, stress level decreases.
Gives Courage: leaving your comfort zone is courageous and that is one important mental strength that can impact mental health. Courage helps us achieve our goals which make us happy and feel responsible.
Helps Manage Mental Health Challenges: mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression disorder are managed properly with a professional. The improvement boosts mental health and mental strength.
Ways Of Building Mental Strength
It is possible to build mental strength. If you feel there are hindrances to having mental agility then there are certain steps you can take towards building one. The steps to building mental strength have to become a habit over time. If it becomes a habit then it will become part of you.
Some ways of building mental strength can be done by oneself, but other ways will require mental health professionals. The following examples are ways to help build mental strength:
Mindful Practices: with mindfulness, you get to learn how to respond instead of reacting to challenges. Mindful practices help the brain to notice when emotions are in control of our decisions. You can read about healthy mindful practices or talk to a life coach about learning them.
Go For Therapy Sessions: it is not when there is a challenge that one goes to see mental health practitioners or life coaches. It is hard to build mental strength when there is a mental challenge. So, meeting with professionals in the mental health field and with their best practices you get to challenge overwhelming and negative thoughts.
Be Gentle on Yourself: when you are hard on yourself, you chastise yourself when you fail, and because of that you never count your blessings or your achievements. Be gentle with yourself and watch yourself grow into someone with confidence and self-trust.
Leave Your Comfort Area: comfort areas are warm, safe, and familiar. But they prevent future knowledge and practices that will help grow you. Leaving your comfort zone means you have acknowledged and accepted life's challenges. Comfort zone will make you uncomfortable still, you get to learn lessons and something new.
Healthy Practices: healthy practices such as eating well, sleeping or resting, and exercising the body help strengthen the mind. Avoid spending too much time on computers, television, or phone (social media). The brain needs to be well-rested for thinking.
We all should seek to improve our mental strength. Mental strength improvement will boost mental well-being. If you find yourself lacking mental strength meet with a mental health profession for help. If you already have a stable mental strength keep improving for it has to become a habit.
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