Are you having trouble coping with stress? If yes, then you should act now rather than later. Resilience is the ability to adapt well to stressful situations. The good news is that you can train your resilience through various techniques. Stress has become a common problem today. There are many reasons why people experience stress, such as family problems, financial issues, health concerns, work challenges, and uncertain world affairs. When these stresses accumulate over time, they can cause serious health problems. There are several ways to build resilience. In this blog, we’ll look at some of them.
Why Is Resilience Important?
People’s emotional fortitude to cope with trauma, adversity, and hardship is determined by their resilience. Resilient people make use of their abilities, resources, and skills to overcome obstacles and overcome setbacks.
People who lack resilience are more prone to feel overwhelmed or powerless and to resort to negative coping mechanisms (such as avoidance, isolation, and self-medication). Patients who tried suicide had considerably lower resilience scale ratings than those who had not attempted suicide, according to different research studies.
Stress, failures, and painful emotions are all part of life for resilient individuals, but they use their strengths and seek assistance from others to overcome obstacles and solve issues. They can accept and adjust to a circumstance with resilience and move on.
What Is Resilience?
The ability to manage psychologically or emotionally with a crisis or swiftly recover to the pre-crisis position is referred to as psychological resilience. When a person employs « mental processes and actions to promote personal assets while safeguarding self from the possible negative impacts of stresses, » they are said to be resilient.
How to build resilience
Resilience may be thought of as a process. The steps below can help you build resilience over time:
1. Develop a sense of self-awareness
The first step in learning more adaptable tactics is to understand how you generally respond to stress and adversity. Understanding your talents and limitations is also part of self-awareness.
2. Develop self-management abilities
It’s crucial to stay focused in the face of stress and hardship, but it’s not easy. Individuals can learn to work with their emotions, thoughts, and actions by using stress-reduction strategies including guided imagery, breathing exercises, and mindfulness training.
3. Acquire coping abilities
There are a variety of coping techniques that may be used to deal with stressful and difficult situations. Journaling, reframing ideas, exercising, spending time outside, socializing, improving sleep hygiene, and utilizing creative outlets are just a few of them.
4. Boost your mood
Optimistic people believe they have more influence over their fate. Focus on what you can do when confronted with a problem to boost your optimism, and discover positive, issue-solving measures to take.
5. Connections should be strengthened
In order to be resilient, support systems are important. Make the most of your current social relationships while also looking for new ones.
6. Recognize your skills
When people can recognize and draw on their abilities and qualities, they feel more capable and confident.
The role of resilience in the workplace
While resilience isn’t the be-all and end-all of job skills, it is an important one to have. When we talk about resilience, we’re referring to the capacity to deal with life’s ups and downs and rebound from setbacks. This may be used to individuals’ capacity to manage everything from a difficult assignment to irritated co-workers in the office. Stress, which is a risk factor for disorders including anxiety and depression, is considered to be better managed by individuals with stronger resilience.
There are many different perspectives on how essential resilience is and how much focus we should place on it at work. According to an article on the ABC website, resilience entails much more than the capacity to “bounce back” :
“Resilient people have excellent resources and abilities for dealing with stress and conflict, as well as a solid support network to assist them to cope with job challenges.”
However, resilience is more than just coping. People that are resilient are also adaptable to new and diverse situations, learn from their mistakes, are hopeful, and seek help when they need it.
“Enhancing resilience removes the assumption that employees are passive victims of workplace stress with nothing they can do about it,” says Dr. Sam Harvey of the Black Dog Institute.
David Pich, CEO of the Institute of Managers and Leaders, thinks that resilience isn’t only about coping with adversity, but also about “finding strategies to assist you to go ahead so you don’t get stuck in areas that are damaging to your overall well-being.”
So, what exactly is a ‘harmful’ workplace?
- A negative work environment in which employees are neither motivated nor supported
- Anxiety, a huge workload, and unattainable deadlines
- Ineffective communication Uncertainty about work responsibilities and roles
- People suffering from mental illnesses are not assisted
- Racial discrimination
If any of these seem all too familiar, remember that being resilient won’t make them go away, and they might start to harm your mental health over time. It’s not as tough as you would believe to create a healthy workplace.
Here are some ideas for what you can do if you’re in a position to make changes in your team or organization :
- Provide mental health education or training to leaders to encourage them to make a commitment to mental health in the workplace.
- Pay attention to the work environment, such as natural light, plants, standing desk alternatives, and social gathering areas.
- Create flexible working arrangements that include discounts from neighboring fitness facilities or opportunities to rest in the workplace.
- Complimentary counseling through an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or another peer support program.
- Policies that allow employees to exchange money for time off.
There are also certain things you can do to help yourself become more resilient.
Training Emotional Intelligence will help you to navigate life challenges with more ease and help you make better decisions and increase your judgment accuracy, while lifestyle variables like getting enough exercise and eating well can keep your mental health on track. Outside of work, having a strong support network may also help you feel supported and contribute to a more resilient skill set.
Conclusion
The broad range of abilities and habits that allow workplace resilience are a worthy investment. According to a PwC research released in 2014, initiatives and programs that promoted a resilient and psychologically healthy workplace returned $2.30 for every dollar spent, with the returns coming in the form of lower health care expenditures, improved productivity, fewer absenteeism, and lower turnover. In an increasingly demanding work environment, the capacity to create adaptive resilience is a talent that will come in handy. A more resilient workforce will also help your businesses to stay agile with the challenges ahead.
