There is something you must always remember, you are BRAVER than you believe, STRONGER than you seem, and SMARTER than you think.
– Winnie the Pooh
Height 163cms; weight 236lbs; athletic abilities NIL; yet I managed to cover 300m at 48kmph approx. To scramble up a young evergreen tree literally effortlessly, on being ambushed by an angry rooster that believed I was on the premises to steal eggs or his prospective mates.
As I held on to a deceptively sturdy branch for dear life, I heard my inner self raising a toast to my latent inner strength.
A similar feeling beamed when my resume was overlooked by over 48 different employers before I landed a rewarding freelancing writing job. When I look back on the days of tears, anxiety, hopelessness, and grief, I realize how blind I was to my indomitable mental strength, a force that nudged me to go on and on even when it all seemed impossible.
Yes, you are stronger than you think, and you should have it inculcated in your core beliefs before life pins you to the floor with tests after tests.
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You Need To Know You Are Stronger Than You Think! Here’s Why
Life is seldom a bed of roses. Even if it is, sooner or later, the thorns find their way to your rear end.
How you deal with the resultant shock, confusion, pain, grief, and anxiety defines how strong you really are. Simply put, when life serves a fight or flight situation, which would you choose?
Say, for example, you have been rejected a key position in a company that you prepared really hard for. Your best friend, who’s half as qualified as you, bagged the place instead. You are devastated.
Now your heart is a cauldron brewing a concoction of negative emotions; anger, hopelessness, envy, grief, shame, self-doubt, self-pity, shame, gloom, guilt, and agony, all simmering into a toxic self-destructive soup.
Now, what will your next step be?
REMEMBER! Feelings may be natural, but how you respond to them reveals your inner strength.
If you are unaware of your inner strength, you will allow yourself to react to these emotions in a negative way, that is,
- Brooding over your failure.
- Harboring negative feelings about others.
- Substance abuse.
- Distancing self from close ones.
- Giving up on constructive indulgences like hobbies.
- Self-destructive tendencies.
- Deliberate performance deterioration in the workplace, and the list goes on.
When you tap into your inner strength, though, you start prioritizing ‘reason’ and ‘constructive actions’ towards bettering yourself and your current situations.
Eventually, you realize that you are stronger than you think and respond to these negative emotions with a strictly positive deflection.
You Shift Your Focus On Possibilities Than Deficiencies
Your mental, psychological and behavioral tendencies shift towards better decision-making and problem-solving. This helps in reversing and remedying adverse situations faster.
You Are Not Afraid of Failing
Fear of failing prevents people from attempting new possibilities, making important decisions, and keeping individuals trapped in situations that can be altered for the better.
When you connect with your inner strength, you can conquer the fear of losing easily because you become your only competitor, your only critic, and your best supporter.
Your Mind Gets Wired for Positive Emotions
When you are stronger than you think, it doesn’t take long for you to assess negative emotions, reason with them, and channel your thought patterns accordingly toward positive outcomes.
Eventually, your mind gets wired for positive emotions only, which prevents you from slipping into a negative spiral under any situation.
Challenges Don’t Rattle You
When you connect with your inner strength, you don’t view challenges as problems. You perceive them merely as circumstances that can be addressed with new and enhanced problem-solving skills.
Be it about relationships, career, finances, or anything under the sun; you will develop the propensity to find solutions than weep over being handed the sticky end of the deal.
You Are Calm And Patient In Any Situation
Inner strength makes you calm, patient, and peaceful in all situations because you become more self-aware, confident, and resilient.
You Try New Things And Grow By The Minute
Age does not stop you; you are the owner of your time, you set goals, you fail fearlessly, you disassociate with ‘shame and guilt.’ So, you try new things, you discover new possibilities, you stretch your horizons, and you grow mentally, psychologically, and spiritually.
Your Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem Soars
On developing a steady connection with your inner strength and exercising it regularly, your awareness about ‘self’ grows to the extent that you stop responding to other people’s opinions about you.
Your confidence and self-esteem soar when you reclaim the power to be YOU in a world littered with judgments.
You Are Stronger Than You Think When You Can Let Go Easily
When you unleash your true strength, You realize That you are way better than the things that are leaving you, and you know you are perfectly alright, happy, and complete without them.
You Start Caring For Yourself
Love and care are forms of positive nurturing energies that can deplete with overuse and misuse. If you are deficient, you will not be able to love and care for those that can benefit from these healing energies.
Your inner strength awakens a natural tendency to replenish yourself with these energies constantly with self-care, be it psychological, physical, or spiritual.
The Outcome
When you know that you are stronger than you think, you start seeing distinct positive changes in your immediate environment.
- You are Always Better than You Were Yesterday because You feel better, you learn easily, you are seldom anxious, and you always have an action plan mapped out for difficult situations.
- People Desire Your Company because your presence becomes more comforting and reassuring to them. Whether social, professional, or personal, you will see people reaching out to you.
- Your Career Soars because you are a better decision-maker, you can take calculated risks, you can motivate your team, you always get the job done in time, you are always responsible for your actions, and you are always ready to meet challenges head-on.
- Personal Life Flourishes because you listen before you speak; you think before you react; you put yourself in their shoes before judging, and you are never afraid to say sorry when you’re wrong. You achieve a near-perfect work-life balance and put in a genuine effort to maintain the equation. Now, who could let go of a partner so committed and caring?
- You Go to Bed with Gratitude because you are at peace with everything you have, you have no greed for more, and you are aware that the Universe will grant whatever else you require when you require it.
Fun And Easy Ways To Discover And Exercise Your Inner Strength
All things good start with a smile. So, smile and get started with discovering your inner strength.
Appreciate ‘Your Normal’
Appreciation of absurdity actually makes you stronger! Unlearn the definition of ‘normal’ and appreciate just about anything that does not tally with it. 85 years old and in love with Spongebob Squarepants?
Love wearing socks with open-toed sandals? Game of Thrones doesn’t excite you? It’s ‘your normal’… embrace it, appreciate it, and feel the power within you.
Do Nothing For A While
Sit still, and blend in with the silence around you. Think nothing, and even if you do, don’t react to any thoughts.
Let them run in your head like unnecessary TV commercials that are best when muted. This is the first step to gaining control of your ‘self.’ This is the first step to experiencing your inner strength.
Take Up A Task That You Always Thought You Could Not Do
Learn a language, shed 50 pounds, learn to dance, sell your art, write that book, set a goal, and go for it. At the end of the day, when you achieve the first milestone, you’ll know you are stronger than you think. You’ve always been.
Let-Go Exercise
Go ahead! Unfriend that annoying know-it-all holier-than-thou self-proclaimed preacher / therapist that keeps injecting you with doses of toxic positivity when all you need is someone to LISTEN to you.
Go ahead, do it. You have to please no one but yourself. Also, don’t forget to reward yourself for eliminating all such emotional burdens in your life with a mini celebration.
Keep A Journal
It can be a written or audio journal or whatever suits you. Keep a note of your feelings, emotions, thoughts, and how you reacted or responded to situations that called for heightened emotions in the past 24 hours. Learning about yourself connects you with your inner strength.
Laugh at Yourself Exercise
Take a situation in your life that was very embarrassing; something like that rooster chasing me up the tree. It was serious. I could have been hurt, if not by the rooster, then certainly by falling from the branch.
Yet it cracked up about a dozen people around the spot, and the story is still circulating with added details that I don’t remember happening. How did I get over the embarrassment? It’s simple. I laughed along.
Sometimes, it is ok not to take yourself too seriously. At the end of the day, you are the only one that cares.
Appreciate Others as Much as You Can
Pat people’s back, even if it’s that guy who bagged the promotion you deserved.
Appreciate people for their good and bring out the good in everything you see. Do it, and you will realize how strong you really are.
Stand-up for the Defenceless
Make an effort to make life better for shelter animals. Volunteer for the underprivileged. Serve the elderly in old age homes.
When you realize that you are responsible for a hundred smiles, you will know you are stronger than you think.
Practice Gratitude Every Day
At the end of the day, irrespective of whatever you may have gone through, make a list of 5 things that you are infinitely grateful for, even if it is the bed that you are sleeping in.
The calmness and contentment will open your eyes to everlasting inner strength.
Are You Stronger Than You Think?
Yes, you are, and you may have ample instances in your life that brought you face to face with your inner strength.
The idea is to remember and recollect these memories every now and then to feed your subconscious with the fact that you are stronger than you think and you are capable of achieving much more and much better.
Also read: The Less You Care, Happier You Will Be