From a major heartbreak or loss of a loved one to a serious illness, accident, or professional setback, life can lob you some serious curveballs.
Certain factors, like your home life and strength of your IRL social network, can help determine how quickly you’ll bounce back. But what also matters is what you do in the days, weeks, and months following a traumatic event. These actions set the tone for how quickly and effectively you steer yourself back from disaster.
If you’ve found yourself smacked in the face by reality, hang on. With this expert-backed advice, you can begin to get back on the right track, even when you feel like everything is falling apart.
4 Steps to Reset 
1. Get your feet on the ground.
When your world gets rocked, your trust in the world around you, other people, and sometimes even yourself is thrown into question, says psychiatrist and trauma specialist Sudhir Gadh, M.D. As a result, you may feel less stable, more afraid, and see your day-to-day realities as far more threatening than they truly are.
“When we’re hurt—emotionally or physically—we naturally want to find a corner to hide in and despair over how or why something awful has happened to us,” Gadh says…