Mental Toughness and Belief Systems
Mental toughness is one of those traits that can set apart an individual from a field of contenders in a job, in a training course, or in a trial/tribulation. I've heard over and over again from military personnel, athletes, and people who have faced much adversity that its not the physical strains of a training or trial that knock most people from contention. It is the mental strains and challenges that can and often does eliminate you from opportunities and prevent you from passing a training and graduating into a career of immense challenge and difficulty.
It's always mental, as they say.
As someone who has struggled with mental illness for most of my life, the allure of the concept of mental toughness has been particularly strong with me. I never considered myself a super tough guy, at least physically anyway. I can be pretty resilient at times, but "toughness" never really registered as something I consider to be a defining trait about me.
Even so, the concept of mental toughness greatly appeals to me and draws me to the idea of a tough mind. A tough spirit.
In my decades long admiration for warriors and warfighters, I looked at toughness in regards to the mind as essential to these people's success in their missions and objectives in life and in their fields. For me, mental toughness is something to aspire towards as a person both in terms of my own life and relationships, my job, and my engagements with the community, but also for when life gets challenging again. When someone dies, or I lose my job or housing, or I have a mental health challenge that causes social/economic and maybe even legal problems.
That is where mental toughness is not only necessary, but essential in persevering, navigating, and overcoming adversity.
It's the mentally tough that survive trials and tribulations more easily.
Even in my struggle with mental illness like depression, trauma, mania, or anxiety, I would like to get to a point where these things don't affect me as much as they have and do. I would like to build a level of mental toughness where I am not as crippled or inconvenienced by mental health symptoms.
The end goal, of course, is for me to be considered "mentally tough" instead of "mentally ill." That would be the ideal label and the ideal construct that I would like my friends and family to have toward me.
In my striving for mental toughness, the primary mental construct and mental factor in my mind and spirit is my belief system. My belief in Jesus Christ in particular is one of the core make-ups of my mind. The ironic thing about this particular belief system is that it is technically not me who is the strong one, but Jesus who dwells in my mind. Since I believe that Jesus is a God of Infinite power, infinite knowledge, and infinite reach, relying on him instead of my own strength is one of the ways I get through each day and each battle.
Don't get me wrong, this is not a perfect strategy. I find myself relying on my own strength far too often and falling flat on my face as a result, but when I rely on the strength of an infinite God I find myself in a much better mental and spiritual place, and my mind is better prepared to cope with adversity.
Since I believe my inheritance as a follower of Christ is citizenship in an infinite Kingdom with world upon world, culture upon culture, galaxy upon galaxy, and universe upon universe, coping and overcoming the adversity, fear, sin, and disappointment of life is all the more easy knowing that my God is going to grant me in eternity an existence and a state of being that exceeds my imagination by an unfathomable number. This hope gives me a strength to endure some of the horrible things I endure in my life and helps me, on a daily basis, overcome my traumas, my bitterness, and my doubt, if but for the day.
The battle starts again every day, but those days where I remember the battle belongs to Jesus and not to me (and he's already won the war) I have a much easier battle and a much easier day.
Belief systems have a powerful effect on the human mind. What you believe about reality shapes your reality to an extent. Your internal mind and world is strongly influenced by what you believe and your belief system. Often what shapes your internal world has a profound effect on your external world and your relationships within it.
The mind is an immensely powerful thing. If you believe in such a big belief system that gives you hope, gives you strength, gives you endurance, and gives you resilience, those belief systems shape your life in such a profound way that they prove invaluable to you, and you would be deprived of a strength and a power without the belief system. Don't worry too much about provability or falsifiability.
If a belief helps get you through the day, helps you face your fears and difficulties, and makes you a better person as a result, you shouldn't care too much if it might not be completely true. You definitely shouldn't care if people call you crazy. Some of the people who believed in the biggest things achieved the biggest things, and many of them at various times have had their sanity questioned.
What matters is what works for you and what gives you hope, strength, resilience, and endurance. As far as mental toughness goes, it is what you believe, what kind of ideas about life and existence you subscribe to and what ethical and moral code you believe in that provides you with the necessary mental toughness to succeed anywhere.
As for me, I choose to believe in an infinite and eternal God. A God powerful enough to create an infinite existence that stretches beyond the imaginations of humanity by an infinite number. I believe this God sent His only Son to be a sacrifice for my many mistakes, failures, shortcomings, and sins and provide an avenue for me to be washed clean of corruption and sin and enter into an eternal relationship with that infinite God. I believe this God loves me like a Son, and through His strength I can overcome any challenge or adversity I face, and by His grace I can share in His love and His glory forever.
It's impossible to lose when an infinite God dwells in your mind. My mental toughness comes from these beliefs. It's not actually my toughness though. It's Jesus's.
Have a good night everyone.
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