Everyone goes through tough times in life, that’s part of being human. Your ability to make it through these tough times is your resilience.
Different people face different types of challenges and adversities. Certain groups of people like those in marginalized communities or who have different socioeconomic backgrounds may face more challenges and adversities from the outside world.
While everyone faces different challenges, every individual has the potential to increase their resilience and their overall well-being.
What is resilience?
Resilience is someone’s ability to adapt to stressors or “bounce back” after a difficult situation. Life has its ups and downs, everyone will face some types of stress and crises.
Having resilience allows you to maintain your psychological well-being despite what happens and know what tools you need to overcome difficult situations.
When you learn to cultivate more resilience, you feel more grounded and can confidently overcome life’s challenges, both big and small. Resilience plays a large role in your overall health and ability to live a balanced life.
Types of resilience
When you think of resilience, you may think of huge life challenges like losing a job, experiencing a loss in your family, or dealing with health challenges. It’s important to have resilience in these situations, but resilience also shows up in your daily life.
Think about a day when you’ve had frustrating things or challenges arise. You might not have gotten enough sleep, are running late to work or school, or disagree with someone. These things happen, it’s part of life, but having the skills, tools, and perspective to bounce back and not have these hiccups ruin your day or week is important.
Resiliency is a daily practice, but it all adds up. The more you develop resilience in your daily life, the easier it will be to have it when something big happens.
Resilience and psychological health
Resilience and psychological health have a direct connection. Developing resilience can help support your psychological health and vice versa, having positive mental and psychological health can help you have more resilience.
Often more resilient people have learned how to manage their stress. This can happen as you get older and learn new skills, as well as by being proactive about developing these skills over time.
Being resilient doesn’t mean you don’t get stressed, but when you do you manage that stress. This includes coping mechanisms like if you’re irritated with someone taking some time to yourself to calm down versus reacting and saying something that you regret. Positive coping mechanisms help you regulate your emotions to handle obstacles better when they arise.
Being adaptable is also a sign of resilience. When things don’t go as planned, can you adapt to the changes without feeling dysregulated? Can you problem-solve to find different solutions to situations that arise? These are all ways your psychological health can increase your resilience.
Resilience and physical health
Resilience may also help support your physical health. Stress is one of the biggest risk factors for many chronic health concerns like cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes.
When you can better navigate stress thanks to resilience your mind and body can adapt better. It can also decrease your risk of developing or worsening stress-related health conditions. Stress can also impact your immune system, impacting your body’s ability to fight viruses and infections.
Developing resilience can also increase your overall quality of life. One aspect of resilience is your ability to see the bigger picture, maintain a positive perspective, and stay optimistic. Research has even found a link between being and having a longer lifespan!
How to increase resilience
Some people may be born with more resilience than others, but it is a learned skill. Anyone can learn new tools and techniques to help increase their resiliency to better deal with the hurdles they face in life.
Here are some of the top ways you can help build resilience:
Find your support system
No matter how resilient you are, everyone needs a support system around them to help make life easier to navigate. Your support system may include your family, friends, coworkers, or anyone else you can lean on for emotional support and advice.
You can help build your support system by thinking about the people you trust most, reaching out to them when you need it, as well as offering support to them when they need it.
Practice self-compassion
Everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t make you a bad person. Understanding your role in a situation can help you take personal responsibility for your actions and reactions and give compassion to yourself and those around you.
Self-compassion is important in situations where you may have made a mistake and in situations where you may be facing adversity that was not your fault. Balancing personal responsibility and self-compassion helps you build resilience in uncomfortable or difficult situations.
Physical activity
A surprising way you can increase your resilience is by engaging in physical activity. Physical activity helps regulate stress levels so you can be less reactive in stressful situations.
It can also help you in another way. Challenging yourself, even by exercising or trying a new type of physical activity, helps build resilience in other areas of your life.
Take action
It’s normal to feel “stuck” when triggered or faced with a challenge. Overcoming this feeling of being stuck or overwhelmed and instead taking action can help you become more resilient.
Practicing solving problems, even in difficult moments, shows your brain that you can take action when you need to. It shows you have the skills and abilities to face and overcome challenges.
Mental health support
If you have faced challenges or adversities that have affected your mental health, know that it’s not your fault. These challenges can affect your mental health and may affect your resiliency or belief in yourself.
Getting mental health support can help get you to a place where you feel better equipped to deal with life’s challenges. A mental health practitioner or coach can help give you the tools you need to become more resilient and support your mental health.
Practice self-care
Being resilient isn’t just about being tough and taking action when needed. It’s also about nurturing yourself and practicing self-care when you need it.
Self-care includes getting enough sleep, journaling, spending time with loved ones, and doing other things you enjoy. It can help to have a list of tools you turn to when you need help regulating your emotions. You can put simple tasks on this list like walking or taking a few deep breaths. Being able to regulate your emotions is an important part of self-care.
Resilience for your well-being
You might not be able to change what life throws at you, but you can change how you react. Resilience is a key part of your overall well-being. Building resilience can help you better navigate life and the obstacles that come with it.
Remember that no one is perfect, everyone gets overwhelmed or feels frustrated sometimes. But the more you practice resilience, the easier it will be to bounce back in the most difficult moments.
