If Something Doesn't Kill You, It Makes You Stronger

748 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The causes and effects of stress

Have you ever been battered down and bruised so badly that you thought you would never be able to get back up? If you did get up, you became tougher. Whether you received bad grades on your report card or lost your home and family in an earthquake, persevering through the trial could cause you to become powerful physically, mentally, or spiritually. If something doesn't kill you, you have to make the decision to carry on. You should ask yourself this question: If something doesn't kill you, can it make you stronger?
If an event occurs that doesn't kill you, it might make you physically stronger. For example, if you slip into a downward slump everything will be a challenge, but if you get up and exercise to release those positive endorphines, you might break free from this rut and gain physical strength. The movie Soul Surfer is about a girl named Bethany Hamilton who struggled to continue surfing after a shark bit her arm off. “When you get in the impact zone, get back up.”(Sean McNamera, 2011) That means that when you get in a rough patch, you have to get up and keep fighting. Bethany didn't let her disability get in the way and gave it her all. You have to muster up that strength to keep going, no matter what the situation is. Bethany Hamilton was a fighter who won tournaments single handedly. “Bethany Hamilton is holding nothing back,” (Sean McNamera, 2011) a surfer competition judge stated as Bethany gave it her all as she struggled to catch a wave. You simply can't give up. Whether you're disabled or depressed, if it doesn't kill you, you have to find the strength to become stronger.
You can strengthen yourself mentally as well. If you're battling with troublesome thoughts you have to change your perspective internally. B...

... middle of paper ...

...ain situations. When a woman named Nang was dragged through the treacherous water of a tsunami, surviving seemed next to impossible. When she finally gave up swimming and turned to praying, “she felt like what she would later describe as an invisible hand had lifted her toward the surface.”(Krauss 113) Nang's spirituality gave her relief during a catastrophic event. As you hopefully know by now, whatever issue you're fighting, whether it's cancer or a tsunami, you can learn valuable things about yourself from your experiences.
Never give up hope, for you don't know what lies on the other side. You may find that if you persevere through the pain and grief, you will emerge as a stronger and wiser person than you were before. Whether it's physically, mentally, or spiritually, you must continue to ask yourself “if something doesn't kill you, will it make you stronger?”

Show More
Related

  • Obstacles In Michael Ondaatje's 'Divisadero'

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Adversities are often given a negative connotation and view, as most consider them to be hurdles which impede progress. Nevertheless when taken in and accepted under a positive light, adversities can serve as stepping stones through which an individual can better their character. In the face of looming obstacles individuals who persevere come out of the situation as stronger, determined, and more hopeful for the future.

    Read More

  • Death And Grieving By Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

    1953 Words  | 4 Pages

    Death and Grieving Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss.

    Read More

  • Ordinary People Grief And Grief

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    Individually, everyone has their own methods of dealing with situations and emotions regardless of any positive or negative connotation affixed to them. One prime example of this comes with grief. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book “On Death and Dying” suggests that there are five stages of mourning and grief that are universal and, at one point or another, experienced by people from all walks of life. These stages, in no particular order, are as follows: Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and finally Acceptance. Each individual person works through these stages in different orders for varying levels of time and intensity, but most if not all are necessary to “move on.” In order for positive change to occur following a loss, one must come to terms with not only the event but also themselves.

    Read More

  • Stuck in the Rut: Struggling to Get Out of Grief

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everybody at some point in their life will experience some sort of heartache which will cause them some sort of grief. Each and every person deals or does not deal with it differently. Through the many different beliefs and theories on the process and levels of grief, there is one thing in common. It can be very difficult, and sometimes life changing to deal with and move on from grief. People who experience the loss of a loved one have great difficulty accepting their death as shown by the, denial, bargaining, anger, false acceptance, and actual acceptance expressed by the grieving person.

    Read More

  • Final Critique

    1720 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science Tells Us about Life after Loss, written by George A. Bonanno, illustrates the ways in which different people deal with loss in different ways and even so, most of us are resilient to loss. Death is an inevitable phase every person must face. Throughout one’s life, everybody is destined to confront the pain of death in his or her lifetime. But how do we cope? Is there a “correct” or “normal” way, or length of time we are supposed to use, to recover after a major loss? Bonanno delves into the ways in which we deal with grief and loss that are contrary to what people generally presume. We may be surprised, even hurt, by a loss, but we still manage to pull ourselves back together and move on. One of the recurring arguments made in The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science Tells Us about Life after Loss is that resilience after loss is real, prevailing, and enduring. Bonanno is able to provide much compelling evidence to show the different patterns or trajectories of grief reactions across time shown by bereaved people. He also explains thoroughly how grief is not work by elucidating the ways emotions work to help us deal with demanding environments. Bonanno is successful in allowing the readers to be conscious of what people are grieving after a major loss – they don’t grieve facts, they grieve what they remember. In addition, Bonanno explains how death elicits both terror and curiosity to help his readers conceptualize death. Bonanno essentially articulates that resilience is both genuine and lasting because it is in our human capacity to thrive in the face of adversity.

    Read More

  • Strength Training: The Health Benefits Of Exercise

    967 Words  | 2 Pages

    In America alone, only about 51% of Americans exercise 3 or more times a week, and 18% exercise only 1 to 2 times a week (Shy). 30% of American sadly doesn’t do any type of extracurricular activity or exercise at all (Blackburn). For the people who don’t exercise, try to because you can really only benefit from it. The one’s that already do know the health benefits for exercising. Aside from just exercising, one activity or activities you could do is weight lifting/strength training. Most people don’t think about this but strength training is actually a big key for exercise.

    Read More

  • Tracy K. Smith's 'The Speed Of Belief'

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone copes with grief in his or her own ways. Tracy K. Smith, the poet laureate of the United States and

    Read More

  • Thesis on Death and Grieving

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everybody grieves at the death of a loved one or close friends differently. The loss of somebody that was close to you is never an easy thing to get over. You never know how long somebody will be in your life. Death has no timetable, and you’ll never know when you or somebody will die. There’s a chance that I might not finish this essay, and theres a chance that I might not have a family, or a chance for me to live my life to the fullest but I have to live my life without letting that hold me back. How does somebody deal with the death of a family member or friend when their relationship ended on a bad note due to an argument? Elisabeth Kübler-Ross compliments matters further when she writes, “A husband and wife may have been fighting for years, but when the partner dies, the survivor will pull his hair, whine and cry louder and beat ...

    Read More

  • Eating Disorders

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    Death and the grief that comes with it can be one of the hardest battles a person has to overcome.

    Read More

  • Stages of Grief in Hamlet, The Descendants, and Broken April

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ty during these stages of grief. The loss of a loved one is a painful experience and the effects of grief can be very difficult to overcome. However, when one begins to accept death, they also begin to acquire a type of strength that will help them cope with other struggles that they may come across throughout their lifetime.

    Read More

  • Adversity Affect People's Character Essay

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Adversity affects people’s characters and personalities every day. Although adversity may not affect everyone, an abundance of individuals are affected every day. I have faced adversity in my life. Ever since I was little I have been playing soccer, and every day I have been trying to get better and better. My sister plays soccer as well and I have been compared to her my whole life. Being compared has changed me into a more hard-working individual and made me a better person as a whole. See, adversity does not always change people for the worse. Sometimes, like in my case, it can coerce people into becoming stronger. Adversity shapes a person’s character through displaying different forms, altering individuals for better or worse, and encircling

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative Essay: Writing To Keep From Dying

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    I felt like my life was over. When I heard the news, I can remember feeling like all the breath was taking from my body. I just fell to knees sobbing. Days went by and I had just shut down completely, I did eat or talk to anyone. I did not even sleep. A few nights before the funeral, I was in my bed crying and my mom walked in and laid beside me and held me the whole night. That night was the first night since the accident that I slept. The next morning I began to talk to my God Dad about how I felt. He told me to write it all down and tear it up afterwards. After I wrote my thought and felling on that white piece of paper filled with tears and memories, I began to tear it into tiny pieces. I felt like I had finally accepted what had happened and I was ready to move passed it. Writing literally saved my life. It has become a way for me to relieve stress and

    Read More

  • Kahlil Gibran's On Death And Dying

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone has or will experience a loss of a loved one sometime in their lives. It is all a part of the cycle of life and death. The ways each person copes with this loss may differ, but according to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s novel On Death and Dying, a person experiences several stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and, finally, acceptance. There is no set time for a person to go through each stage because everyone experiences and copes with grief differently. However, everyone goes through the same general feelings of grief and loss. There are also sections in Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” that connect to the process of grieving: “On Pain,” “On Joy and Sorrow,” and “On Talking.” Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” reflects on Kübler-Ross’s model of the different stages of grief and loss.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: Overcoming Adversity

    2057 Words  | 5 Pages

    Overcoming adversity is imperative. In fact, you can 't have the happiness and success you want unless you have adversity in your life and overcome it. It is essential for progressing into who you want to be. It shows you what you are made of. It teaches you more about yourself, how to approach what you want, and how to maintain the success that you have. Without it, you wouldn 't know how far you could go or how capable you are because you wouldn 't have anything to push you or compare to.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Running Hurdless

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    Because of what I learned from hitting this “hurdle” in life, I have decided to make the most out of the life I have been given. Overcoming the adversity of losing a loved one has not only challenged me, but has given me a perspective and wisdom that most people are only able to learn through challenges like this one. Life is unpredictable. Like hurdles, life evokes fear, strength, and courage. Life is often like a race, everyone is forced to face their own obstacles, however, like Nelson Mandela once said, “Our greatest glory lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Throughout life, everyone is bound to face their own set of hurdles, however, the important part is learning to get up, keep moving, and apply what was learned from the experience to overcoming the next

    Read More

More about If Something Doesn't Kill You, It Makes You Stronger

Open Document