It’s not always easy to find resilience. When you have the ground whipped out from beneath you, it’s easy feel helpless and think that you’ll never survive. You may feel that you no longer know who you are, or, what you want in life.

Challenges however offer us a great opportunity to find our inner strength and adapt to stressful times, to be there for yourself.

“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts” – Richard Bach.

Of course initially you might resist, refuse to accept what’s happening, feel like you want to run away from the world. However, there comes a time when you KNOW that only you can do what you need to do, and the tide turns. You can start by taking care of yourself, asking for support and finding your emotional strength.

Emotional resilience comes when you understand that other people can’t meet your emotional needs, that you need to let go of any habit of dependence so you can discover your own power and find fulfilment in your own creative self expression. It means feeling your feelings, all of them, letting the negative sit with the positive, and returning to balance. It means being kind, compassionate and understanding to yourself. It means keeping your heart open, finding small things to be thankful for. And, if you can hang on to your sense of humour, have a good laugh at yourself, that’s always a great way to reduce tension!

If, for some reason you’re feeling a sense of dread around Christmas, look at the good things that lift your spirits; and, if you’re on your own, reach out to someone, give them a call.

Who can you reach out to this Christmas?