Building Resilience
We have all experienced some difficulties and/or challenges in our lives. Although these roadblocks can diminish our resolve they can also make us stronger.
Resilience is our ability to navigate, recover and adjust after experiencing setbacks. Not only can we manage these challenges, but also in time, we can learn from them and become stronger than before. Resilience is not a fixed-state. It is a skill set that can be developed with practice.
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Explore the information on this site to learn how you can become more resilient.
Resilience Is?
- The capacity to constructively deal with adversity, rejection and pain.
- A skill that can be learned, developed, exercised and strengthened with practice.
- Based on an individual鈥檚 belief that pain and suffering are not permanent conditions.
Resilience Is Not:
- You are not born with a certain amount of resilience.
- Related to intelligence or talent.
- The absence of emotion or the ability to ignore feelings.
There are different types of resilience (McGonigal, 2012)听:
Physical Resilience听refers to the body鈥檚 ability to withstand, recover and rebound from health stressors.
Mental Resilience听is the brain鈥檚 ability to conquer diverse intellectual tasks and challenges.
Emotional Resilience听is an individual鈥檚 ability to successfully adapt and recover from difficult times.
Social Resilience听is the capacity for individuals to build positive social relationships and to tolerate feelings of loneliness and social isolation (Cacioppo, 2009).
Things to Watch Out For听鈥� 鈥淭here are Three 鈥淧鈥檚鈥� that slow our growth and recovery.鈥澨�(Sandberg & Grant, 2017)
Personalization:听When we encounter a significant challenge or face a failure or loss in life, we may personalize the experience. At times, we blame ourselves for conditions that are out of our control. We may say things like, 鈥渢his is all my fault.鈥� This type of thinking can exacerbate feelings of sadness and grief. Though it is important to maintain personal accountability, this doesn鈥檛 mean that when bad things happen we should automatically blame ourselves.
Remember: Hardships aren鈥檛 entirely your fault.听Not everything that happens to us is because of us.
Pervasiveness:听This is the belief that a challenge/setback/problem we encounter will affect every aspect of our life. When we 鈥済lobalize鈥� our problems, we think everything is awful because one thing is awful. For instance, if you have a fight with a friend, that doesn鈥檛 mean that you are a terrible person and no one likes you. You can suffer a significant setback in one area and still thrive in another area. When we are able to see problems as 鈥渟pecific鈥� instead of 鈥済lobal,鈥� we can function better as a whole.
Remember: One problem doesn鈥檛 affect every aspect of your life.
Permanence:听When you are in the midst of a crisis and something bad is happening, it sometimes feels like nothing will听ever听change and you will听never听feel better.
Remember: You should honor your feelings, but also acknowledge that your problems will not follow you everywhere, forever.
In their book听Option B, Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant (Knopf, New York, 2017) share that hundreds of studies show that if you are able to recognize that negative events are not personal, pervasive and permanent you will be better able to rebound.
Social Resilience:
Join a club!听果酱视频鈥檚 Center for Student and Community Engagement听offers students opportunities for clubs, activities, social events and community and religious groups. Watch a funny movie or TV show with a friend. Fredrickson (2017) explained that sharing a laugh with a friend can have a positive effect on your mental health.
Volunteer. Helping other people has a clear positive effect on our own mental health. For more information on how you can get involved, check out CSI鈥檚听Volunteering and Community Service page.
Physical Resilience:
Join the Gym!听听offers FREE membership to students and FREE personal training sessions.
Take a walk. 果酱视频鈥檚 campus is an award-winning arboretum (botanical garden). There are over听60 species of flora to explore on this 75 acre campus. There is always something beautiful to see on campus, even in winter!
Take care of your health.听果酱视频鈥檚 Student Health Service Center听provides AU students with access to quality healthcare.
Get out and play! 果酱视频 offers a number of听. Being part of a group boosts resiliency.
Emotional Resilience:
There are many ways to boost your emotional resilience. Working with a therapist, like those at the听果酱视频 Student Counseling Center, can help you gain insight into your emotions, and overcome the obstacles you may be facing.
For ideas on how to improve and maintain your physical and mental health, check out the听.
Mental Resilience:
Train your brain. Check out a new book from听. Reading has been shown to make people feel happier and more empathetic.
Your classes are sure to keep your mind intellectually engaged, and sometimes, you might need some support. There are a听听available on campus to help you stay on track.
Plan for the future.听果酱视频鈥檚 Career Services听office offers a number of invaluable resources for your job search.
Infographic:听
American Psychological Association:听听
TIME Magazine:听
The New Yorker:听
Additional Resources on Resilience:
How resilient are you?听
When something bad happens, it can be easy to think of it as 鈥渏ust the way it is,鈥� rather than an opportunity for growth. Many people think their intelligence, their talents and abilities are natural and can鈥檛 change.
Fixed mindset is a pattern of thinking听where we view ourselves as 鈥渃arved in stone鈥� and powerless to change. A fixed mindset way of thinking sees failure as permanent, and problems as unsolvable. It sees talent and intelligence as innate. But this couldn鈥檛 be further from the truth.
Growth mindset听encourages us to see ourselves as always being a work in progress. Challenges become opportunities to grow, learn and develop. A growth mindset pattern of thinking experiences failure as temporary, criticism as a guide for growth, and problems as opportunities.
For example: When J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter she was living on government benefits, recently divorced, raising a child on her own and had no money. Because she couldn鈥檛 afford a computer she wrote her first book Harry Potter on a manual typewriter.
Twelve publishers rejected the manuscript!
What if she stopped at the first rejection? The fifth? Or the 10th?
Through all of this, Rowling many times believed she wouldn鈥檛 be able to make it听鈥� but she chose to keep going, and in the end, she learned to cherish her failures, stating,听鈥淭he knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.鈥�
鈥淪elf-compassion comes from recognizing that our imperfections are part of being human. Those who can tap into it recover from hardship faster.鈥�听(Sandberg & Grant, 2017 p. 60).
Fixed Mindset:
This is as good as it鈥檚 going to get.
This is just too difficult.
I made another mistake.
This will get me a passing grade.
I鈥檓 not good at this topic.
Growth Mindset:
There鈥檚 room to improve with the right approach.
Time to try some new strategies.
This is another opportunity to learn and grow.
I can add more to this answer.
I鈥檓 not good at this topic yet.
7 Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset
- View challenges as opportunities for growth.
- Join a new club.
- Don鈥檛 insist on perfection all the time. Allow yourself to be 鈥済ood enough.鈥�
- Try a new way of learning an old subject. College is a time to learn how to learn. Use academic support services.
- Embrace imperfection. Pobodies nerfect!
- When you feel stuck use the SMART Method breaking tasks into 鈥淪pecific, Measurable, Attainable, Agreed-Upon, Realistic, and Time-Based.鈥�
- Add the word 鈥測et鈥� to the end of negative sentences. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 do it听yet.鈥� 鈥淚 can鈥檛 get over this just听yet.鈥�