Sometimes, we all make unwise decisions based on a moment of weakness and we later wish we had the inner strength to be able to do the right thing in the first place. Perhaps you have even become resigned to thinking that you will never be able to change. however, nothing is impossible if we try hard enough! Here are a few tips to cultivate more inner strength and bring it into your life.

1. Meditate on the heart instead of the mind.

We hesitate and procrastinate because we use our vacillating minds, which are prone to hesitation and doubt. In contrast, the heart embodies the voice of inner certainty within you. Spend some time every day meditating on the heart centre, that space in the middle of your chest where you can feel your inner being.

Then before you make a decision, try and go deep within the heart. Try and completely silence the mind, and have no thoughts whatsoever. Try and not even think about your problem, just keep your mind completely clear and go inside the heart. After about half an hour, when the mind is silent, you can then ask the question and see what inner response you get. When you get an inner message from the soul, it is usually accompanied by a sense great peace and joy. You feel that no matter how the result of the action turns out, you will still have done the right thing. Of course, the mind will try to butt in and cast doubt on the soul's message, but try and stay with the certainty of this inner message. Once you have the soul's assurance that you are doing the right thing, this will give you tremendous strength.

2. Lose your fear of failure

Sometimes instead of doing what we want to do, we succumb to the path of least resistance because we are afraid of failing. However, meditation gives us a much broader outlook on life and makes us realise that, to quote the Bhagavad Gita, "thou hast the right to action, but claim not the fruits thereof". We realise that expectation is one of the main causes of unhappiness and that it is much better to instead to just do the right thing without thinking about what will come from it, and to take whatever result that comes from it as a life experience. One thing you can try in your meditation is to just surrender your expectations and ideas, and try instead to feel the inner guidance.

3. Don't attach so much weight to others opinion.

We are all experts when it comes to others affairs, and well-meaning advice isn't necessarily the right thing to do in any given situation. With meditation, we get an increasing sense of inner discrimination about what is the right and wrong thing for us: if something doesn't feel right to you, say so and stick to your guns. If you suppress your soul's wish and go along with the herd, you will only be resentful of them later. True friends only have your own happiness at heart, and they will be there for you no matter what the outcome.

4. Mantras for inner strength

Even as our meditation practice grows, there are moments where we do not feel up to the situation at hand. One way to reaffirm your inner strength is to chat mantras quickly and powerfully. When we are assailed by doubt about what we are doing, contemporary meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy recommends the use of the word 'destined': "We get tremendous power from the word 'destined’. This word brings boundless courage to the fore. Even if somebody is weak by nature, if someone says that he is destined to work for God, then immediately, from the inner world, heroism comes forward. He will fight against doubt and against any obstruction with a strength and inner determination that will surprise him. Obstructions may come to him in the form of impurity, obscurity, jealousy, fear and doubt, but the word 'destined’ will smash the pride of all the negative forces."