Mental strength holds the key

The lines “as tough as nails, a hard nut to crack” from a book got me thinking. Further reading made me realise it was not about bulging biceps or six-pack abs, but about the mental toughness of the protagonist.

How many of us have reserves of mental strength to draw upon when it is much needed?

Every day, we face several challenges in our daily lives. It may be related to poor health, dwindling finances, the daily commute, traffic chaos, power outage, vagaries of weather, job insecurity, job loss, feelings of loneliness, lack of communication, misunderstandings, and these days, even poor net connectivity. These do jolt us out of our comfort zone resulting in anxiety and stress.

The famed Tamil poet Subramanya Bharathi in his poem The Wind alluded to this issue in a subtle manner. He describes the destructive force of the wind and says man needs to build stronger structures to withstand the force of the wind. The poet says, “So come, let’s build strong homes, let’s joint the doors firmly, practise to firm the body, make the heart steadfast.” The poet uses the wind as an example to entreat human beings to develop inner strength to withstand challenges and difficult situations in their daily lives.

Being mentally strong is essential to ride out the storm, to tackle the newer and never-seen-before situations and issues that tend to crop up in today’s changing environment. Many of us tend to break down, blame fate, react with anger, irritation and sometimes intense rage coupled with a sense of failure and frustration. This could lead to fights, quarrels.

A sense of calmness and patience when dealing with stressful situations, a never-say-die attitude, viewing each challenging situation as a path to grow, a positive outlook when facing criticism and hurdles are steps in the right direction.

This does not mean putting up with injustice but rather not crumbling under pressure.

Taking a balanced emotional approach, destroying negative thoughts through a disciplined effort towards achieving goals, ability to bounce back from put-me-downs, attacking each issue with the confidence that success will come eventually and having a supporting network as a sort of coping mechanism are all building blocks that shape and form mental strength. Today the entire world is gung-ho about AI but without mental strength, we would be unable to weather the knocks that life often hands to us and the joy of living would be lost.

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