It might feel uncomfortable, but the anticipation is often worse than the event — a term discussed by Harvard Medical Schoolas 'cognitive distortion,' which means your internal mental filters fuel anxiety based on previous experience. 3. Repeat, repeat, repeat Upon completion of the self-paced course, you will be awarded a certificate and can use the extensive library of tools, worksheets, videos, and presentations to teach resiliency.

That doesn't mean you won't experience down days, but mental toughness techniques could improve your response to them, and according to Dr. Hashish, there's more than one way to do it. Mental toughness can be measured using the MTQ48 Psychometric Tool, constructed by Professor Peter Clough of Manchester Metropolitan University. The MTQ48 Tool is scientifically valid and reliable and based on this 4C’s framework, which measures key components of mental toughness. The 4 C’s of Mental Toughness: 1. Control There would be thousands of lives saved every year if people felt able to talk about mental ill-health. Strycharczyk (2015) finds it useful to think of the difference in terms of the phrase ‘survive and prosper.’ Resilience helps you to survive, and mental toughness helps you to prosper.Skills to be learned will depend on the individual. For example, some might benefit from improving cognitive skills such as working memory or selective attention, which will help with everyday functioning. Others might benefit from learning new hobbies activities through competency-based learning. Poor mental strength saps our energy and motivation. We feel like no matter what we try to do, bad things happen and nothing ever works out. Yes, it's possible to increase mental strength. And by regularly practicing a set of mindset tools, you could develop resilience and improve mental wellbeing without sacrificing your health.

A 90-minute walk in nature, if you’re a city dweller, has been shown to reduce rumination or repetitive negative thoughts. The OS Maps app, which helps you plan hikes and walks, has a ‘Greenspace’ function that identifies nearby parks, nature reserves and public gardens, wherever you are in the UK. 04. Curb Your News Time So how can we improve ours? Baumeister's big idea, now borne out by hundreds of ingenious experiments in his and other social psychologists' labs, is that willpower – the force by which we control and manage our thoughts, impulses and emotions and which helps us persevere with difficult tasks – is actually rather like a kind of moral muscle. These techniques slow down the instinct to react so that you can assess decisions more methodically, and while you might not notice straight away, like building muscle, it develops over time. On the other hand, people who are mentally strong have a high internal locus of control. That means that they believe that they have control over their circumstances. That sense of control motivates them to keep trying, growing, and looking for solutions. Resilient people don’t give up easily.Anxiety is about the future (will I hit this deadline?) and the past (did I mess up in that meeting?). To anchor yourself to the present, former monk Jay Shetty, author of Think Like A Monk, recommends that you make a mental note of the following when your mind starts to race: 02. Astound Yourself You’re excited about a presentation that you’ll be giving soon to the leaders of your company. You’re rehearsing your slides, and your friend points out a flaw in your strategy. You’re completely thrown off, and you’ve put weeks of hard work into preparing for this. Do you have time to rethink your entire presentation? Many factors contribute to resilience, but studies have shown that the primary factor is having supportive relationships within and outside of the family. Relationships that are caring, loving, and offer encouragement and reassurance, help cultivate a person’s resilience. Children with a strong moral compass and value system will be better able to make healthy decisions. You can help by instilling values such as honesty and compassion, and creating learning opportunities that reinforce these values, regularly. 7. Make Gratitude a Priority