The concept of human resilience has become a priority within the health and wellness community, especially during this season we are currently in as a world.
However, what exactly is this resilience?
Resilience is seen as an intuitive response to adversity and/or stress across the lifespan. It is the concept that enables some people to grow and even thrive in spite of any adversity they may face. There are two components to resilience. The first being the ability to resist the impacts of stress and adversity, while the second refers to the ability to recover quickly from them.
When we have the opportunity to adapt to any situation that we may come up against, we are building resilience. When we fail at something, and bounce right back, stronger than before because of the strength within us, we are being resilient.
Resilience gives us the power and strength that we need to overcome setbacks and trials that we come up against within our lifetime.
Psychology Today describes resilience as:
“That ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever. Rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes.”
https://www.psychologytoday/com/us/basics/resilience
So, what does this idea of ‘bouncing back’ look like?
Well, when we face disappointment, failure and set backs in life, rather than sitting in those feelings and letting them keep us down, we get back up, dust ourselves off and move onto the next thing in our lives. Essentially, resilience is what helps us recover from the set back.
There are five pillars to resilience and we can use them to gage and reframe our thinking, so that we can see ourselves and our world in new ways. By learning to strengthen these pillars in ourselves, we will ultimately become more resilient.
The five pillars are:
- Self Awareness
- Mindfulness
- Self Care
- Positive Relationships
- Purpose
To understand each of these pillars better, I decided to break them down a little further for you as my 7 keys to building resilience.
1. Learn to be present
Become aware of all that is around you, remain calm and live in the moment. By being present, you are letting the things around become of importance. If you are out to lunch with friends, allow your whole focus to be on them rather than checking your phone etc.
2. Embrace Change
Being flexible is essential to resilience. Learn to adapt and accept what is.
3. Nourish Yourself
We need a well nourished mind and body to ensure we can cope with difficult situations we may face. Looking after yourself and your needs isn’t selfish. So carve out some time for self care. By doing this you will in turn make yourself more available to serve others.
4. Build Positive Relationships
It is so important to build relationships, even more so now as we face this global pandemic. We are made for human connection. Learn to build relationships that both allow you to give more than you take. Leave those toxic friendships behind, and cultivate real, deep and meaningful connections.
5. Be Intentional
Be purposeful in all things that you do and intentional in both word and action. You can be intentional by making thoughtful, meaningful and fulfilling choices. Start to actively engage with your life. Learn to respond instead of react, love instead of fear, embrace instead of expect and accept instead of resist.
6. Find Your Purpose
By focusing on your life’s purpose and your purpose behind all that you set your mind to, you are going to be more resilient if/when setbacks may arise or obstacles come our way. This result of this is that you will be able to bounce back, stronger than before.
7. Practice
Resilience is actually a skill that can be learned. It is a mindset that you can develop. Life is a marathon and not a sprint. It will take time to build so don’t get discouraged if you struggle to cope with stressful circumstances. Resilience can dramatically change from one person to the next. So learn to focus on your strengths, to remain calm and you can bounce back from stressful events more effectively.
If you can have awareness of both yourself and the environment around you, learn to manage your feelings in a healthy and effective way, and understand that it is inevitable that life will have its ups and downs, you can become more resilient.
