Intro: Building resilence for wellbeing
To manage stress and lead a happier life, it is important to learn how to become more resilient. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from stressful situations and cope with difficult emotions. Many simple techniques can help you build your resilience skills and manage stress.
In this article, we will discuss five of these techniques. We will also provide tips on how to apply these techniques when you are feeling stressed. Finally, we will provide some additional resources on resilience and stress management.
What resilience IS and why it's vital
In this section, we will discuss what resilience is and why it is so important for stress management. We will also explore the benefits of becoming more resilient. Finally, we will look at some common challenges that people face when trying to build their resilience skills. There’s even a worksheet to help you assess your resilience.
Resilience can be defined as the ability to bounce back from difficult situations and cope with challenging emotions. It is a vital life skill, especially when it comes to managing stress. Many people don’t realize the importance of building resilience and therefore don’t know how to use those skills when feeling stressed. As a result, they get overwhelmed and start using unhealthy coping strategies.
The world is not made up of people who are resilient and those who are not. While some personalities can be more adaptable, and more likely to bounce back than others, becoming resilient is a skill that anyone can learn.
In this section, we will discuss what resilience is and why it is so important for stress management. We will also explore the benefits of becoming more resilient. Finally, we will look at some common challenges that people face when trying to build their resilience skills.
5 Resilience Skills for Living Your Best Life
Simple skills can help you build your resilience and manage stress. In this article, we will discuss five of these techniques:
- Gratitude
- Self-compassion,
- Tuning in to your environment,
- Physical activity, and
- Being aware of your thoughts and feelings
practicing gratitude
Most people know that gratitude is good for your happiness. But did you know it’s part of aresilience mindset, too?
According to a study published in the journal of Personality and Social Psychology, grateful people are 25% more likely to be resilience. The study looked at three groups of people- one group that wrote about things they were grateful for, one group that wrote about things that made them angry, and one group that wrote about neutral events. The researchers found that the group that wrote about things they were grateful for had higher resilience scores than the other two groups.
This study supports the idea that gratitude is an important part of becoming more resilient. When you are grateful, you focus on the positive aspects of your life and this helps you bounce back from difficult times. Being grateful also makes you happier and more optimistic, which are also important traits for resilience.
Gratitude has also been shown to have a positive effect on cognitive performance. A study published in the journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that grateful people performed better on tests of cognitive function than people who were not grateful.
The study looked at three groups of participants- one group that wrote about things they were grateful for, one group that wrote about things that made them angry, and one group that wrote about neutral events. The researchers found that the group that wrote about things they were grateful for had better performance on tests of cognitive function than the other two groups.
Sometimes when you experience stress, it's helpful to take a step back and look at things from an objective point of view. You can do this by becoming more aware of your thoughts.
Practicing Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is important for becoming more resilient because it means that you are kind to yourself when you make mistakes or face difficult challenges. Self-compassion helps you learn from your mistakes instead of getting stuck feeling bad about yourself.
Self-compassion is becoming more recognized as an important aspect of mental well-being. According to the Greater Good in Action , self-compassion can lead to positive emotions like joy, gratitude, and hope; it also brings out your inner strength and bravery. When you are compassionate toward yourself, you feel supported by life instead of feeling isolated and alone.
A study published in the journal of Personality and Social Psychology looked at the role of self-compassion on resilience. The researchers found that people who were more compassionate toward themselves had higher levels of resilience than those who weren’t as open to becoming self-compassionate.
This study shows that self-compassion is important for becoming more resilient. When you feel compassion toward yourself, you are able to give yourself the support and comfort that you need. You also see mistakes as learning opportunities instead of something shameful about yourself.
tuning into your environment
Tuning into your environment is another skill that can help you become more resilient and cope with stress. This means becoming more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. When you’re tuned into your environment you can recognize when something is making you stressed and take steps to remedy the situation.
In a study published in the journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that people who were more aware of their surroundings had higher levels of resilience than those who were less aware. The study looked at 322 people from a broad range of backgrounds and found that becoming more attuned to your environment was important for building resilience.
This study provides evidence that tuning into your environment is an important part of becoming resilient. When you’re tuned into your surroundings, you can notice when things are out of place or becoming difficult. You can tune into your environment when you’re stressed to give yourself the support and comfort that you need so that stress doesn’t affect your life as much.
Using activity to bounce back better
Physical activity can also play a role in becoming more resilient and able to cope with stress. When you exercise, your brain releases three chemicals in response to the physical activity. These chemicals, in turn, give you a mood boost and increase feelings of well-being.
Other studies have shown that physical activity increases neurotrophins. Neurotrophins are brain chemicals that are responsible for learning and memory. The first one is B-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. BDNF is found in your hippocampus, which is a brain region that’s important for becoming resilient when you’re stressed. Two important things that BDNF does in the hippocampus are increasing neuroplasticity and raising the threshold for becoming resilient.
BDNF also increases levels of GDNF, which stands for glial-cell derived neurotrophic factor. It is found in glial cells- which are the cells that surround neurons in the brain. Two of the most important things that GDNF does are protect neurons and help them communicate with each other. GDNF also activates the a key mechanism that helps cells survive in stressful situations.
In a study published in the journal Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, researchers found that small increases in physical activity over a 3 week period increased levels of three key brain chemicals. This study showed how being physically active can change our biology in ways that are conducive to well-being and the coping with stress over time.
Awareness of your thoughts and feelings
The last technique we’ll address for building resilience is being aware of your thoughts and emotions. There are two important skills in this technique, Cognitive Reappraisal and Mindfulness.
Cognitve Reappraisal
Cognitive reappraisal is a technical term that involves how we think about how we feel. Cognitive reappraisal involves changing the meaning of emotional events so that they alter emotional experience (Gross & John, 2003), which can be key for resilience.
Sometimes when you experience stress, it’s important to take a step back and look at things from an objective point of view. You can do this by becoming more aware of your thoughts. The Cognitive Reappraisal (CR) process is to become more aware about your thoughts in order to change perspective on the circumstances and your emotional responses. For example, CR would allow someone to see the positive side in difficult situations.
In a study published in the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research, researchers looked at how teaching people to become aware of their thoughts affected stress resistance. They also learned to not let these stressful thoughts take over their lives. This group of people were able to build up their resilience through becoming more aware of their own thought patterns.
This study shows that becoming aware of how you think is important for becoming resilient. When you become more aware of your thoughts, it’s easier to not let stress affect your life too much. You can use this insight to tune into your environment and notice when something is off balance. That way you can make steps toward becoming more resilient.
Mindfulness Practice
Being mindful is becoming more recognized as an important aspect of resilience. Mindfulness means becoming engaged in living life through awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. Mindfulness can help improve your ability to cope and become more resilient in the face of stress and difficult situations.
According to an article from Lehigh University, mindfulness is becoming recognized as a key aspect of mental health because it can lead people to positive feelings like gratitude, joy, and empathy toward others. People who are mindful also tend to have better resistance to illness. Mindfulness stregthen resilience so that one is able to combat stress, focus, and feel more positive.
This study provides evidence that becoming mindful is an important aspect of resilience. Practicing mindfulness helps us understand ourselves on a deeper level. It can also help one become more resilient in the face of stress by becoming more aware of thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. Mindfulness gives us the opportunity to become an observer of your life instead of reacting without thinking. This can be incredibly beneficial for becoming more resilien
Summary: 5 skills for building resilience
The five techniques for becoming more resilient that we’ve discussed are gratitude, self-compassion, tuning into your environment, physical activity, and becoming aware of your thoughts and feelings. Each technique has its own benefits for becoming more resilient.
- Gratitude can help you focus on the good in your life and appreciate what you have. This can be helpful for becoming more resilient when you’re going through a difficult time.
- Self-compassion can help you be more understanding and supportive of yourself, which can make it easier to cope with stress.
- Tuning into your environment can help us shift attention to use our senses and to focus on sensation rather than thoughts and emotions. This shift helps us quell irrational thoughts and negative emotions so that we can cope more effectively.
- Physical activity boosts certain brain chemicals and brain activity that are important for cognition and problem-solving, which can help you be more resilient when facing a difficult situation.
- Finally, becoming aware of your thoughts and feelings can help you be an observer of your life rather than reacting without thinking. Cognitive Reappraisal and Mindfulness are two skills that allow you to do this. People who practice mindfulness also tend to have better resistance to illness.
Becoming Resilient Can Make Life Easier
It’s becoming widely accepted that resilience is an important life skill. If you’re feeling stressed, it’s important to remember that there are ways to cope. If you find yourself stressed or becoming overwhelmed with emotions and feelings you may want to try practicing one of these techniques for becoming more resilient: gratitude, self-compassion, tuning in to your environment, physical activity, and becoming aware of your thoughts and feelings.
Thank you for reading! Please feel free to comment below or email me with any questions about becoming more resilient or this article. I hope that becoming more resilient becomes easier for you.
If you’re interested in navigating change with grace and living your best life, please check out past articles on self-compassion and comparing yourself to other people.
