Why Have We Become Weaker and More Vulnerable to Breaking? Dr. Mustafa Al-Ghrawi – CBT Specialist

Why do we feel exhausted so quickly today? Why can a simple word affect us for an entire day? And why have failure, rejection, or being ignored by someone become enough to make us feel like we are falling apart inside?

The truth is that human beings did not suddenly become weaker. Our way of life has changed dramatically.

We now live under constant pressure. We compare ourselves to others, try to appear perfect, fear people's opinions, and constantly demand more from ourselves than we can handle.

We do not become exhausted from one major problem alone. We become exhausted from the accumulation of many small things that happen every day.

We wake up and open our phones. We see other people's lives, their success, travels, relationships, appearances, and achievements. Then we return to our own lives and feel that we are falling behind.

The problem is that we compare our entire reality with carefully selected moments from someone else's life.

This kind of comparison slowly destroys our self-confidence without us even realizing it.

Another problem is that we have become dependent on instant comfort.

When we feel bored, we reach for our phones.

When we feel sad, we look for something to distract us.

When we face a problem, we try to escape from it.

When we feel anxious, we seek reassurance from other people.

Over time, the mind may learn something dangerous:

I cannot tolerate this feeling.

And this is where our ability to cope begins to decrease.

Anxiety becomes more frightening.

Sadness becomes unbearable.

Rejection feels like a disaster.

Loneliness feels like a threat.

And failure becomes proof that we are not good enough.

In cognitive behavioral therapy, we look at the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

A situation itself does not always determine how much emotional pain we experience. The way we interpret that situation also plays an important role.

Someone who receives criticism may think:

I am a failure and nobody respects me.

Another person may think:

There is something I need to improve, and I can learn from this.

The situation is the same, but the interpretation is different. Therefore, the emotional response can also be different.

Another reason for our emotional fragility is that we have started to connect our worth to our results.

When we succeed, we feel worthy.

When we fail, we feel worthless.

When someone loves us, we feel important.

When they leave us, we feel that we are not worthy of love.

This makes our self-worth dependent on things that are often outside our control.

There is another problem as well.

We no longer give ourselves enough opportunities to experience difficulty.

We want everything quickly.

We want success quickly.

We want perfect relationships.

We want to recover quickly.

We want sadness and anxiety to disappear immediately.

But the human mind does not work that way.

Psychological strength does not mean that you never suffer.

Psychological strength means that you can suffer without allowing the pain to destroy you.

You can be afraid and still continue.

You can fail and try again.

You can hear the word "no" without believing that it is the end of the world.

You can be disappointed by someone without losing yourself in the process.

You can have a bad day without deciding that your entire life is bad.

We need to retrain our minds to tolerate difficult emotions instead of constantly escaping from them.

When you feel anxious, do not tell yourself:

I cannot handle this.

Tell yourself:

This feeling is uncomfortable, but it is temporary, and I can deal with it one step at a time.

When you fail, do not say:

I am a failure.

Say:

This experience did not work out, and I can learn from it.

When someone rejects you, do not say:

I am not worthy.

Say:

One person's rejection does not determine my value as a human being.

And when you feel weak, remember that you may not actually be weak.

You may simply be exhausted from fighting too many battles for too long.

That is why we do not always need to become tougher.

We need to become more aware of ourselves.

We need to know when we need rest.

When we need to face something.

When we need to set boundaries.

And when we need to ask for help.

Psychological strength does not mean that you never break.

It means that when you do break, you know how to put yourself back together.

Do not make your goal to become someone who is never affected by anything.

Make your goal to become someone who can be affected, but does not allow every situation to destroy them.

Because life will never stop testing us.

But we can learn how to face life's challenges without losing ourselves.