Psychological resilience and the process of making ourselves more resilient, fascinates me.
What I didn’t realise until recently though, is resilience is made up of five pillars: self-awareness, mindfulness, self-care, positive relationships and purpose.
This leads us to the definition of resilience as being:
“The ability to cope mentally or emotionally with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly. Resilience exists when the person uses “mental processes and behaviours in promoting personal assets and protecting self from the potential negative effects of stressors” – Wikipedia
Eric Barker, author of Barking Up The Wrong Tree, shares some insightful pointers to how we can become more resilient. I’ve drawn strength from them and would love to see them helping my connections too:
- Positive self talk – when you talk to you, make sure you are nice to you.
- Physical fitness – stress your body a little bit every day and it will handle the big stresses to come that much better.
- Make it a game – obstacles in life make us want to quit. Meanwhile, games drive us to keep playing until we win. So make life a game.
- Have a laugh a day to get you through whatever life throws your way.
- Embrace meaning via community. Those who help others are more likely to survive.
Thank you for reading.
