Be Kind to Yourself!

I just want to touch base with a word about being kind to yourself…

Depending on your situation you may be experiencing the stresses of isolation, worry about your health, or that of family and friends.  You may be facing economic hardships.  If you are lucky you might only be struggling with working from home and keeping your household running despite the constraints.  All of these situations can cause us to demonstrate and, in the longer term, develop resilience.

A word about expectations… It is critical to manage your expectations at this time.  You must reconsider your expectations of yourself and others.  If you are feeling highly anxious and are somewhat numb from the changes you are facing, this is not the time when we get to pull resilience out of thin air and start to use it.  On the day of the marathon, for instance, you can use the endurance you developed during all those months or years of training. You don’t develop your strength during the struggle of the run but you get to use what you laid down in training. We only have access to the resilience we have already developed, through our past efforts and experiences.  So expect, at least in the short term, to just “get through it”.  You need to hang on tight and do what seems to make sense in the moment. 

Be kind to yourself and don’t expect to breeze through without hitting any bumps.  

In terms of those around you, your family, friends and co-workers are also in this state of upset and they need your compassion rather than your judgement. 

Luckily, we have all built some degree of resilience, and we can and must use the resilience muscles we already have to help ourselves and those around us. Feel free to use the self-assessment available through The Resilience Way to remind yourself about the strengths you have already.

And hang in there!