Crisis is opportunity riding on a dragon’s tail. – Chinese proverb
That’s a fitting phrase for the times we live in, and for the chaos that crawls its way into our lives at home, at work, and in our relationships. When facing a challenge, there will always be things we can control and things we can’t. One thing we will always have control over is how we choose to respond: We can helplessly shrink away, or we can choose to see a challenge as an opportunity for growth and change. In a word, that’s resilience and research shows resilience is linked to a number of beneficial health outcomes and to life satisfaction.
We’ve chosen 8 strategies to help you boost resilience in the face of challenge.
Whether you’re dealing with life’s little hassles or facing a major crisis, the more you can engage these strategies, the better they will serve you, enhancing your wellbeing and supporting happiness.
Being Resilient Reaps Health Benefits
Behavioral scientists have shown resilience is linked to health and wellbeing through positive emotions and healthy coping strategies, such as mindfulness, laughter, social connection, and realistic optimism, which offer the following health benefits:
- strengthens immune system functioning
- reduced risk for depression and anxiety
- better management of chronic illnesses (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, pain)
- enhanced recovery time from illness and/or surgery
- more effective management of stress and daily hassles
- enhanced vitality for a long, healthy life
Research also shows that folks who are more resilient aren’t “happy all the time, no matter what.” They experience negative emotions just like the rest of us. Resilient people have developed strategies for living well and cultivating happiness, which helps protect from the detrimental effects of stress and negativity.
8 Strategies to Ramp Up Your Resilience
Mindset Matters: Your mindset plays a crucial role in how you view a challenge, how you respond to it, and how you cope with it, which in turn affects your health and happiness. If you focus only on the negatives in a situation, then you default to a reactive and fear-based mindset. When you are reactive, your thought process default to “ready, fire, aim.” You become of synch with yourself and perhaps with the actuality of the situation.
“We would do better to allow ourselves to pause and to align our thoughts and emotions, mind and heart, so we can be responsive to the circumstances,” says Dr. John Borysenko, author of the book “It’s Not The End Of The World: Developing Resilience in Times of Change. “Rather than focus on everything that is, or possibly may be wrong in a situation, look for the bright spots and look for realistic ways to expand those as they will likely be what carries your through a dark, challenging time.
On a daily basis, you can mentally stay ‘’in the light’’ by reciting positive affirmations, keeping a gratitude journal, hanging with supportive people, and reducing your use of media channels that perpetuate negativity.
Cultivate Realistic Optimism: Actively looking for the bright spots doesn’t mean fooling yourself about a bad situation not “being so bad.” Realistic optimism is the ability to look at a dire situation as an opportunity to assess its meaning for your life and create change. Take a page from the U.S. Army resilience directorate—look that scary, uncertain situation right in the eye and cultivate a belief that you will prevail despite the challenge of the current situation. When you train your brain to think optimistically, you then create opportunity to actively look for resources that can bring about the best possible outcome to your challenge or crisis.
Know Your Stress Warning Signals: Resilient people are keenly in tune with their state of mind, emotions, and relationships. This awareness better prepares them for and allows them to proactively handle chaotic situations. Just like doctors say, “good thing we caught it early,” when you feel stress brewing, you can better respond to and manage its effects on your mind and body. You can cultivate inner awareness and bolster yourself during hard times by practicing mindfulness (see below), getting restorative sleep, journaling, or spending time in nature.
Keep Calm & Carry On with Mindfulness: Mindfulness-based practices have been shown to boost resilience because of the way they help the mind and body become prepared for and respond to physical and emotional stressors., Mindfulness is a practice that allows you to cultivate being fully present and aware of what you sense, feel, and experience in a nonjudgmental way. Check out the many ways to bring mindfulness into your life.
Laughter is Good Medicine: When times are tough, look for or create moments of levity. Research shows that laughter is good medicine for the mind and body. When we experience genuine laughter, regions of the brain associated with positive emotion light-up on scans. This produces a hormonal response that boosts mood and supports health by lowering the levels of stress hormones that hang around the body when we are feeling sad, frustrated, and taxed. So, tell a joke, get a dose of stand-up comedy, or watch re-runs of your favorite sitcom to boost your resilience.
Stay Connected (in person): One important quality that is common among folks who are resilient is that they maintain strong in-person social connections. They have people they can lean on, talk to, and rely upon. They are connected in family, neighborhood, or community such as through volunteer work or doing other good deeds. The health benefits of strong social connections include having a positive mindset, offset the effects of stress, and reduce risk for depression and anxiety.
Recall Your Victories: No doubt you’ve had your share of shining moments of glory—whether at work, through sports, or in parenting. During a hardship, take a moment to recall challenges you have overcome and how you got through that stressful time. You’ll boost your resilience, and very likely this will help you identify resources and skills you can rely on to get through a current challenge.
Look Ahead: It’s so easy to blame yourself for setbacks and ruminate about what you should have done/not done in a challenging situation. (We all succumb to the should’ve/could’ve at some point!) To bolster resilience, remind yourself that even if you made a mistake, a number of factors most likely convened to give rise the problem. And sometimes, the path you chose really was the best of not-so-great options. The only thing you can do now is look ahead and focus on the next steps you can take. This helps tune your mind into the new possibilities ahead of you and changes the vibe from desperation to opportunity—riding on the tail of the dragon.
If the stress in your life is wreaking havoc on your ability to function well at home, at school, or at work, it may be time to consult with your healthcare provider or seek the counsel of a mental health professional. You can also get help through these resources.
Other Resources
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction-mbsr/
Richardson, G.E. “ The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of Clinical Psychology. (2002) 58: 307-321. (print) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11836712
Additional research articles by Professor Richardson indexed at https://faculty.utah.edu/u0032514-GLENN_E_RICHARDSON,_PhD/research/index.hml
Boyrsenko, Joan. Personal correspondence and interview from 2015. Information from her book: It’s Not The End Of The World: Developing Resilience in Times of Change
