How to Boost Your Resilience and Tackle Whatever Life Throws at You

Life, indeed, is unpredictable and full of unexpected challenges. For some, these events will destroy them, and others will persevere. How will you manage when the next unanticipated occurrence arrives? Hadassah True is our guest today, and she has some wise words on how to boost your resilience and tackle whatever life throws at you. She shares some intentional practices that will help you respond to life’s challenges with strength.

How to Boost Your Resilience and Tackle Whatever Life Throws at You

By Hadassah Treu

Life is unpredictable. In many aspects, it reminds me of the sea. One day the sea can be calm, and I enjoy bathing, gently embraced by the salt water that glides around my body like a silk robe. The next day, dangerous and unpredictable waves out of nowhere are tossing and turning me, leaving me breathless and helpless.

Having a firm footing and boosting our resilience to navigate life’s many challenges and obstacles is important. So, how can you increase your resilience and tackle whatever life throws at you?

Developing our ability and capacity to bond with God, ourselves, and others is the key to tackling whatever life throws at us. This bonding helps us live in a place of love and internal freedom, making us stable and resilient.

Bonding with God–The Practice of Remembering 

Bonding means developing a close and loving relationship, connection, and attachment with another being. For our resilience, it is vital to invest in our relationship with God as our Source of strength and security and have a good and constant connection with Him.

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Be Intentional

In the Old Testament, God has instituted ordained times or feasts for the people of Israel to remember Him and to connect with Him in fresh ways. Our Lord Jesus Christ has also instituted the Lord’s Supper–a remembrance and celebration of God’s salvation.

We must intentionally plan to seek God and remember Him throughout the day. The Bible is full of instructions to remember the Lord, His deeds, His power, His decrees, and His Word so we can keep it.

Remember What God Has Done

We are not only to remember or think about the Lord and His things when we are in trouble or anguish but also to make it a regular daily practice to connect with Him.

For example, the prophet Daniel had the daily practice of praying three times per day. David says in one of his psalms, “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.” (Psalm 119:164).

In the Old Testament, God instituted the morning and evening sacrifice in the temple. This practice demonstrates that connecting with God is vital, at least when we start and finish our day.

The New Testament church spent time in prayer and worship. We are encouraged to “pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 NIV)

Let’s make it our goal to connect with God and acknowledge His presence and involvement in our lives as a daily practice. Only when we keep our communication channel open we can receive God’s strength and grace to tackle whatever life throws at us.

Bonding with Ourselves–Knowing Ourselves and Maintaining Our Temple

The second level of bonding, or developing and maintaining a relationship of love and acceptance, is with ourselves.

Knowing Ourselves is Vital to Boosting Resilience.

The more we grow as emotionally and spiritually mature adults, the more we know ourselves and can integrate all parts of our souls and lives. Discovering our limits and weaknesses helps us understand what makes us vulnerable and weakens us, or what brings us delight and strengthens us.

We learn how we react under stress and how we handle unexpected situations. God is our active partner in this self-discovery journey. He helps us process our past, heals our hurts, breaks our defense walls, and leads us on the path of maturity and growth. The more emotionally and spiritually mature, the more resilient we become.

Maintain Our Temple

An important part of boosting our resilience is to maintain our temples – our bodies and souls. The Bible admonishes us:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will." 
(Romans 1:1-3 NIV)

Love Ourselves

We are responsible for our emotions, thoughts, and decisions. When we learn to love ourselves better, we can show ourselves grace and accept our identity as God’s beloved children.

Loving ourselves also means learning to acknowledge our emotions, especially the negative ones like anger, anxiety, bitterness, grief, and sadness, and to handle them in a healthy, God-pleasing way. You can read “How to Praise God with Emotional Integrity” here.

This love aims to keep our hearts pure, enabling God’s love and grace to flow freely. A pure heart means a strong and resilient one.

Bonding with Others–Loving Others Well and Receiving Love

The third pillar of boosting our resilience is bonding with others. We learn to love others well and to receive love and support.

When we are in the safety and nurturing net of healthy relationships, we naturally become more confident and resilient when life throws us an unexpected curve ball. The connection to safe and trustworthy people enables us to receive additional strength, help, and support.

Two helpful practices and skills to develop that are beneficial to bonding with others. The first is to know how to handle conflict, and the second is to develop and maintain healthy boundaries.

Handle Conflict

Not avoiding conflict, but dealing with it maturely and biblically is what makes us true peace-makers and promotes healthy relationships. We can adopt the goal of becoming peacemakers and let the Lords show us how to adhere to the truth and handle the conflict in every situation.

Develop and Maintain Healthy Boundaries

Boundaries also play an important role in conflict resolution. To have limits and communicate those means, we stay faithful to ourselves, our identity, and our beliefs, and remain faithful to God. We keep guard of our property (our emotions, words, decisions, thoughts, actions, bodies) while taking responsibility for what is in our control.

Boost Your Resilience When You Grow in Love

Our resilience grows when we grow in our capacity to love with God’s love. Here are the 3 powerful keys that make us capable of handling whatever life throws at us:

• Know and love God.
• Know and love yourself.
• Know and love the people in your life.

Love will carry us safely through every storm. 

How have you found bonding with God, yourself, or others to help boost your resilience? Is there one you might need to work on so you can tackle whatever life throws at you?

Hadassah Treu is an international Christian author, blogger at https://onthewaybg.com, poet, and speaker. She is passionate about encouraging people to draw near to God in the dark valleys of life. Hadassah is a contributing author to several faith-based platforms like Proverbs 31 Compel Blog and many award-winning devotional and poetry anthologies.

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Upcoming Presentations | Resilience

Join me and over 25 incredible speakers at The Radiant Resilience Virtual Summit on September 18 – 22, 2023. We are here to empower Kingdom women to pursue joy, peace, fulfillment, and faith through life’s storms. Maree will be speaking on Monday, 9/18/23.

Register Now

Do you ever worry that you won’t have enough strength to keep going? Reserve your spot today to discover effective strategies and practical tips to cultivate emotional resilience and provide unwavering support for your loved ones battling mental illness.

When: September 30, 2023 | 8:00 am (PT) | 9:00 am (MT) 10:00 am (CT) 11:00 am (ET)

How to Boost Resilience Series

Explore how to boost resilience to embrace life’s unexpected turns with courage and confidence. This blog series provides the roadmap to developing unshakeable strength to thrive and find joy in any storm. Tap here to catch up on any missed articles.