A powerful way to feel more prepared for life’s dips is to use any small difficulty you face as an opportunity to practise your resilience skills. ‘There was a time we couldn’t even walk. We got up, we fell down, we got up, we fell down. If we’d thought, “I’ve tried 17 times, I can’t do this,” we’d have ground to a halt, but we didn’t because we’ve got natural resilience built into us. We just need to build on that,’ Johnstone says. Doing that often means we can better navigate stormy times by calling on our reserves. One key way to do that, says Johnstone, is self-talk - acknowledge what you’re facing, then talk yourself into a positive response by thinking, “What might help me here is…”‘
“We need to get more comfortable with negative emotions”