photo sourceEvery one of us has different stories of success, failures, and sufferings. Since we have different life experiences, that means that we also have different coping mechanisms when we experience difficult circumstances.
While others might live their life to the fullest and can easily overcome all the challenges that come along their way, others were struggling to deal with every single obstacle that life throws at them. Being in an unavoidable, hopeless, and even in a common annoying situation, it’s our inner strength that helps us deal with those situations and lets us respond to it wisely, mindfully, and compassionately.
WHAT IS INNER STRENGTH?
Inner strength is the ability to handle those difficult challenges that life throws at us and having a core strength to hold on amidst hopeless and critical situations. It is also the capability to deal with difficult people with understanding and compassion.
As we overcome every single challenge, we are able to develop our inner strength. As human beings, we normally think of ways for us to conquer those obstacles; how we can deal with different types of people (mostly those who we dislike), and how we can respond to it positively.
Each one of us is struggling differently and we also find our inner strength in different ways such as strong faith in God, our loved ones and friends, meditation, or our optimism in life.
photo sourceHaving inner strength is important because life is not all roses. No matter how peaceful our lives are, a day will come that we will be disturbed. Storms will hit us and waves will try to make us drown. But the stronger the storm that we overcome, the stronger we become.
HOW DO YOU FIND INNER STRENGTH?
MY EXPERIENCE
I was on the verge of dying countless times and it is my inner strength that helped me survive.
The most challenging time of my life was when I was still studying in college. What stresses me out are not the lessons but finding a job for me to support myself and my studies. I have countless part-time jobs back then and I believe that my inner strength started to develop during that time.
I was so full of hatred at that time. I hated my life and the world for giving me those obstacles that I thought I don't deserve. I even asked God before, “Why do you let me suffer? Why couldn’t I live normally like the others? Why do I have to experience all of this?”
I was living with hatred not until I’ve realized why I experienced those trials. I’ve realized that I’ve been given those sufferings for me to become stronger because I would be facing more of it along the way. My greatest turning point was when I felt that God helped me in my most hopeless situation.
It was my last semester in college and I was on the brink of losing my studies because I couldn’t find another part-time job before the semester starts. It broke my heart thinking that all my hardship from day 1 will come to waste so easily. I keep on trying to figure out what to do and when there seems to be no way, I finally thought of giving up. When I was ready to give up, that’s when a miracle happened.
One of my professors offered me to be a secretary in their review center. I was also given a free board exam review after they knew that among my batchmates, I was the only one who didn’t enroll and has no plan on taking the board exam.
My life has revolved around working as a secretary in the morning, attend my board exam review in the afternoon, attend my college class in the evening, and would do our thesis late at night until dawn.
When I survived that, it turned me to become optimistic. Life seems to love me finally. I was full of gratitude and positivity towards life. Not until I experienced an existential crisis three years ago that got me so depressed. It’s also when I felt odd emotions that I’ve come to realize later on that I am an empath.
I became so lost and empty. I’ve been finding meaning to life and all I wanted is to know my purpose here on earth.
photo sourceMost of the time, when I am in a hopeless and even in a stressful situation, I can’t help but think of dying for me to escape from those unwanted circumstances. I’ve been resisting the challenges that life throws at me. I kept on overthinking and I can’t help myself being clouded by negative emotions. And when I’m overwhelmed and confused, I would cry in silence while thinking of giving up.
My worst experience was when I had a mental breakdown that made me unintentionally visualize horrifying things like cutting wrists, overdosing with tablets, running towards a vehicle and be hit, and hanging myself. I cried so hard because I couldn’t sleep that night, and my brain was so active that it keeps repeating those scenes. I had visualized those things before, but that night was very different. The urge was too intense and I felt like I fell into the depth of emptiness. It scared the hell out of me.
Amidst those emotional breakdowns, I’m still glad that my inner strength would come to rescue me before it's too late. I was also glad that I have someone to check on me because my inner strength would come from him most of the time. My boyfriend's understanding and love would give me the strength to hold on and continue to live life.
CONCLUSION
It’s hard to deal with life’s challenges especially that not everyone would try to understand us. People would find it easy to judge than to understand other people. But it’s ok, what’s important is that we’ve learned to understand ourselves and others.
One thing that I’ve learned from my experiences is to accept who you are and the challenges that are thrown at you. Resisting to the obstacles will just let us feel more negativity while being open to what life gives us will let us experience more abundance in life.
Healing will begin from accepting our challenges and sufferings down to understanding and loving ourselves more amidst our flaws and imperfections.
I hope everyone who are in a hopeless situation right now will find their inner strength and will choose to see the light outside the tunnel.
The storm will pass and the rainbow will come. Just hold on. :)
This is my entry to @ecoTrain's Question of the Week. Read it here and share what's your response to the question: What Is Inner Strength and How Do You Find It?
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