The secret to POSITIVITY

Boost your outlook on life to help you handle the tough times

You’ve heard the saying, ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!’ It’s all about seeing the silver lining in a bad situation and finding the strength to deal with life’s knocks. But to do this, you need resilience. That’s the magic ingredient that helps you cope with everyday stresses, as well as getting you 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. As it turned out, the majority of us (64%, according to the Mental Health Foundation) coped surprisingly well. But we ought not take our resilience for granted – it’s something we need to work on to keep it topped up and healthy. Here’s what can help…

How to bounce back

You may find it difficult to believe, but how quickly and how easily you recover from terrible life experiences has a lot to do with your outlook.

‘You always have a choice. You can let your life become paralysed by constantly dwelling on what has gone wrong – or you can decide to learn from the experience and move on,’ explains Professor Margareta James, of the Harley Street Wellbeing Clinic. ‘For example, if you lose your job, you can choose to feel like a failure, forever beating yourself up. Or you can refocus and start thinking about what you can do with the rest of your working life. This is the often life-changing difference between how some people become depressed while others are able to bounce back.’