17 May It shouldn’t end, even when you’ve “got through” a difficult situation
Quite rightly, many words have been written and spoken about getting through difficult times.
We all want to be happy, but happiness can seem difficult during difficult times, and we all experience difficult times. That’s life. And that’s why it’s so important to learn how to cope and how to be resilient.
But too often, too many leave things there. The advice stops once you’re “through” or once the stressor is “over”.
And yet, there’s much important work still to be considered, there’s much more we can do to foster and develop more happiness and more resilience for the future.
To what am I referring?
Well, at the very least, we should pause and rest.
Getting through difficult times is, by definition, and at the risk of stating the obvious, difficult. And it can be tiring and exhausting so it’s important to set aside at least a bit of time to rest and recover and recuperate.
Even better, is if we can take some time to reflect and learn.
Ideally, we should try to ask ourselves (1) what we did well and (2) what we could do better.
Giving ourselves credit for our strengths and attributes, for the efforts we made to survive and thrive, is important, and motivating and inspiring. As too can be searching for lessons and looking for ways to be even better next time around.
So, by all means, do all you can to get through crises as well as you can but also, do all you can to make even just a bit of time to reward yourself and make space for yourself to grow and improve. In doing so, we might get through that next difficulty, and there will be a next difficulty, just a little better.