Life is full of ups and downs, highs & lows, lights, and darkness. Today, life may seem smooth sailing, but the next day it may feel like a ship with a broken mast in an unforgiving typhoon. No matter your social or financial status, all of us have faced adverse times in our lives. If you are having one now, here are some Tips to Deal with Adverse Life Situations.
No matter what that means to you, hardships are a common part of life. Acquiring coping skills can help you deal with issues more skillfully. It’s possible that you’re experiencing financial difficulties.
On the other hand, a loved one can be struggling with a health problem. Maybe you’re having problems in a bad relationship, or maybe you lost your job. You may not be able to completely manage these difficulties, but you still have a choice in how they impact your feelings.
How To Deal with Adverse Life Situations
1. Keep A Cool Brain
One of the Tips to Deal with Adverse Life Situations is maintaining a cool brain. Whenever life knocks us down, most of our initial and natural reaction is to drown in despair, howl, and cry! That does more harm than good. The steps to deal with adverse life situations are:
- Analyzing the situation.
- Calculating your resources.
- Considering your skills and strengths.
- Creating a plan of damage control.
You can understand to do all these, you need a cool brain and your gift of logic. Without them, you will surely lose whatever control you have over the situation and the entire matter will be out of your hand. Our biggest weapon is our brain and our biggest gift is our rationality. To get out of any trouble, we need to use them productively.
2. Adjust And Address Your Mindset
A persistent idea that is unfounded in reality is called cognitive distortion. When you have cognitive distortions, you see things more negatively than they really are.
To some extent, cognitive distortions affect everyone. You might think negatively the more cognitive distortions you encounter. Because of these warped views, you may find it difficult to think favorably or objectively about particular situations.
The notion that you can and should control more than what you really can is known as the “control fallacy,” which is a prevalent cognitive mistake.
For instance, you could feel responsible even though you have no influence over your partner’s pleasure if they don’t enjoy their birthday. It is entirely up to your younger sibling to succeed in school; therefore, you can waste time and effort trying to force them to study.
Since you want to be in charge and in constant communication with the other person, it’s possible that people have labeled you as “needy” in relationships.
Your mind may be telling you that you have to be in control of every circumstance because you are accountable for other people or for what happens. However, it’s possible that you’re not as accountable as you believe.
It may be beneficial to learn to identify these ideas, which may enable you to quit worrying. It may be simpler for you to deal with your ideas if you realize that they aren’t totally accurate and logical. Upon realizing that some things are beyond your control, you may choose to let them go rather than attempt to exert control over them.
3. Remain Perspective-Oriented
The greatest teacher is a failure. It helps us to understand the harsh reality of life. Experiences force us to learn many difficult lessons about life.
It enables us to see the hidden aspects of life that we were previously unaware of. It makes the real face of life visible to us. As a result, we need to see negative experiences as opportunities to grow rather than reasons to be sad.
After a stock market fall, losing money is not a sign of bad luck. Instead, it’s an indication of your lack of business acumen. In the same way, failing in a love relationship does not always imply that you are a bad spouse.
Rather, it challenges you to take stock of your life and determine the shortcomings that make you an inadequate mate. Putting things in perspective is necessary to transform a crisis into a chance for personal development.
4. Recognize Things You Can Control
Recognizing things still under your control is one of the Ways to Deal with Adverse Life Situations. The notion that there are things beyond your control is the antithesis of the control fallacy. For instance, you could attribute events in your life that you might really control to other factors like destiny or other people.
Dealing with the things you cannot control may be made easier by recognizing the ones you can. People who have voiced dissatisfaction about events beyond their control need to be aware of the feelings involved and consider the areas of their lives that they are in charge of.
They will probably realize that they feel like they have more options in more areas. You may feel better if you acknowledge that you do have some influence over some aspects of your life. Weinstein suggests that doing what you can and giving up the rest could be helpful.
5. Practice Mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness is one of the vital Tips to Deal with Adverse Life Situations. The term “mindfulness” describes the practice of paying attention to the here and now, your location, and your feelings. Taking in your surroundings might help divert your attention from current uncontrollable issues.
In a society where we would much prefer to unplug by binge-watching TV or surfing through our phones, connecting with the body via mindfulness practices and breathing exercises is a good approach to feeling in control again and reducing stress. Practice mindfulness for ten minutes or more each day.
The ability to endure unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and sensations helps us transition from a sympathetic, stress-activated state to a more relaxed parasympathetic one. Your body rests and relaxes when the parasympathetic nervous system is triggered. You feel relaxed and your pulse, blood pressure, digestion, and breathing all calm down.
6. See Difficulties as a Challenge To Succeed
Even the most successful individuals have had crises. As a blind person, Helen Keller found it simpler to accept her condition and lead a typical life. She is, as far as is known, the first blind person to get a bachelor’s degree, but she did not allow her condition to stand in the way of her goals.
Stephen Hawking had the option of leading an inconspicuous life after his diagnosis with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). However, he retaliated and rose to prominence as a space scientist.
These amazing individuals were determined to alter their fate at any cost, in spite of all the obstacles they faced in life. With their winning mentality, they transformed their lives rather than giving up in the face of opposition.
7. Look For Inspirations
Looking for inspiration is one of the effective Ways to Deal with Adverse Life Situations. Inspirations are scattered all over the world. Your favorite movie star, sports person, or maybe your humble neighbor faced them and overcame them. Try to know their story and get inspired by their struggles and never-say-die attitude.
Do you know the creator of the ‘Potter-verse’ J.K. Rowling was so poor, she had to write some of her books in a cafe as she couldn’t afford home heating.
Before creating an empire called Disney, Walt Disney was fired from a local newspaper, for not being ‘creative enough’! Our Star Lord Chris Pratt was so poor he had to live in a van! Even funny man Jim Carrey was homeless once.
These are just some of the successful people who faced adversity and conquered it to be household names. Look around you, you may find many more stories.
Maybe the cashier in your favorite coffee shop is juggling between two jobs and an ailing mother. Maybe your shy colleague is skipping her launch to save money for college for her son. Instances and stories like these are all around us. Know them and get inspired.
Some Movies About Overcoming Adversity
Movies are an excellent source of inspiration and full of Tips to Deal with Adverse Life Situations. Here are some movies if you are looking for some inspiration to handle adverse times:
- Rocky: Streaming on Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar.
- Remember the Titans: Streaming on Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar.
- Chef: Streaming on Prime Video, Netflix.
- Forrest Gump: Streaming on Prime Video, Netflix.
- The Pursuit of Happyness: Streaming on Prime Video, Netflix.
- 8 Mile: Streaming on Prime Video, Netflix.
- 12 Years a Slave: Streaming on Prime Video, Netflix.
- The Man Who Knew Infinity: Streaming on Prime Video, AppleTV.
- Life Of Pi: Streaming on Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar.
- Lion: Streaming on Prime Video, Netflix.
- The Martian: Streaming on Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar.
- My Left Foot: Streaming on Prime Video, JustWatch.
FAQs
Q: It seems adversity in my life never ends; why does it happen?
A: Periods of adversity may seem never-ending. Positivity and resilience are needed here.
Q: Can adverse time be prevented?
A: No matter who you are, or what your social & financial status is, adversity will come. It can’t be prevented.
Q: Is it possible to stay positive in the face of adversity?
A: It is hard but not impossible. Positiveness, hard work, and resilience can end adversity.
