3 Tips to Become Mentally Strong | Buddhism In English

Welcome to another video! In today's video, I'm going to be answering a question from the comments. The question is, "Please tell us how to be mentally strong; we need it very much." So, let's talk about this today: how to be mentally strong and how to develop a strong mindset.

Well, first of all, let's take a look at what a strong mindset is. Just take a look at this quote from the Buddha: "Pandita, like a rock that is unshaken by the storm, so too the wise are unshaken by the praise and the blame." Have you seen those big masses of rock? No matter how fast the wind blows, they are not shaken. The Buddha said, "The wise people, like that rock, are unshaken by the praise and the blame in their life." And that is a strong mindset.

So, in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you a few tips that you can practice to build up a strong mindset. Tip number one is to maintain a stable mindset in ups and downs in life. Life is like an ocean; sometimes it's calm, quiet, and peaceful, and sometimes it's stormy. We face ups and downs in life. The Buddha said these are called the Eight Worldly Conditions: praise and blame, gain and loss, fame and disgrace, pleasure and pain. These are the eight worldly conditions that we face in our life. Remember these things. So, the Buddha said, accept these ups and downs in life. Whenever people criticize you, whenever people blame you, whenever you go through tough times in your life, if you can be mindful about your mind, your emotions, and your feelings, and not chase after these emotions and feelings, then you can be more stable in these situations. You can maintain a good emotional balance in these situations. So, it is very important to be mindful and to practice self-awareness in these situations. Also, remember, you will not always get sweet comments, sweet opinions, and sweet experiences in your life. Life will give tough times to you; life will throw lemons at you. So, you have to maintain a stable mindset whenever you go through these situations by practicing mindfulness and self-awareness.

Tip number two is to build resilience inside the mind. Resilience means the ability to stand up and bounce back when you go through adversities and challenging situations in your life. To practice this, you have to know and understand what is in your control and what is not in your control. For example, if people come up to you and start to criticize you, those criticisms, those words that other people speak about you, are not under your control. But what is in your control is your reaction to them. It is always a choice. You can think, "Should I become angry? Should I take this negativity and be negative with them?" If you can question like that, then you're not ready to take that negativity. Also, remember, having a strong mindset does not mean that you're not falling down, you're not feeling hurt, and you're not feeling down. Having a strong mindset means you can stand up as soon as possible when you go through these tough situations. You can quickly stand up and quickly retrieve back to normal situations in your life. That is called resilience. So, to practice this, you have to have a good understanding of what is in your control in your life and what is not in your control.

The experiences that happen to you and the things that people say to you, other people's opinions, other people's thoughts about you, are not under your control. But all the things that are inside your mind, your opinions about them, your reaction to those experiences, are totally under your control. So, if something is not under your control, you don't need to worry about it because you cannot make any change about it. But if something is under your control, definitely you can make a change about it. You can change your choice but not others. Remember that, and also, you have to cultivate a problem-solving mindset. If you're easily panicked by problems or if you are easily triggered by problems, then it is not easy to solve the problems, right? But if you can maintain a calm and peaceful mindset even when you go through problems or tough situations in your life, then it is very easy to go to the roots and solve the problems. Sometimes we take the problems as ourselves. We think, "I am this problem. Why is this happening to me?" Remember, everything that happens to you will be impermanent. It is not a permanent thing. It will change one day. So, what you have to do is keep that problem aside and try to dive into the roots of that problem. Ask yourself, "Why did this thing happen to me? What is the reason for this? What is the real reason for this? Where did I make mistakes?" Go to the root, and then you can solve that problem. That is how you build up a problem-solving mindset.

Finally, tip number three, last but not least, is to practice a mindset of self-love and self-compassion. If you truly love yourself, you're not going to take other people's negativity with you. You're not going to take their negativity and share it. You're going to say, "Well, I'm not going to take this negativity with me. I want to be peaceful. I want to love myself. I truly love myself; therefore, I'm not ready to take your negativity. I'm not sharing this negativity with you." That is called self-love and self-compassion. To practice this, you can add a simple practice that you can do daily. When you get up early in the morning, just sit on your bed and think, "No matter what happens during the day, I am going to love myself. I'm not going to take any negativity from this world. I'm going to empty my bin and take a new bin to this world." If you keep all the bad things and trash in your bin for a long time, what will happen? It will start to smell. But if you remove all the trash every single day and make it clean, then it's very easy to live, very easy to be peaceful within. So, practice self-compassion and self-love to build a strong mindset.

Some people think that people who easily lose their temper, people who show their toughness and rudeness, they have a strong mindset. But no, anger and showing this negativity is not a sign of strength; it's a sign of weakness. If you are easily triggered by people, if you're easily triggered by people's reactions, then it's not a strong mindset. A strong mindset is a mindset that is not disturbed by the ups and downs in your life. So, practice these simple steps, build a stable mindset, make your mind resilient, and finally, love yourself more than any other person in this world. When you practice these steps, you can build up a mindset that is unshaken by the ups and downs in your life. I wish you all may find happiness in your life.

I'm a bit tired.