When we are resilient, we are feeling at our best to deal with the inevitable hard things and experiences that come our way. When we are pro-actively prioritizing our resilience factor, we understand that bad things happen, and we bounce back from adversity and Be Better than when we started.
Self-Worth is knowing your value – accurately. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses in balance with compassion and pride. A sense of appreciation of our human qualities and while always aiming to be our best selves, we concurrently recognize we will all make mistakes. Good people make mistakes, which become if we so choose, life lessons.
How are Resilience and Self-Worth connected? When we are not “game on” and not our most resilient, we are not as connected with ourselves and our experiences. The brain, when even somewhat stressed, has a negative working bias. We become harsh and more critical of ourselves, which only perpetuates more negative thoughts and poor responses to life events.
Ideally, our thoughts and feelings are balanced. We can access both sides of our brain and logically assess ourselves, others, and situations. We can choose to respond instead of reacting. If we are not practicing constant sources of self-care at least part of every day, our resilience factor, and feelings of self-worth decline.
Think of a time when you felt rested, relaxed, positive and happy! You were probably able to go with the flow and was able handle whatever comes your way. You are exercising your strengths and own a sense of confidence about yourself. During our “off days” the Inner Critic wakes up and we are much more likely to beat ourselves up! Our self talk contains harsh words we probably would never say to another person.
Resilient people acknowledge the need to actively take special care of mind, body, soul. Resilient people self reflect and notice when they are feeling “off”, take stock of their thoughts, and put in an action plan. Whether it be to reach out to a friend, deep breath, journal, walk, sleep, listen to a podcast, and the list goes on. We are surrounded with multiple sources of stress and life can be beyond challenging. Maintaining our resilience factor will boost self worth and vice versa.
Great quote! “Where the awareness goes, Energy Flows” ~ Dandapani.
When our brain is in the negative bias, the awareness is all tunnel vision through a distorted lens. Yes, we all have faults and make mistakes! Acknowledge these during a relevant time and take responsibility. Then, balance your thoughts and broaden the lens to also include all your strengths! For example, if you didn’t get promoted for a desired position the brain may be quick to cut yourself to shreds. “I am not good enough. I am so stupid. I shouldn’t have even applied”.
With balanced thinking, accessing your logical side, you instead say, “I have a ton of strengths. Maybe this wasn’t the right time or job for me?” And seek information. Perhaps, the interviewers let you know you could improve your interview skills or take a course to add to your skill set. Or they could ask you to please apply again because you are a fantastic candidate. Notice Your Thoughts. Weigh the evidence. Self Reflect – are my thoughts fear or fact?
And… these are all the natural qualities we all exercise when we are Resilient.
Another key factor to note, when we are resilient not only are we kinder to ourselves, but we are also kinder to others.
How are you flexing your Resiliency muscle?
Best, Sherry
