Understanding the essence of resilience
RESILIENCE means being able to adapt to life’s misfortunes, hardships and setbacks. When something goes wrong, do you tend to bounce back or fall apart? When you are resilient, you harness inner strength that helps you rebound from a setback or challenge, such as a job loss, an illness, a disaster or the death of a loved one.
If you lack resilience; you might dwell on problems, feel victimised, become overwhelmed or turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse.
Resilience won’t make your problems go away, but it can give you the ability to see past them, find enjoyment in life and handle stress better. If you are not as resilient as you would like to be, you can develop skills to do so.
Resilience is the ability to roll with the punches of life. When stress, adversity or trauma strikes, you still experience anger, grief and pain, but you are able to keep functioning both physically and psychologically.
However, resilience is not about toughing it out, being stoic or going at it alone. In fact, being able to reach out to others for support is a key component of being resilient.
Resilience can help protect you from various mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. Resilience can also help offset factors that increase the risk of mental health conditions, such as being bullied or previous trauma. If you have an existing mental health condition, being resilient can improve your ability to cope.
To build your own resilience learn some of the ways below:
Get connected — Building strong, positive relationships with loved ones and friends can provide you with needed support and acceptance in both the good times and bad.
Establish other important connections by volunteering or joining a faith or spiritual community.
Make every day meaningful — Do something that gives you a sense of accomplishment and purpose every day. Set goals to help you look toward the future with meaning.
Learn from experience. Think of how you’ve coped with hardships in the past. Consider the skills and strategies that helped you through rough times. You might even write about past experiences in a journal to help you identify positive and negative behaviour patterns and guide your future behaviour.
Remain hopeful — You cannot change the past, but you can always look toward the future with hope. Accepting and even anticipating change makes it easier to adapt and view new challenges with less anxiety.
Take care of yourself. Tend to your own needs and feelings. Participate in activities and hobbies you enjoy. Include physical activity in your daily routine. Get plenty of sleep. Eat a healthy diet. Practice stress management and relaxation techniques, such as yoga, meditation, guided imagery, deep breathing or prayer.
Be proactive — Do not ignore your problems. Instead, figure out what needs to be done, make a plan, and take action.
Although it can take time to recover from a major setback, traumatic event or loss, know that your situation can improve if you work at it.
Becoming more resilient takes time and practice. If you do not feel you are making progress get help from your psychiatrist or psychologist.