The Life Lesson From Queen Elizabeth's Mother That Is True Now More Than Ever

You know the phrase, "Mother knows best?" Well it turns out that this particular bit of old wisdom applies even when you're 95 years old and the Queen of the United Kingdom. According to one royal biographer speaking to People magazine, there is one life lesson Queen Elizabeth learned from her mother that she's been turning to more than ever these days. 

The queen has been going through a lot lately. She's had to weather a few devastating public scandals, including the sexual assault allegation and lawsuit against Prince Andrew, per The New York Times, the police investigation into Prince Charles' charity on allegations of trading donations for honors, and the never-ending public rift with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. All of this would be difficult enough if the queen was in perfect health, but unfortunately, the 95-year-old has also been dealing with several health setbacks over the past year, and was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, according to TIME. 

In times of hardship such as these, Queen Elizabeth still turns to her mother's advice.

Speaking to People, royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith says that when times are tough, Queen Elizabeth remembers an early life-lesson. "One of the lessons that she learned very early from her own mother was to focus on the positive," Bedell Smith said. "'You see something bad, you see something good.' And the Queen has always been very good at that."

It's true that if Queen Elizabeth is famous for one thing (besides her colorful hats), it's for remaining tough in the face of adversity. The word used most often is "stoic." She was praised for her stiff-upper-lip during her husband Prince Philip's funeral, for instance, per Express. And for her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, British journalist Simon Jenkins praised her stoicism in The Guardian, saying it helps make her a "model monarch." As a matter of fact, though she's been in the public eye for pretty much all of her 95 years, you can count the number of times she's been seen crying on one hand, according to Hello!

It seems like her mother's advice has served her well so far. We don't see Queen Elizabeth giving up any time soon.