We all struggle with change, stress and difficulties in life. Things happen unexpectedly every day.  What matters most however, is how we person react to change.

Some people seem to be better than others at dealing with life’s inevitable changes and all the unexpected things that happen. They seem to have the knowledge, experience, and mental power to manage stress and overcome difficulties.  They have a calmness and grace surrounding them even in the midst of the storm.

Here are some ideas  to help improve your ability to deal with life’s inevitable changes, manage stress and overcome difficulties:

1. Change your thoughts. 

Any situation can be looked at from a positive or negative perspective.  It all depends on your attitude. Every situation you find yourself in can be perceived in a bad way or good way. This means what you decide what it means to you.  Learn to handle stress and overcome difficulties by avoiding negative thinking about any situation or any person.   Make a decision to keep positive thoughts in your mind and let go of any negative ideas. Look at the bright side. Use affirmations to remind yourself to keep thinking positive. This will help you overcome your difficulties and build up your inner power. Mental discipline is something that everyone is capable of, but it must be practiced.

2. Turn away from fear and conflict. 

We all make choices every day.  Choose love over fear.  Keep your focus on peace rather than conflict.  Just knowing that you truly desire peace will help you focus on better things.  If you follow your fears, you will ultimately find yourself mixed up in conflict, but if you choose to look at everything with love, your whole perspective will change and you will manifest more good in your life.

3. Stay present with your purpose. 

We all search for ways to live better and happier lives. Finding your purpose is important. It is a very personal and individual thing and requires some soul searching. Taking time with yourself to really dig in and understand what makes you happy and feeling fulfilled will eventually lead to a path of inner peace.  So take time for self-awareness. During Lent, Christians find this to be a good time to do this kind of searching.  Consider becoming part of a religion or find a spiritual practice that can help you personally and connect to others too.  Support is key.

5. Identify your strengths.

We all have natural talents that we are born with. Everyone is good at something.  Take time to think about, discover and analyze what your natural strengths and talents are. Just recognizing your own personal strengths will help you to explore your abilities and discover what you are passionate about.  Many people believe in “doing what you are good at”, in order to be happy at what you do. The sooner in life you can recognize your own talents, the more successful you are probably going to be at developing them and making your dreams become reality.

5. Claim your personal power. 

Some people have problems that last for years because they believe that they are helpless to solve them. Be bold and have courage to take chances, make changes and do things you want to do but may not have done before.  Feeling helpless and staying in a condition of inaction will only prevent you from moving past the problem and discovering a solution.

Be strong. Be active. Being willing to do something when it needs to be done will make you a leader. A leader steps forward, faces their fears and overcomes them. If you want to build up your inner power, turn away from fear and conflict, choose love and peace, know your purpose, recognize your strengths, claim your power and do what you can.