You know you want to change and improve your life. But sometimes the pain and fear feel too great to keep going.
You wonder how you can weather the storm and if you have enough strength to keep pushing through.
If you’re asking yourself if you have any strength left, when you’re in a crisis, as I use to going through my own storms, then the question alone proves that you have more than enough strength to keep going.
You’re asking a question that proves that you haven’t given up on yourself and you’re really just digging deep to find the strength that is within you.
So how do you keep going when it feels too painful and not sure how?
Here’s my 4 strategies I used to keep going;
- I held to my vision of being ok, of being happy. This was crucial for me. It was often my last ray of hope that I would cling to with all that I had. Despite feeling an overwhelming sense of pain and not having a clue HOW I could possibly get through, I held to my vision. I held onto the hope I had for myself. The vision I had for my life, my future, that I wanted to have; that I knew I deserved to have.
- I talked it out – Anytime I felt that I was in crisis mode and was really struggling to keep it together, I would seek out someone that I could go to and be brutally honest about where I was in my life and how bad it was for me at that moment. I only sought out people who could see my strength even when I couldn’t. Who could see my courage even when I didn’t think I had any. I believed that those people who could see something in me had the better perspective than I did at that time and I trusted their judgement. It gave me comfort that someone believed in me. And at the time, that was worth it’s weight in gold.
- I asked for help. This is drawing on the previous step but going a little further. Ask people for help. People, friends, professionals that you trust and be prepared to hear sometimes what you don’t want to hear. Remembering that often when we’re in crisis mode or really struggling with our emotions, we lose perspective, we lose the ability to think clearly and rationally. So asking someone who is in a better head space for advice and help, gives you a different perspective than what you are capable of thinking of at that time.
- Read. Even in the midst of my own pain, I found solace in reading about other people’s journeys and how they came through their own personal struggles. This not only helped me to know that I wasn’t the only one going through hardship, but I would also discover and adopt other strategies they used to get through. Learning about others journeys helped me adopt a ‘if they can do it I can do it’ mindset. It gave me hope.
If you are struggling and don’t know how you can get through. Believe in the knowledge that you CAN do it. When you realise that there are literally thousands of people that have struggled and come through the other side, you know that you have the capability and strength to come through also.
Lifeline (Australia) is a fantastic free resource available to anyone at anytime.
I would encourage anyone who just needs to speak to someone to use this service.
There are many occasions where I can say that this service alone, truly saved my life.