Common patterns in building resilience
- Relying on others. Resilience has a lot to do with leaning on the people around you and with developing strong, supportive connections.
- Trust your own abilities. Keep a list of accomplishments you’re proud of to serve as a reminder of the times you’ve been resilient before.
- Be kind to yourself. Give yourself permission to set physical, mental and emotional boundaries.
- Change your outlook. While you can’t always control the situation, you do have control over how you respond to it. Cultivate optimism in the face of adversity.
- Take the next step, even if it’s small. Build hope. Make a list that includes a goal, steps to achieve it, potential obstacles and strategies to overcome them.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
Resilience is the the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress.
Resilient people are more likely to bounce back from stressful or traumatic situations, and they demonstrate an optimistic attitude, opting to see the lessons in failure.
Resilience isn’t something you’re born with, but something you build.
Psychologists say it’s comprised of behaviors, thoughts and actions that anyone can learn — a skill that can be improved, just like running or speaking a new language.
RELATED IDEAS
- Psychological flexibility gives us the ability to shift perspectives and actions when we’re experiencing discomfort or difficulty without feeling overwhelmed.
- Psychological flexibility means not avoiding difficult emotions, but accepting them as part of life.
- Psychological flexibility also means prioritizing what matters to you and concentrating of what is within your control, to reach your goals.
Our diminishing resilience and decreasing psychological threshold of handling pain and struggle is, in turn, making everything look like a crisis.
We are making a catastrophe out of everything, getting offended at the drop of a hat, mostly for no legitimate reason other than our own ego-filled state of being.
This is the ability to handle a stressful event or experience without destroying one’s resolve, sense of purpose, or sanity.
An emotionally resilient person can channelize and metabolize negative feelings instead of being overwhelmed or paralyzed by them. One does not have to wait for dire circumstances to practise emotional resilience, and a few daily rituals are sufficient to build our sense of balance and help us achieve more in life while boosting our mental health and immunity.