Handling Stress in Tough Situations

It’s inevitable that at one time or another, life will punch you hard in the gut. No one is immune to tragedy or failure. Whether you’re currently reeling in response to a huge blow, or wondering how you may handle that situation when it comes along—here are 7 strategies that seem to help people who have walked through their toughest moment and made it to the other side with increased passion and purpose.

What sets these people who ‘go the extra mile’ apart from those who give up and simply go through the motions instead of rising with renewed purpose to go on? ‘Extra mile’ people share similar traits; you, too, can adopt these 7 strategies to get going when the going gets tough:

1. Don’t quit on life: Tragedy may have struck, huge mistakes may have been made, but the world continues. People who have walked successfully over life’s hot-coal moments always keep going. They don’t quit living.
2. Live day-by-day: It’s easy to get overwhelmed by ‘What am I going to do now?’ But go the extra-mile by focusing on the present. Don’t let thoughts of how you’re going to deal with tomorrow defeat you.
3. Find support: Forge relationships with positive, move-forward type people. Survivors trigger positive energy to flow back into their lives.
4. Get involved again: Avoid isolation. Transcend life’s tragedies by not choosing isolation when life knocks you down. It’s easy to want to hide in a cave after something bad happens, but the longer we stay in the cave, the more challenging it is to ever leave it.
5. Remain optimistic: Support yourself with your own words and actions. Don’t let negative self-talk rule your thinking, and do not surrender to negative, self-defeating emotions.
6. Trust your faith and look for a higher purpose in your loss: Believe that there is a stronger power at work in the world. Faith in a higher power and yourself works miracles in overcoming bad events.
7. Seek to add value to the world: People who have weathered a life storm recognize the opportunity to re-evaluate their own contribution to the world. They use their event not as a forever defeat, but rather as an igniting spark to do something meaningful.