Building Resilience
The definition of resilience is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. It also means to spring back into shape. As humans, we will all experience challenges and struggle. Our ability to have strength and emotional elasticity impacts our outcomes when experiencing difficulty.
Now we wonder, is resilience inherent or learned? Resilience is believed to be shaped by the interplay of our internal disposition or natural way of being, and our external experiences. We can build our resilience through supportive relationships, increasing our adaptive capacity, and encouraging and appreciating our positive experiences.
Here are some ways to build resilience in our daily lives:
Seek out challenges
When we seek out new opportunities that are outside of our comfort zone or are associated with our fears, anxieties, or perceived inadequacies, we have the ability to rewire the way our brain thinks about challenge.
Reflect on Past Difficulties
When we think about what has worked or not worked for us in the past, or reflect on our emotional experience in our history, we can learn to identify coping skills that can help build resilience.
Develop Healthy Habits
When we focus on our sleep, diet, exercise, stress management, work/life balance, and experiencing joy, we send a message to ourselves about self-love and self-care. The goal is not to expect perfection or reinforce inadequacies, rather to allow for resilience building as we care for ourselves, as we see fit.
Focus on Learning, Growth, and Sense of Purpose
Research tells us that when we are connected to ourselves, others, our community, we build our resilience.
Building resilience is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and adaptation. This can be a personal goal in daily life as well as a focus for therapy. Here are some helpful hints for the journey.
Recording our thoughts and feelings is a helpful way to create self-awareness and track our progress on goal setting.
Talking to others can encourage understanding, connection, and accountability.
Be patient with yourself, remembering that resilience encourages acceptance and the hard work of being who we want to be.
Rachel Brown, MSW, SWLC
Resources
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/15/03/science-resilience
https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience