How Your Mindset Helps In Coping With Difficult Situations

Sometimes you encounter a speed bump, and in your mind, you see Mount Everest. It becomes an obstacle that seems insurmountable. You feel overwhelmed, putting you into a state of mental paralysis, and you are afraid to take action.

The same happens when you face challenges in your relationships, conflicts at work, or especially when experiencing job loss. When negative feelings develop, it can be challenging to view individuals and circumstances objectively. These emotions can cause a decline in your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Likewise, you might experience unexpected health challenges that can be frightening. In addition to the pain, suffering, or loss they cause, their possibility of becoming permanent or even fatal heightens your anxiety. Unfortunately, this often causes you only to view the negatives, which clouds your better judgment.

It all seems so overwhelming when you focus on the negative aspects of the obstacle. But, unfortunately, the result is a myopic view of how unfair life is treating you.

Changing Your Focus

Focusing your thoughts on negative stressors makes it even more challenging to get out of that downward spiral. However, once you find ways to cope, you will start seeing things from a more positive viewpoint.

The key is to change how you view things to stop the feelings of helplessness and anxiety, as that only makes you feel emotionally and mentally exhausted. If you don’t develop a coping mechanism, you might shut yourself off from family or friends, and your performance at work could suffer as a result.

Can A Mentor Help?

Find someone to help you change your perspective on life. Ideally, they should be like a coach or a mentor for you. However, that mentor should be someone with a positive mindset who has faced and learned from their own difficult times.

Mentors will often look at you, view your situation from a different perspective, and see things you don’t see from your vantage point. Those could be your strengths and weaknesses or attitudes that need to be worked on to achieve better results. Frequently, they have the wisdom and experience to find the opportunities you are equipped to succeed at doing.

There’s almost always something that you can learn from challenging situations, and the mentor can help point those out to you. How you handle your struggles and the lessons learned offers you an opportunity for personal, emotional, mental, and spiritual growth.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

There is a silver lining in the struggles that you face. As Napoleon Hill once said:” Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

For example, losing your job could mark the beginning of trying something new that you had considered but not dared to do. But on the other hand, there are many examples of entrepreneurs or business people who have become highly successful after being turned down or fired from a job.

Two good examples are bestselling author J.K. Rowling and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton.

J.K. Rowling was a down-and-out single mother who was turned down 12 times by different publishers before her “Harry Potter” manuscript finally found a publisher and became a Nr. 1 Bestseller leading to sales of the series exceeding billions of copies worldwide. At the time of this article, she is listed as the wealthiest woman in the world.

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton was turned down by both Facebook and Twitter when he applied there for jobs. Shortly after being rejected, he became co-creator of WhatsApp in 2009, which was later sold to Facebook for $16 billion.

He found the seed of opportunity within his adversity and wrote: “Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life’s next adventure.”

Both of these people didn’t view their situations as Mount Everest but instead took them as a speed bump in the road on their path to success. It’s all how you look at it.

On The Homefront

The painful loss of a partner or loved one through separation, or even death often leads to the recognition that you need to love yourself more. Likewise, leaving an unhappy relationship can open a new door to a more fulfilling and loving one.

Having a chaotic household will lead you to set boundaries in relationships by learning how to say “no“ to those who take advantage of your goodness. It can also lead you to learn better time management and organizational skills like creating a to-do list or hiring a life coach.

Developing a chronic illness might lead you to look into a coping mechanism such as meditation, acupuncture, and regular exercise. In addition, research has proven that a positive outlook or mindset increases the chances of healing and faster recovery.

The placebo effect can also help speed up the recovery process. This is a phenomenon in which a person experiences an improvement in their symptoms, even though they are receiving a treatment with no active ingredients or therapeutic value.

Research has shown that the placebo effect is not just “mind over matter.” It is a complex neurobiological process that involves the release of endorphins, dopamine, and other natural chemicals in the brain that can help alleviate pain and improve mood.

Although placebos have been proven to affect the healing process positively, it is important to note that this effect is not a substitute for medical treatment and should not be relied on as the sole means of treating an illness or condition.

Conversely, a negative attitude or mindset usually prolongs or worsens the illness. A negative mindset can lead to increased stress and anxiety, suppressing the immune system and making it harder for the body to heal.

Furthermore, negative thoughts can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the patient expects a negative outcome and experiences one, even if the treatment is effective.

The Result

Whether you choose a mentor, self-help books, or personal experience, it is important to remember that your mindset is the key to coping with difficult situations. The world is full of endless possibilities, so be sure to view them with the right mindset.

So as you view the challenges you face today, take a step back and recognize them for what they are: a speed bump. They will create an up and down in your life, and if you look for the seed of opportunity, you will probably recognize the blessings and benefits they bring with them.