Are you Resilient?

(oops didn't mean to post this yet, but now you get a preview.)

Life will always have its ups and downs. Becoming more resilient will help us manage.

(This is another excerpt from my upcoming book.)

Resiliency involves the ability to adapt to changes, overcome challenges, and maintain a positive outlook despite setbacks.

Building resilience can help you navigate the transition into retirement and manage the various emotional, physical, and social changes that may arise.

Here are strategies to help you develop and maintain resiliency:

1.????? Embrace a Positive Mindset

Embracing a positive mindset involves consciously shifting your perspective and cultivating habits that foster optimism.

I have known several people in my life for whom I can say that if they didn’t have bad luck they wouldn’t have any luck at all. It seemed that life was constantly throwing difficulties and roadblocks in their way. Yet they stayed positive and kept moving forward anyway.? I always found this to be amazing. Little did I realize that we can actually build this kind of mindset for ourselves.

Here are some practical tips to help:

• Gratitude: Regularly reflect on what you’re grateful for. Keeping a journal can help you focus on the positive aspects of your life, shifting your attention away from the challenges.
• Focus on Solutions, Not Problems: Focus on what you can control and take steps to improve the situation. What is one thing you can do today that will make tomorrow better?
• Surround Yourself with Positivity: Engage with people, media and environments that uplift you. The energy around you can influence your mindset.
• Celebrate your Wins: Recognize and celebrate even small achievements. This helps you stay motivated and reinforces positive thinking.
• Cultivate Self-Compassion: Be kind to yourself, especially when you make mistakes or things aren’t going well. Treat yourself with the same compassion you would offer a friend.

Embracing a positive mindset can take some patience and some practice. Don’t give up.

2.????? Stay Physically Active

Being physically active is not only good for your body, but also helps you develop mental and emotional strength.? They are all intertwined and important for building overall resiliency.

Here are 3 ways staying physically active will help:

• Improves Stress Management: There are many studies that have proven that regular exercise helps manage stress by helping your body remain calm and focused under pressure.
• Enhances Mental Toughness: Challenging physical activity forces you to push through discomfort. Over time this helps build mental toughness, teaching you to overcome obstacles and setbacks in other areas of your life.
• Improves Emotional Regulation: ?Regular exercise helps balance hormones and regulate emotions, thus enabling you to stay calm.

It is important to prioritize our physical health because how we feel physically has a big impact on how we feel emotionally and psychologically. Everything is connected and when one aspect is out of balance we feel it in the other areas of our lives.

3.????? Cultivate Strong Social Connections

Studies have shown that the number 1 factor in overall happiness is the strength of your relationships. It isn’t about how many people you are connected with, but the quality of those relationships and how connected you feel to a community.

Unfortunately, many of us lose a lot of social connections when we retire if we have not already built friendships that don’t center around our jobs. Here are 3 quick tips on how you can strengthen your social network.

• Focus on existing relationships: Regular phone calls, video chats or in person visits on a regular basis can strengthen existing relationships. Create a goal to interact with 1 person each week until you have established a rhythm and network that feels right.
• Join Groups: Join groups for retirees or groups around a specific interest. This will not only help you meet new people but will keep you mentally and intellectually stimulated.
• Volunteering: Volunteering offers a sense of contribution and connection to the community.

Staying socially connected impacts our cognitive health as well as our sense of happiness.? When we have a strong support network, we are better able to manage through the difficulties life will inevitably send our way because we have people who help us when we need it.

4.????? Maintain Mental and Cognitive Health

I got a call from my brother that my father had fallen down again and was on his way to the hospital. This was not the first time in the space of 6 months that my father had collapsed. Happily, the story ends with him making a full recovery.

What we didn’t realize at the time was that because my father had been so isolated (this was during the pandemic) not only was his physical health effected, but his mental and cognitive health as well. He was combative, paranoid and very difficult to deal with.

Again, a happy ending to the story. When we were able to interact again with people my father’s cognitive abilities returned.

Deteriorating cognitive function is NOT just an aspect of getting older. The way that we access memories and other information does change, but change does not mean less.

Think of your memory as a library.? When you are young the library is small, and it is easy to find any given book (fact or memory).? The older you get the bigger the library and sometimes it takes time to find the right book.

There are things we can do to maintain our cognitive health.? Here are 3 tips:

• Lifelong Learning: Pursue learning opportunities. This could be classes, workshops, or online courses. It also includes learning a new skill, language, musical instrument or anything else that stretches you mentally.
• Cognitive Challenges: Engage in activities that challenge your mind, such as puzzles, reading, writing, or learning new skills.
• Stay Physically Active: Our physical health impacts our cognitive health. Stay as active as your health allows.

When we maintain our cognitive health, it allows us to have a better quality of life and enjoy ourselves.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating. Being busy isn’t the same thing as having a purpose. We can fill our days with activities, but if there isn’t a purpose they will become an endless list of things that need to get done.

There is no joy in being busy.

Building resiliency involves a holistic approach that includes maintaining physical health, fostering social connections, engaging in lifelong learning, and adopting a positive mindset. By proactively addressing these areas, you can better navigate the changes and challenges that come with retirement and enjoy a fulfilling life.

Thanks for reading this excerpt from my upcoming book. If you are interested in reading the unpublished version to give feedback, please click the link below.

The Blank Page - Beta Read