Dear esteemed reader, how are you? This is not a week of too much talk on personal finance. First things first. One has to be alive and healthy to talk about savings, budgeting, investment and all the other matters around managing your personal finance.
So, let me ask once again, how are you? How are you coping with the difficulties and hardships that the Nigerian economy has thrown citizens into? How is your business or your job going? And, more importantly, how is your mental health?
Look, the issues raised in the above questions matter more than many of us may care to admit. Times are desperately hard. Money is increasingly hard to come by, and the value of money keeps depreciating. People are working extra hard to see how they can make ends meet, but the more they try, the more the ends seem to drift apart. It is as if the ends have conspired never to meet. Inflation continues to wipe off purchasing power. When you go to the market these days, no matter how tight your budget and no matter how judiciously you allocate available funds, it is never enough. You are bound to spend more and buy less. That is where we all find ourselves in this Tinubu economy.
As we are aware, the current situation is pushing a lot of people to the edge. Many have contemplated ending it all. Some have actually taken that sad route. So, you can be sure that whatever you are going through now is not peculiar to you. It is the plight of most Nigerians, tall or short, male or female, rich or poor. We are in the era of ‘the rich also cry’. Everyone is in it, except if you are in a position where you do not have to pay for anything from your private pocket.
Which brings me to the the major topic of the day: the need to keep holding on, to stay afloat in these troubling times. People are experiencing disruptions in their lives in various ways. It could be as a result of the current situation of the country or a personal tragedy. People have lost their jobs. Businesses have closed shop. Sources of livelihood have been threatened. Whatever the cause, living through difficult times can and does take a heavy toll on your mood, health, and outlook, and can leave you feeling helpless and overwhelmed by stress and anxiety.
In the face of all this, it is important not to give up. These times call for resilience. In an article “Surviving Tough Times by Building Resilience”, Lawrence Robinson and Melinda Smith define resilience as the ability to cope with the loss, change, trauma that have been inevitable parts of life even before these extraordinary times.
Building resilience can help you better adapt to life-changing events, cope with turbulent times, and bounce back from hardship. Some people seem to cope better in these troubling times than others, while others don’t.
“While everyone’s situation is different, it is true that people with resilience tend to have a higher tolerance for the emotional distress generated by hard times. The more resilient you are, the better you’re able to tolerate the feelings of stress, anxiety, and sadness that accompany trauma and adversity—and find a way to rebound from setbacks,” according to Robinson and Smith.
“We all go through bad times, we all experience disappointment, loss, and change, and we feel sad, and stressed at various times in our lives. With resilience, we can maintain a positive outlook, face an uncertain future with less fear, and get through even in the darkest days,” they say in the article published in helpguide.org.
It is often difficult to imagine anything good coming out of hard-time experiences. However, building resilience can help you find positives in the difficulties you’ve faced or are currently facing. For instance, just a few weeks back, fresh tomatoes that Nigerian families use for jollof or stewed rice and other meals became scarce and inordinately expensive, and a lot of chefs found positive substitutes. They devised ways of making a large pot of stew without fresh tomatoes but with substitutes like cucumber, water melon, golden melon, cabbage and beetroot, and the likes. These new recipes came into existence in these hard times and believe me, they have come to stay because, even as prices of fresh tomatoes are gradually coming down, many families are sticking with the recipes that saved their lives in the time of difficulty.
Surviving hardship can teach you important things about yourself and the world around you, strengthen your resolve, deepen your empathy, and in time enable you to evolve and grow as a human being.
Remember, resilience isn’t fixed, it is an ongoing process that requires effort to build and maintain over time. And it is not restricted by age, background, or circumstances.
Keep on keeping on as we navigate these difficult times and look forward to brighter days ahead.
Sending you loads of love. Happy weekend.
