Building Resilience

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Sometimes life can be overwhelming, and we’re buffeted by events beyond our control. This is a normal, human behavior.  But there are ways to build our resources, and our resilience so you can better cope with whatever life throws at you, and get you back on your road to wellbeing.

So when I was in year 12 at high school, I took subjects in textiles and design, basically sewing. One of the things I learned in that class was the definition of resilience in relation to the wool fiber. Resilience is the ability to bounce back – and it’s important because resilience doesn't mean that you’re not affected or insulated from anything that happens, it just means that you are going to have the internal psychological resources that you need to bounce back.

If you're interested in this conversation on resilience, then make sure you check out my upcoming courses here.

Building resilience is a really interesting topic. Because in our lives, we all get buffeted by events or circumstances that happened, different things that are going on in the world that we have absolutely no control over. Sometimes that can get really overwhelming, it can feel like it's too much, and you don't know what to do, or where to go, and you don't know who to turn to.

A key skill around building resilience is understanding your mindset. At any point in time, different people have different mindsets. And this can either support them in being more resilient, or it can stop them from becoming resilient.

So thinking about your mindset in relation to your own resilience - What are you like when you have to bounce back from something? When life feeds you something that you don't want? When there's a trauma or tragedy in your life - What happens? Are you totally overtaken by it? You can't move and you can't do anything? Or are you able to see it for what it is, as an external circumstance that you have no control over and harness your inner resources to try and navigate and work within that.

I'm not suggesting for a second that you're not going to have big feelings of grief and anger and loss in those situations, every human will. But the difference is, how long that feeling lasts. Is that going to pervade your life for the next two years to the point where you can't move and you can't function and you can't do anything? Or are you going to be able to find a way through? Resilience is all about bouncing back and finding a way through.

So have a think about your own life for a minute. What's going on for you? For many people, we've just been through two turbulent years, of COVID lockdowns, fear and uncertainty, constantly changing distancing measures, work and school at home – our resilience has been well and truly tested. Many of us thought we didn't have enough resilience during lockdown, but here we all are, coming out the other side of it.

It's a bit of a test for humanity across the globe. How resilient are we as humans in the wake of a pandemic? How resilient are we as humans to brace ourselves for whatever the next challenge is that is thrown humanity's way. So I would encourage you today just to think about yourself, your own mindset, and what action you can take to develop your resilience, and be ready for your next challenge.

A great start is to make sure that you have enough psychological tools in your toolkit, so you’re better prepared to cope.  This will allow you to bounce back faster than ever.

If you're interested in this conversation on resilience and other kinds of mindset mastery tips, then you will love the courses and resources available on my website.

Check out the details, and learn how to bounce back better!