Crises not only bring fear, anger and sadness - they can also strengthen us. We should therefore use the current situation for our own further development in order to be able to deal better with such exceptional circumstances in the future. What have you learned from the crisis?
Strong through crises
Termination of employment, divorce from spouse or loss of a loved one - there are many negative experiences that we can encounter in life. What often follows is fear, anger, grief. However, this blog is about the realization that it is possible to build a positive coping strategy through those challenging situations. Resilience, i.e. inner strength, we only achieve when we have been confronted with stress and have found a way to deal with it well.
Difficult life situations make us strong
We all still remember that image of horror: a metropolis lies in ruins, people run helplessly around to seek shelter from the threatening dust cloud. In the background the burning World Trade Center. An absolute state of emergency, a catastrophe that nobody had expected. A study with survivors or the relatives of the victims of 9/11 shows that those who have already coped with negative life events, such as serious illness or loss, have developed fewer mental secondary diseases than those who had not experienced them before.
This means: life experience and personal growth arise where one has experienced difficult situations and had failures that were mastered positively. What characterises this is rather the failures and their solution than successes and things that get off our hands easily.
Crisis as an opportunity for personal development
The current situation is also a challenge, whether in terms of human interaction, insecurity or existential threats and the fear of losing one's job. All these burdens require the building of a resilience that will enable us to get out of the victim role. It is about getting into the realm of our own influence - because we cannot change the current circumstances.
So I come out of life crises much better if I focus in these phases on what drives me and offers me stability, be it family, partnership, relationships - precisely what I can rely on.
Inner strength is created above all when we move outside our comfort zone; this is where our growth takes place - and the current crisis is taking many of us out of our comfort zone. This forces us to enter the so-called stretch zone and we learn to develop coping mechanisms for "states of emergency", to deal with stress. As a result, we succeed in gaining control over various stressors and as a result we learn to deal with them better in everyday life.
Conclusion
We should recognize this crisis for our personal growth, our own development. Working on our emotional balance, the ability not to take things too seriously, a certain flexibility and perseverance, as well as a fundamentally optimistic view of things help us in this. In particular, it is our social relationships - through various channels - that help us to come out of this phase of life stronger - they give us support, meaning and structure, especially in uncertain times.
Start where you are!
Use what you have!
Do what you can!