The Unfiltered Health Podcast

77 - Building Inner Strength; From Setbacks to Success

Raquel Ramirez / Stephanie Abu Awad Season 1 Episode 77

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Unlock the secrets of inner strength and learn how resilience can be your greatest ally in life's toughest moments. How can you transform everyday routines into a powerful foundation for personal growth? This episode promises to equip you with actionable insights to bolster your resilience, turning life's challenges into opportunities for development and success. As we explore the essence of inner strength, discover how stepping outside your comfort zone and confronting fears can lead to thriving in difficult times, just as many of us did during the recent lockdowns.

Navigate the path from struggle to success by harnessing the power of your mindset and attitude. In this episode, we'll uncover the significance of small, consistent steps towards your goals and how they can lead to profound personal growth. With practical tips to foster a resilient mindset, you'll learn to maintain a positive outlook and implement strategic actions, turning obstacles into stepping stones. Whether facing minor setbacks or significant challenges, this conversation offers valuable perspectives to help you build a stronger, more resilient you.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome everyone to episode 77. Oh yeah, 77 guys. Today we're talking about finding your inner strength and we wanted to follow up from our last episode, which was about learning to trust and also learning to let go. So, finding inner strength. I think today will be a short and sweet episode we're on a bit of a time constraint as well but let's just unpack. What does strength mean besides from a physical level?

Speaker 1:

Inner strength, I think and I think, steph, you will agree is that resilience, is that ability to bounce back when it gets hard, is the ability to find what you can control and work on that Inner strength is something that we all need to find and it's a human quality and I think, one that we probably were tested the most in lockdowns, and I hate talking about it, but I think it's very true to the fact that you know, as humans, you need to be able to go through that really hard patch in your life and find the next phase that you can grow out of it. Because, like you know all things like flowers, you know in winter they might die and tribble, but as soon as spring comes along, they start growing, start blooming. It's a phase, it's seasonal, so these things do happen. So I think let's let's unpack that a bit more and maybe talk about what you think about resiliency, steph.

Speaker 2:

But I think inner strength I often think of you know, being able to continue and push through in times of like challenge or adversity or struggles. I think that's purely where, or what, highlights inner strength. I think a lot of people feel like inner strength is something that you just always have. You know that you're, you know you're just on all the time and your, your inner strength means that you're just motivated and get stuff done. You're always feeling good and you're, you know, always looking after yourself, always healthy. Um, but it's not that at all. It's's inner strength, regardless of you know what life throws at you, regardless of the situation, regardless of if you're feeling good and it's especially the times that you're feeling crappy or you know there's stress in your life or there's a really bad situation or something that you are going through that is really hard. That's when inner strength is most important. Yeah, it's tested the most and I feel like we don't.

Speaker 1:

As's when inner strength is most important. Yeah, it's tested the most and I feel like we don't. As humans, our brain is always trying to keep us safe, so we don't really want to be tested. You don't want to go through pain, but then you go through it. You go through an awkward moment of painful period, a weird situation or whatever's going on. Like we've said, so many different scenarios you can come up with.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't want to to go through that, but you almost have to and like, if you think about your life, if everyone was to sit here and think about all the hard things, or maybe the top five or top ten things that they've gone through in their life which is probably too many to think about, right, and could probably lead you down a dark headspace, so recapping on those things but think about have you overcome them and how have you grown from those things. I can think of so many things in the last 10 years that I've gone through that I think, wow, I just can't believe I did that, I can't believe I overcome that, I can't believe this happened. And here I am. So it's good to have inner strength. How do we build inner strength?

Speaker 2:

I think, firstly, in order to build inner strength, like it's not always something that is taught, it's something that is done through doing or through. You know going through the bad stuff, or going through the stress, or being out of your comfort zone, or doing the things you fear, or doing, you know, getting through the things you can't control. Like that is actually how you build your inner strength. You do the things that are uncomfortable. You you keep pushing even though you don't want to. You pull yourself out when you're you know, at a time that you're feeling really low. Like that is how you build inner strength.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, just constantly working on that, and I think it's an everyday thing, because it might not be that there is a serious situation. Maybe there's nothing actually really bad going on. Maybe it's just more of the fact that getting up in the morning is hard. Maybe you have found it really hard to go to the gym, maybe you're feeling it really hard, maybe finding it really hard to actually do your rehabilitation exercises that Steph has prescribed for you. Maybe it's something like that, or just meal prep.

Speaker 1:

I think it can be like those low stuff but it's such a terrible phrase what I said that low stuff, those low high priority items, yeah, those low moments like whatever. It's not necessarily like a big game changer thing, but these little things like getting up in the morning, making your bed, brushing your teeth, doing your stretches, doing your exercises, making your food prep, like these are also little things that probably build the quality of your life. To have you set up for a routine, your energy, going to bed on time these are also little things that you can do, that you can control. So when we look at building inner strength, I think if it's not based on just pushing through those hard times, it's also focused on when you do have hard times, what do you fall back to? That keeps you in a nice, somewhat steady routine.

Speaker 1:

I think that's also healthy, because I do know a lot of clients going through a lot of different things and they have a community, they have a routine, they have something that they can always do and control themselves and that makes them happier. So if you're listening and you're like, I find like I don't have that inner strength right now. What is one thing maybe I've already said it that might just build that ability to get up in the morning and make it a little bit easier? Have your lunch on time, get to bed a bit earlier. It might be just one of those things that just makes it easier.

Speaker 2:

And I always like to say, like your, how you move forward is how you react to certain things, and you know your inner strength comes from your reaction. Often, if you're faced with a challenge, you have kind of two options. One is kind of like it's comes that challenge and you know fall back and you know, I don't know, quit, or just don't push past the thing that is challenging. Or you know you keep pushing through that part of discomfort. You slowly keep building until you've passed that challenge, whatever it may be. So I always say it comes from your reaction.

Speaker 2:

So if, for example, you are I, I don't know, let's just say you've been sick for a you know a week or so, it's, you know it's knocked off your routine, you haven't trained, you haven't been eating well and instead of jumping back and getting back into that consistent training, your routine again, you just feel super sluggish, you feel like you don't want to, you're not very motivated. It's like cool, how can we get through this, back to where we used to be, and what are the steps that we're going to have in place and what attitude are we going to have as well, are we going to have an attitude of you know, oh well, I skipped today, so I'm just going to skip all week. Or are we going to have an attitude of, okay, I skipped today, but hey, there's always tomorrow. I'm going to jump back into it. Tomorrow's the day I'm going to train and then I'm going to take one step in front of the other and just keep pushing yeah, attitude can really shape how you continue on massively.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel like when you wake up in the morning and like you start like if it's Monday and you're dreading Monday, and all you can think about is like, oh my god, it's Monday, oh yeah, I don't want to do it, I want to get away like of course you're not going to find any inner strength within you. It's going to be just a really slow, unprodu day. I think like it's okay to feel like that, just like the word vomit.

Speaker 1:

I find clients who word vomit a lot about their life and all the bad things. They just keep reinforcing to themselves that they don't want to do something. I think sometimes there's a time and place oh sorry, my phone just beeped I think there's a time and place in your life where you kind of have to cut the shit as, as you know, unfiltered as that is like you do need to be able to go. That's enough, enough's enough. Stop letting myself voice all of these things. I feel like when you voice it, it gives it more power. Sometimes it's better to just get. Get, get on with it.

Speaker 2:

And it's that simple saying of like positive mindset equals positive outcomes, negative mindset equals negative outcomes. And it's so true. When it comes, like what you said, clients with like verbal vomit and you know they're constantly complaining, constantly saying negative things, well, they're just going to be stuck in that rut. Or if they have a different outlook on everything, if their mindset is different, then they're just going to be stuck in that rut. Or if they have a different outlook on everything, if their mindset is different then they're going to feel different about these things as well.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, it can be really hard to change your mindset. I have an incredible book that I personally love. What is it called Breaking the Habit of being Yourself, dr?

Speaker 2:

Joseph Spencer, have you read that book?

Speaker 1:

I have that yeah one of my all-time favorite books. There was a time after covid where I just whoa. My brain after covid lockdowns was really like terrible, terrible dark place and I was struggling and I had to change the way I was speaking to myself. I don't know what happened but it, like that era made my really pushed my resiliency and I found like after that time I just couldn't bounce back the same. It's taken me what is it now, 2024? It's taken me four, three, three to four years to really be able to go. You know what, get on with it. You know what. It's not that bad. You know what. I'm glad that happened. You know what I. I can do, I can do this, I can do this, I can do something else. I feel like, yeah, you need to find support groups and books that help re-emphasize what you can do and how important is to rewire your brain. That's why I'm saying like don't, don't always voice it, because you're just going to re-emphasize to yourself.

Speaker 2:

And it's all about taking simple steps too. You know it doesn't. You don't have to. It's not as simple as obviously flipping a switch and then cool I'm. You know, looking at things positive. It's not always the case, it's always going to be up and down, but it's how you move forward. That's the most important thing, and sometimes it's just taking one simple step and being consistent at like one simple thing.

Speaker 1:

I agree that was really short and sweet. I think we really summed that up. I know we're on a bit of a time constraint today and I hope like are you, do you have any more anything to add? Because I feel like we've really done a really good job.

Speaker 2:

I think we wrapped it up quite well actually, in terms of you know, if you're someone struggling with an obstacle or whatever it may be in situation in your life, your inner strength in terms of how you get there and how you use it is going to be based on your mindset, your attitude, how you react and then the things that you put in place to get from where you are currently struggling to where you want to be. I agree.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is very possible. Like, don't lose faith. There are a lot of things here that needs to happen, but baby steps are better than no steps, absolutely. Thanks for listening everyone. Well done.