How to cultivate healthy habits to have a strong mind?
Useful strategies to develop a strong mind and know how to face challenges and adversities.
We all talk about balance, having a healthy body to have a healthy mind, but there is something more; having a really strong mind.. To become someone who, no matter how much he falls down, gets up again strengthened by what he has learned, although this quality can also be seen in someone who does not put up with everything or who allows himself to feel whatever he feels without fear.
To have a strong mind is not to be able to endure a lot of suffering, but rather to be able to turn this suffering into something that can be being able to turn this suffering into something useful that invites us to overcome a problem and empowers us to do so. A mind prepared for adversity is the one that allows us to stay focused on what matters despite adversity.
Habits that help to have a strong mind
If we are so stressed that we do not think, do not sleep and just survive, we gradually lose the ability to think clearly and decide the steps we take. Survival mode" is fine for dealing with extreme situations, but "calm mode" is better for being able to make decisions that allow us to get out of those difficult situations.
Much is said about good habits, but little is done in relation to these; they are part of those New Year's resolutions, after the vacations or after a period of excesses. Why is it so hard for us to acquire healthy habits that allow us to have a strong mind? It is easy to blame it on laziness, lack of energy or routine.And maybe these are the causes, but focusing on that and limiting ourselves to reproaching ourselves only takes away our energy.
What you need is be clear about what you want, know why you want it, know the obstacles that prevent you from moving forward, and commit to your goal. convinced of how important it is.
The first healthy habit to work on is how I face challenges, it is the first stone that provides a solid foundation on which to establish other new habits. I propose this method in three steps: clean, commit and act..
1. Clean your mind, get a calm mind.
It is common to hear phrases like: "what I want is to be calm, I would be happy if I didn't have this problem, when this happens I will be able to rest"? These phrases make us feel that the situation is not under our control.
So the first thing is to know that in order to fulfill our desires or needs, we need to run away from unattainable dreams. we need to flee from unattainable dreams or from wanting to change that which does not depend on us.. We need to listen to ourselves honestly and be realistic about what we want and what we can control.
By separating what we can control from what we can't. We stop fighting for what we can't control and focus on what we can, we stop fighting for what is out of our control and focus on what is, we regain control and stop feeling helpless.By separating what we can control from what we can't, we regain control and stop feeling helpless. We cannot control life or its ups and downs. The point is, therefore, to become strong in the face of adversity; if you make your mind strong you will see obstacles as a challenge that can be overcome and not as just another problem that weighs you down and robs you of energy or limits you from being well. If we do not have a favorable external environment we will have to work more internally to achieve that calm or inner peace.
Thus, we see that first we need to go deeper into our objective and see what things make us feel good about ourselves, i.e., give us calm, make us feel strong, etc. Write down the answer to this question: what is it that you need or want to achieve and what are the things that make you feel that way when you do them?
2. Commit to what you want
Once we know what we need to get what we want and we have identified the obstacles, we move on to assess the strength of our commitment to what we want. we can then assess the strength of our desire, the importance of this. Let's start from the hypothesis that we will take as true that "if you don't make an effort to get it, it will be that you don't want it that much". Let's decide to put all our potential at the service of our desires.
You will be able to overcome vicious circles, negative or hopeless thoughts... How? How? Write down step by step what you would do or should do to get what you want. Decide to assume that there is no other option because it is what you want and no one but you can stop you. Write down everything that hurts you or does not allow you to move forward, consider how to overcome each obstacle..
3. Act with internal coherence to have peace
Part of the conflicts in our day to day are internal; when one does not live as one wants, does not feel as one wants to feel, does not do what one wants to do... this conflict, internal or external, is an alert that invites us to fight for what we want.
There are circumstances in which living with coherence becomes difficult, and if we cannot resolve these circumstances, the conflict is born.
So we see that after being clear about what we want and committing ourselves to it, by choosing a path focused on what we want and what we can achieve, new options open up for us.. This allows us to act, we will take steps to have a calm mind by acting not in automatic mode, but in tune with what we want to achieve or how we want to live. This does not prevent life from giving us setbacks, but it allows us to have a strong mind to face the obstacles that come our way.
If you are in the middle of a storm and you need to make decisions or need something to change, find a space, a place, a time to think calmly and start working on yourself; find the strength to decide to make the changes you need to have a calm mind and be able to better cope with the difficulties.
(Updated at Apr 12 / 2024)