Mental strength is the ability of an individual to deal with challenges in their working and home lives. Resilience comes hand in hand with Mental strength as it is the approach to bouncing back when times get tough. It is not easy to let difficulty keep us down but being tough means admitting to difficulty and working through it instead of pushing it away. Life can throw you in at the deep end at any time especially at work, so it is important to have that mental strength to cope with any situation.

The Health at A Glance reported that Ireland is one of the countries that experiences some of the highest rates (3/36 countries) of mental health challenges within Europe with up to 18.5% of the population recorded 2016.

Fortunately there are things we can do to improve our Mental strength and wellbeing such as exercising, talking to a family member or friend, eating healthy and practicing mindfulness. The impact of Covid- 19 has led to an increase of people suffering. Loneliness had decreased for those aged over 70 but increased in every other age group especially for those aged 18 34.                      These are reasons why its important to strengthen your mental resilience and improve your coping ability.

Resilience is something that can be improved in an individual’s life. There are many different strategies that can be explored to improve mental resilience like Goal setting, putting in actionable steps towards achieving those goals. This helps build will-power. Controlled exposure is the exposure to uncomfortable situations, this helps overcome fears e.g. public speaking to work colleagues or managers, keeping things in perspective, being grateful for what is good in life.

As leaders of people in business, we need to avoid blowing things out of proportion, this might be difficult to recover for you and your team. In cultivating resilience, it helps to keep a long-term perspective when facing difficult events.

Mental strength determines how we manage our thoughts, emotions, energy and productivity. It means you can cope better with hardship and negativity. Embracing healthy habits will keep you thinking positively. There are 4c’s to mental strength and resilience.

They are Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence. Control is the managing of emotions for example, being faced with a job loss. Commitment is working towards goals and accomplishing them. Challenge is the risk taking, been driven to succeed and finally confidence to believe in yourself that you can do it.

It takes time, attention and practise to build mental strength and resilience, but in the long-term positive outcomes are well worth the effort. Building your mental health and resilience is fundamental to living your best life.

 

Sources:

https://www.mentalhealthireland.ie/

https://positivepsychology.com/mentally-strong/

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2017/12/building-resilience-and-why-its-important-to-you-and-your-team