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Mental Toughness: a simple picture book that helps you get out of a mental rut, recommended for the glassy-eyed

Psychology

By Gracie J OwenPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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Mental Toughness: a simple picture book that helps you get out of a mental rut, recommended for the glassy-eyed
Photo by Jessica Felicio on Unsplash

Are you one of those people?

You can't be awake in the morning without caffeine.

you have been traumatised and it will always affect you internally

You become resentful because of various worries

you have to resort to alcohol or drugs in order to fall asleep.

If you have three or more of these descriptions, then it is very likely that you are a mentally resilient person.

This may be the first time you've heard the term 'mental toughness' and you're not quite sure what happens when it's not.

Don't worry, this picture book called Mental Toughness, The Power of Rebound will cure you.

It is produced by the Black Dog Institute, the world's only independent mental health organisation specialising in all-age mental health.

It specialises in the study of mood disorders, particularly depression and bipolar disorder, and it hopes to help more people achieve mental health and well-being by applying psychological knowledge to people's everyday lives in a series of simple ways.

Author Matthew Johnstone Johnstone has published a book called 'I have a black dog called depression', in which Matthew tells of his depression, an illness that haunts him like a black dog.

Depression makes Matthew uninterested in everything and not want to do anything; he is depressed all day without a smile; he can't sleep at night; he doesn't want to communicate with people and is afraid of being laughed at.

His world was far more negative than positive and the more he tried to fight it, the more aggressive the 'black dog' became.

It is not until Matthew thinks of change, he chooses a professional doctor, he lives a regular life and exercises that the black dog mellows down and stops fighting him and ruining his life.

The book resonated with many readers and made Matthew realise that when one has strong mental toughness (resilience), one can effectively address one's psychological problems and mental barriers.

Mental resilience refers to a person's ability to recover from setbacks, learn from failures, gain motivation from challenges and the belief that he or she can overcome any stress or difficulty in life.

This ability is important to everyone.

For as long as one lives, there are nine out of ten things that are not as good as they should be.

Stress, difficulties, setbacks, misfortune and pain can appear in our lives at any time.

When faced with these factors, everyone handles them differently.

Some people are weak and desperate and are simply defeated by adversity. Some people, on the other hand, are more and more courageous and always manage to fight back and rise again.

Behind this is a difference in mental toughness.

General Patton said, "The measure of a man's success is not how high he reaches the top, but how well he bounces back when he hits the bottom."

When mental toughness is good, we are more likely to bounce back up from the bottom of our lives and find the good in life again.

To improve our mental toughness, we need to do these four things.

The first step is to acknowledge the existence of the problem.

Matthew says bluntly in his book that we need to be honest with ourselves and with others.

Honesty means not avoiding the problem, not being the ostrich that buries its head in the sand, hiding its little head while its whole body is still out there.

Problems don't go away just because you avoid them, they just become a thorn in your side. Facing the problem head on, accepting that you are in a slump, admitting that you have hit a rough patch, facing the problem bravely and speaking up about it is the first step to solving it.

The second step is to take positive self-care.

The second important part of developing mental resilience is to have compassion for yourself, to understand your situation and to care for yourself.

To put it bluntly, this means being kind to yourself.

For example, stick to physical exercise, get a good night's sleep, learn to relax and meditate, enjoy foods that make you happy, socialise with people who make you feel relaxed and comfortable, and seek their help.

Problems may not be solved quickly, but taking care of yourself first is the only way to calm down and stay at peace.

The third step is to learn to be grateful.

We often feel like we are "losing out" because we are often in need of what we can't get.

This negativity can greatly affect our mindset, making us feel resentful and unlucky for not having what we want.

Instead of focusing on what we have lost, what we can't get, or the mistakes we have made, such as not being able to afford a big house, not being able to drive a luxury car, not getting a pay rise, etc., it is hard to be happy.

Instead, we should look at the things we have, such as the company of our family, the gathering of good friends, the good weather, the good health, and even a good night's sleep last night, all of which we should be grateful for and cherish.

By accumulating more of these things and being grateful, we can find more value in our lives.

Mental toughness is very important to everyone, and a certain level of mental toughness is essential for a person to be happy in life and successful in business.

Bill Gates once said, "Great success depends not on strength but on resilience".

When a person is mentally resilient, we can find these labels on them: dreaming, having goals, being caring and having friends.

We can try to learn from them and improve our mental toughness in repeated practice to help our own happy life.

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Gracie J Owen

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