The secrets of being POSITIVE

How to strengthen your resilience and cope well with whatever life throws your way

- KAREN EVENNETT

You know the saying, ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!’ It’s all about looking for the positives in any situation, making sure life’s adversities don’t bring you down, and finding the strength to bounce back.

But in order to do any of those things you need resilience. That’s the magic ingredient that enables you to cope with the normal stresses of life, as well as helping you to get through crises – and it’s something we have all learnt more about over the past two years.

Pre-pandemic, we may have had no idea whether, faced with traumatic events, we would bear up or buckle. The prospect of being locked down and separated from our loved ones was something we’d never had to think about.

As it turned out, the majorityof us (64%, according to the Mental Health Foundation) coped surprisingly well. But we can’t take our resilience for granted. We all need to work at keeping it topped up and healthy – ready for whatever else life may throw our way.

FIND YOUR INNER WARRIOR!

If you’ve never tried yoga, you may be surprised to discover that it’s more than just a physical workout. ‘For example, Warrior 2 is a great pose for building confidence and enhancing your inner strength,’ says Eve Menezes Cunningham, a trauma therapist and author of 365 Ways to Feel Better (£12.99, White Owl). ‘The posture burns off stress hormones while also enabling you to stay present with whatever’s happening – and that’s essential for building resilience. If you tend to give up easily, learning to hold this pose can help to bring strength to your everyday life.’

BODY MATTERS