How to Make Yourself Stronger and Better to Face Crisis

I don’t take the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic lightly…both from a health standpoint and the financial impact it’s having nationwide. When it all started, we thought it was going to be a short-term problem and a few weeks of quarantine…then back to life. But, we’re still a long way off from things being back to normal. 

And I’m not saying that this is all not weighing on me…it definitely is…but I recently started thinking about what good has come from this situation. You can’t change the situation, but you can control how you react to the crisis and CAN emerge stronger. 

To make yourself stronger and better to face this crisis or difficult times, here’s what I suggest you do: 

1. Develop a Morning Routine

I use my morning routine as a time to invest in myself every day…not just to have a list of things to tick off. I work on my mindset during the first hour I’m awake so I can set the tone for my whole day. It’s much easier to be productive (and positive) when I’ve started my day off by investing in myself for the here-and-now and the future.

2. Journal How The Crisis Makes You Feel

As part of my daily routine, I spend a few minutes journaling…usually about what I’ve learned in lessons from DarrenDaily. But…there’s a lot of benefit to writing out the way you feel, especially to help you emerge stronger from this COVID-19 pandemic or from any other future crisis. 

Zoey, over at The Positive Author, writes about cognitive journaling and how you can use it to help your emotions. She defines cognitive journaling as active journaling where you write about events, in the world or your personal life, and explore the way it makes you feel. Once you identify your feelings about the event, you can work to change your emotions towards it. 

If you’re dealing with anxiety and fear about the current events (which many people are), then cognitive journaling is a great step in changing your mindset long-term. 

3. Meditate and Repeat Affirmations

I’m passionate about focused meditating every day for 10 minutes. I use the Insight Timer to guide my time of meditation. For the first 7 minutes, I focus on my breath and bring my mind back when it wanders….and for the last 3 minutes, I add in my daily affirmations. 

Practicing meditation calms you and gets rid of any distractions (news, tv, social media), and lets your mind be quiet. I find that if I’m dealing with a problem or crisis in my life, a solution pops in my head when I’m meditating. 

If you don’t know where to start with creating a meditation routine, check out the Beginner’s Guide to Mediation that Jen over at Intentional Living put together. 

4. Avoid Negativity

As the saying goes…garbage in, garbage out. Fill your mind with negativity and it’ll come out of your mouth. There’s no way to stay positive and change your mindset when you’re constantly filling it with negative information. 

This means you may have to change your daily habits (like staying out of debates on Facebook) and limiting what you read. Instead of filling your mind with the negativity around you in the world from this pandemic…focus on things that inspire you and drive you to take action.  

5. Limit What News You Read

This is the same idea as avoiding negativity. There’s a lot of negativity coming out of the news stations right now, especially about COVID-19…so you need to limit what you read. I’ve actually shut it all down except for the daily newsletter I get that tells me about current events.

I know we were all focused on the news at the start of the pandemic…just trying to figure out what was going on. But…you can easily become obsessed with every new detail or speculation that comes out about this crisis and the world’s future. 

6. Focus On The Wins

In this time…I’ve chosen to focus on some of the wins that I have experienced in my personal and professional life. I don’t want to just survive, I want to thrive during this time. 

Here are the personal wins I have identified in my life:   

• Now that I’m working remotely from home…and my whole family (3 daughters and wife) are all home…for the first time ever, we eat dinner as a family every night and that’s been pretty cool.
• Life is a lot slower right now…almost like a reset…it’s nice to take a temporary break from always being so busy between life, work, and activities.
• I now have even more time to focus on personal development and training for my business. I recently bought into a sales and marketing program and I’m pouring myself into it.
• My whole team at my full-time job at Ballantine is working remotely and we’re joining forces to keep things moving forward for our clients during these difficult times. I see us coming out of this stronger as a team on the other side.
• Right now, “stuff” doesn’t matter and it’s kind of nice. My attention is laser beam focused on family, friends, business, health, relationships, and personal development.

If you haven’t done this already, write down the positives that have come from this time of crisis. 

7. Help Other People

There are a lot of people that are really struggling right now (emotionally, financially, etc.) that you can help. Look around and find ways to support others in this crisis. This is why I started Morning Upgrade. I thought…what better time than now to inspire others to develop a morning routine that could change their life?

I hope that you will create a morning routine…it will really help you! If you need ideas on how to get started, sign-up for my newsletter.

Here are the key takeaways I hope you got from this post: 

• Don’t watch the news 
• Develop a morning routine
• Journal how it makes you feel
• Daily meditation
• Avoid negativity
• Help others