7 Daily Habits to Help Build Resilience in Your Life

Inside: Adopt some of these habits to help build resilience in your life so you’re better prepared to deal with difficulties.

Navigating hardships is an unfortunate, but inevitable, part of life. Everyone faces challenging circumstances at some point. And when those hard times strike, having resilience is key to bouncing back and getting through those struggles. 

Resilience, defined as “the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties,” isn’t a skill that most of us are born with. Instead, like a muscle, it’s something that we have to develop and strengthen over time with focus and intention.

The best time to start building resilience is now – not when challenges arise. Not sure how to do it? 

Start with some habits.

Habits can be a powerful tool to improve your health, enhance your well-being, and yes – strengthen your resilience.

Not sure which habits will make a difference? Here are a handful of habits to consider incorporating into your routine if you’re looking to become a more resilient person.

7 Habits to Help Build Resilience in Your Life

Develop some of these habits to help build resilience in your life. They will help you to be better prepared to face life’s challenges along the way.

1. Practice positive self-talk. 

When times get hard, it’s easy to fall victim to negative thoughts. Many of us are already guilty of talking down to ourselves at the slightest sign that something’s gone wrong.

By forcing ourselves to shift our inner monologue and practice positive self-talk, we build a resilience habit that’ll benefit us when hardship strikes. 

Start by simply acknowledging negative self-talk. Try to notice when it happens – fair warning, it might be more often than you think.

Then, gently correct yourself and reframe that thought in a more positive light. While it might feel challenging at first, over time, your positive mindset habits will become second nature, and you’ll find your entire mindset will shift to a “glass half full” mentality.

Start by picking one positive or encouraging phrase to repeat to yourself daily.

2. Strengthen your social network. 

When life gets tough, having close friends and family to lean on can be an absolute lifesaver. Having the support and encouragement from others when facing difficult situations can make a major difference.

But those relationships don’t cultivate themselves. They require developing habits for building strong and healthy relationships.

You need to put time and energy into them in order to get anything out of them.

That being said, it can be hard to focus on relationships when you have a lot going on in your life.

The answer? Incorporate little habits into your routine that help you to be a more intentional friend and allow you to stay connected and keep those relationships strong.

Make it a habit to text one friend every day, or share photos once a week, or grab lunch on the last weekend of the month. 

3. Make sleep a priority. 

Think about it. When you’re running on a few hours of broken sleep, how well are you able to make sound decisions? Regulate your emotions? Focus on anything at all?

Unless you’re one of the rare few who can thrive on little sleep, you probably need a good 7-9 hours of restful, restorative sleep a night.

By making good sleep a habit now, you’ll be able to continue that pattern of good rest even when things get tough.

A few ways you can make good sleep a habit include:

• Make your bedroom your sanctuary – a tranquil place to rest. Get rid of the television. Invest in a white noise machine, soft lighting, and cozy bedding.
• Get into a good wind-down routine in the evening. Avoid screens in the hour leading up to bed, drink a warm cup of sleepytime tea, and embrace a simple skincare routine.
• Go to bed at a consistent time each day. 

Start with one change that you can make today that will help you get better sleep tonight.

4. Exercise often. 

Whether you love to walk, run, lift weights, do pilates, rock climb, ride a bike, or challenge yourself through workout classes, making exercise a habit can be a great way to build resilience.

Not only is exercise proven to lower stress and improve mental health, but those who push themselves to their limits while working out become familiar with doing hard things – and overcoming challenges.

By pushing your boundaries and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, you’re more easily able to adapt when a life challenge comes your way. 

Movement is a good habit to have in your life. It benefits you physically, mentally, and emotionally. Exercise can help you effectively regulate your emotions and allow you the time and space to process your thoughts.

If you’ve gotten out of the practice of exercising, start small. Spend just fifteen minutes a day walking or doing another type of movement you enjoy. Once you develop the habit you can increase the time you spend on it.

5. Try new things. 

Another way to push those boundaries and practice navigating the uncomfortable? Try new and difficult things.

Taking on a new challenge can be scary, but in many cases, it pays off with a great sense of accomplishment. 

Whether you’re hesitant to try a new food or scared to push your comfort zone with a new hobby, practice saying “yes.”

By continuously pushing yourself to step out of your comfort zone, you’ll become a more resilient person. Having a growth mindset will help you take on the challenge.

Trying new things often means you aren’t good at it initially, and it opens the door to failure. This is something most people tend to want to avoid.

However, being a beginner and making mistakes but choosing to get back up and try again are the key habits to help build resilience in your life. It won’t always be comfortable or easy, but the skills you’ll develop are worth it.

Make a habit of getting outside your comfort zone in some way each day. It will help you to grow in new ways and increase your resilience.

6. Meditate or Pray.

Meditation is often viewed as a relaxation activity, but the benefits of meditation and prayer are far-reaching. You might be surprised to learn that meditation can strengthen your resilience.

Multiple studies have shown that meditation can directly influence the regions of the brain that produce stress and trigger the fight-or-flight response that strikes many of us when we face adversity.

Learning to recognize and control that stress response can minimize the impact on our mental state when a stressful situation arises.

Additionally, the self-awareness we cultivate through meditation and prayer can help us identify situations where resilience is needed and focus on taking positive, intentional steps to address them. 

Prayer helps you to lean into your faith, which gives you strength and tools for future challenges that may be ahead.

If you don’t already have a practice of prayer or meditation, begin by trying breathing techniques to calm your mind and body. Then you can add additional time for praying and meditating as you go.

7. Practice gratitude.

A gratitude practice is a simple but powerful habit that develops resilience and promotes positivity. Even when things get tough, chances are you still have so much to be grateful for.

And while it might be challenging to see that if you aren’t used to recognizing it, cultivating a gratitude practice will allow you to do precisely that – to stay focused on the blessings in your life even when things are less than ideal.

Gratitude practices can take many forms. Some practice gratitude while brushing their teeth or getting dressed for the day, thinking about things they appreciate.

Others prefer a pen-and-paper approach, keeping a gratitude journal and reflecting on something new each day that brings them joy. Using gratitude prompts can help you get started.

The best approach for you is the one you can truly make a habit of and do consistently. 

What habits do you practice to help build resilience in your life? Leave a comment and let me know!

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