5 Important Reminders To Have When Life is HARD
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Life is hard. Life will always be hard at some point or another. That is the reality of life.
So every time life gets hard, we can’t just play the victim. We can’t just put on a pity party for ourselves. We can’t always be stressed out 24/7. We need to learn how to deal with these hard times if we want to live a happier and healthier life.
That’s why in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I want to share 5 reminders with you that I find to be extremely helpful when life just feels way too hard.
So get out a pen or open up the notes section on your phone and get ready to take some notes, because I know you’re going to need these 5 reminders in your life.
If you loved this episode, I know you will also love…
Episode 96: 10 Habits That Can Damage Your Mental Health
Most of us focus WAY more on our physical health than our mental health. But honestly, I think most of us would be physically healthier if we paid more attention to our mental health.
Because most of our struggles when it comes to getting physically healthier, stem from us being mentally unhealthy, right?
So in this episode, I chat with you about 10 habits that are damaging your mental health.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get in and let's go.
Life is hard. Life will always be hard at some point or another. That's just kind of the reality of life. So every time life gets hard, we can't just play the victim. We can't just put on a pity party for ourselves. We can't always be stressed 24,7. We have to learn how to deal with hard times. And if we want to live a happier and healthier life, that's critical. And that's why in today's episode, I want to share with you five reminders that I personally find to be extremely helpful when life just feels way too hard, for lack of a better term. So I want you to get out your pen and paper, be sure to book mark this episode, because it's not if, but when we go through ebbs and flows in this life. And I hope that this episode will give you some encouragement and give you some perspective during this time.
But before I share what they are, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Sydney G-L-I-E-N-K-E. They gave a five star review and said, "Amazing! I had started going to therapy a few months ago, and during this time, I started listening to podcasts for the first time. I wanted something positive to listen to and help me gain self confidence and work on loving myself. I stumbled across Embrace Your Real and I am forever grateful that I did. I feel as though these podcasts have done more for me and my mental health than my therapist has. Every episode has something I can relate to, and it's so positive and uplifting. Thank you, Julie, for sharing your story and all your tips and tricks."
Well, I love this episode. I am a firm believer that therapy can be super helpful for some people, but I am so grateful that this is helping you so much. So, thank you so much for sharing this with me. It never gets old, you guys. I love connecting with you guys. I love hearing how this podcast is impacting you. So, if you could scooch over to any Apple device and type in Embrace Your Real on the podcast app. First, make sure you subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And then lastly, if you could leave a rating and a review, that really does help us out in the rankings of the podcast. And the higher that we're ranked, the more women that we reach. And that's ultimately the goal of this podcast. So, thank you in advance for doing that. I appreciate you guys. Okay. So, let's dive into the five important reminders to have when life is hard. Get that pen and paper or get your phone ready if possible, and at the very least, be sure that you bookmark this episode so that you can go back and listen to it.
Reminder number one. I can't control this situation, but I can control how I react. Sometimes, you just have to realize that it is what it is. We have no control over it. The situation is what it is. We need to realize that getting angry or stressed isn't going to change what is. Seriously, no amount of anger or stress will change the situation. All it typically does is drain us of energy, and energy is what we need to get through it. We can't let what we can't control, control us. If we get angry, we are allowing the situation to control us. Instead, we have to take control of what we can control. The situation is what it is, but your attitude doesn't have to be like that. How can you change your attitude? How can you change your perspective? What actually is within your control in the situation, and what is it that you can actually take control of?
This mentality will save you so much time, will save you so much energy. And oftentimes, when you adopt this type of mentality, things actually don't end up being as bad as you expected. And it's because you are taking control of the things that you can control. Within those overarching situations that we can't control, I can promise you, there are at least one, two, if not more, things within that specific situation that you can control. Even if that is you changing your perspective, that's you changing your attitude, that's you changing your mindset, those are things that you can control. So find the things in the situation that you are struggling with, or currently going through, that you can control and focus on that.
Reminder number two. I am resilient, I am strong, and I am resourceful. In those tough times, or even just tough moments, we fail to give ourselves enough credit or any credit at all. We need to remind ourselves that we are strong. We can get through this. We can handle the situation. We can take control of whatever it is that we are going through, and we can find a solution to the problem. We can and we will. We just need to remind ourselves of that. It's so simple for our first response to be something like, "Oh my goodness, this is too much. I can't handle this. I don't know what to do," and simply fall victim to the situation. In that moment, we have just instantly decided that we don't know what to do, or we can't handle something without even trying, or we instantly decide that something is terrible without weighing all the options.
We give up right away. We doubt our strength and our ability to hold our own and take care of ourselves. Sister, you can do the dang thing and you can get through it.You can. You just need to remind yourself of how strong, how resilient, and how resourceful you are. And oftentimes, I do that. And the best way to do that is by looking back and remembering all of the things that you went through, that you thought would break you. And maybe, they did break you. They broke you, but they made you better. They made you stronger. They made you more wise. They made you with more resilience, and they made you more resourceful in that moment.
So looking back sometimes is the best way to remind yourself, "Oh yeah, I have felt like this before. And look where I'm at right now," or reminding yourself of, "Oh yeah, I have been in this place before. I thought I was broken, I thought I wasn't strong, but look where I am, right? Look how far I've gotten." And yes, this might be another roadblock. Yes, this might be another thing that you're going through. But just reminding yourself of every single thing that you've gotten to, and you've gone through, that has taken you this far. And all that to say, you can. You can and you just need to remind yourself of how dang strong, how dang resilient, and how dang resourceful you actually are.
Reminder number three. I just haven't figured it out yet, but I will, or I haven't succeeded yet, but I will. Just because you're still stuck in a hard time right now, doesn't mean that you'll never get through it. Just because you haven't succeeded yet, doesn't mean that you won't. Just because you aren't where you want to be right now, doesn't mean that you'll never get there. We need to have the belief that we will get through the hard time. We will figure it out. We will succeed. We will get to the other side to see it. We just need to believe wholeheartedly that we can and that we will. When we believe that we will, we automatically develop the mindset and take the actions needed to actually get there. It becomes a part of our identity, and we automatically act in a way that aligns with that.
Plus, there is so much power in visualization, truly visualizing something. When you can believe it, when you can see it, you are so much more likely to actually follow through on that. And so, that's why I'm a firm believer in visualization and really picturing the outcome of how you're going to feel. And I do this a lot. And I've talked about this before, but I do this a lot even in the days that I'm not feeling it, whether it's a work project or it's a workout that I don't want to do, or it's a scary meeting that I'm having, or whatever it is. Whether it's intimidation, it's fear, or whatever, or it's just a lack of motivation, me visualizing it really does help me see it before it actually happens.
And when I see it before it actually happens, our subconscious brain doesn't know what is vividly imagined or actually real. And so as a result, it's going to help you. Your brain is actually going to help you make sure that you follow through in that moment once you start to go through those actions in real life, because they're like, "Oh yeah, we've already visualized this and we already know what it looks like. We already know how it feels. Thus, we're going to follow through and align our actions with our visualization and what we want the desirable outcome to be."
Reminder number four. There is a teachable moment in this challenge and I will learn from it. I think it's a beautiful thing when we can turn hard times into opportunity for growth. Every situation offers a teachable moment. There is always something that we can learn from in situations that we are, and there's always something we can learn from in any situation that we are in. And by taking advantage of it, we actually become better. We can grow. We can evolve into the person that we want to be. Instead of playing the victim card and putting on that pity party for ourselves, we can evaluate the situation and find the teachable moment.
And we can actually take control of the situation by using it as a learning opportunity and a learning experience. When we use it for an opportunity of growth, it helps us change our mindset around the situation. We turn to what first seemed like a horrible day or a horrible situation, and we actually can turn that into a situation where we can be vulnerable, perhaps maybe connect to someone deeper, or gain better understanding, or even become aware of our weaknesses and make a game plan for how we can grow in the future.
Reminder number five. This too shall pass. Now, at the end of the day, we need to realize that whatever we are experiencing in this moment will pass. Nothing in life is permanent. Just how the sun rises and the sun sets every single day, the seasons will change. Your hair color changes, whatever it is, nothing is permanent. Whatever you are feeling, you will likely not be feeling forever. Whatever you are facing, you will likely not face it forever. Whatever you want to change, you can change. Sometimes, the thing that helps us get through a hard day is just repeating to ourselves that this too shall pass. At the end of the day, you'll put your head on the pillow and the day will be over. You just need to power through until you can get there. And remind yourself that one day, you will look back on this and it will be over and you will find comfort in that.
So, there you have it. Those are the five important reminders when life is hard. Let me recap those for those note takers, or if you're wanting a SparkNotes version. Reminder number one, I cannot control the situation, but I can control how I react. Sometimes, the situation just is what it is, but your attitude doesn't have to be. How can you change your attitude in this moment? Reminder number two, I am resilient, I am strong, and I am resourceful. Remind yourself that you can get through this. You can handle the situation. You can take control of the situation. You can find that solution for the problem that you're facing. You can and you will. You just need to remind yourself of that.
Reminder number three, I just haven't figured it out yet, but I will, or I haven't succeeded yet, but I will. We need to have the belief that we will get through the hard time, we will figure it out, we will succeed, and we will see it to the other side. We just need to believe wholeheartedly that we will. Number four, there is a teachable moment in this challenge and I will learn from it. There is always something that we can learn from any situation that we are in by taking advantage of it. We can become better, we can grow, and we can evolve into the person that we want to be. And reminder number five, this too shall pass. At the end of the day, we need to realize that whatever we are experiencing in this moment will pass.
I hope this encouraged you. Again, be sure to bookmark this because it's not if, but when life gets hard, we sometimes just need these reminders. We need this pep talk. And I know that this episode will be one that you can go back to time and time again. If you love this episode, I know you will also love episode 96, 10 Habits That Can Damage Your Mental Health. Most of us focus way more on our physical health and our mental health. But honestly, I think most of us would actually be physically healthier if we paid more attention to our mental health, because most of our struggles when it comes to getting physically healthier actually stem from being mentally unhealthy.
So in this episode, episode 96, 10 Habits That Can Damage Your Mental Health, I chat about these 10 things. So I will go ahead and link that in the show notes, so that you can easily go listen. If you have a girlfriend or a friend or a coworker or a family member that is going through a hard time right now, that might need this pep talk, I just ask that you share it with them. You can also copy the link and send it to them in a text message, or you can even screenshot this and post it up on your Instagram story or whatever social media platform you are on and share it with your community and encourage them to tune in, or at the very least, book mark it so that when they're having a hard time, they can have this pep talk ready to go. Thank you so much for tuning in. I love you so much, and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, @juliealedbetter, yes, it's with an a in the middle, for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcast to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So, go out there and embrace your reel because you're worth it.