Give up trying to be “mentally strong”.
Let us say I am trying to punch you in the abs. You will tense up your muscles, hold your breath and try to be strong.
What if a 2 year old baby is trying to punch you in the abs? Will you tense up your muscles?
The amount of mental strength you need is directly proportional to the stress perceived.
What you perceive as a hard, troubling, stressful situation might be easy for somebody else. And vice versa. If you perceive something as easy, then you don’t need “mental strength”.
If you perceive life as hard – then you are going to walk around your entire life holding your breath, all tensed up, afraid to let go – and wonder “Why am I suffering so much?”
The question then becomes “OK. How do I perceive life in a less stressful manner?”
But then, it would mean life already seems stressful to you. Enough to ask this question. It is already too late.
If you did not see it as that stressful, you would have never asked the question. You would be free.
Then the question becomes “OK, maybe it is worth exploring how is our perception formed? How has my perception formed?”
If you ask this question long enough – you will find that all that life is not stressful or joyous. You just experience stressful or joyous thoughts about life.
So what you are craving for or scared of are thoughts about life. Not life itself.
But thoughts are something that happens between your two ears – not ‘out there’.
If you can really see this, see the nature of thoughts, nature of experience – there is freedom. This demands first hand self-awareness(not self-analysis). Not hard work, not effort – just awareness.
