Adversity, personal injury, grief and loss can make you feel as though you have lost touch with yourself, but the truth is that adversity introduces us to our real selves. When you survive something awful, you have the opportunity to increase your personal power, strength of character, and ability to contribute to the greater good based on how you react to and rebound from the adversity.

One of the best ways to deal with a post-holiday slump -- or mid-winter blues -- is to engage in a daily practice of positive visualization. Visualization is a powerful force, and whether we are aware of it or not, the unconscious mind constantly sends and receives visual messages, images of things we want, or don’t want, in our lives. If you allow  negative, default visualization to run through your mind all day, you may notice the negative emotions resulting from the negative images: anxiety, disquiet, frustration, hopelessness, melancholy. On the other hand, when you make positive visualization a regular part of your day, every day, you experience positive emotions like peace, joy and love, and you’ll notice an increase in your creativity, inspiration, and optimism.

Luck. We hope for it, count on it, blame it when things don’t go as planned. Isn’t it tempting to console ourselves that a rival’s success is due to luck, not talent and hard work? It’s just as tempting to dismiss any of our own accomplishments as luck, especially when the payoff comes long after all the effort, planning and angst. Attributing all successes to luck is certainly self-defeating, and that’d be, well, unlucky...because it’s daily effort, optimism, consistency and tenacious adherence to the journey that make the luck. That’s why the payoff, or lucky break, always seems to come out of nowhere, creating an “overnight success.”

Here’s something I learned from years of performing standup in clubs, colleges, auditoriums and a federal penitentiary: Standup comedy is metaphor for life. It’s tough, thrilling, often painful, often fun, always rewarding. And in standup, as in life, there are myriad things that are completely beyond your control. You learn by trial and error, but learn to make the best choices you can under pressure. And when -- not if -- you fail, you get back up onstage as soon as possible, knowing that the process will ultimately bring you success.

Each day presents new opportunities to hone your stress management skills and increase optimism. That’s one way to look at it, anyway, and I prefer to focus on the positive. In my opinion, it takes a true badass to embrace optimism and employ enough mental discipline to continue to cling to that positive spin, rejecting any and all negative input.

Resiliency is the ability to bounce back, adapt to adversity, and roll with the punches. Resilience gives us the flexibility to restore ourselves, and our lives after difficulty, trauma, and loss, and it is a quality in high demand during these rapidly changing times.  Although there may be a genetic factor involved, resilience is not something you are either born with or not.  You can learn, build, and develop your resilience. A sense of humor, like resilience, can also be learned and developed, and it can really help you to roll with the punches.
Here are four strategies to help you build your resilience:

Optimism is capital, it’s premium metaphysical real estate, the domain of Kickass Personal Transformation. When you invest in optimism, you get back heavy returns. How you think about yourself, life, and others determines the quality of your experiences, your worldview, and your impact on the rest of humanity and nature, so why not engage in a proactively positive outlook? The process is simple, effective, and can be initiated instantly by harnessing the power of the present moment. Cultivate your “now” awareness, and begin creating thoughts and feelings of joy, love, and the certainty that good things are coming your way. The choice is yours -- you hold the key to your own happiness, so find what pocket it’s stashed in.

I’m visualizing a badass, successful day today, full of hope, beauty, laughs, and prosperity. Visualization opens doors, but action walks me through those doors and into the room. I believe in the power of affirmation, positive self-talk, and visualization to achieve my goals, and I have seen dramatic results in my life. But none of those processes can deliver without a solid action plan in the moment.

Ground Yourself in Love.  Love is a growth experience. I’m not speaking of romantic love, necessarily, but universal love, which is the essence of life itself. You can tap into this powerful force with something as simple as music, “I love this song!” –  and your whole day goes along more smoothly. Love is the all-encompassing, universal power that enables growth and discovery. Healing, change, progress and creativity flourish when rooted in love. Plato said, “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” Here are a couple of exercises you can use to tap into universal love: